Shared with dVerse Tuesday Poetics: The Four Elements – my chosen element being earth.
You Can’t Wash It Away – 2nd March 2025
Tag: Earth
Our First Mother – 6th December 2023
Smelling the rain, sniffing the dirt
Bonding with our first mother
From the ocean to the mountain
We are not tied to any other
Chasing the rain, rolling in the mud
Climbing to the tops of trees
Out first mother grants us all
With her gentle fragrant breeze
Burning the oil, slashing the forest
Make her angry not
This mother is not just the first
But the only one we’ve got
7th May 2024 – Submitted to Word of the Day Challenge
Today I’m feeling:
Good again. Reasonably energetic and positive.
Today I’m grateful for:
Two easy and fun classes where the grade 10s were teaching me how to improve my pronunciation. I let them make fun of my pronunciation so that they don’t feel too bad when I correct their English. I did some reading with them and was quite happy to see them trying and not just looking to me to tell them. I really wish that I had more time to be able to do that with them individually or in pairs.
The best thing about today was:
It was another all-around good day without one thing being better than another.
What was out of your control today and how did you handle it?
Likewise to above, anything that was out of my control didn’t get in my way today.
Something I learned today?
I should probably stop reading about the genocide of the Palestinians. It’s frustrating and inhumane. Of course, there is nothing I can do about it but at least know that if there is evil in the world it is openly on display by the Zionists. Religion, whilst preaching goodness and acceptance continues to do exactly the opposite.
Review your acts, and then for vile deeds chide yourself, for good be glad. — Discourses 3.10
Giving lots of encouragement to my grade 10 students and support to my grade 7s. Even though the 7s are still a little distracted they can get back to it if I keep shepherding them. I can see some friend group dynamics shifting a little in that class too. It will be interesting to follow.
Who do I trust the most, and why?
Obviously, this is Amy. Now we have shared 15 years of our lives together and have a deep sense of trust in each other. Our actions have proven that. Whether we are in the same country or not, we trust each other.
I am generally quite trusting of others, though also have a reasonably good radar about people. I like to think that most people are good and decent and I am also prepared to be let down.
Stuck In Reverse – 9th September 2023
Oil pours from the heart
Thick, sad and grey
Even the falling tears
Cannot wash it away
Struggling with movement
This unreal ache inside
Consumes all thoughts
As if one had died
Life continues blurred
A no-prescription fix
Life left without magic
A wall without bricks
Cogs no longer turning
Rusted brown from salt
Stuck in reverse
But nobody’s fault
Today I’m feeling:
Still a little run-down. I had some tension in my legs that stopped me from sleeping much beyond my alarm and eventually pulled myself out of bed. The gardeners are coming today and I was expecting them to wake me up but no sign yet. I contemplated some exercise but flaked out. Ugh.
Today I’m grateful for:
Being able to watch the AFL again this season. This elimination final has got me tense and stressed and it’s the end for Sydney and the rest of the day will feel a little flat unless I find something to do to pick myself up. Fark it!
I’m also grateful to the Swans for their determination to make the finals this year against the odds. They are not a premiership-looking team at the moment though to be fair they weren’t in 2012 either when they beat Hawthorn. Let’s wait for next summer.
The best thing about today was:
Receiving a nice message from my student Namkhing (see yesterday) for helping her improve her English. It made me feel appreciated.
What was out of your control today and how did you handle it?
The gardeners still hadn’t come by 1 pm so I went out to grab some lunch and go shopping and when I got back three hours later they were just leaving. As I wasn’t here I couldn’t tell them not to cut Kim’s patch but at least they left the tub that is placed over her plant. The things growing there will recover pretty quickly anyway so not too bad.
Elsewhere I can see everything is pretty badly done if you look closely. Really no attention to detail.
I was curious if the little papaya would get destroyed and sure enough, it did. I don’t want to tell Amy how unsatisfied I am with their work as it will just make her upset and angry and give her more ammunition to complain about her undeveloped third-world country. I think that will just get me down so I’ll just dwell on the fact that at least the grass looks better.
Something I learned today?
There are an estimated 8.7 million species on earth and more than 80% of them are undiscovered. (factanimal.com)
What am I most excited about for the future?
I should be more excited about going to Australia and I probably will feel it more once I land. The familiarity of Sydney will make for a strange feeling as this will be the first time to take a holiday in this city. Most holidays I had when I was there involved going to someplace else.
As I was writing this Amy video-called and I could see the familiar deep blue sky behind her. I could sense the smells, sounds and feeling of being there. Whilst I miss that now, I know that familiarity breeds contempt or more just complacency and taking things for granted. Maybe I’m even taking things for granted here now too as I’m less awed by the fact that I am here in Thailand.
Beyond that, I’m not particularly excited about anything specifically. I’m either flat or satisfied with where I’m at right now and I prefer to think I’m the latter.
Where Were You? – 12th October 2021
Hello, my old friend, where have we been?
I travelled around the world to see the things I’ve seen
The past is a cloaked memory yet difficult to forget
Here we are again with little time to be upset
All the hopes and dreams we shared, left along the way
Stuck in a nine-to-five, kids and rent to pay
Do we recognise each other with the words we are using?
No longer in need to win if one of us is losing
Gratitude Journal
I am so happy and grateful for the beautiful temperatures in the evening and morning. What a wonder this earth is.
When I got home yesterday, Tangmo slowly made his way over from his house. He looked so sad and we comforted him and petted him as he lay down on his side, not understanding himself what was wrong with him. Occasionally, he would raise a paw, like a request, ‘Please help me’. Amy shed many tears and we can’t help but share his sadness.
Yesterday I felt inspired to start writing about my 1979 diary entries (see link below) but today I feel tired in my brain. Perhaps I should eat some lunch and guzzle another coffee and come back to it.
I’m not even sure why I’m at school at the moment. We have nothing to do and I avoid people as much as possible, scared that they will give me something to do. I sit in my classroom just reading and writing.
My 30 day abs challenge got more difficult but I’m getting through it each time. I think that is tiring me out, though I can say that it also makes me feel good. Can this old body go for another 100 years?
1994ever 