On Grieving

Grief is an unassailable emotion. A state of humanness unique to each one of us, and different each time we experience the symptoms of grief. Susan Wyndham (My Mother, My Father) and Kristina Olsson (Boy, Lost) talked with Hilary Harper  during the session,"On Grieving".
This session was a sensitive insight into the human experience of grief and how writing can facilitate expressing the sometimes inexpressible feelings, thoughts, spiritual and emotional responses to  grief. Contemporary society has limited ritual contexts for people to express and come to terms with shock and  grief.  The herb garden of  writing and drawing expands regenerative opportunities with which to dignify these profound human experiences.

A Climate For Change

The Bendigo Writer's Festival provided a poignant session called "A Climate for Change".
Gerry Gill talked with authors Iain McCalman, Alice Robinson, Anson Cameron and Jane Rawson about their varied approaches to writing about the highly concerning issue of Climate Change.
The session soon became a discussion about the rapidly impeding cataclysm facing humanity, whereby Gerry Gill needed to rope the altruistic authors back into discussing more closely the material contained within each of their authorial works.  This session was highly informative and provided a variety of author's voices. The voice of author Alice Robinson I found most compelling as she provided a voice which represents young people, mothers and women, on the issue of the excruciating  reality all of humanity inevitably  have to face, which is the rapid annihilation of the natural world. The session revealed to me that the voices of young people, women and mothers on the issue of climate change has been muffled by the dominating political, scientific and burocratic voices who are merely arguing and not urgently acting to address the destruction of the natural world.

Alice Robinson's  Australian novel Anchor Point.

Overcoming New Platform Anxiety

Like any new  experience navigating a new internet platform like "Blogger" can be daunting.  Overcoming the obstacle where one might have a resistance to  embracing a new platform can be likened to teaching an adolescent how to drive, nurture the belief that you will achieve your goal and survive!!!