Reflections
“The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I can change.”
— Carl Rogers
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The Ferry Crossing
As I become more comfortable with sharing my voice with the world via my writing, and as I read the political commentary around gangs, I thought it might be time to share something different. This is a small extract of creative writing from an unpublished manuscript I wrote last year. This piece is based on…
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Poverty & Morality
Photo https://elections.nz/ It is getting closer to our general election, which means political parties are releasing their election promises and policies, seeking to grab the attention of voters with offers that will personally benefit them or punish those they do not identify with. Dividing the country into the worthy and unworthy. An interesting time for…
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The impact we make on the work, and the impact the work makes on us.
I have a favourite ‘teacher’ from my counselling training days. I say teacher as I feel he would have felt uncomfortable with the term ‘lecturer’. He talked a lot about dismantling uneven power dynamics. He taught two of my favourite papers, Narrative Therapy and Existentialism. He was also supposed to teach the supervision course I…
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Less ‘side hustle’, more…
Now that I’m running my own business alongside my other job, it was only a matter of time before I was asked if it was my ‘side hustle’. And I wasn’t surprised that I rejected the term and went looking for an alternative. It isn’t an aversion to the concept in totality; it just doesn’t…
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Closing the door
I’m going through an interesting season of my life where some things that were previously very important to me are becoming less important to me, and I have embarked on some new challenges that I had previously been afraid to explore. It has got me thinking about doors, both in a physical and metaphorical sense.…
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Side Quest
I have spent my life learning a very annoying truth: there is so much in life we have no control over. I’m not saying this to absolve myself of responsibility, because the one place where we have the most ability to exercise control is over our own actions. I’m pondering this because I recently made…
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And Naturally, I Thought: Podcast
This week, my brain did the thing it likes to do, jump from random thought to random thought, and landed on an idea for a new project. I have lots of project ideas; occasionally, some stick, but many of them remain in folders on the computer or in bags of craft supplies. I’m hoping this…
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How did that make you feel?
As I have been writing reflections and curating content for my website, I have naturally been thinking about, “How would this land for someone like me?” Someone weary of buzzwords, sales pitches, flashy marketing, and the inauthentic use of inclusive language. Someone who thinks they are pretty good at noticing misalignment between words and action.…
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Welcome, Spring
It is the first week of September, which here in Aotearoa means we have officially moved out of winter and into Spring. I woke up this morning with a curious thought: why doesn’t Spring rate highly in my favourite seasons? Especially as I do love magnolias, cherry blossoms and daffodils (in that order). Currently, my…
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Noticing Joy
Recently, almost unknowingly, I assigned myself a homework exercise: to look for and notice when I feel joy. I say ‘almost unknowingly’ because this wasn’t really planned. It wasn’t an instruction I read in a self-help book; it isn’t a 30-day challenge. It has just kind of evolved as I started being kinder to myself…
