BEING KAREN

A memory from Melbourne lockdown surfaced this morning ... I might be Australian, but I am a Melbourne girl. This is my city, she shaped me and we have grown up together. My personal compass has pointed me far from home often. My cardinal points are here, they do not change. Melbourne sleeps now, her thousand eyes are closed. Soon, soon, not soon enough, the shops and galleries, arcades and bookshops, cafes, theatres and market stalls will come back to life. And so will our

It was a busy night. Saturday night. There were countless young men who had broken themselves in so many different ways (oh, being a mother never stops being hard.) There were old women who were alone sick, no-one there to hold their hand, it will be okay. And Dad. Dad who was having a moment, and it was making us a have a moment, and it was causing the nurses and interns to have a more than a moment. But they just couldn’t get it to work, they could not do what needed to be

Reproductive rights, in the US and everywhere else really. A few short things and then a longer one. Firstly. Good men , you are there, we see you, we know you, I raised two. This is not an attack on men. Stop referencing The Handmaids Tale, in that story WOMEN let down other WOMEN. And it’s not a great book anyway. Would-be allies please stop using that song ‘if we go down, we all go down together.’ No one is going down, we are rising. Without body autonomy, any person of an

This photo popped up in my Facebook memories today, it's a lovely moment to be reminded of. It’s not me, but it is my chuba. I was in Mahlo which is up in the grasslands in Amdo, Tibet. The rest of my group had gone off on a small trip but I had stayed behind to take the Lum or bath therapy. You have two very hot baths with prescribed herbs every day for a week. Normally you stay at the facility to keep the warmth in your body. But as I was there alone I didn’t have help to

So while we are all being distracted by the Depp/Heard trial, and Kim K wearing Marilyn Monroes dress to the Met hoohaa, a terrible erosion is expedited with the news of the overturning of Roe V. Wade. But it's in the US you say. Doesn't matter. Do you really believe this issue is gone from our politics here in Australia? Roe v. Wade (1973) was a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the Court ruled that the Constitution of the United States protects a pregnant

Life is strange, and not all surprises are good ones. I am thinking about this day a year ago, which turned out to be not a good surprise. And then my thinking took me down a path of why we measure pain and recovering from said pain in time? (Or indeed any experience.) Why this need to say how long it takes? How many creatures lived out their full life span in the last year. How many didn't, having 2 months instead of their allotted 3? How many people have endured days that f

If people are having troubles or sharing their problems with you and you make it all about you, you are lost in your own narrative. If you think your human rights are more important than anyone else’s human rights, you are lost in your own narrative. If you insist that your ideas are the only ones, the right ones, you are lost in your own narrative. If you complain every day and yet you and your family have access to a safe home, clean water and fresh food, you are lost in yo

"A religious perception of reality replaced a spiritual perception of reality. Because through a spiritual perception of reality, we are all connected and through a religious perception of reality, you are flawed for even being born. In order to justify staying here, you need to adhere to the male dominated chain of command. You see, I can't envision the Creator in a human form and I think that our problems began when we started to do that. When we decided to envision the Cre

"What is the way to the abode of light? And where does darkness reside?" Job 38:19 Job had real questions, he called out to his God with frustration, despair and anger. When we are tested those are the right emotions. And probably a few million more. That is the test, move through and you will, you will, find your way to the abode of light. We all will. We are made of light, we just forget to shine. Photo taken at the birthplace of Yuthok Yonten Gonpo the Elder, father of Tib

Melbourne enters day 200 of lockdown days since march 2020. A sober thought, two thirds of a year spent at home. Like everyone else I miss travel, even the idea of travel, so have been spending time with photographs and journals from past journeys. The Jowo Buddha is the most important statue in Tibet. It is believed to have been personally blessed by the Buddha. It came to be owned by the king of Magadha , who gave it to a Tang emperor of China. One of the emperor's clansma

This is me drinking poop coffee, or more politely, coffee made from beans that have passed through the digestive tract of the Asian palm civet (Paradoxurus hermaphroditus). In Indonesian, Kopi luwak, it is also called civet coffee. Poop coffee. Yes I am drinking it and smiling, but that is the least remarkable thing about this picture. I had never been to Bali, which is practically un- Australian. It was on my radar as a beautiful place that I had no intention of visiting be

In Beowulf, Grendels mother presents us with the problem of the aglæc-wif. She is swift in retribution for her sons death. She is named monster, a monstrous hell-bride, monster-woman, monstrous hag; a half human half supernatural warrior. She is a mother, a woman of power and although a water dweller, a thing of fire and fortitude. She is a mother. And through that gains access to powers that define her legacy because they impacted poorly on the men in the story. Defender of

"... close your eyes and tap your heels together three times. And think to yourself, there's no place like ..." Seriously anywhere. I feel like making a small shrine to my passport :) Time travel in the form of flashbacks to happy days in other countries will have to do for now! Delhi, 2018, paying respect to Gandhiji. The Gandhi memorial park (and place of his cremation) is a surreally peaceful oasis in the heart of this wonderfully crazy city. I love Delhi, (would not want

If you were born here, or came to live here, it's not a huge stretch to say you live in one of the best places to live on this planet of ours. Unless you were born here in the group of people who have lived here for 35,000 years or so. Give or take. What is wrong with us that we need to celebrate the wrong day. Come on, every bloody day is Australia day here, change the damn date! I wrote this 20 years ago, was a bit cross, still am. AUSTRALIA DAY 2001 I feel a little sick in

Last year I turned 60. That was expected. However 2020 was not the year any of us were expecting. Here in Australia we started the year in the grip of truly catastrophic bushfires. Our country was burning beneath our feet. Our Prime Minister was in Hawaii on holiday. It was a grotesque Circus, the worst nightmare. I painted water and prayed for rain. My palette was white, silver, grey, all the blues I had on hand. It rained the next day and I could not stop laughing. We thoug