Chookys Wedding

Nick told Janet that he was going to Iraq. Janet said "well, we are getting married before you go then". She said it was never an issue before but now she didn't want to die an old spinster... I kind of know what shes talking about. To me it seems that that is the natural order of things and that it is not healthy to live alone. So it remains to be seen if I can achieve the status of "married". I'm the only one left of our group of kids from Dowling Street still unmarried. It was a lovely wedding and many tears from Janet and myself. The fruit box was my contribution. Took me 2 hours to decorate and dip the strawberries in chocolate. I was pretty pleased with the outcome.

Light

There are two ways to spread the light: to be the light or the mirror who refects it. Edith Wharton (1897)

Noticed the moon last night?

True Love

True love is an acceptance of all that is, has been, will be, and will not be

View from my window this morning. -4 degrees.

Who Am I ?

Theresa suggested we find out about our friends and ourselves by asking this question. Here are some of my answers. Yours?

I’m someone who has

• Declared God is Love

• Had my tongue stuck to the freezer compartment of a fridge



• Is yet to master the art of swallowing a raw egg



• Has sewed a lovely design in cotton on the bottom of my feet



• Has found a Cadbury Dairy Milk Chocolate unopened in the most unusual places (packet of frozen peas, wrapped in a T towel, standing vertically balanced on the meat tray behind the freezer compartment of the fridge. (note the obsession with the fridge)



• Put my beloved guitar arm up in to a fast spinning fan to see what would happen



• Asked for a cup of sugar from a neighbour to feed the ants



• Who worked out how to pluck a wasp nest off a plant with out being stung



• Owns a pair of jumper leads that every bloke,upon sight, wants to own



• Invented a new way of mowing lawns with out a grass catcher that ends up in two rows of clippings that required raking



• Cried because my quilt I made didn’t look like other quilts



• Wondered who was saying that, when it was me talking



• Sided with the underdog knowing it would cause people to have negative perceptions of me



• Survived a 20 year diet consisting of Coke, chocolate, chips, ice-cream, Milo and Tina Wafers



• Only been able to face the day because of the morning sun nourished my spirit



• Defended my grandmothers honour as a soft drink maker, when the capped bottle of lemonade containing a dead frog was on sale at the baker shop



• Tried to tear a Monopoly board in half horizontally



• Been forked lifted off a plane



• Almost drowned by showing off



• Pulled all the louvers out of my bedroom during the night and stacked them neatly in piles with out waking up. After my first day on the job as the biscuit stacker at Katherine Stores



• Never swooned



• Used a broomstick through the bike front wheel when the rider was going past so as to dislodge him



• Survived an attempt by a kid to hammer a nail into my back while I was riding a bike



• Defended herself by swinging a thick rope around in helicopter fashion as a kid



• Had a fist fight with dad



• Dobbed my sister in for plucking her monobrow (like who would not have noticed she now had two?)



• Challenged my mother to throw boiling water over me



• Had a dick placed strategically on my shoulder at a disco in the 1980s



• Done a great impression of a plane flying while trying to correct myself after tripping



• Been dragged up the passage way by my hair by my sister with my mother in pursuit with a hot iron, and me calling out “burn my face right here”



• Worked out that if I wanted to avoid the strap I should run into the prickle patch barefoot coz mum could not follow with out shoes on



• Not understood that spitting was unacceptable until I was in my 20’s



• Worked well with people no one else could work with



• Not seen a colourful butterfly cocoon on a tree since I lived in Dowling street in the 1960s.



• Had 3 serious marriage proposals from men who had never kissed me, and none from those who had kissed me. (Is this a breath problem?)



• Lived amongst a colony of fruit bats for 5 months (not through choice)



• Refused to iron my clothes for the past 20 years (due to too many burns on my tummy)



• Had five Angels in my life so far



• promoted water as the number one, most beneficial liquid to consume ever



• names for the babies I never conceived



• day dreamed away a large part of many days



• accepted there is only good and bad, love and fear, God and Man



• given until there is nothing left and then become apathetic



• resilience in abundance



• had the feeling that I am everything and nothing at all when looking into a lovers eyes



• not been able to imagine a world with out music



• believed a confession should be to the person or people you hurt rather than to a priest



• felt honoured to have been up close and personal in a birth (Hamish) and death (Mum)



• found it exhausting to hide things from people



• adored poeple with out the slightest provication on their part



• a letter from my kindy teacher confiming my first friend was Jenny Rowbottom



• had people use words like intense, passionate and shrewd when discribing me


• been working on transparency for over 1o years

St Ninians

As I drove to Church at Lynham today my petrol gauge was on empty and I was scared. When I turned the corner to park I saw Theresa waiting outside the church for the last lot of people to come. I thought that was lovely. I've not seen a priest do that. She was already in position when I sat down and then she started the service and I had the feeling that this is where I am supposed to be when she started talking. Her service was up to the standard of the previous two.

She always says this little Psalm 19:14 "Let the words from my mouth and the meditations from my heart be acceptable to you" before she reads the Gospel. I'm not sure if that is her touch or what the Uniting Church always do.

There is so much in her service that I was thinking of asking her if I could record it. Ive never heard a leader of a service call out to some one in the back of the room and dialog with them about holidays. There's something about when some one calls out to you that you know they really want you at the moment - always melts me especially if its from someone I love. On her way out of the church she said thank you for the nice cards as she breezed past and I said there's more coming. There was no escaping this time because she waited until I came out of the Church and wanted me to come sign the visitors book and get involved with the Church. I said I don't do the book thing even with the Catholics except for the baptism and confirmation my name should not be written anywhere. So she said what about the choir? No luck there either. Laugh... anyway she said she will keep looking for the cards and she said of the cards she received this week mine was the nicest. Shes putting me under the pump now....

Mass of 10,000

Never seen so many people and priests at Mass before. Very uplifting.

Many cultures and the choir and music were absolutely fab.

That One Last Egg

mmm my body is telling me its still searching for that one last egg to release. I'm picturing that egg with a smile and a pleading look as if to say "Look-I'm still here, waiting to turn into a baby for you if you want me to" or "Ill be your baby tonight"mmmm then starts hummin With or Without you - by U2, followed by Please Release Me - by Engelbert Humperdink (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6S9ecXWCBCc). Hormones have a lot to answer for.

This is my piece for the exhibition in progress. Ive been really scared to continue on for some reason. Just pushing through it now.

Theresa Angert-Quilter

I'm now a fan of this pastor of the Uniting Church in Lyneham. I met her about a month ago at a memorial service of Charlie our oldest choir member. She did a fantastic service and really knew what Charlie was all about. Understood his essence. After, she came to the wake and I had a quick chat to her. She said that my body language shows I'm a thinker and that I take part in the service rather than let it wash over me. We got stuck into talking about hell and how I don't believe in it and that I don't believe allot of what the Catholic Church are teaching. I said I don't know if I will stay Catholic for ever but I'm struggling with the dryness of it all. I was so impressed with her I sent her a card telling her what I really liked about her service and the way she is. She probably thinks I am a nutter. Ive not been back to the Catholic Church since then.

Yesterday I decided that I would go to her service and there was a baptism on. She seemed to anticipate my questions and answered them in her sermon. It was a very different communion service to the one I am used to. There was allot of love there and the way she held the baby and handled the baby was different to how the male priests do that. She said right at the start that babies and children are welcome and there is nothing any baby or child could do in the church that would not be right and if parents wanted to use a kitchen out side the church they were welcome. She spoke about Rebbecca and how they assessed her for marriage and how she (Theresa) would never have passed such a physical test of watering all the camels. I so laughed. Shes got a good sense of humour too.

I found this quote by her "Let us give thanks for the ability to be able to love another human person, to desire them, and to rest in the trust that is generated". I like it and I am going back for more of her sermons. And I sent her another card.....

Just waiting for a restraining order to arrive now.

Ennislea

My Irish Grandfather had this name plate made for the house he owned in Echuca, Victoria. We don't know what the name meant to him, but he named all his girls and all of their names started with E (except Yvonne). I think he might not have known the name started with a Y. Not much is known of his family or life in County Tyrone. The good thing is that he came to Australia and had a large family. That's how come I have dual citizenship with Ireland. I have this hanging in my enterance to the egg carton.

Crown

No wonder my Dentist smiles as he makes me a crown for the back tooth. An hours work and $1200.00 is not too bad money.

On the other hand I would probably want double that figure to provide that service.

13 Years

Since mum went to God today. Im having the day off to spend in prayer and dreaming about her. I called an old friend of mine, Tracey Fitzgerald and spoke about the old days in Katherine. Tracey's comment when I said it was mums anniversary was "Pauline was a very good hater"... I so laughed, mainly because it was so unexpected and so very true. Tracey's mum was a good hater as well and as we discussed things further we decided that there has been a certain generation that had this ability. Looking at it from the other side tho I guess my niece and nephew might say that about our generation too.

Id say this pic is taken around 1971. Mum looks really well and happy. We all do really, just a bit dusty and dirty as dad was working on the tip truck.

Childlike

Through this work angst a common theme keeps occurring. What keeps coming up is that I am too open. I don't like playing dirty. I just like to state the truth as I see it and deal with what ever happens. I cant manipulate and I find it really really difficult and exhausting not telling it like it is. Politics is way beyond me. I beat myself up about this all the time.

I remember once in Katherine I saw a recruitment folder on my bosses desk for a job that I was going for. He wasn't around at the time. I remember thinking if I opened this now and looked and didn't like what I saw I might be able to change the outcome. I made the choice then not to look. Not to manipulate. Let what will be, be.

I didn't get the job and they put someone else in it. Three weeks later the girl was sacked for her involvement in fraud on one of the communities. This is where missscott assumed the position.

Another lady said to me that I have a childlike honesty that is totally disarming. I thought that was a joke and laughed. She got cranky and I realised that she really meant it.

The reason for this writing is that today, in two separate books, the following quote was on the first page that I opened on each book. Neither one was the Bible.

Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 18.

Now I feel better about how I am.