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inspiration & influence

inspiration & influence reading notes

Reflections on reading Australian women writers

March 8, 2015


It’s International Women’s Day and I’m sitting here on a sunny Sydney Sunday listening to women’s music on the radio – flipping between Double J and Triple J – and thinking about reading Australian women writers.

It’s my fourth year of participating in the Australian Women Writers’ Challenge and I thought I’d take a few minutes on this IWD to reflect on my experience of reading Australian Women Writers via the challenge.

The challenge is about enjoying, supporting, sharing and promoting Australian women’s writing. If you want to know about the challenge, you can read more about it here: Background to the Challenge. And you can sign up for 2015 here: Sign up to the Challenge.

aww-badge-2015

Started by Elizabeth Lhuede in response to gender imbalance in books reviewed, in reading preferences and choices and in award representation, the challenge has created a groundswell of readers, reviewers, bloggers and tweeters making a conscious choice to read, review, communicate about and celebrate books written by Australian women.

Now in its fourth year, the challenge has resulted in thousands of Australian women writers’ books being read and reviewed and national and international recognition of its quiet achievements.

As the Australian Women Writers’ Challenge blog states:

The Australian Women Writers’ Challenge is part of a world-wide movement to raise awareness of excellent writing by women. It helps readers to challenge the subconscious stereotypes that govern our choice of books to read.

I’ve signed up again in 2015 because it’s now an integral part of my reading choices and I continue to be inspired and excited by Australian women’s writing. I’ve enjoyed diverse reads over 2012 to 2014. There are so many Australian women writers’ works I simply would not have noticed or enjoyed if not for the challenge.

The challenge has made me seek out new Australian women writers, revisit writers I’ve enjoyed and kept my antenna up about their successes, awards and commendations within the circle of women’s writing and beyond.

It’s kept my writing heart alive and is an inspiration as I read; a message that I am also able to write and create, express my stories and find space for my narratives in whatever form. As my heritage, it’s where I can find linkage, possibilities and a springboard for creating. I’ve written about that here and here adding my voice to the space.

In terms of participation, my reading lists are not enormous – around 6 to 7 books a year, but they are steady and growing. I’ve struggled to write the reviews as I would like, but I’ve engaged with the reading and with the AWW community via social media. I’ve contributed that way and made some great online connections with Australian women writers and their readers that have enriched my reading life and beyond.

You can participate to whatever level you can manage and the pleasures and learning are immense for that investment, raising awareness of reading choices and celebrating narratives and works by Australian women and inspiring women to find their voices through reading the voices of others.

It’s no light-weight endeavour. These are to me the voices of creative possibilities and I treasure them.

Here’s my reading list so far:

2012:
Searching for the Secret River: A Writing Memoir – Kate Grenville
Sarah Thornhill – Kate Grenville
When We Have Wings – Claire Corbett
The Light Between Oceans – M L Stedman
Poet’s Cottage – Josephine Pennicott
The Engagement – Chloe Hooper
Disquiet – Julia Leigh

2013:
Fishing for Tigers – Emily Maguire
Sea Hearts – Margo Lanagan
Sydney – Delia Falconer
The Secret Keeper – Kate Morton
The Scrivener’s Tale – Fiona McIntosh
The Longing – Candice Bruce

2014:
Questions of Travel – Michelle de Kretser
Burial Rites – Hannah Kent
Mateship with Birds – Carrie Tiffany
Currawong Manor – Josephine Pennicott
The Fictional Woman – Tara Moss
Claustrophobia – Tracy Ryan
All the Birds, Singing – Evie Wyld

Many of these books were picked up because I was looking for Australian women writers’ books in libraries, shops and online. I possibly would not have read ‘Light Between Oceans’, ‘Poet’s Cottage’, ‘The Longing’ or ‘Claustrophobia’ if not for the challenge and these have become some of my favourite reading experiences of the challenge so far.

I have deliberately read across genres and so if not for the challenge, may not have enjoyed the beautifully science fiction inspired, ‘When We Have Wings’, the Celtic fantasy world of ‘Sea Hearts’ or the weaving medieval narrative of ‘The Scrivener’s Tale’.

I’ve been more aware and more excited when Australian women writers have been nominated, short-listed and won awards for their books and I’ve sought out the books to see why they were celebrated in their achievements, especially ‘Questions of Travel’, ‘Burial Rites’, ‘Mateship with Birds’ and ‘All the Birds, Singing’.

In 2015, I’ve already read the exquisitely tender ‘The Golden Age’ by Joan London and have Annabel Crabb’s ‘The Wife Drought’ lined up to read. I’m keen to read Clare Wright’s ‘The Forgotten Rebels of Eureka’ and also read some writers I haven’t read like  Sonya Hartnett, Geraldine Brooks and Liane Moriarty.

It’s been a rich journey and I encourage you on this International Women’s Day to seek out the voices of women writers that excite and sustain you wherever they may be.

AWW2015

inspiration & influence transcending

Choiceless as a beach – a photo essay

November 9, 2014

The sea does not reward those who are too anxious, too greedy, or too impatient. To dig for treasures shows not only impatience and greed, but lack of faith. Patience, patience, patience, is what the sea teaches. Patience and faith. One should lie empty, open, choiceless as a beach – waiting for a gift from the sea.

Anne Morrow Lindbergh – Gift from the Sea

It’s been the usual busy, a constant onslaught of work and travel and the ongoing struggle to create. The occasional day off work in the working week comes. A day to myself. A day to wander, to have coffee, to read, to walk the streets of my village, to scramble on the rocks, to stand in rock-pools, to look out at the water, to wade into the gentle waves lapping, to sit under a tree in the shade reading and watching others walk by and the boats, with the flutter of the intense sun on the water, the horizon out- stretched.

And to take photos, to snap the images of all this, the piece that can capture the release and the beauty of the place and the day and its utter choicelessness. No decisions, no pressure, no impatience. Just observing, seeing, watching what the walk, the day, the sea brings in its waves of moments and tides.

 IMG_96601 rock beach

4 feet in the water

5 feet in water & shells

 

7 shell 1

8 shell 2

9 shell 3

10 waves on the shore

11 sea treasures

12 reading on the beach

13 water bird on the shore

14 view backwards

inspiration & influence poetry

Poetry in the heart of Tokyo

June 21, 2014

Meiji Jingu

When in Japan recently, I visited Meiji Jingu, a Shinto shrine near Shibuya, dedicated to the Emperor Meiji and Empress Shoken and established in 1920. Surrounded by a forest of thousands of trees threaded through with peaceful streams, the shrine area is a sacred sanctuary in the heart of Tokyo.

Poetry is also at the heart of Meiji Jingu. Both Emperor Meiji and Empress Shoken were poets, writing the traditional waka, Japanese poems of 31 syllables (5-7-5-7-5-7). The divine virtues of the Emperor and Empress are celebrated through their poetry.

Visitors can draw a poem from 20 specially selected poems, with English translation and explanation, from the “Omikuji” (poem drawing) box in front of the main shrine building. It is a special way of keeping the spirit of the Emperor and Empress alive in the shrine itself through their poetry.

OmikujiMy special poem:

‘Ever downwards water flows,

But mirrors lofty mountains;

How fitting that our heart also

Be humble, but reflect high aims.’

Empress Shoken –

 

Shinjuku Gyoen

More information about the shrine and the Waka poetry by Emperor Meiji and Empress Shoken can be found here: “About Meiji Jingu“.

inspiration & influence transcending

Reminders to shine

February 23, 2014

Waterford Crystal, IrelandThis week a number of reminders to shine.

Firstly a lovely, lovely post How to Shine Your Light, Even When You Don’t Feel Whole from @tinybuddha read on the morning train to work one day, the final words:

Perhaps there will be times that you feel less than whole, but when those moments come, encourage yourself to remember a time when you made the world a more positive place. Regardless of where you are on your path, that moment mattered.

And on that same train trip, I read an instagram post from @talepeddlerjo Australian author, Josephine Pennicott, with some beautiful words from ‘When I am among the trees’, by Mary Oliver:

Around me the trees stir in their leaves
and call out, “Stay awhile.”
The light flows from their branches.

And they call again, “It’s simple,” they say,
“and you too have come
into the world to do this, to go easy, to be filled
with light, and to shine.”

A reminder to be restful, grounded and to shine.

And finally, that same day, after a busy day, travelling the last leg by car through trees, the words from ‘Yellow’ that often come back to me and connect me to my brother:

Look at the stars, look how they shine for you and everything you do

So many reminders to shine, all in one day.

IMG_6391

inspiration & influence music & images

About the hummingbird

August 25, 2013

IMG_5546Symbols are a strange thing. It’s funny how some particular symbols seem to start appearing in your life. Perhaps they were all the time and you just start noticing them or perhaps they have just started gathering like birds flocking together. As Carl Jung says in ‘Man and his Symbols’: “As a plant produces its flower, so the psyche creates its symbols.” (p53)

In my case, the symbol appearing in my life recently and calling for my fervent attention is the hummingbird.

I first noticed it when I was shopping in London in April. It always interests me what draws you to particular clothes: the style, patterns and symbols that attract us at any point in time. I was drawn to a scarf with hummingbirds dotted all over it. I wore it like a talisman as I travelled around the UK, a piece of comfort I wrapped around me at a time of transience and changing environments.

Hummingbird scarfI went to the British Museum and of all the wondrous antiquities and images and amid millions of objects in the Enlightenment Room, I fall in love with a tiny stuffed hummingbird sitting proudly on a perch in a glass cabinet. My image of the bird somehow sums up a whole day and the entire trip. I know not why and wonder again at how we are drawn to one image, one object amid so many, that resonates and sings to our soul.

Suddenly hummingbirds are everywhere: they are a recurring symbol in the book I am reading, Tracy Chevalier’s ‘The Last Runaway’; they pop up as a key symbol front and centre in a visual in one of Susannah Conway’s lessons in the e-course I am doing, ‘Journal Your Life’; I am reading about the hummingbird, then go to twitter and up pops @HumbirdsSong; I go to a student graduation and one of the Aboriginal students I talk to has the personal totem of a hummingbird and a gorgeous hummingbird tattoo on her forearm; I notice there are hummingbirds on the box where I hold my scarves; I pick up a birthday card for a friend and the brand is Papyrus, with the symbol of, yes, the hummingbird.

 Hummingbird scarf boxSo what is all this about? What is the symbol saying to me? Why is it appearing and what is its message?

The card is the first clue and the first time I read anything of the symbolism or legend. It says brightly in a greeting card kind of way:

Legends say that hummingbirds float free of time, carrying our hopes for love, joy and celebration. The hummingbird’s delicate grace reminds us that life is rich, beauty is everywhere, every personal connection has meaning and that laughter is life’s sweetest creation

It’s a lead that I value and I look further and find the following about the hummingbird as a spirit animal, totem and personal symbol:

The hummingbird spirit animal symbolizes the enjoyment of life and lightness of being. Those who have the hummingbird as a totem are invited to enjoy the sweetness of life, lift up negativity wherever it creeps in and express love more fully in their daily endeavors. This fascinating bird is capable of the most amazing feats despite its small size, such as traveling great distances or being able to fly backwards. By affinity with the hummingbird, those who have this bird as totem may be encouraged to develop their adaptability and resiliency while keeping a playful and optimistic outlook.

I search further and read more about the hummingbird. It is so perfectly the symbol for me and especially my time right now. All the messages ring true:

Being present and enjoying life:

It is a reminder that life is meant to be savoured. It is about being more present and bringing playfulness and joy into your life.  It’s about exposing yourself to more joy and showing love. “The hummingbird’s wisdom carries an invitation to take part in and draw to you life’s sweetness, like you would drink the nectar of your own flower.” (from Hummingbird Spirit Animal)

Taking time to draw strength from within:

The hummingbird is a reminder that “the sweetest nectar is within”  (from Hummingbird Animal Totem). It’s a reminder to look at how we are gaining and expending our energy and whether there is any frittering away of energy on needless worry. It’s about the need to take time to recharge from within, knowing you have the resources to take you forward to meet any challenges.

Resilience and adaptability:

The hummingbird is “the bird of the impossible“. It can fly backwards; it can fly over 2000 miles; its wings make the symbol of infinity as it flies. It is a symbol of resilience, of tirelessness, of being adaptable to a situation that is a bit more demanding than usual. It symbolises that difficulties can be overcome and how this might occur:

The only bird able to fly backwards, the Hummingbird guides us back to our past, showing us that we must not dwell on it and that we need to move joyfully forward, showing us the power of discipline and will-power, the ability to do anything we wish in our lives. It  teaches us fierce independence. Recovering lost parts of ourselves enables us to become healthily independent.

These themes connect into a powerful message to carry with me. I wear a little hummingbird to keep me connected to this wise energy.

hummingbirdWhat symbols are coming into your life right now?

What are you noticing and what are the symbols saying to you?

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