pause – Page 2 – Jodie McCarthy

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Chapter Seven: On breathing, strength and vulnerability

December 11, 2017December 23, 2017by Jodie1 Comment

My mum has asthma so I know how important breath is. I know how important it is that her lung passages are open, so she can breathe in and out with ease. I know that the simple act of breathing that I take for granted has been something she has to use medication to support.

Brené Brown talks about the importance of breathing in this last chapter of Braving the Wilderness. Recounting a conversation she had with Dr Joan Halifax.

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Slow your Christmas: reflectively

December 10, 2017December 23, 2017by Jodie

Slow your Christmas: reflectivelt — Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

I dropped the girls at school, and sighed deeply. It had been a morning of tears, and grumpiness. I felt I had gone ten rounds of emotional battle before 9am, (and lost most of them).

I was weary and teary, but I rushed home and got things ready for the trip to Rockingham. I called my Mum as I drove, and then I called my best friend. Talking the whole trip down.

It wasn’t until I sat down at the table, and the timer was set for the ‘Shut up and write’, that I suddenly realised how worn out I was. Emotionally I have been holding my family together. But not even thinking about me.

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Slow your Christmas: deliberately

December 3, 2017December 23, 2017by Jodie

I was talking with a good friend the other day, and she mentioned that what she remembers most in friendships is the things that take time. The beautiful handwritten card from one friend, another friend sitting with her at the hospital while her son had tests, another baking homemade banana bread every time they caught up.

I drove away from her place pondering this idea, the idea that things that take time, things that are slower often are the things that are more meaningful.

But we are coming up to Christmas, and I don’t know if it’s just me but has the Christmas madness started earlier this year?

Are people already too frantic to exchange pleasantries at the checkout? Are they already too frazzled to drive carefully in the car park?

This year I am craving a slow Christmas: a Christmas of intention and connection; a Christmas of being, not consuming; a Christmas of reflection and not hustle.

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Present over Perfect book club: embrace your life

February 13, 2017February 14, 2017by Jodie11 Comments

For a number of years now I have been reflecting on my previous year and setting intentions for the year to come. In more recent years I have set aside a day to come and see my friend Amanda and go through those reflections in an intentional and structured way.

Why?

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Present over Perfect book club: an introduction

January 30, 2017January 30, 2017by Jodie7 Comments

I was in the middle of severe grief due to miscarriages, and I found this book called Bittersweet. I don’t recall what made me pick it up. Whether it was the picture of the crumbled chocolate on the front or the subtitle; ‘thoughts on change, grace and learning the hard way’.

Either way, it found its way home with me. As I read it, often with tears in my eyes, I was so grateful for this author Shauna Niequist. She managed to articulate her own pain in such a way that she gave me words to express mine.

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