Hi!
Have you seen the Officeworks ads promising the best prices on back-to-school supplies?
They remind me of going to high school at the end of the summer holidays to collect a heaving brown paper bag of exercise books, rulers, pens, and textbooks.
Nothing made me happier than labelling everything and getting myself organised for another year of learning.
I would diligently clean my school bag, and pack my folders, books and my carefully selected pencil case stuffed with new Kilometrico pens, sharpened pencils and an eraser that hadn’t yet been used, and I was in heaven!
Such good memories.
Yes, I am a lifelong stationery nerd!!
🖊🖊🖊🖊🖊🖊🖊🖊🖊🖊
Tomorrow I go back to work, and though I won’t be packing Kilometricos, I have that same sense of a new chapter beginning.
I don’t have a school bag to pack, but I am organised.
There are trays of tomatoes, capsicum and garlic roasting, which will become a pasta sauce for tomorrow’s lunch.
My wardrobe has been culled and sorted and my shoe rack is summer sole stacked.
I’ve checked the weather forecast, so I have an idea of what I’ll wear.
It’s been 22 days since I drove to the office, but I think I remember the way there.
I’ve checked through my prep list and it all seems straightforward and comfortingly predictable.
The reality is though, none of us have a clue what lies ahead of us.
We ‘pack our school bags’ and hope for the best.
Today I heard about a family facing a massive, out-of-the-blue challenge. My heart aches for them. The uncertainty they’re facing is every family’s worst nightmare.
Every day, the rug gets violently pulled out from under people. It may be a relationship breakdown, a horrible car accident, job loss, a feared diagnosis, any number of things can bring you to your knees in an instant.
It happens to good people, to shifty people, people we know and love, people we dislike.
While some people are suffering, others are celebrating joyous milestones – marriages, new babies, recovery from addiction, book contracts, unexpected provision.
It happens to good people, to shifty people, people we know and love, people we dislike.
So how do we live in this kind of world?
How do we cope in a world that can wound us profoundly or lift us to incredible heights on any given day?
Honestly, there’s no snappy answer to that question.
All I can offer is a simplistic metaphor, which I readily acknowledge comes from my limited and privileged life experience.
We do what we can do – we keep going, and we prepare.
We pack our bags, we carry our textbooks and we fill our water bottles.
We learn and change.
We share what we have.
We offer shelter and support.
We rest. Regroup. Seek counsel.
When fortune smiles on us, we should accept it joyfully, knowing that the sun shines on the righteous and the unrighteous.
We celebrate, we share our good news, and we keep going.
When we get knocked down, we must let other people in. We find comfort as we entrust ourselves into the loving care of those who rally around us.
We need to put hands and feet to our love, knowing that those we are comforting now may well be the ones offering us a helping hand in days to come.
It’s not so simple to live as it is to write about it, not by a long shot.
We should still strive towards it, regardless.
I hope we do.
More importantly, I hope I do.
Look for the light.
Annette xx
I Give You The Verbs 
a beautiful post Annette, we never know what is around the corner for us. Life is so very precious and definitely not to be taken for granted. You are right about it being so much harder to do than to write about.
I hope that I can be for others when I’m needed, I know in the past I haven’t always been very good at it. I do know that over our life times we will have our turn on both sides.
sometimes being the giver and sometimes being the receiver.
Let there always be some light
cheers Kate
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I am totally in the same boat Kate, I definitely feel my shortcomings as I press publish in these words.
I need to believe there’s always light, even if we cannot see it momentarily, it’s there and someone can point us towards it.
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Everything in life is transitory. When times are fraught we have to have faith, to trust, that those days will one day become lighter, even if those awful times signify that life will never be the same. And when times are bright, we must hold them close being aware that their sunniness will one day dim. I think that is one thing age and experience teaches us – that life is not smooth nor predictable. And the people whose hands we hold through their bad times will be the ones beside us in our own. And awful as it may be to feel in depths of despair, there is the light that those bonds of friendship and support will forever provide.
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Couldn’t have put it any better Carolyn.
Those bonds forged in the hardest of times do become incredibly strong.
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Nettie you are light my darling friend. Your words shine on many a dark place. Your friendship illuminates my shadowy parts. I am so very grateful for you, for your words, your bright shining light that is YOU.
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Oh Sair! ❤️❤️❤️
Love you so much my friend.
You bring incredible light to my life too.
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Beautiful reflective post Annette! My heart aches for the family and for others I know that have a rough road to travel. May the light find them and give them strength during times when they may be too weary to look for it themselves. Hugs to you. Xx
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Sandra, hugs right back. There are people going through such unthinkably tough times, the more hugs offered and given, the better I say.
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Beautiful words and sentiments .. you are a gifted writer.Now it’s Monday as I write & you will have “been back” so I hope the re-start is gentle.
The news is awful as today we know K’s husband died from the awful, tragic accident.
Another friend from social media has had a devastating health forecast.
You faced your own. And here’s to you now.
None of us has any moment of certainty- just this one.
Sending love
Denyse
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So true Denyse, we only have today. ❤️
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So beautiful and so true! I needed to read this today. Thank you x
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Sammie, thank you – I’m always so thrilled to know when my words reach the right hearts. ❤️
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