list one thing every day that was positive

My brother is coming to visit us all the way from Scotland in three days, for almost a month!

We’re going to re-organize the spare room this weekend and move the computer etc. to create some space for him.

So many adventures planned, but I probably won’t be able to access the computer much during his visit. I may not have time!

My brother and I had a turbulent relationship growing up, especially after our father died. We always seemed to be fighting back then; it was a stressful and altogether bewildering time, but as the years have gone by we’ve become much better friends and now realize that we’re very alike in so many ways.

I’m looking forward to his stay here as a time of laughter, adventure, and as an opportunity to heal anything hurtful which may still be lingering from the past.

It’s time to celebrate the good.

With sun in the morning, a few clouds and scattered showers in the afternoon – in the sky and in my life.

I did manage do my first ever proper cartwheel this morning in a moment of blissful abandonment.

Turns out I needed that moment to give me strength for what was to follow. (sardonic laugh)

It’ll all end well, I think. ???

Still trying to internalize a lot of what I learned today.

We live in strange times.

as we reminisced about places we’d been, people we’d met, and all of those strange little adventures, accidents of fate, or unforgettable experiences which somehow managed to accumulate themselves into our memories, and therefore our lives, probably forever.

Laughter is GOOD… and a great ab workout, too, must say. :o)

I took my darling old Cosmo out in the sun, and threw him some gnarled old sticks across the field.

Later, we lay under the huge old monkeypod tree and listened to the birds. It was better than any symphony in the entire world.

is being bullied daily at school by a girl who wants to drive a wedge between her and another girl.

This evening she received an email from this Mean Girl which would have devastated me as an 11-year old. “I HATE YOU AND I HAVE HATED YOU SINCE THE MOMENT YOU EVER ARRIVED HERE.”

How would I have responded at that tender age, to something so poisonous, so hateful? I’d have cried, there’s no doubt about it. I’d have lain in bed worrying about this girl’s wish to harm me and wouldn’t have wanted to go to school the next day.

What did my daughter do? She calmly emailed this girl back to say, “I always knew you were faking it and I will not put up with your manipulations any longer. I am STRONG!”

I was gobsmacked and very proud.

Before then I was so ready to confront this girl, her mother, the school authorities, whomever I had to face up to to protect my child.

Now, although I’m on standby should she ever need me to step in, I somehow think she won’t be in need of any intervention just yet.