I got a haircut last night and I think I look quite different. Everyone who has seen me at work today has said so too so I am letting you all know so you don’t have to say it.

I am quite happy with it at the moment but I guess we will really find out when the nice blow drying that the clever hardressers do goes away and it is left up to me to style it.

Martin, Jo and I are going to this:

http://www.micahchallenge.org.au/pages/content.asp?plid=44

and I think everyone else should come too…..

Woke up feeling pretty crappy – sort of stressed and up tight and I couldn’t shake it. I tried to read the bible but it annoyed me too so I went searching for a prayer that I wrote a little while ago in some of my old diaries. That was the worst idea that I had as I ended up reading my diary from when I was about 17 and 18. What a total jerk I was. How absolutlety embarassing and made me feel more anxious. So finally I tried some meditation but that didn’t feel good either.

So I made some peppermint tea for Jo and I and went and sat in her room. She was chatting to Jem which I did for a bit and then we decided to do some art. I drew a leunig and it was unbelieveably soothing. We also put on some John Coleman and he always makes me feel like everything is right with the world. After Jo made some very yummy lunch I lay on her floor and read some poems and here is one that I founf by Noel Davis. He like John and Luenig some how manages to make everything feel okay.

Called to be loving reminders for eachother

We need to tell and retell stories in word and deed
that keep reminding us of what we most forget
that our essence is Love
our destiny Divine
and that Love ebbs and flows
from the heart of our being
to the far shores of the universe
when we dare to listen adn to acknowledge
our loving self
to let go into one another and let our fragile lives
be drawn way out of their depth
into the living flow
of You

It has been a very long week and I am exhausted. Probably the biggest I have had since I started at Compeer. I am very much looking forward to going home, attending my meditation group and then having dinner, wine and a catch up with my sister. And then I will have a big sleep in tommorrow.

Given that I have been such a slack blogger during the month of January I thought I might do a catch up list about what I have been doing. So January was the month that..

I attended RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Award). I really loved some of it and learnt a lot but I really hated some of it and still shudder when I think about it. But all in all I think that it was worth doing and I met some really great people. Probably the most important lesson that I learnt was that not everybody is going to like me all the time. And to realise that and not have my whole sense of self caught up in what others think is unbelievably liberating.

Was really busy at work. It is a relief to have lots to do but I am feeling a little overwhelmed by it all.

Saw Keating with my mum. I think it was one of the funniest things that I have seen in a long time and mum and I had a great time together too.

Jem left for Mexico. I am very sad and feel like I am going to miss her heaps. It was so wonderful living with her in 2006. But I am very excited for her and it has been so great reading her blog. It has makde me excited about travel again.

Have started settling into my church and really loving it. So nice to be part of one again and have met some awesome people. Yay for St John’s Glebe.

I went to Tamworth for country music and of course to see my family. It was okay but so many poeple around and I think now when I take a holiday I want to get away from people. It was nice coming home and again feeling really happy when I pulled into Enmore Rd. It really feels like home.

Continued my love affair with Isabel Allende. I am reading Of love and Shadows now and I am really enjoying it.

First day back at work and I am finding it very hard to get back into the swing of things. I am however very excited about tonight. Martin and I were invited to some people’s house from our new church for dinner. We only met them on Sunday and we were sitting around chatting to them and then they said, “Hey you guys should come around for dinner on Wednesday” and we said, “Yes”. Then they got a little embarassed and asked, “was that too full on?” and we said, “Not at all, we are like that too” and we are. It should be good and I am happy to be making more connections with the community.

You would think that having 11 days off would mean lots of blogs but it was not so. It has though been one of the best holidays ever….

I decided that I was not going to make any plans at all. I was just going to hang around my home and read and go to the beach and see movies and talk to my friends and get to know my area and most importantly relax. I think that I have done splendidly and it has been great. Managed to finish two books and I am about half way through U2 on U2. Tom has finished but that’s okay. I have also done heaps of walking. In fact I must have walked almost the whole of the city at least twice including a couple of trips up King Street and Glebe Point Road for coffees and movies. I saw Babel and Volver and I think both were very good films. I also walked to Darling Harbour for some timezone action, which was fun, I am starting to improve on the dancing machines although Ryan still kicked my arse. We also walked through the Botanic Gardens for a picnic and across the Harbour Bridge to Luna Park for ice cream and a ferry ride back. On New Years Eve Martin and I walked from Darlinghurst to Observatory Hill for the fireworks which as always were lovely and great to be my wonderful friends again and then back to Central for a bus. Finally there was the walk from Bronte to Coogee. Not to mention I did the Bay Run once and Martin and I ran to Sydeny uni this morning. We also went Putt Putt golfing with the house and the Gowies. I guess it is not strenuous activity but got to better than sitting at home. Wow I am not only feeling very relaxed but incredibly fit. I think the highlight has been all the time with the community and the spontaneity. As mentioned all happened with no plans.

I am feeling good about 2007. I think it is importnat to start the year refreshed and I am certainly that. So happy new year frriends. I hope that you are all feeling hopeful as well. If not I am very happy for you to borrow some of mine.

I scored four out of seven on the “this is your lifestyle” test which tests my impact on the environment. This means I suck a bit. I guess it could be worse but it certainly could be better.

Global warming makes me feel so anxious. Someone quoted David Suzuki to me the other day who says that we are in a bus hurling towards a brick wall at two hundred kilomertres an hour but no one is doing anything about it. I want to do something about it and I am having shorter showers, turning off lights, mostly buying second hand clothes and I am a vegetarian so that gets me points but it all feels so futile.

I think I may make my new years resolution to get up earlier so that I can catch the train to work when I don’t need to use during work hours. And maybe my next letter to the politicians should be about global warming. I guess that is related to global poverty becasue as with everything it will be the poor who will be most disadvataged by global warming. I think I should stop saying will and say are. Global warming is definitely present and not future.

I need people to keep me accountable to that.

Martin came and had lunch with me today and we went and had a picnic in the park down the road. It is quite a nice park with perfectly mowed grass and flowers and a fountain in the middle but I never see anyone in it. I think it must be that it is in quite a random spot. Anyway today we were in it. We layed on our picnic rug in the shade and ate lunch in our picnic bowls. It was lovely. I felt kind of like a teenager in love.

I have had some really nice community moments in the last week. It has made me feel good about living in Newtown. I had been feeling a bit unsure about where I wanted to be but the last week has me thinking that maybe I am in the right place for me right now.

Firstly, on Sunday Martin and I went to church at St John’s Glebe. It may be too soon to say this as we have only been once but I think that we may try to make it our church. The people were so open and welcoming and I had some really interesting conversations. It seemed like a diverse group of people young and old with different cultural backgrounds and when I asked one of the ladies I chatted to why she liked it so much she said that it was because of the diversity of rich and poor. She also said that she as a single mother never felt judged there at all and I think that is very important. There was also good liturgy and Geoff is the minister so I am pretty sure that I will be comfortable with the teaching but that it will also challenge me.

On Monday we had our community dinner which was great. I was very anxious that there wasn’t going to be enough food but in the end there was and it was delicious. It was another diverse group of people from the local area and everyone seemed to have a good time.

Yesterday when I got home from work I went and delivered pamphlets for the Greens. A whole bunch got left on our door for someone who used to live there to deliver and I thought it would be a shame for them not to get delivered as I am a bit of a fan of the Greens so I did it. It was good exercise and it made me feel communityish. There is nothing like walking around your neighbourhood and really looking at it that makes you feel part of it.

Later on Jo, Martin and I actually remembered to pray for the community together which I found helpful and then even later on our next door neighbour Amber popped around with some of their very good wine and shortbread in a cute red tin. She stayed for a little while and chatted which was nice. She is very different to us but funny and open and I guess community is about relating to people who are different and don’t necessarily share the same views as you.