Miscellaneous shades of grief
Growing up, my dad’s cousin, his wife and their daughter were the only family we had in Canberra.…
Changing my narrative
Me and punctuality When my boss said to me, “You are not a late person. Let’s change the…
Nomad no more
Australians boast the inglorious irony of being the best off people in this pandemic and yet we’re potentially…
How to edit your life
It’s one thing to love writing; it’s quite another to love editing. Editing is a passion I only…
On recovering Anglicans, vegetarians and nomads
I like to say my boyfriend is a recovering Anglican. He's actually not even Anglican, he just happens to go to an Anglican church and I just happen to enjoy having a go at Sydney Anglicans. What I really mean when I say he's recovering is that he is no longer doctrinal about his faith and how he practises it - in fact, he's ardently against legalism.
Similarly ...
Making fashion ethical, and ethics fashionable
The 2017 Ethical Fashion Report is out today. I had the great privilege and pleasure of being part of Baptist World Aid's research team.
Read the report ... and read some of my reflections, about what I've learned and why ethics in fashion matters.
The cynical optimist
I’ve always been a cynic. From the time I was in primary school hearing about French nuclear testing in the Pacific, Aung San Suu Kyi being put under house arrest and the Monica Lewinsky scandal, I didn’t have much faith in people.
Strangely enough, this dark view of the world eventually led me to Jesus, my hope. So now I am this walking paradox, being both a cynic and an optimist.
Two weeks ago, I blogged about democracy and the need for greater participation. On Monday, a bunch of us put that into practice by meeting with over a hundred senators and members of parliament in one day.
How to grow ambition
I grew up with a lot of positive reinforcement and believing in Jesus has both shrunk and supersized that.
On the one hand, ambition can be a bad word because it implies arrogance. I have become less self-effacing, more confident, over the years, but I doubt anyone I know would describe me as ambitious.
There is still this idea that ambition is a cut-throat attitude, seeking to elevate yourself regardless of the cost to others.
Um ... not me.
But y'know what, I am ambitious.
And I'm going to start owning that.
How South America messed me up good
People always ask me about my time in South America. Some are genuinely interested, while for others it's the polite and logical thing to ask. In either case, the truth is that these conversations have started to get a bit repetitive and I'm often left wishing I could say more than: that Latinos are warmer; that Andean dishes contain too many carbs; that working with survivors of child sexual abuse was hard as you'd imagine but so rewarding; that I'm not sure how to answer your question about how good my Spanish is.
The worst thing is that I can't seem to do Bolivia and Ecuador justice - not in a brief conversation that could turn to a different topic at any given moment.
So below are a few noteworthy things I don't generally get to share about the impact that my time in South America has had on me as a person and who I am now.
Reconfiguring Home: Weddings and Earthquakes
October 3 She is lovely. Creamy vintage lace, delicate buttons all down her back, descending into a sweeping fishtail. I…