Life, Love and the Everyday

LIFE Remember the good ol' days when your parents or a responsible adult decided when you would get treat? Treats were anticipated, rare and wonderful fleeting seconds of pure joy followed by the bittersweet longing for more. You probably had those angry outbursts when you didn't get more, shouting at the top of your lungs.  "When I grow up I'm going to spend all my money on chocolate!" That kid was me! Now treats are just apart of my daily agenda, except they have gotten bigger - my treat of choice is, and always will be chocolate! Don't get me wrong, I still enjoy my chocolate - but the problem is, I eat it when I'm happy, when I'm sad, when I get a craving (the latter is everyday) or when I just feel like rewarding myself (which is also a very regular occurrence). $3.50 may not look like much when it is sitting in your bank account, but when you realize you have spent $20.00 on chocolate in a fortnight; that's when you have to say. ...

Being a writer is awesome. I can write what I can't say.  It is truly a gift to be able to write about things which can shift somebody's perspective, maybe one day save a life. Seeing something in your imagination and writing the story as it unfolds, what I love about being a writer is you know what happens before anyone else does.  Writers are not limited by reality, in our books we set the stage, the costumes and direct the characters from where we sit on the other side of the computer screen.  The only thing that writer's cannot do is stop. And if they do, it had better be urgent and with good reason. But sometimes it's hard to know who is in charge, the characters or the writer themselves. Although I had set out to write a ghost story, I was thinking more along the lines of Meat Loaf and Marion Raven's 'All Coming Back To Me Now' video-clip. I went kinda Kripke and things went a little too dark. For the past three weeks in the spare moments of my l...

A rainbow has appeared on the horizon, in that rainbow are people who have fought long and hard for acceptance by society and have encountered resistance, condemnation and knock-backs. On Friday the LGBT community around the world rejoiced as they celebrated with loved ones a new chapter in history and same-sex couples are now legal in America. I saw the rainbow on Facebook, it has united not only those who have longed to be able to participate in a legally binding ceremony where they are able to say 'I do' to that one person they want to spend the rest of their lives with, but also people who have stood for this motion to pass from all different walks of life. The hash-tag of the moment is #lovewins. Love is a human emotion, given to us by God and so is the gift of life itself. I was speaking to a friend of mine on Monday morning, I hadn't seen her in four years. Lyndsey is one of the most beautiful people you can ever meet, she is kind and compassionate and is one of...

 LIFE In life there are many roads. For instance, there is a steep hill where you have to put your car in second and feel it choke and sputter in effort yet still persisting. Then there is the good ol' roundabout where you steer around the island, miss your turn-off and have to go around again. There are roads we will go any lengths to avoid driving through. All of the roads that we have travelled on are the by-product of our choices or those of others, and getting back on the high-way is the goal, or even high-tailing it to somewhere we can be ourselves by ourselves as we contemplate our intended destination and how we went about getting there. Were we going the speed limit or were we in too much of a hurry? Did we travel alone or with friends? Did we make enough decisions by ourselves and still ask others for advice? And was it good advice? What is different this time as you set out on this journey? How are you going to navigate maps and gage traffic? Are yo...

LIFE Ever feel like you have been in the same place, just different circumstances? This is life's way of giving us a pop-quiz except the questions are the same and we can never give the same answers - it is not about predictability but ingenuity and that comes from knowing who we are in that exact moment. I have had a revelation this week, that it is time for me to re-define myself, who I am and what I believe. WHO AM I? I am Sarah, a daughter of God. I am STRONG, LOYAL, CREATIVE, STUBBORN, DRAMATIC, CONTEMPLATIVE, LOVING, KIND, PASSIONATELY ENRAGED - AKA: CRAZY (and damn proud of it too!) WHAT I BELIEVE: It is not a question of what  I am but who - I can be a Christian but that doesn't mean squat if I don't embrace people as they come whether they are rich or poor, gay or straight, clever or clueless. Be humble, but stand tall. You are not your past, you are not any label that people have put on you whether those labels are good or bad. You are a person...

LIFE As much as I love being back home with familiar sights and loved ones, I still think about my Fiji adventure - the people I met and the places I went. I have lost track of the times when I think about how amazing white bread and butter from the Hot Bread Kitchen would go perfectly with my Uncle Eris's chicken soup and sigh in longing. Anyone who has been to Fiji will understand my plight when it comes to the bread and butter. And the chicken pies from Hot Bread Kitchen, don't even get me started!  Yes Fiji, I am coming back to you and your buttery delights! On Saturday night as I was unlocking the front door after a night out, I began telling A. how the stars in Fiji seem closer than the stars here but I picked a bad time, the poor guy was in a desperate hurry to use the toilet! In my mind I still see it all, the crazy chaos of Suva and the 90's style buses, the distinct smell of rotting fruits and vegetables at the markets and mile after mi...

LIFE Today I woke up in my own bed after two and a half weeks in another country. Fiji was just...incredible - I learnt and grew so much during those two weeks. People don't travel to see another country, they travel to see other worlds - like Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy in C.S Lewis's 'The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe'. Although there was no wicked ice queen on the other side of my wardrobe, I saw poverty and homelessness amid a culture of giving and happiness. Even now I am trying to process completely what I saw, all I can put it down to is in Fiji, there are two worlds living side by side - the wealthy and poor. The mission God has put on Ally's heart in Fiji is a very important piece of the puzzle to break the cycle of poverty. Some struggling families in Fiji have to make hard, life-altering decisions because they are desperate for a roof over their heads and food for themselves and their families.They turn to thievery, prostitution and a...