Writing prompt: responding to bad news
I had some unwelcome news from my doctor yesterday. I’d been in for a routine check-up a few weeks ago and he ordered some extra tests. Yesterday I received the bad news that one condition I have has deteriorated markedly in recent months. I’ve had this condition for some 15 years and it has always been under control and quite manageable. It didn’t really impact my life at all, except for the requirement for daily medication.
It’s not really life threatening at this stage, provided I do all the right things and start seriously looking after myself. I thought that I was doing that, but it seems not. So how have I responded to this setback? I felt a little down at first, but, like all setbacks in life, one adapts, you think through what you can do to help the situation improve and then get on with living life. Take each day as it comes and live it to the full, acknowledging that you’ve been blessed with another day. Putting it in its right perspective also helps, because millions of others are far, far worse off.
One action that I know helps me to cope with setbacks like this is to write about it. So here I am doing just that. Usually I only write about private things like this in my journal, but I am sure many of my readers will identify with the therapeutic qualities of writing through a troubled time, serious situation or crisis that life throws in our faces from time to time.
I might also write a few poems or even a short story in response to this news, working out my emotions through the writing. One thing I won’t let it do is to freeze me into not writing at all. So I guess that there really is a silver lining after all.
Good writing – despite whatever life hurls at you.
Writing prompt: rainy days
I should take a photo of the rain pouring down outside, and the large puddle of water in our driveway. It is freezing out there, so I’ll just stay in my nice warm office and write about it instead. Take the easy option – quite a reasonable motto in this situation. Looking out of my window is not easy, what with all the raindrops pouring down the glass. So that eliminates taking a photo through the window too. Never mind.
Where I live in rural South Australia, rain is something to celebrate as we don’t often get downpours like we’ve had over the last 36 hours. Here in SA we often say that we are the driest state in the driest continent. It’s a claim which probably isn’t completely accurate, but we say it all the same. I don’t mind cold, wet winter’s days. It gives me a perfect excuse not to go out and weed the garden, or mow the grass, or chop the firewood, or fix that gutter, or… I think you get my point.
Instead, I like to stoke up the fire, make a good cup of tea and settle down with a good book. Or even an average book. Truth be told, I don’t get to do that as often as I’d like to these days. My writing takes up a good part of the day, my church involvement takes up some of every day, and now my lecturing position is further cutting into each day. Relaxing with a good book is becoming a luxury but it’s something I need to make sure I do. Taking time out to relax is important.
Writing prompt: what do you like to do on cold, rainy days?
Good writing – and reading.
Writing prompt: What is the cockatoo saying?
Sulphur-crested Cockatoo
I recently been looking through my library of photos trying to find suitable images to share on my birding site. I’d forgotten about the photo shown above. I took it some years ago when driving through suburban Adelaide in South Australia. A small flock of Sulphur-crested Cockatoos was investigating some hollows in a street tree. I stopped, whipped out the camera and they posed very obligingly for me, including the curious bird in the photo.
Writing prompt: What is the bird thinking? What might it say if it could talk? Many parrots, including this species, can be taught to say quite a few words. Imagine a conversation between you and the bird.
Good writing.
Writing prompt: being grateful
Slum housing in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
I took the above photo while in Addis Ababa last December. It is typical of so many ‘homes’ in the capital of Ethiopia. Literally around the corner are lovely homes which would not be out of place in my home town here in South Australia. The contrasts in many cities of the world are there for all to see; I find such inequalities distressing. I feel helpless in the face of such poverty.
We take so many things for granted in our comfortable homes and offices and schools. We take for granted a warm bed on a cold night (we are heading for a frost as I write this). We take for granted enough food in the pantry for many days. We take for granted hot running water when we turn the tap. We have so much; many have so little.
Writing prompt: write about being grateful, write about the things we normally take for granted, the thousand little blessings we overlook every day.
The birds of the air
New Holland Honeyeater in our garden
Followers of this site may also be aware that I also write regularly about birds on another site of mine – Trevor’s Birding. The site also includes many hundreds of photos of Australian birds taken in my garden and on my travels around Australia. More recently I have included photos and articles about birds seen on a recent holiday in Ethiopia. Over the coming months I will also feature birds seen in both Morocco and Spain. What I experienced with my family on that holiday is also featured on another of my sites, Trevor’s Travels.
The birds in our garden in rural South Australia are a constant delight to us and visitors to our home. There is a constant stream of birds going from tree to tree, flying overhead or feeding on flowering bushes. I frequently photograph them and also write articles about them. From time to time they also inspire me to write poems or even short stories featuring the birds I see.
Writing prompt: take out time to watch the birds in your garden, or a nearby park, beach or river bank. Write a poem about one of the birds you see. If you would like comments about your poem, post it in the comments section (maximum 40 lines).
New Holland Honeyeater in our garden