Category: Stories

  • Death by papercut

    Death by papercut

    Today’s post is about the impact of microaggressions. Theoretical and personal examples are listed, so feel free to look after your mental health and give today a miss if you think the content might be upsetting. Carry my support and understanding with you today and always. * * * Before…

  • Aliens… alienated

    Aliens… alienated

    When I was growing up, the word ‘alien’ was a shorthand way of conjuring up images of E.T. Phoning Home, eating mashed potato mountains while humming an electronic beep-bop tune, or an assortment of green-hued light beams, metal donuts, and other-worldly secrets deliberately concealed or accidentally revealed… oh, and THAT…

  • “The body keeps the score”

    “The body keeps the score”

    I had heard A LOT about the book “The Body Keeps the Score” (2014) by Bessel van der Kolk, long before I picked it up. Perhaps it was all the hype around its potential life-changing ability that made my expectations VERY high… but I’m going to be potentially controversial and…

  • Be the CEO of your own body

    Be the CEO of your own body

    At the beginning of the year, I mentioned the Australian fashion designer Camilla Franks as one of my role models who was going to mentor me (in my imagination). Camilla and I are very different – she lives the colorful and glamorous life of a socialite / traveler, and she…

  • A monkey called Punch and his ‘Mommy’

    A monkey called Punch and his ‘Mommy’

    Is it normal to cry when you watch YouTube videos? Perhaps not, but the recent story of Punch the Monkey has got me a bit weepy. Thankfully, things seem to be taking a turn for the better for little Punch-kun (as he’s known in his hometown), which is great news……

  • Make a wish (on an old lady)

    Make a wish (on an old lady)

    When I was a child, it was fairly standard to spot the golden yellow flowers of a dandelion in unmown grass, head over, and gently pluck out one of the fluffy-seed-puff-balls. Then you would blow on the poor uprooted plant and make a wish as you watched the winged-seeds fly…

  • The year 2025 in review

    The year 2025 in review

    >>Ta-toot-ta-tooooom<< (that’s me blowing my own trumpet!) Today is another one of my monthly blogging anniversaries. From a very early stage, I promised myself that I wouldn’t wait for BIG milestones, instead, I would celebrate the little inch-stones that occurred along the way. Today I am 23-MONTHS old – early…

  • Medical detectives (in art)

    Medical detectives (in art)

    Many, many, years ago there was an ad on Australian television that suggested that modern doctors could tell that the model in a Renaissance painting had breast cancer based on some dimples near her armpit. I’ve always remembered it, and it came into my mind again the other day when…

  • Feeling a little Picasso-ish

    Feeling a little Picasso-ish

    A little while ago, one of my blogging friends, Silver Apple Queen, left a comment on my post “Our Woven Selves” to say that when she thought about migraine metaphors, she imagined her migraines as Pablo Picasso paintings. And if you know anything about his abstract art, it’s not hard…