20191225 – Wednesday – Gore’s

It is 7.30 am on Xmas day.

I have gone to The Shack where I have purchased a few goodies to take with me to Amanda and David Healey’s place where I am to have brunch with Ali and Trev Gore and others for Xmas day.

I got up VERY early this morning to get my head straight and be ready for 10.30 at Amanda’s place.

So now I am at The Shack.

The birds are chirping in the palms a above my head, and I am even wearing a light jumper because it is a little cool.

It is a cool day, and such a relief from the scorching weather we have been having.

The shack is only selling coffee this morning and there are just two people working in the shop.

It really is idyllic.

But I managed to find enough “goodies” to take with me to Amanda’s.

I woke up feeling dizzy and my back was aching a little, but I soon got things moving again and now I feel ok.

It will soon be 2020 and I will be moving into my 81st year of life on this planet.

I have gone back onto my low carbs diet, because I have noticed that I have started to gain weight somewhat, not a good thing for me to have let happen.

It is so good to be back “in control” again.

I will soon lose the 3 kg I have gained, so it is not a worry.

And it is so much easier, and now I can eat whenever I feel like it, as long as I only eat no carbs.

My staple diet now will be eggs, for breakfast, no bread, tomatoes, avocados, mushrooms, any form of protein, chicken, beef, fish, an orange for vitamin C, and any other vegetables I feel like.

If I feel the need for sweetness, then it is dates and figs.

Already my sugar levels are more in line with what they ought to be.

I still can’t get used to my white hair.

I have a tall mirror on the pillar outside my front door.

Peter Roberts put it up for me and I have been so grateful for it.

It is hard for me to see what I looks like on the mirror inside my house, so when I come out my front door I can check whether I have put something inside out or not.

At 81, I still look pretty reasonable.

I can’t get used to my white hair though.

Every time I see it in the mirror I have a “double take” and I think, Who is THAT.

I have never got used to how I look.

I have always felt as though my face should belong to someone else, not me.

I don’t recognise ME as ME?

It is the weirdest feeling.

I still ask questions like WHO AM I and I have the feeling that I have inherited the LOOK of someone from another world, not here in Australia.

It is like being a black person in a world of white people, and wondering how I got here.

My speech too, bothers me.

I watched a movie last night, Queen of the Desert and I noticed that Nicole Kidman throughout the move spoke in a slow and measured way and how effective it is.

My speech is rapid and comes pouring it of me.

I should think and pause more before I speak.

It seems that WORDS have been pouring out of me since the day I was born.

And yet my daughter Deb speaks faster than me.

I remember she knew the words of every child’s song before she was 18 months old and could sing all the really fast songs with ease.

All our children and the Brinkerhoff children loved to sing with Deb, because she KNEW all the words and so they could just follow her lead in all the rounds and singing that we all used to sing.

I know I am rambling today,

But in a sense I am looking back over the years in this 81st year of my life and trying to do an assessment of my life so far.

Words are wonderful things.

They are so powerful, full of life.

How important it is, I have realised that the words that we speak are ALWAYS good words.

They have such creative power and energy.

I am so grateful that the 2 strokes I have had since 2008 have not affected my speech.

I would rather lose motor skills than my powers of speech and my control over words.

Though I have felt handicapped with the affect my motor skills have had on my ability to TYPE.

The birds are deafening here today.

But I have realised that is because I have put my hearing aids in for the day.

I usually don’t bother, because there is no one to talk to me except one on one and I can manage that pretty well.

I love reading Jenni Chand’s posts.

Her artistic skills are reflected in her words and she gives me a whole new perspective on life.

I have realised that I am very happy today.

When I do not give into my fears, it leaves me free to really enjoy being alive.

I rang Una Strempel last night. She has just come back from Cambodia.

She is such a brave woman.

At 83 she has taken her granddaughter Rube and son David across to Cambodia and has had a wonderful trip.

It has achieved exactly what she was hoping for, an inspiring time for her granddaughter which will change her life’s direction.

I remember her husband Don and all the travels that Jef and I did with Don and Una all those years ago.

Travelling with Don always meant that all we had to do was follow him wherever he want and we would see some amazing things.

But he used to “bully” Una and I, and he and I had some great verbal “scraps” I remember.

On one occasion he had taken us to some seaside place where there was a “spit” outcrop into the sea.

The weather was bitterly cold and Una and I were huddled in the car to keep warm.

Don came up to the rear door of the car opened it and grabbed me by one of my plaits, hauling me out of the car.

“I didn’t come all this way to see this sight, just so you two could sit in the car and keep warm.”

So he hauled Una by one hand and me by my plait and dragged us both after him out onto the spit of land in wild seas all around us.

There’s no question it was a unique experience, that’s for sure.

Jeff and Don were both school teachers at the time and so we were able to travel round Australia during our holiday breaks.

Those were wonderful times, when our kids were all young.Jeff and Don used to organise lectures at the places we stayed and use their holidays preaching the Word of God to any who would listen.