Journey Through Life

Karen stood at the rickety old sink cupboard, the tap on with water running over the onions she peeled to make the mince stretch further to last a couple of meals. More and more tears trickled down her cheeks from the hot smell of the onions, in the end she didn't know if she was crying because of the onions or the struggle to keep a roof over their heads and stomachs full. For years, since her husband had walked away from his family responsibilities leaving behind him a mountain of debt, Karen had kept her counsel and marched forward to hide the disaster from her family with no complaints about her lot. She knew her family were displeased with the tight rein she kept on her purse strings, keeping them in clothes and food, not explaining how she went without for them. Gary tripped on the hole left behind from the missing piece of lino, the pattern and color faded by years of many feet walking on it and the sun burning in where they holy, worn curtains didn't cover the window

T he verse to follow is a little of my thoughts for my Aunt Clarice who passed over yesterday after a battle with illness and pain from a broken hip. She will not feel the pain now of broken bones but the lose of her husband, children, grandchildren and great grandchildren, left behind to morn her departure to Summerland  where she will find peace. Aunt Clarice may have left but our memories of her will forever stay with those who she loved and extended family. I remember Aunt Clarice with fondness, appreciation, she gave of herself, her time day or night without complaint, a meal or bed always on offer, she shared time and food, washed, ironed, cooked, cleaned, her work never done bust was  her way of life, I can picture her in Summerland scrubbing clothes by hand moping floors, cooking, ironing, taking care of those in need watching over her family till their time has come to be with her to show them the right path from the doors of this world to the next where she

Dash it!! The power, or the computer, cut the power and wiped out what I had written, not of it saved except the title, so I have to go back to the drawing board. So here is a different version of what I had started but in poem form. This is about a lagoon where we used to pump water to fill out tanks when no rain fell. The surface of the water Was as smooth as glass, Not a ripple to be seen. The smoothness broken, By wind or rain. No birds dare to swim Disturb the surface of the water. No animals approached, The deep water of the lagoon. Their life would be at risk, To quench their thirst there Which would be their last. Never to be seen again. Not a sound could be heard, On or around the lagoon. The Bunyip would raise His big hairy arm above the water To drag the unwary invader, Down the bottom to a watery grave. Trucks, boats, and cattle sank, Beneath the surface of the lagoon. No one dared to enter the water, To retrieve their possessions. Everyone was afraid of the big hairy

At least the weather has stayed fine in my area but not to say that we'll make the whole way through without a shower of rain, for sure it's possible there might be some tomorrow due to it being Anzac day. I am taking my 90 year old friend up to walk in the march. I have been working on different poetry. My next section is Haiku.  The first poem is one written by another person and I found it on the net, but the two following are of my own making, the reason for this is the exercise we had to do was "Cut and Replace". We had to cut the original into sections and rearrange it to make our own words. Hope you like them. I loved the child in him so innocent and sweet The mischief in his eyes the blush upon his cheek The tender way he spoke that showed me that he cared The touch of his warm hand that gently touched my hair The smiles that we shared that filled my life with glee For when I was with him I found the child in me            ******* The touch of the blush

Rain!! More rain is falling to cause more trouble for everyone, to make life miserable and food prices rise, the school and Easter holidays to ruin. Rain can be a blessing in small doses but this year the weather and Mother Nature have lost the plot to come up with an out of control damage plan, preparing for next year when some are saying the world will come to an end, or do they men there will be drastic changes and we'll finally have peace with everyone, no more wars about religion, or for power. I remember another time where floods surrounded the town, all roads cut in every direction, with trains the only way out. The inlaws had come to stay at the right time so they were there to witness the downfall of their son, no way could they blame me for what had happened. Didn't think to ask my husband when he arrived home from work with a brand new rifle and a movie camera, I was never told by him how he came by either items until the day I returned home to find both his pa

Lost a day due to study on my writing assignments and making changes on my web site. Changes coming soon now I have decided what niche I want to deal in. Let you know when the changes are made. Abuse, No matter what kind is dished out it is still abuse. The two I'm talking about is mental and physical abuse. Everyone has their own way of dealing with each case depending on how severe, and how long this has been going on. Do you notify the police of what has happened? Do you go to the doctor for treatment? Do you go to the hospital? Do you tell members of your family, or close friends, of what you have lived with? Or do you just try to put this behind you, believe he, or she, won't do this to you yet again, after a promise has been made to never do this again. The other case is the doer of the abuse closes out what has been done, asks you what has happened. You stare in disbelief that someone can blot out the terror which you suffered. Terror that will not leave your life. A t

Sorry I missed last night, there was a toss up between writing a story, or watching a movie on TV, this is something I don't do very often, so "Happy Feet" received the nod instead of writing, the shoulders were sore and burning from what I'd been doing the day. I did a few rows of crocheting while watching, keeping me awake to make it to the finish of the movie, impatiently waiting for the end to go to bed. At least I made to the end.  Today I have been trying to catch up with some of the writing I'm behind in, plus doing short burst of mowing, tomorrow I will pay with pain and stiffness of the muscles, but I would prefer to do a bit of mowing than try to walk around the block, the energy from doing that hasn't achieved any thing for me, I would probably have to ring a taxi to bring me home. Doing something at home, I can pack up and go inside to rest the fragile muscles while reading or writing stories. I think, when I have saved lots of money, I'll ha

Because of the title, there is no way I have suicide on my mind, to commit it, other than to write a short story about the topic, for our writing assignment for the holiday break that was the topic, and I had to also do a section on paragraph expanding, so I banded the two aspects together to complete both exercises. This is about a true story of a man who took his life in his own hands.                                          Suicide Selfishness and lack of pride in his family’s history, the black mark on the family tree, stressing the date of the day, the day he became God to end his life, he chose everlasting darkness, the fires of Hell, to the loving arms of his family, leaving his friends to wonder why he did this deed.  His loving wife and children left behind to morn, cry, wish her had stayed to grow old, be there to guide his grandchild through the hardships of life, not taking this thought into consideration, the child only a few weeks to its birth, coming into a world of

Thought I'd choose a different topic except for the weather, can't seem to make up its mind what to do, one minute the sun shines, clouds move in fast and rain falls, sometimes the sun shines with rain falling, April showers some are calling them me I say their a nuisance on wash days, or time has come to mow the lawn. Rain is falling and the wind is whistling around the house, my lovely flowers will be blown to bits, members of my family and a friend, have left town for the next three days, that was a sure sign rain would fall once again. With Easter approaching and the school children on holidays, what else can we expect, not that the rain will worry too many of my activities very much, I can work to catch up with writing my stories. Ghost are among my many friends. Sometimes they can be very annoying when I need to sleep, take over my ideas when writing to take the story their way, when the idea is theirs you have to keep moving forward or you won't have a good nights

I'm not sure how the timber cutting industry works today but I remember this time of my life, timber cutting was very dangerous, lonely, busy work to do. My parent used to go out working in the bush cutting timber to take to the saw mills, or cut into sleeper blocks, before cement ones were introduced, after my father stopped cutting them. We loaded them into rail wagons to be shipped to where they needed to be. Barking the fallen timber, sometime easy if the right trees, hard otherwise, bars had to be used to try to peel it away. At the right time some bark fell away fast sending you over the log if you weren't watching. Standing on the inner wet side was a bad mistake, your feet slipped from beneath you sending you slipping to land on the rear end. My father was one of those people who didn't leave the paddock with half a load, he made sure he couldn't add just one more and still drive the truck. I can't believe that poor truck took all the weight without sag

Sorry but the journey through is on hold for tonight, because I had one of those night's where the brain has been occupied all day on different parts of my daily schedule, I've only had a few hours sleep. I heard the grandfather clock strike one in the morning. Must of fallen to sleep, finally, then woken with the rising of the sun, for a change, and with the birds making a noise. Not that I'm complaining about the sun, this year it has been as rare ans hen's teeth. With the coming of the sun though, we have the rising of the lawn, needing to start lawn mowers to cut it before the next downfall of rain pelts down once again. So far this has been an interesting day. I was trying to catch up with my lessons on writing on the computer, there came a knock to the door, I answered it to find the guy and his young daughter there with sad looks, some how he had locked them out of the house. The wife was at work. He came to ring his wife to bring home a key to let them in. Tol

Ah! Ambrosia! I went to have my two week massage this morning and it relieved some of the tight, painful muscles. The shoulders aren't burning at the moment. This may seem a strange title for this section but here is the story of my daughter's sudden death, her organs were farmed to help families waiting for replacement organs to keep them alive. I hope many of them are still living. The only way I could deal with the loss was to think I now had five daughters instead of one. Stressed and tired, I quickly kicked off my shoes to crawl under the covers of this strange bed. Cold. Freezing cold. The chill on my clothes from where I walked through the fierce wind blowing around me, when I stepped out of the hospital to walk the short distance to where I was booked to stay. I shivered. No warmth in the sheets to warm the body. But I would need a fire to bring heat to the core to send warmth spreading through the body. Dread of the unknown he;ped keep the coldness flowing throu

In a marriage there is suppose to be trust and respect, if not there, what do you have? For most of my first marriage I didn't receive either from my husband. The partnership consisted of three adults and the children. To come to that answer you have to have a wife, husband and his mother pulling strings, and sticking in her nose where it was not welcome. The main reason for her interference was to take my daughter to raise because she only had sons. But I fought tooth and nail until my life was in question. After my third pregnancy I was advised by my doctor, and a specialist, to do something to prevent any further pregnancies. The pill was not an option because my system will not take to induced foreign medication. A fitted application I refused because it didn't stop you having more children. I spent time with a woman in the maternity ward who had given birth to another child and the piece came out with the afterbirth. So I went for the permanent solution. I had the tubes

My trip to Townsville didn't turn out to be a very happy time. Once again, I lived in a caravan in a caravan park  There was not option to do other wise. I had my first child who was a year old. She had been spoiled by grandparents, one side more than the other. That side tried to run my life and make out that I didn't know what I was doing to raise the baby. For around the age of nine I had been taking care of other people's children. She had a rash on her bottom. I spoke to the nurse about this and we both came to the same agreement that the baby powder was the cause. The mother-in-law would not accept that because the tin said this powder was for babies. But some people can't use any type of talc powder. This is something which runs in the family. Just before Christmas of 1970 we had finished eating our meal. The baby was cleaned and placed in her bed out of the way while I worked. I looked around to find out why she was so quiet to find she had turned blue in t

Oh! Ouch! The shoulders are burning with pain at the moment. I have just finished writing up six pages of a story I had hand written. At the writing I go to we were given the task of marrying two fairy tales to make a new story. I should have had it completed by this morning but the week wasn't long enough. I have sent it off to the lady who runs the group.  It's a wonder I'm not trying to type while I'm sleeping. Like I write the stories while I am suppose to be asleep. So here is a short version on my foal I used to have. Dawnella was her name. She was born just before dawn one day. I woke to find I had a new addition to the flock. I had to call the vet out to do some stitching because the foal had brushed against the barbed wire, leaving a small, not too deep cut on her leg. She was cute. Looked as though butter wouldn't melt in her mouth. But looks can be very deciving. After she was a few week old the mare caught a tick which caused much trouble, this mean

Pets. I had my fair share of pets over the years. There were dogs, cats, and at one stage I had a kangaroo. Today I don't have time to take care of any kind of animals. The only animals I have now, are ones that sit on cupboards and have to be dusted from time to time. Or I have pictures of them The animals I like I would not be able to have. My favorites are Bengal Tigers, Wolves and Bears. When I was young I have a ginger cat which put up with everything I did to him. He was very docile. We lived  in a caravan in a railway yard. I had a dolls pram but most the time the doll didn't go for a ride. Ginger, the cat spent many hours in the pram. He sat without complaining while I dressed him in dolls dresses, bonnets and booties. I placed him in the pram and wheel him around until he went to sleep. Or sit on the swing which hung from the branch of the Jacaranda Tree to swing slowly while I rocked the pram. When he need to go I had to be quick to grab him before he ran away with

This is a good time to discuss flooding because the rain is falling once again. For many a year we have missed out of rain pelting down day after day. May people of today will not have experienced the whiles of a finicky weather system. I can remember days when the sun shone brightly and hot where I lived but we were flooded in with no exit. The only chance we usually had was to travel by rail motor to town where you replenished your food. Over the years I traveled through many a flooded water way. In those days cars didn't have all the electrical works under the bonnet.  Mum panicked each time we came to flooded areas because she knew dad would suss out the depth of the water, check for rock, logs, or washouts, before attempting to drive through. Now people charge into flood water not bothering to check out what they will be entering then expect rescue people to came to save them. My father carried a supply of oily rags, tarps and a box of tools. He removed the fan belt, c