2004-08-09 - 4:36 p.m.

So here we are at Day one, Semester One and I will be writing here every day ... at least that is the plan.

Today I want to write about spirituality in a way. (I know, scary, isn't it.)

But I have just been noticing recently how everything good I put out there comes back to me in spades.

Fot those of you who didn't follow my previous journal (Mangoes) I have spent the past 15 years as a journalist working in Sydney.

Then things overwhelmed me. I could hardly put one foot in front of another.

My partner and I decided we needed a sea change so we moved to North Queensland.

It has been the best thing I have ever done in my life.

I found myself unemployable as I was so highly qualified in journalism so I turned to university to retrain and there I discovered education.

And I love it.

Strangely there have always been indicators (cosmic or religious) that should have guided me to education. I completed work experience in education as there was nothing available at the local newspaper.

Then I won a scholarship in journalism.

Now here is where it gets wierd. I found out last weekend that my Aunty Ev was offered a scholarship by the same company fifty years earlier. Sadly, her parents wouldn't allow her to take it up as the "big city" where I now live was not considered a suitable place for a young, unmarried lady.

So I ended up in Sydney, working hard at Australia's biggest-selling newspaper until September 11.

I didn't see it then but I am sure I can see it now.

Those images following me around the newsroom 24-7, making decisions about whether to run pictures of people throwing themselves off buildings ... I can't really go on.

And then there was the Iraq war and the implications of 12-hour night-time shifts. My son was growing up before my eyes and I barely saw him.

The sea change has saved me and led me to the joy that is education.

Today I sat in my English lecture theature and rejoiced about finding my own voice.

I sang my heart out with a lecture theatre of about 100 "In the jungle, the mighty jungle, the lion sleeps tonight."

I rejoiced in finding my love of music, my voice, language and literacy all at the one time and the fierce belief that through this course, I can learn how to make others as passionate about language and communication as I am.

Sorry, that was a bit intense.

Maybe some of my trademark humour tomorrow.

Love T

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