Monthly Musings — Clash of Sidelined To-Dos

Hello team

Greetings from SE Queensland, Australia, where we’ve had a schizophrenic start to spring: sweltering highs, chilly lows, blustery winds and glorious sunrises (Just like the one successfully distracting me now). Such a wonderfully serendipitous time of the year, especially since we’ve just had two weeks holiday.

One of the immense blessings of working for the Department of Education is the school holidays. However, one of the most challenging times as a Freelancer is school holidays.

I love having my family home, especially as the boys are growing older and approaching the end of their schooling. It’s a treasured time. These past two weeks I made the decisions to put all “desk work” away and to be available and present around the house (being an introverted, task oriented, hyper focused, scatterbrain this was not easy and very generous of me). It was a wonderful break, and even though it wasn’t very eventful, we achieved a lot around the property and managed to have a good rest and some quality time together.

Change is in the Air

But now I am looking down the barrel of heated traffic jam (i.e. my sidelined to-do list) and my pulse has taken off and is fanning my anxiety into a raging inferno. I am exceedingly grateful there is a small voice of reason prodding from the eddies encouraging me to breathe, calm down and attempt rational thought (which is very sensible of me). But it is working. Huzzah!

I have once again come back to the truth that God is THE Well of all creativity, and has, time and again, proven to be my sustainer and provider. So, this term, I am once again driven to find solace in His quiet place for inspiration, clarity and a, not too small, handful of miracles. The trick is learning to head to the source first, not as a last resort (which is a frustrating default for me).

Message of Hope

The verse from Psalm 46:10 has once again come home to roost:
“Will you jolly well sit down, shut up and let me be God? You are not God. I AM! So, stop it. If you just flopping-well let me get a word in edgeways, I will show you how to do things well. I will lead you in the right direction. I will help you. I am the Supreme God of the Universe… you are not.”

(That’s kind of a paraphrase. If you want to read the actual verse you can find it here.)

It was like a defibrillator to my anxiety-spiral administered by a wise and loving paramedic who was getting a tad fed up with the histrionics.

Thankfully, I am a work in progress and change is possible (especially when you’re at your wits end and someone is making it very clear where you’ve made a wrong turn).

How about you? Have you had ah haaa moments this month?

In other news.

I have been invited to run two poetry workshops for the Somerset Regional Council in October and November.
The manuscript for Fractured Intervention: Book 5 of the Armour of Light Series is currently with my wonderful editor and I hope to get it back some time this month.
The storm damage from April is finally repaired AND we also now have gates on our deck and hoods over our windows. This may not seem to be a big but it has transformed our little house.

Enough about me, how has your September crafted itself?