I'm not sure the source of this list(*) - it's saved into my phone - and since I found it I've been working on focusing on the different types of rest:
The above photo was taken on the day of a family destination wedding. Everyone else was staying near the venue, we needed to get home for Jade, our dog, who was home alone. We left a tiny bit earlier than we needed to, pulled over at a beach we used to visit as twenty-somethings, changed in the car/carpark (as we did as twenty-somethings) and spent 30 mins on the beach. * @Ninetypesco may be the original source of the list - I have clearly got it from somewhere else as the version I have is slightly different. There is a second list of nine types for rest which I discovered when I tried to find the source. More on that later...
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As the weather warms up and the days get warmer, I thought I would share five things I love about Spring:
1. Nature coming to life after the depths of Winter, like my good friend here, the hibiscus. 2. Longer days - its still light when I leave work and I can't tell you how exciting that feels. Running group is not just a string of lights spread along the path. There is birdcall as I wake... 3. Getting outside - sunshine, walking, doggie walking, running, gardening. Most exciting: swimming. Had my first lap swim in ages the other day and it was great. 4. The joy of new life at the farm - last count we had two of this years calves, with more expected every week. 5. Salads! Don't get me wrong, I love a cooked vegetable, but I love the return of salad to our weeknight rotation. Every September, I hit the library up and see what's new in salad recipes. This year the wet weather drowned all of my herbs, so spring will also bring some new herbs to the garden, ready for salad season. What are you looking forward to as we dive into Spring? 2021 - the gift that just keeps giving. And taking away from my writing. Five days after my last post - Misty - our 12+ year old doggie with a liver tumour and a difficult to treat ear infection died suddenly. We've been working through her bucket list since her July appointment, preparing for her full cancer recheck in December. We knew her time was limited, we just didn't realise how soon we would lose her. It was a week before our beach holiday (the pet friendly rental) and it took a while to get over the shock. The photo below was a bucket list day trip, keeping the problem ear dry, but letting her get her paws wet. Heaps of fun. (She did end up coming on holiday with us, after Pets in Peace returned her ashes and plaque, paw print and lock of hair - it didn't feel right leaving her home) Writing wise - I'm working on a contemporary romance and a bit of a left field fictionalised non-fiction book (cryptic, I know). I'm not as far along as I would have liked on either project, but for the first time since I started my writing journey, I took time away from writing, the computer and went on leave. The combination of the day job (in a hospital in COVID times) and losing Misty meant I wasn't in a place to write. And I don't think you can underestimate the disruption of a "working-from-home" hubby to creativity. It's hard to get deep into the romance when there's a Zoom meeting happening behind you. (Does confirm though that workplaces are the same everywhere) Sadly, I've also just cancelled this year's attendance at the Romance Writers of Australia conference, which was rescheduled to December. We have hard border closures, and while I can get to conference, my friends/roomies can't. The borders will reopen just after conference, but looking at the modelling, it won't happen before. So now, I'm looking forward to 2022 in Perth. I'll leave you with a photo of this morning's sunrise. 4.36am and I was just about to leave home to run with my running group. The remnants of yesterday's storms were out over the bay and the colour was way more vivid than the photo shows. Summer is nearly here...
2020 has been a mix of highs and lows this far, and as I do every winter solstice, I like to have a think about where I've been, and where I'm going.
As I write this, my washing is hanging on a washing line that won't see sun again until late August, and the wind is howling around the back end of the house. Tomorrow, when we're doing our virtual Gold Coast Half Marathon, they're saying it will be one of the coldest mornings of the year. So maybe not a singlet... COVID-19 has made 2020 seem awfully long. I'm relatively unaffected - I still go to an office to work (still have a job), still go to the farm (with my cross border exemption paperwork) and to the shops once a week. Running training restarted two weeks ago, the gym reopens this week. I've discovered some new takeaway options, and I've stayed well. I've stayed home. But we've lost a few during this time - a brother in law, a cousin, a friend's doggie bestest friend, and a stranger whose path crossed mine on his final day on earth. When I think about that, and how difficult funerals and grieving are when you are social distancing, I realise how lucky I am to live in Australia. The death toll in other parts of the world is staggering, and I'm not sure how the families affected are coping. I know my twitter feed is full of mentions of loss at the moment. It makes writing, or promoting a book, difficult. My long awaited theatre trilogy is coming in late July/early August, and I am so excited to see it hit the shelves. I hope it brings some joy to readers, in a world that seems remarkably devoid of joy at the moment. This year, instead of making a huge amount of goals, I chose a word for the year.
Committed So be it writing, or editing, or running, or farming, wherever I am I need to be committed. This year is shaping up to be just as insane as last year when it comes to commitments. I've already booked in one overseas trip, two writing related interstate trips, three big runs (two of which require travel), local writing group meetings and a host of other non-negotiable commitments. People often say "I don't know how you do it all." Some days, I wonder too. I think the secret comes down to planning. Running - I'm not the natural runner - long, lean and lithe. I'm a bit more like a baby elephant chubbing along. Some days, I don't want to. But 6 days a week, there's a non-negotiable 4am start - either for a gym visit or for running training. It's all done by 6am and I never have that "Gee I can't fit this in" feeling at 10pm at night. More than likely at 10pm, I'm making lunches and laying out my gym gear so that 4am doesn't feel quite as yuk. So, this year for my writing I'm committed to at least one new 50k manuscript, finishing off my two pre-publication commitments, working towards self-publishing on a group project, and trying something new involving a rapid submission window. Wish me luck. Happy New Year I'm deep in the planning stages for 202 so I thought I'd share my process. My day job is lucky enough to have an arts program attached to the organisation - so we can be involved in choir, a writing program, musical instruments available anytime, as well as creative arts for children - the focus of our business. When the writing program was announced I jumped on board. It seemed simple enough - anyone who wanted to write could join, and we would meet after work for 2 hours once a month to talk writing and support each other electronically (and in person) in between. There was homework and sessions were moderated by a well-known Brisbane author. I was in. Four months later, I was out. Free, accessible, supportive, high-level mentoring - was I nuts? No, it wasn't the right group for me at that time because I was at a different stage of my career to the other writers in the room as the only published author other than the moderator. The biggest difference: They had writing goals (some had never written before) while I had an annual work plan, with deadlines, mini-goals and I was time pressured as a result Before I made the decision, I sat down and looked at everything I do outside of day job working/travel and accounted for where I spent my time. And the decision came down to could I justify another two hours to talk writing, or would I be better off spending the time writing? I chose writing and I also made some of the other non-negotiable things in my life a bit more efficient. Did it work? 2019 was my most productive year for a long time. Most of those projects will come to fruition in 2020. So what's the difference between a work plan and a goal? A goal is what you want to achieve. A work plan is the extra detail that tells you how it is going to be achieved. It's breaking it down into manageable chunks, it's identifying those barriers to writing, and scheduling writing around them. It's scheduling those barriers as well, so they don't impact writing time. It's showing up for a writing shift the same as you would a day job shift. To make sure it's all written down in one central place I use a Personalised Planner that has everything: house, writing, running and social in one place. This helps me identify "pressure points" and then I schedule the writing around them. I use my phone's calendar for the day to day. This method won't work for everyone, but it does help me to get more organised. And more organised = more words. That's a win. In 2018, I had a few major life changes, most of which affected my writing in some way or another. Here's 2018 in a nutshell (or why I neglected my blog...)
So while I wasn't blogging, I was writing, running and trying to juggle my commitments to fit it all in. It took a year, but now the new routine is routine. Run Date: 8/1/17 Suburb: Ascot When I was three, my parents had a snack bar in the little grey shop in the photos, which was right on a rail crossing. I spent hours counting carriages and watching for trains. I hadn't been through this way for a good twenty years. I remembered the shops and the rail line quite clearly, I forgot the hills (until I started running them), and three year old me didn't know it was right near the racecourse.
Mum did burgers and milkshakes and lollies, in the era before fries/chips and McDonalds. Their was a pool table and my sister was quite the wizard at pool, having practiced from a young age. To the left of the shop is a hedge - that used to be a chain link fence and during a fast paced game of tiggy I slipped on the wet grass and tore open my face. What most people think is a frown line is actually a scar. Looking at the building today, I can't believe a family of four lived in the back of that shop for a really long time. It does explain why when we moved to a semi-rural block with a standard house I couldn't believe how huge it was. Ascot (and Hendra) I enjoyed the visit. Must do it again some day. So, here it is, one of my new year's resolutions - the A-Z run of Brisbane. The goal:
To run for an hour in at least 26 different locations (one for each letter of the alphabet) across Brisbane and surrounds over the course of 2107, with destinations chosen by the first letter of their suburb name. The aim: To explore my city, to rediscover my history/heritage (My Brisbane), to experience different areas and to get out of the gym, where I do most of my running at 5am in the morning. The reward: I feel excited about this challenge, and that is the reward. Anything that keeps me awake at night, trying to remember suburb names to fit into my draft plan of where I'm going to run must be the right kind of challenge for me. Wish me luck - I'll check each run in here and if you follow me on Twitter I'm using the hashtag #Atozrunbrisbane 2017. No doubt I'll be posting photos as I journey around. Merry Christmas all. Hope you had a great holiday season! As I do every year, once the hustle and bustle of Christmas is over and done with, my thoughts turn to New Year's Resolutions. Here's what I'm thinking about as options for 2017: 1, Alphabet Run/walk: Starting with A and progressing all the way through the alphabet, take some time to explore your city on foot by walking or running 5km in a suburb starting with this week's letter of the alphabet. You get two weeks for each letter. See, there's a reason we have a suburb called Zillmere, Yeronga, Gordon Park and Eagle Junction. I am however stuck on "Q" and "U". I don't think Quilpie or Urandangie (country towns) will cut the mustard. Trips planned in Sydney and Melbourne next year, so maybe that might help me out for the tricky ones. 2. Run Down Under A virtual run around Australia - all 14080km of it. This morning I logged 6km. If I keep up this pace every single day, I will complete my journey in 2346 days, or 6.4years. Alternatively, I could do 38.6km every day and finish in 2017. Actually, 14080 is more than my car does in a year. so I doubt my legs could make it (Maybe I need to rethink.) Details here, if anyone else is interested : www.rundownunder.com.au 3. 17 in 2017 17 what, I hear you ask? Well, this is the question. 17 books, 17 movies, 17 writing marathons, 17 actual marathons - the list is infinite and that's what's so good about this challenge. You can individualise it to what you like to do. 17 pieces of cheesecake? No worries - so long as its what you've put on your list at the start. Alternatively, put 17 fun things into a jar and pick one out, then do it, with the aim of emptying the jar by the end of the year. Those are my top 3 at the moment. What about you? What are you planning for your resolutions? |
Fiona Greene AuthorWhen you set out on a journey and night falls, that's when you will discover the stars." Archives
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