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momentous events Random thoughts

15/52 On milestones

Today marks my 15th weekly blogpost. I’m pretty stoked with myself for that, because I’m not as successful as I’d like to be with creating intentional habits. But every Sunday I wake up and think ‘it’s blogpost day today’ and, so far this year, I’ve liked that thought šŸ™‚

It’s both scary and humbling though. Externalising my thoughts, to be read by whomever wants to… but also realising that my thoughts are – quite likely – not particularly interesting enough for others to read!

Still, it’s a commitment I decided I’d make to myself, back in January, and – so far! – I’ve kept that commitment. Hopefully I’ll continue to. I’ve made it to 15 weeks! That’s more than a quarter of the year, after all šŸ™‚

And milestones, after all, are best celebrated. Who knows when (or if?) we’ll get another one?

I’m counting down to another milestone, too. 50 laps around the sun, coming up on Friday 7th June.

50!

To tell the truth, I never actually thought I’d live this long. When I was a kid, I couldn’t see myself getting past 26. Living past the year 2000 seemed just too incedible to even believe.

Yet here we are, 24 years past that, and I’m going quite strong still, it would seem. (Well, my back’s feeling decidedly weak at the moment, but that’s probably a direct result of the burning of Hubby’s hedge annihilation pruning earlier in the week, and the cubic metre of crusher dust I’ve shifted [one metre down, one to go… note to self – get less in future!] in the last two days…)

So, that’s what I’ve been ruminating on this past week. Milestones, and how I’m blessed to have them. And I think I’d like to need to remember that!

How about you, dear Reader? What are your thoughts on milestones?

  • KRidwyn
Categories
family anecdotes

14/52 On social media memories

In spite of my not liking it, Miss 19 uses the BeReal app. For me, it’s the ability to potentially track someone through the app that I hate. I love my daughter, and the idea that someone could be finding her by her location – because she’s telling them! – is just plain ol’ foolish, to my way of thinking. However, she’s an adult, and if she chooses to get and use BeReal and TikTok (which she doesn’t use much, I’m glad to report) then that’s on her.

It *was* interesting though, to hear that she uses the functionality of BeReal as a form of online diary. ‘Where was I / what was I doing six weeks ago?’ Scroll back to that date and ‘bam’, there’s the answer. So that was a less-nefarious way of seeing it, I guess.

And let’s face it, who doesn’t smile when the “Your memories on Facebook” posts pop up. Here’s one of mine from the other week:

 

And reading it took me staright back to that day. Eight years ago, my middle child, determined to find the tooth which she’d just discovered was no longer ‘hanging by a thread’ in her mouth. We were at Kings Beach as a family, and it was farily heavy surf that she’d just been swimming in, with Hubby and the then Master-7.

She was so earnest! She would find it, she was sure…

Needless to say, the tooth was never found.

Have a memory-full week yourself this week, dear Reader!

  • KRidwyn
Categories
Christianity

13/52 On stuffing up

I don’t like making mistakes. In fact, I really REALLY don’t like it. I find it embarrassing; humiliating. Humbling. And what irks me is that I keep on stuffing up. Over and over (and over!) again! You’d think I’d know by now, how to not make the same mistake twice (or even thrice, or more, if I’m being honest) but no. I fail. Time and time again.

It makes sense, really. I’m human. Fallible. Born this way… as we all are.

Why though? Why is it human nature to err?

Well, if you ask me (and I’m going to take it as granted that you kinda did, because you’re here, after all, reading my thoughts!) it’s because my great- great- great- too- many- times- I- don’t- even- know- great- grandfather- and- grandmother made a choice.

They knew what they were choosing was ‘wrong’ but they went ahead and did it anyway (and if they were anything like me, they were probably also thinking they’d get away with it; that the rules ‘didn’t apply to them’) but no. The rules did apply. That choice, choosing their own way instead of God’s, led to their ‘fall’ out of grace, and into their own sinful life. And every human since then has been born into that same sinful nature. ‘Human nature’ we call it; ‘sinful nature’ is a truer name for it. Because we’re no longer under grace, but under the ‘sin’ of our own choices.

But praise God for His incredible love for us! He made a choice too.

He knew, even when He first created Adam and Eve, that this choice would cost Him… and it did. He chose to leave Paradise. He chose to spend thirty-something years here on the remnants of the amazing planet He created, surrounded by dirt and muck and people He created who didn’t believe He was who He said He was… and who hated Him so much that they mocked, beat, and finally crucified Him. And He let them do that!

But the story doesn’t end there. He did it because sin leads to death. That first sin, way back in great- great- great- etc- grandpa’s- and- grandma’s time, meant that all humanity would die. So he sacrificied His home in Paradise and chose to be born fully human and live a perfect life here on Earth, AND DIE, so that He could conquer death.

And He did!!!

He didn’t remain dead. And neither will we!

Death is NOT the ending! Instead, it is the transition into eternity – what was always planned, right from the very beginning!

So it’s my greatest wish to live again, in that age of ‘grace’ with which the world began. And I believe that, when my physical body finally passes through that threshold and eternal life begins, that I’ll be with my God, be with my saviour, Jesus Christ, and see him finally face to face. What an incredible day that will be!

And that’s my belief, dear Reader.

It’s also my hope and prayer that it be your belief too – and if it’s not yet, that you check it out for yourself. REALLY, intentionally, check it out. Because this life is short, and no one knows when it’ll finish.

And – just like me – we all stuff up… but the way to be free from the consequences of stuffing up is to believe in this God. To believe that He sent His son, whom we call Jesus Christ, to die in our stead so we might be reconciled to Him.

Please, dear Reader, if you gain nothing else from this blog, go read a Bible for yourself. See for yourself if Jesus is who He says He is.

I promise you now, you won’t regret it!

And here’s praying you have an amazing week šŸ™‚ See you next Sunday!

  • KRidwyn
Categories
places to visit

12/52 On what to do about gray…

It’s been raining the past few days. Gray. Miserable. Miss16 caught a chill, as you do, so is sniffling around the house. It’s cool, but not yet cold enough that the mosquitoes have disappeared, and the drizzle helps increase their numbers so any venturing outside is fraught with risk. It’s dull weather. Gray. Uninspiring.

And then I saw this:

And it immediately sparked a smile. What a brilliant idea this was! The person who came up with this, didn’t get paid enough. I mean, how amazing would it be, to be surrounded by gray and misery, where everything around you is dull and wet and uncomfortable, and your head is down because you’re huddling under an umbrella or raincoat… and then, to see such fantastic colourful scenery! It’d be enough for me to change my daily walk to and from work, just to see it, I think!

Even the thought of its being there, brightening up the rain-soaked streets in South Korea, is enough to make me smile over here in rain-soaked Queensland.

Have a bright, non-gray week yourself, dear Reader šŸ™‚

  • KRidwyn

 

Categories
Life Random thoughts teaching Work

11/52 On marking

Itā€™s a lovely feeling when itā€™s done! But my current marking is still firmly in the ā€˜presentā€™ tense, so when it comes to writing this blogpost Iā€™m rather time-poor, Iā€™m afraid.

So hereā€™s a photo Mum found the other week – me when I was 5, in Bristol, England – for you to smile at:

and Iā€™ll see you next week, dear Reader!

  • KRidwyn

 

 

Categories
Life momentous events

10/52 On yodelling

I would imagine that yodelling is difficult. I’ve never seriously tried it, but to change pitch that quickly and accurately seems confounding to me. And yet people do it. And learn it. And now I can proudly say I know one of them!

Yesterday, I took my Mum to watch the Matthew Flinders Anglican College performance of Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. It was astoundingly good. And I’ve been directing musicals since 1996, and been in them since the mid-1980s, so I’ve had quite a lot of experience.

Honestly, I haven’t seen that level of well-nurtured talent since my time in the music department at John Paul College in the mid-1990s. And JPC used to book out the Queensland Performing Arts Centre for its production week, so that’s saying something!

Seriously though, the levels to which these students were guided was simply incredible. There are some definite future stars at that school. And one of them is only in Year 8, and not even yet a teenager!

Which brings me back to yodelling. You see, she was one of the principals (all the others were Years 10 – 12, from what I can gather) and was cast as Augustus Gloop. [If you remember the story: he was the sausage-loving 9 year old boy from either Germany or Bavaria – depending on the version – who was the first to find a Golden Ticket. He was also the first child to depart from the tour of the Chocolate factory when he fell into the chocolate river and was sucked up the tube, precipitating the first introduction of the Oompa-Loompas.]

And in the Hal Leonard Australia version which I saw yesterday, Augustus and his Mum yodel. Quickly! (I mean, of course quickly. Who’s ever heard of a slow yodel?) And they yodelled brilliantly!

I don’t think yodelling is something you can do half-hearthedly. It’s probably like abseiling or bungee-jumping – you have to commit. And commit they did. It was brilliant!

As was the whole production, honestly. The staff at Matthew Flinders should be proud of themselves, with the amazing standard of singing, acting, dancing, instrument-playing, lighting and follow-spotting, stage-crew movements – even the email prior to explain car-parking! The whole kit and kaboodle was extrememly impressive. And I’m hard to impress.

So well done, students and staff. An achievement you can all be justifiably proud of.

And I doubt I’ll try my hand (or voice) at yodelling anytime soon! I’ll leave that to those with more talent…

Have an inspirational week yourself, dear Reader!

  • KRidwyn
Categories
Reading Review teaching Work

9/52 On reading

Books Iā€™ve read recently:

H. G. Wellsā€™ War of the Worlds. I figured it was time; that I should read it at least once in my life. And it *was* good. I can see why it was such an influential novel in its timeā€¦ but it was the introduction by Orson Scott Card (in the version I was reading) which impressed me more in its insight and readability. Heā€™s an impressive writer, Orson Scott Card!

The Joy Luck Club: I picked this one up because again, it was one of those ā€œI should really read this at least once in my lifeā€ moments. Halfway down the first page, I realised I’d already read it, probably a decade or two ago now! And I’d enjoyed itā€¦ but seeing as time is fleeting, reading takes it up, and Iā€™d already read it before: I finished the first chapter then skipped to the final chapter for a quick re-read before putting it down. Itā€™s the mark of a brilliant writer, I think, that Amy Tan can make me cry in just those first and last chapters! Although maybe, being half-Asian myself, the story resonates with me moreā€¦?


Hangmanā€™s Curse by Frank Peretti. I enjoyed this more than I thought I would! The Christian overtones werenā€™t as ā€˜in your faceā€™ as other Christian novels I’ve read, and as for the depiction of bullying in high schools: I donā€™t know if much (at all!) has changed in the intervening years since it was published in 2001.

And now: The Janson Directive by Robert Ludlum. Considering his Bourne series has been one of my favourites since my teens, this is proving to be quite an easy read. Again: what a writer, huh?


And thatā€™s it from me this week. Now I need to go and get through those class sets of draft marking which are waiting patiently for me!

Have a great week, dear Reader šŸ™‚
āƒ KRidwyn

Categories
family anecdotes

8/52 On sadness…

Hubby and I have had dogs for many years now. Late last year, we lost our beautiful Aksel, our 14 year old German Shepherd. Like most shepherds, it was his back hips.

Last Sunday, we lost Rocky, our 14 year old Australian Cattle dog. He had cancer šŸ™

Meaning we have one dog left, our kelpie puppy Kiya.

It’s been a hard week on all of us…

See you next week, dear Reader. I hope it’s a good one for you!

  • KRidwyn

 

 

Categories
Life Review

7/52 On transparency

Today’s the 18th of February. In less than a month, we’ll be heading to the poll booths to get ourselves the next four years’ worth of local politicians.

So the other week, I thought I’d look into who’s running. In my region, Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, both our Mayor and our Deputy Mayor (who was also my divisional councillor, just for interest) have decided to not run again… meaning I’ll have two newbies in these roles.

I headed off to Google to find out who’s been nominated. My first hit seemed to be the go: three mayoral candidates with a bit of a blurb on each. Impressive… until I realised that according to sunshinecoastnews.com, there’s six candidates for mayor, not three!Ā Ā Jason O’Pray; Wayne Parcell; Ashley Robinson, Michael Burgess, Rosanna Natoli, and Min Swan (apparently listed in the order they appear on the Electoral Commission of Queensland website). I guess the original article made sense when I re-looked at the title “meet the latest candidates”… I’m guessing they’d already had an initial article with the other three hopefuls.

And in my own division, there’s three choices: Kristy Taylor-Rose; Jenny Broderick; and Stan Nowrocki.

Trying to find informaion on each of these nine people though, proved problematic. Surely there’d be a news article where each candidate was linked to their own page, which detailed (or even just outlined!) who they were and what they stood for? But nope.

So I tried Facebook. Nothing. Even a request to the Sunshine Coast Council’s offical Facebook page only produced this:

Hmm. So off to the ECQ website. Several clicks later, I can see that no, the list order must have changed since the 13th of February, when sunshinecoastnews.com published its article. No matter. There’s still 6 mayoral candidates, and 3 candidates for divisional councillor. Links to their websites though? Nope.

So I’ve decided that I’ll do it. I have my own website, yes? And an interest in getting this information out so people can actually be informed about who it is they might vote for? Well, here it is. For my division, as least. And they’re in alphabetical order (I’m a librarian, remember!)

Sunshine Coast Division One Councillor candidates:

Jenny Broderick

Stan Nowrocki (LinkedIn was the closest site I could find)

Kristy Taylor-Rose (again, no dedicated website; this one’s a news article and this is LinkedIn)

 

Sunshine Coast Mayoral Candidates:

Michael Burgess

Rosanna Natoli

Jason O’Pray

Wayne Parcell (this site takes a while to load…)

Ashley Robinson

Min Swan

Something I noticed about the mayoral candidates: numbers of them say they’re interested in transparency. So I’m guessing that when they inherit the Facebook page, the policy of ‘giving residents the information they’d like’ will change? Hmmm.

Enjoy, dear Reader! And feel free to share / comment etc as you see fit…

  • KRidwyn

 

Categories
Christianity

6/52 on celebrating a life

I spent quite a bit of yesterday afternoon with tears in my eyes. Together with what felt like hundreds of people, we celebrated the life of this amazing man, Richard William Whittington.

I met Richard and his beautiful wife Colleen on their return to Australia from South Africa, in 2002. We attended the same church – Chesed – on Friday evenings in Nambour, and he quickly struck me as an amazing man of God, one who ‘walked’ the talk.

It was a beautiful service, full of touching memories. And so uplifting! The thought that Richard is not dead, but alive and with our Father, whom he served so faithfully while here on earth. A true ‘celebration’ of a life well lived.

And to celebrate this life with old friends, some of whom I hadn’t seen in person, in well over 18 years! What a blessing they all are to me. Sure, we’ve kept in touch via Facebook, virtually witnessing life events and the like, but to see them again and feel the warmth of their hugs was to be transported back in time again.

What a special afternoon; one which I have stored up in my heart. I am so blessed to have known Richard – and blessed still further by my God for his putting such amazing people in my life! I treasure them dearly.

I wish for you a week of remembering, and catching up with, such precious people in your own life, dear Reader.

  • KRidwyn