A collection of ideas, books and concepts I find particularly inspiring – a lovely little corner of the internet to seek inspiration.
I don’t know anyone who isn’t busy… Do you? It’s odd, because I should know people who aren’t busy – I know people who are retired or who don’t work or who work flexi time specifically so that they won’t be busy. But they are.
It seems we’ve all collectively bought into a cult of busy that says that unless your days are full and somewhat frantic, you’re not contributing fully to society. I don’t know when exactly this became our collective truth, but I don’t think it has to be this way.
One of the things I like most about being a Mom is how it cuts through all the differences. No matter where you’re from or what you look like or what you do for a living, if you have a child who’s a similar age to mine, we have a lot in common. It’s the same with diabetes: if I see someone testing their blood sugar or pulling out an insulin pen, I immediately know a whole lot about their lives.
That’s why this beautiful TV ad appeals to me so much.
Hear me out. I have not lost my marbles, at least not yet, but I am finding that Google Maps is an effective mindfulness tool. While driving. Often in traffic. Here’s how…
I read an article last week on Medium about the Pomodoro Technique. It was an okay-ish article, but I loved the technique it explained, because I think it could actually help me become significantly more productive. Of course, on searching for Pomodoro on Medium, I see there are about 100 articles about it. So let me distill it for you…
One of my favourite outings is to take the kids to the local library. It only takes about half an hour, but I love everything about it: the way the library smells, the possibility of all those books on all those shelves, the lovely library man who lets my son stamp his books and the fact that when we get home with our seven new books, he’s entertained for ages. But the other day, during my daily 20 minutes to myself (literally: I have 20 minutes to myself each day, and the hour between 8 and 9pm with Mark) I took myself on a special treat and went to the library by myself. Solo! No toddler! No baby in the carrier! Just me and allll those books.
It feels like a few lifetimes since I last had a blog. But I remember – vividly – how much I loved it… I had just moved to Cape Town (10 years ago this year!) and was sharing a flat in the wrong part of the City Bowl, working my first job as features writer at Real Simple, motoring around town on a scooter I didn’t really know how to drive. My novel, Strange Nervous Laughter, was about to be published and life felt suffused with possibility and magic. I remember scooting into the autumn evenings exploring the city, being amazed how many bakeries there were in Cape Town and feeling so very lucky that I got to write for a living… And that anyone cared enough to read it.
