What’s your favorite time of day?
My favourite time of day is the early morning 🌄 from sunrise the first few hours of daylight when the air is fresh and crisp and everything is brand new. I love walking 🚶♀️ Lily at this time when the day is new and young and the world 🌎 is coming back to life. It reminds me how remarkable God’s creation is and increases my faith 🙏🏽 and makes me feel at peace.
My regular readers will know that I live with both a mental illness and diabetes and will probably realise at times that one can affect the other. I juggle several balls in the air all the time and that at times I juggle better than at other times .
My faith 🙏🏽 🙌 ❤️ and my friends 🧡 are aware of my juggling act and give me the right sort of support at times when juggling those balls becomes difficult or a chore
I have definitely learned a lot in my journey of juggling and have learned to be kind to myself and not be reactionary when things don’t go to plan. I believe that God watches over me and that Susanna Michael and my Dad walk beside me making sure that I can deal with the curveballs life can throw at me. I’ve learned to develop a sense of humour and grace about my life and don’t take loving support for granted. As life goes on I develop better ways of looking after my mental health and writing ✍️ this blog is both therapeutic and empowering. Whenever I feel a little stretched it helps to focus on writing ✍️ and I know I am helping others better understand mental health and life. It gives me strength, purpose and direction and I wouldn’t change it for the world. It very stops my confusion and helps to bring clarity to my purpose of living in this 🌎 world. I would recommend writing ✍️ as a means of self-expression and empowerment. I love my life as a writer and am blessed as it improves my very core of well-being.
As a lot of my readers would be aware, I am a firm believer in equality and basic human rights. My views have been shaped by my life experiences, and racism and inequality sicken me.
When I was young and at university, my closest student friend 🧡 was a girl of indigenous Australian background called Tammy, and she was amazing. Back in the late 1980s and early 1990s, indigenous Australians attending university was not as common as it is today. Tammy and others of her generation were pioneers for the people of the current young generation. Because of my friendship with Tammy, I would occasionally attend the university Koorie unit, and my friendship with Tammy made me passionate about indigenous issues like land rights and equality. I had witnessed Tammy being treated badly at times, and looking back, sometimes I was blind to seeing how she got treated badly by some pretty judgemental and privileged people. I was blind to seeing how all that affected Tammy. I must admit that sharing a house with Tammy in my early 20s put an end to our friendship, and we lost touch. I would give anything these days to hear that Tammy is okay and has had a good life. In hindsight, I would’ve handled everything with Tammy very differently . I should’ve stood up for her at times and not let her experience pain at the hands of people with racist and nasty unequal beliefs. The more that I look back at that time, the more I realise I failed Tammy in many ways and by writing ✍️ this post i am acknowledging my own behaviour that led to her no longer being in my life and sincerely hoping she went on to have a good life. I wish only the best for her and hope that writing ✍️ this post will help those people like me who have had good intentions but have made some errors of judgement on our journey. I cherish my memories of Tammy. Such is life.
Tell us about the last thing you got excited about.
It doesn’t take much to make me happy or excited. I focus on the small things in my life that bring me joy, like walking 🚶♂️ Lily in the morning sunshine 🌞 ☀️ or her lying beside me as I write ✍️ this blog. I also enjoy the time I spend talking to or spending time with friends, too many to name individually.
One thing that I am really excited about is the construction works of The Haven, the social housing that I hope to move to when it is completed. I keep an eye on this because it is the perfect housing solution for me, and even if I don’t end up there, I am glad such housing is being built in the area I live in. I will keep you posted as to the progress of this.
Today has got me thinking that I have lived a life less ordinary. I was talking to my support worker Sherree and we were talking about my career in mental health and the fact that I had been to Hong Kong for a big international conference early in my career in peer support roles. Sherree thinks I am pretty 😍 amazing to have had that opportunity. I remember speaking 🔊 at that conference twenty years ago telling the world 🌎 that mental health would be viewed very differently thirty years from then. My prediction came true because of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) here in Australia 🇦🇺. Then COVID hit and mental health issues became more experienced and talked about. It became a huge issue. My life is totally different to what it was ten years ago. I certainly don’t regret my career in mental health and I love my current life as a writer. Living alone with Lily, my life is quiet and serene most of the time. I look back on the milestones in my life my career, my marriage etc and I regret nothing I set out to do. It was an amazing opportunity to talk about myself on the world 🌎 stage in Hong Kong and I believe my thoughts and opinions on mental health were heard and taken into account. I sometimes forget these days the impact I had in my career. I think about the breakdown of my marriage, but I don’t think I was a failure because my marriage didn’t work out.
I love my present lifestyle of a writer with a dog 🐕 for inspiration and I feel blessed for the peace in my life I now have. I may not technically be paid to work in mental health anymore but I continue to work on changing the world for those with mental health issues.
Life is all about the journey after all.
What do you love about where you live?
There are many reasons why I love living on the outskirts of Melbourne. I love the history and the grandiose architecture of the old buildings in Melbourne, Bendigo and Ballarat, etc, that speak of incredible wealth and the history since the gold rush of the 1850s onwards. I love ❤️ the culture and the foodie and Cafe culture. I love going out for lunch, afternoon tea, etc a with loved ones. I love the beaches. I love the high country. I love Williamstown and Barwon Heads and Queenscliff. I love rummaging around opshops with friends. I love visiting suburbs like Prahran and Camberwell for bargains. I love old theatres and places like the Hopetoun Tearooms. Most of all, I love where I live spiritually, and I love being near those loved ones ❤️ 💕 who make up my life. When I move soon, it will still be in the same area that I love and means so much to me.
Kaye's Life and other gems 