Acts of Kindness

An article in the newspaper this week caught my eye. It was concerned with avoiding dementia. Much has been written about this topic and in my senior years, I am still a passionate student, only the subject-matter has varied! The article by Sarah Berry in The Age May 1, 2023, makes the case that “For… Read More

Can you relate to initiating an act of kindness having been the recipient of a similar action? Well, over the past 18 months I have been a benefactor of a style of communication that I have highly appreciated, and this has inspired me to endeavour to replicate such valued behaviours.   My inspiring role model has… Read More

It is an often repeated refrain of mine in my coaching and personal life, that we need to practise self-compassion as we navigate our days, because there are so many situations in which we take a battering (figuratively speaking). Given these ‘batterings’ take place already and are largely beyond our control, let’s not join the… Read More

Our 21 year-old daughter loves to express herself creatively, particularly in her care for her friends. This shows up with thinking of and purchasing, or making, birthday presents – and at the moment it is the season of 21st birthday presents. Interestingly, another new type of event to celebrate has started to appear in our… Read More

I enjoyed reading a title by Zalman Schachter-Shalomi & Ronald S. Miller, namely From Age-ing to Sage-ing. It provided the insights and the motivation for me, as a sage-in-training (which I call myself with a deprecatory smile), to complete an act of kindness. Using the terminology of the book, my act of kindness took the… Read More

We are currently storing a neighbour’s Christmas present for their eight-year-old son; a new bike! Several weeks ago, our neighbour asked if it would be okay, and then last weekend he arrived with the bike. We found a spot in the shed and covered the sparkling orange bike with an old sheet. This weekend, my… Read More

You could not have missed the floods that swamped parts of Victoria this year, either directly by being a victim to their sweeping invasion or indirectly through living your friends’ and relatives’ experiences vicariously. Perhaps you had the role of onlooker with a few degrees of separation, witnessing in the media the daily stories and… Read More

Recently an email pinged into my inbox. It came from a former student (whom I shall refer to as A.) who is at university now. The recent death of Queen Elizabeth II prompted her to write to me. She was a student in my 2020 year 12 English as an Additional Language class. The link… Read More

The Higher Order Animal Part of my ‘maintenance’ work for my manifesto is to interact with our Instagram account followers. Never having been an exponent of social media, this is a new and not altogether enjoyable activity for me. However, it has its moments… Recently, while randomly sifting through the material in the feed, I… Read More