Describe your dream chocolate bar.
I’m again amused by today’s topic. I’m diabetic and occasionally do indulge in a little chocolate 🍫 eating.
My dream chocolate bar would be suitable for diabetics, but be made of the finest Swiss or Belgian chocolate . It will be fine and smooth and creamy and most definitely non fattening. Oh but we can dream.
Do you remember your favorite book from childhood?
My definite favourite book from my childhood was These Happy Golden Years by Laura Ingalls Wilder. It was one of the Little House series, and was the one where Laura grew up and got married. It is a true story and I think I read the ink off the print, I read it so often. I still have a copy of this book. Interestingly enough Laura Ingalls Wilder dis not start writing about her life until she was well into her sixties.
List three books that have had an impact on you. Why?
It is hard to confine a list of books that have had an impact on me to 3 but I will give it a shot.
Probably my favourite book from my childhood, is a novel by Laura Ingalls Wilder called “These Happy Golden Years”. It is part of her Little House series, the one where she grows up and gets married. I read this book many times ⏲️ in my childhood and absolutely loved it.
My second book is “To Kill A Mockingbird ” by Harper Lee. Wow! What a book of such importance. I read this book for school 🏫 and again I have reread it many times. If there is one book that I think everyone should read this is it.
My third book is anything by Cathy Kelly and it would be either “Past Secrets” or ‘The Year That Changed Everything “. Cathy Kelly books 📚 are just so easy to read and her characters are believable. I constantly read her books 📚, I love them so muchn
What fears have you overcome and how?
One of the fears I have overcome in my life is the fear of being isolated and alone.
Throughout the pandemic I guess we all dealt with isolation, and had to learn to be at peace in our own company. I realised early on, that I was at risk of experiencing isolation , so I made an effort to overcome this. The way I overcome it, was to use my mobile 📱 phone to reach out to my loved ones and send them positive uplifting messages. The way I solved my own isolation was to reach out and be a positive inspiring influence to my family and friends. If you want to have friendship in your life, particularly during challenging times, is to reach out and be a friend to others.
The only other time I experienced a fear of isolation and being alone, was in the last few months of my marriage . I finally realised that starting over again and being technically alone, was better than slowly dying in an unhappy abusive marriage. It was hard to separate and start my life over, and for awhile I did feel lonely and isolated , but that period passes and I think I became a stronger, more balanced person for it. If you work at it isolation is a temporary experience. Life will bring you around again to being happy and fulfilled.
To get over isolation we need to reach out and connect with others. That was the lesson of the pandemic. I faced my fears by being a positive supportive influence to others. It’s a no brainer. Fight isolation by making connections to others Don’t let isolation control you. Take charge and fight it with positivity.
Describe one simple thing you do that brings joy to your life.
The one simple thing I in my life that brings me great joy is to show love to my beautiful little dog 🐕 Lily. Even as I sit and write this piece Lily is sitting on my lap
Loving Lily is so very easy and she brings me love and joy by the bucket 🪣 load. I love her with all my heart and its simple gestures that bring me the most happiness. I would recommend to anyone, with love to share to get a pet. I personally favour dogs 🐕, but whatever floats your boat.
The simple act of loving my dog brings my life the most happiness.
How do you know when it’s time to unplug? What do you do to make it happen?
In this day and age of constantly being plugged into one device or another it isq important that we regularly have sometimes where we switch off from these devices and take some “me time “
What we do with this time may vary from person to person but we should make sure that we turn off our devices and screens. Use this time to to practice mindfulness. Mindfulness in its purest form is about focusing on the here and now and shutting out distractions. Even little things like eating 🐌 slowly and focusing on really tasting ourt foods are part and parcel of leading a more mindful existence. Focusing and enjoying the little things in life is important. We shouldn’t think happiness through acquiring more is what it is about its not. We are at our most happiest and content when we re at peace with ourselves. When we are mindful, we are truly at o peace. Focus on the small, simple pleasures 🙏 in life and peace and contentment will follow. Turn off your phone and turn off the television 📺 at the power point. Take your dog for a 🚶♂️ walk and leave your mobile at home. Turn off your mobile whilst driving, shopping etc, and just focus on being in the here and now. This will improve your mental outlook no end. Constantly checking your phone etc, makes us stressed and feel time poor.
Take some time to enjoy the simple things in life and regularly turn off the devices, get away from constant white noise. You will feel none relaxed and at peace. I guarantee it. Focus on savouring the moment, and stop rushing. Mindfulness isn’t hard to achieve and you will feel better for it.
What quality do you value most in a friend?
The two qualities I value most in a friend are honesty and loyalty. They are two qualities that go hand in hand. Life teaches us that the bonds of friendship and love get broken when honesty is not valued and dishonesty, therefore being disloyal destroys the bonds of friendship.
I am now surrounded by friends who are fiercely loyal and honest. Our lives experience and out values have drawn us together . In my life I have walked away from friendships and relationships where honesty was trashed and not valued. Ultimately I realised that these people weren’t loyal and didn’t value the bond enough. Even my ex husband wasn’t truthful in the end and Ultimately it was his behaviour that soured the bond and caused me to call time on our marriage. The friendships I have made since that time continue to flourish and because of my views about Karma, have continued to be wonderful. We are very honest and fiercely loyal to one another.
Honesty and loyalty go hand in hand, and are the basis of long term enduring friendships. To have friends, we must firstly be a friend. The way to do this is to practice honesty and loyalty will come to us.
Do you practice religion?
Yes of course I practice religion, it is part of my very core beliefs.
I may not attend a particular church every week, but I think there is more to religion than being a church goer. It is how you practice your faith in your everyday life and my faith empowers me to treat everyone in my life as an equal. The bible makes it very clear that we must do onto others as you would have them do unto you. It is possible to be a wonderful Christian, who lives by their faith, but doesn’t attend church regularly. I have surrounded myself with wonderful people , some of whom I have met at church, and there are also friends that I have met in my life, who don’t go to church but still consider themselves to be Christian.
God teaches us 🙏 that we should love one another as he so loves us. My brother and I both agree that all religions talk of the practice of loving one another, just that the different religions express this one tenement in fact in different ways. Buddhism, Hindu and Christianity all express loving people equally as their core belief system.
I definitely believe in angels as part of my faith. There has just been too much happen in my life, that could not be coincidence. The only thing that makes sense is to accept that it was divine intervention. Angels exist in out lives, some in human form,and some come to us, as thoughts and intuition.
Our Souls are eternal and we all get to experience the Grace of God when our Souls enter heaven. Til then take care and God bless you all
Writing my last post about my childhood, and my love of children’s literature, has made me think deeply about another love of mine, great music for children.
Every since I studied children’s literature at uni I also developed a love for great and fun music for children. When I left uni, I started to do a children’s program called Plenty For Kids, on Plenty Valley fm, here in the outer suburbs of Melbourne. I had a ball producing this program. It featured music, competitions, children talking, writing and performing. There were community promotions, to spread the word, that such a space existed for kids. I look back with fond memories of that time.
The children’s program had finished around the time that The Wiggles really started to become popular. Who could have predicted that a group of guys, joined by being at uni, studying early childhood and a love of music 🎶 combined, would become megastars. They are popular the world 🌎 over and have made millions and made children’s music so very popular . I went with my brother to take my nephew to see The Wiggles and was overcome by the brilliance of their performance. My nephew was so excited, he burst into tears and madly jumped up and down, he too was overcome by how wonderful they were.
I did not know until recently, that one of my favourite musicians here in Australia, has a rich involvement, in writing, producing and arranging children’s music 🎶 for the ABC. It is the well known Scott Aplin, and he has done some really wonderful and intelligent and fun music 🎶 for children. When he was on the ABC program The Recording Studio, viewers were given a very brief look at just how talented he is, when it comes to making music for kids. It is very brief, and to hear about what a multi talented musician he is, look him up online, he definitely has earned his stripes as music director for The Vcoce.
Needless to say I could drone on for hours about music for children. To me re immersing your children in good music is as important for their creativity and imagination, as immersing them in children’s literature.
Do you remember life before the internet?
Yes I do remember the days before the internet. I can even remember the days before we all had personal computers and mobile phones.
Childhood was very different then. We were not constantly plugged into devices. Children used to play in the back garden. Sometimes we played with toys 🧸 or creatively invented games with simple objects. The family dog 🐕 was always up for a play.
My brother tells me he can remember that as soon as I had learned to 📚 read, my head was never not in a book. I can remember the books of my childhood, and still have a few from that time. I loved a book about Helen Keller. I devoured Laura Ingalls Little House series..
My childhood was very different to that of my nephew and nieces, but I was determined to give them the experience of reading good children’s literature. I immersed them in everything from the works of Graeme Base to Charlotte’s Web etc. I now buy books for my great niece and can actually give her stories that I have written, that being my collection of dog stories God bless our dogs.
My greatest memory from my childhood was the ambition to be a writer when I grew up. I am definitely a writer now and feel a great pleasure 🙏 in having achieved my childhood dream.
Kaye's Life and other gems 