How important is spirituality in your life?

Spirituality is very important in my life.  My faith and beliefs are core in my soul.  I believe in God and have had some encounters in my life that could not be written off as coincidences. I believe in the presence of angels, as messengers of God and have deeply felt their gentle guidance 🙏🏽 throughout my most challenging 🙏🏽 of times.   I believe that some angels 😇 come in human form and firmly believe that Susanna was definitely an angel in human form.  She only ever spread love and goodwill.  She was both grateful and gracious and radiated beauty from the inside. I feel as part of my spirituality that she continues to watch over me from heaven.

I believe 🙏🏽 🙌 that when we search for God in our life, we will find evidence of him if we practice the belief of doing onto others as you would have them do onto you.  We reap what we sow in this word 🌎 and if we are horrible people, we will attract negative spirituality in our life.  Be good and do good, and then the spiritual 🙏🏽 energy you attract will be positive and loving.  Believe it and you will see it at work in your life. Our souls are eternal, and we are spiritually connected to the divine.

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How do you practice self-care?

Self care is very important to me, and it is something I do on a daily basis..

The first thing I do to practice self care is to make sure I take my prescription medication every day, so I keep both physically and mentally well.

The next thing I do is practice mindfulness in my everyday life.   I try to saviour the sweetness of life and live in the moment.  I eat slowly and gently Pat Lily’s soft coat and focus on taste and touch.  Having Lily is also practising self care. She brings me so much love and joy.

I also try to be kind to myself and not judge myself harshly if I make mistakes. I am only human and to err is part of being human.  In the past, I suffered greatly from self-esteem issues and now through experience have developed a more healthy view of myself and my self-worth.  I have learned to be kind to myself.

I largely believe that we reap what we sow in this world 🌎,  so I try to treat everyone as I would like to be treated myself.  This isn’t always easy,  particularly when people aren’t nice to me. I also believe in Karma and know that you don’t generate good karma for yourself by trying to mess in another’s karma.  We are all on different journeys with different lessons to learn,  so wish everyone well on their own journey and don’t interfere with their life.

Self care is always a work in progress but is something we all need to be aware of and worked on gradually each day slowly chipping away like a sculpture  being made by a sculptor.  It gets more beautiful over time and is a blessing to behold.

How do you waste the most time every day?

I waste the most time everyday giving Lily lots of love and attention. As I work from home I am around her alot more than when I worked in mental health.   These days Lily is a peaceful,  contented soul because  I don’t leave her for hours on end.   She is happy because I am an around.

The other thing I spend time on is talking to loved ones on the phone.  There are a couple of people whom I speak to on a daily basis. As I live alone, I make sure I speak to at least one loved one a day so I don’t become isolated.  It is important for my mental health that I do this because  isolating myself can bring on my mental health issues.   So, I try to engage with people on a daily basis.

Which food, when you eat it, instantly transports you to childhood?

The food that takes me back to my childhood is my mother’s Golden Syrup Dumplings.  It takes me back to my childhood, particularly memories of family  Sunday roasts, all of us seated at the dining room table, with Golden Syrup Dumplings for the dessert 🍨,  with cream and icecream 🍦.   It truly is warm comfort food, soft and warm and sweet.  It has been a long time since I have these, and thinking about it, I can smell and taste it, as it is embedded in my childhood memory.

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Who is your favorite historical figure?

Today’s blog topic really got me thinking?  Who are the important people in history whom I admire and one of them is still living today.

Probably, the woman from history that is important to me would be Helen Keller,  she didn’t let her disability hold her back.  Being deaf and blind didn’t stop  Helen from making a lasting impact on the world 🌎. She is probably the most influential disability advocate in history.

The other woman that I see as being historically significant is Sandi Toksvig.   Many people would be familiar with Sandi as the female host of QI.   She is quite amazing in her own right.  She is on a campaign to make sure that important women in history get written about on Wikipedia,  as there is a lack of this happening.   When she visited Melbourne last year, she was excited to see the old women’s public toilets in the city of Melbourne. Apparently, Melbourne’s female public toilets are historically significant because Melbourne was the first city in the world 🌎 to build public toilets for women.  This is extremely important because before then, women had to work in close proximity to where they lived because there were no conveniences for them in cities.  These public toilets meant that women could come and work in the city, because there were conveniences for them.  Thank you, Sandi, for letting us know how important women’s history doesn’t get lost or forgotten about.  The fact that Sandi is a very witty,  funny comedian makes her all the more important and relevant.  So yes, Sandi is one of my most favourite historic figures.

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Write about your first crush.

The first crush I can remember was in Grade 1.  His name was Andrew McDonald .  He had blonde hair.  It was unrequited ❤️ Love,  but it was beautiful.   Andrew is the first crush I remember.  I say this because there was a crush before that was when I was 3 years old,  but I had no memory of this. Apparently, his name was Salem, and he was Indian and a friend of my older brother Peter. Apparently, whenever Salem came to visit, I would ask to wear my prettiest 👗 dress.  I don’t remember any of this,  as I was too young,  but my family do remember it.

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What countries do you want to visit?

The three countries I would most like to visit are New Zealand 🇳🇿,  Italy 🇮🇹 and India 🇮🇳.

I h have been to New Zealand a couple of times and it is my favourite place on 🌎 earth.  I love the scenery, the people and the food and culture.

I love the food and the culture of both Italy 🇮🇹 and India 🇮🇳.  I would love to immerse myself in both the food and culture of both.  I love Italian food and the warmth spices and smells of Indian food.  Both Italian and Indian cuisine have great vegetarian options. I also love the traditional fashions of Italy 🇮🇹 and Indis. I would love to wear a sari 🥻. 

What’s your favorite thing about yourself?

My favourite thing about myself would have to be my optimistic and positive attitude to life.  I have a few friends 🧡 who say that what they like most about me is that I am a strong positive force to be reckoned with.   I have my moments, like we all do, when life brings me down, but I am resilient and always bounce back quickly. I know that by being optimistic makes me alot different to the stereotype of someone who has mental health issues, and I am aware of such a difference and go out of my way to be positive and challenge that stereotype.   I also now look back at the influence Susanna had on my life, and I am conscious of the fact that I behave in a way that honours her.  She only ever spread love and goodwill, and I try to do the same as a tribute to her.  She was angelic, and I wish to model that.  Probably the highest compliment you could give someone is to say they are angelic as it means we are living as God intended us to.  It is part of my life purpose to be a positive force.

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How do you want to retire?

Todays question was a bit of a surprise package,  How do I want to retire?  The answer is I already have in many ways.

A few years ago I walked away from my career as a peer support worker in mental health,  because I was extremely burnt out.  I have no intention of returning to the field of mental health.

How do I want to spend my retirement ?.   The answer is pretty much what I do now.  Leading a quiet life, focusing on my creative side. Writing my blog and books, looking after Lily and being there for my loved ones. I want to focus on selling my books on ETSY and also sell some vintage clothes on ETSY too.  In the short term, I plan on showing Kathryn that she is loved and cared for in her time of need.

So pretty much I am already living the life I planned in my retirement.  The trick is to make it a good one.

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What’s the oldest thing you own that you still use daily?

The oldest thing I own that I still use daily is my high old antique bed..

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