Daily Prompt Archives - INSPIRING MAX

Blue Mountains – Australia

February 22, 2015 inspiringmax

What’s your dream tourist destination — either a place you’ve been and loved, or a place you’d love to visit? What about it speaks to you?

The beautiful Blue Mountains are located 60 kilometres from my home in Sydney. For this reason I don’t take my annual holidays there but like to visit for a weekend getaway with my husband. I love the peace and ruggedness of the area that includes rare and endangered flora and fauna. Blue Mountains are also home to some of Australia’s greatest writers and photographers due to the serenity and beauty of the area. People find it truly inspiring.

The mountains get their name from the colour they appear to be when the sunlight mixes with the oil from the eucalyptus trees that cover the area. There are 91 species of eucalyptus trees here—13% of the global total. This is one of the many reasons that in 2000 UNESCO appointed the Greater Blue Mountains Area World Heritage Site—14th in Australia. This area encompasses 7 amazing and individual National Parks some of which I have not yet explored—Blue Mountains National Park, Wollemi National Park, Yengo National Park, Nattai National Park, Kanangra-Boyd National Park, Gardens of Stone National Park and Thirlmere Lakes National Park.

The above photos are from our last visit and are from the Mt Wilson area—six weeks after devastating bush fires had raged through. We were excited to see that new life was emerging. Internationally Australia is known for its beautiful beaches but just as important is its natural bush land very different to other parts of the world. If you ever get the chance come and spend a few days exploring any part of our beautiful Blue Mountains—they are so large you won’t be able to cover it all—do so as you will be greatly rewarded.

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/tourist-trap/

Self-Worth

February 21, 2015 inspiringmax

“Think global, act local.” Write a post connecting a global issue to a personal one.

I don’t know if eating disorders are classified as a global issue but I believe they are—statistics from 2002 state 70 million people world-wide are living with one so the number would be much greater today.

Knowing these facts are one thing, but what can be done at a personal level to help protect ourselves or our children from developing a dangerous eating disorder that has the potential to kill them. The answer is increasing low self-worth to a healthy level. Self worth is defined as “the opinion you have of your self and the value you place on yourself.”

Consider your current level of self-worth—do you believe in yourself and your abilities or is your self worth low and a struggle?

Work on improving your self-worth by focusing on the following 3 areas:

Listen to your self talk – ensure you tell yourself positive statements. When a negative statement comes to mind—at least turn it into a neutral statement—even if you can’t go all the way and make it a positive one.
Give yourself permission to do one fun thing or one nurturing thing a day—because you deserve it.
Set a mini goal each day that works towards your longer term goals.

So lets help to spread the growth of positivity through the world, by beginning at home. Let’s focus on supporting increased self-worth in everyone we come in contact with. Ensure that if we can’t do anything to help, we don’t do anything to make the situation worth. Self worth is improved one small step at a time—it won’t happen overnight.

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/think-global-act-local/

Life Changing

February 20, 2015February 20, 2015 inspiringmax

Write about anything you’d like, but make sure the post includes this sentence:

“I thought we’d never come back from that one.”

It was 10.27 am on 28th December, 1989. Suddenly I was woken from my night duty slumber by my house shaking violently. I didn’t know what was happening, although the realisation quickly hit—Newcastle had been hit by an 5.6 magnitude earthquake—I thought we’d never come back from that one.

But Newcastle and I both have. See more detail in my earlier post here.

The following week changed my life forever. Not only did my beloved city look like a war zone but, I got engaged—it definitely was a new decade and new life for me. On one hand there was the destruction including my house and on the other hand their was the excitement of what a new life had to offer.

The lessons I learnt working in mental health in Newcastle during this tragic time have never left me—13 people died and most of the city was effected. I learnt anything can happen to anyone at anytime. It’s how you handle it that makes the long-term difference. I know with support I can and will get through anything and when I need to I follow St Francis of Assis’s advice.

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/use-it-or-lose-it/

Survival Foods

February 18, 2015 inspiringmax

You’ve being exiled to a private island, and your captors will only supply you with five foods. What do you pick?

As I am on a private island, I am assuming it is worth buying otherwise it wouldn’t be private. So my island is supplemented with tropical fruit and other items I can use at my leisure. I am also assuming that my captures are delivering me raw foods that I need to cook for myself or possibly them as well.

After serious consideration my five foods are:

Flour – This I could cook over an open fire and turn it into damper, pizza base, pancakes, tortillas or a cake.
Eggs – They too are versatile and can be used in various forms.
Cheese – I love cheese in all its forms—especially vintage cheddar and feta.
Greek yoghurt – I use this in many ways. Both as a sweet and savoury additive for meals and to cook in.
Vegemite – Being an Australian I couldn’t be without this Aussie favourite. Full of vitamin B, it would help keep me well while awaiting my rescue. It may also save my food from being stolen, as anyone who isn’t Australian struggles to eat it.

While I am waiting for rescue, I will write a recipe book on the ways I find to use my 5 foods in combination with the foods I find on and around the island. The exciting thing is cooking will turn into a pleasure again as I have nothing but time to think about what i will make for each meal.

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/five-a-day/

Clone Myself – Never

February 17, 2015 inspiringmax

If you could clone yourself, how would you split up your responsibilities?

My life is fairly balanced now—I don’t want a clone. I have spent fifty years trusting my own decisions. I am not about to give over any of my responsibility to a duplicated version of myself. Yes, there are parts of my life I do not like—commuting to work—however, changing this, changes my whole life. I wouldn’t even give this job to my clone as what I do on the train makes up who I am—writing, reading and sleeping.

If I am running short of time to do the things I want—I realise it is time to reassess and prioritse what is important to me. I believe you can have time to do anything if it is important enough to you. I wrote a third of my book on my daily commute. Although now, editing doesn’t work as well on the train.

Now I am looking at ways to make sure I get enough exercise in each week. I haven’t come up with a definitive plan yet but handing this responsibility over to a clone is not going to get it done the best way for me.

The other problem, of course is cloning is an identical copy of my DNA—not of everything I do. My clone would be the age of my daughter unless I was cloned at birth, but would live its own life—like Dolly the sheep—cloned in 1997. For now I will focus on rearranging my time to get what I need done and leave the scientists to worry about the cloning.

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/clone-wars/

Our Home

February 16, 2015 inspiringmax

What do you display on the walls of your home — photos, posters, artwork, nothing? How do you choose what to display? What mood are you trying to create?

Over the years we have gradually decorated our home with a mixture of things that have meaning to us—either as individuals or as a family. There is no theme. When we were married my husband had a collection of Australian paintings that he loved and I had a miniature alcohol bottle collection. These two items have formed the basis of our lounge and dining area decoration in the 8 homes we have lived in.

A small selection

Special photos have a pride of place in our home. We have photos of people, places and activities that have were special to us. I enjoy occasionally studying them closely and letting them take me back in time—bringing a smile to my face as I remember the details surrounding the photo. This is more important when our loved one is no longer with us.

I love collections. For me there is something about having a group of similar things. It allows you to continue to make an area unique without spending a lot of money. My belief is that if you gave ten people the same 4 items to start their collection and told them to grow it to 20 items within a six months period—each collection would be different.

We currently have four collections are working on.

My little bottle collection that started with 4 bottles about 30 years ago.
My Mickey Mouse collection that I have collected for years, however, was only put together in one place earlier this year. It now sits pride of place above my desk and helps me write while at the same time bringing joy to the room.
Our cat collection
Our travel collection—this collection includes something special from each country we have visited. It is still only a small collection however, I plan on expanding it over the next few years.

For us decorating each of our homes was never a planned thing. It was always a work in progress that took on its own life. I like it this way and it seems to work for us. However you decorate your home, I think they reflect strongly who you are. This is true for us—a fun, happy eclectic mix ready for anything.

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/wall-to-wall/

Better Than Sliced Bread: Accessible Air Travel

February 14, 2015March 14, 2015 inspiringmax

Most of us have heard the saying, “That’s the best thing since sliced bread!” What do you think is actually the best thing since sliced bread?

Live has changed dramatically since 1928 when sliced bread was first sold. However most of those changes that have affected my world have occurred since 2000’s. For me, besides the obvious—accessible internet, Google and WI-Fi hot spots—I choose increased and affordable air travel. Today, you can decide to go anywhere in the world and there would be a way to get there. Years ago, this was not the case.

I flew for the first time when I was 12. It was a school excursion so there was no choice. It has also just occurred to me that I have never flown with either parent as my next flight was to Nouméa in my twenties. During these times air travel was rare and special—something most of us saved for.

My daughter first flew at 9 to Brisbane. It was 2004. While we were away she had her 10th birthday and a new airline was born in Australia—Jetstar Airways—bringing with them cheap flights throughout Australia, New Zealand and Asia. It was fascinating, when we landed at Brisbane airport all the check-in counters were Qantas. Then six days later, when we left majority of them had turn into Jetstar check-in counters. We flew back to Sydney on one of those Jetstar flights. This changed the cost of domestic travel in Australia. Suddenly people were choosing to fly instead of drive. A revolution had started. Because of this change, by the time my daughter was 12, she had flown so often she could check herself in and knew the procedure well.

International air travel has also reduced in price over time so the world is now our oyster. We can travel everywhere and everywhere can travel to us. Australia is now a truly multicultural country and has opened up as a major tourist destination for the world. A lot has changed since Paul Hogan made our most successful tourist campaign for Northern America 30 years ago.

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/sliced-bread/

Mental Lists

February 12, 2015 inspiringmax

Remember when you wrote down the first thought you had this morning? Great. Now write a post about it.

Every morning as I rush to turn the annoying noise of my alarm off—my brain turns on its autopilot. It instantly begins reviewing what happened yesterday and deciding on what needs to be done differently next time. Changes noted, my brain begins to make a mental list of today’s tasks. It is usually about this time my focused brain kicks in—broadening out the detail based on the overall days plan. Questions I ask myself:

What time do I need to leave the house by? I have a 1 1/2 hour commute each way to work, so if I have a deadline I have to make sure I leave on time.
Am I going anywhere after work that requires me to pack an extra bag in the car as I won’t be coming home.
Have I got time to write, post and visit on my blog before leaving for work? Most days I make it happen.

Practical plans met, I go on to make my mental list for the day. What are my top to goals for today that if I do nothing else must get done? At least one usually pops straight to mind. I then consider the remaining things I am hoping to complete today and decide their order of priority. I am looking for my top 5 things to do each day. These will be my focus.

Two must be done—bigger or more important tasks first
Three hope to be done—simpler tasks

By limiting my tasks I focus on each day and not attempting to everything, I find I get more done. Sometimes I will write down my mental list to give it more clarity and focus. My earlier post Hand Brain Connection will give you more information on this. Today I am off to a good start as I have completed one of my three simpler tasks—writing this blog post and visiting several sites in my blogging community—all before leaving for work.

Yes. Thanks to my mental lists it will be a great day. Hope you enjoy yours.

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/first-light/

Back To Childhood

February 11, 2015 inspiringmax

Tell us about a sensation — a taste, a smell, a piece of music — that transports you back to childhood.

In today’s world there are many new smells. At times, they converge together and in some ways diffuse into each other. When I was growing up in the 1960’s and 1970’s things were different. In many ways, life was simpler but with a lot less opportunity. Smells were stronger and often less environmentally friendly. So which smells do I remember from my childhood. There are many—some memories are good, the others not so much, but they are still mine.

Fresh salty sea air made complete by the smell of seaweed—growing up we lived in coastal Australia. We were never far from the beach and many holidays were spent there. They were fun times. Today as I no longer live by the ocean I receive a pleasant surprise when I return. One of my earliest blog posts, Calm Action is on my latest trip to the beach as an adult.
Cherry medicine smell—made to taste like cherry to make it easier for kids to swallow medicine. I am still unable to drink Dr Pepper as it instantly takes me back to my childhood and the not so pleasant taste of this medicine—my husband is the same and our kids think we a making it up.
Mud—our house was on slope and not landscaped, so every time it rained we had a lot of mud, clay-like solid mud. It had a particular smell and was slippery when wet.
Fairy floss—as a child this had a much stronger smell than the pre-packed fairy floss you can buy today. I found that similar smell in the freshly spun fairy floss we found being sold on the street in China.
Aniseed lollies—I was the only child in my family who liked these licorice flavoured lollies, so I could guarantee they were not stolen. On the odd occasion as an adult I have bought these lollies I have been disappointed as the smell and flavour is not as strong as it used to be.
Eucalyptus smell of the Australian bush—growing up I spent many hours going for bush walks with my family exploring. It has a unique smell and these days unfortunately it is only on weekends away that I get to re-experience my memories. Although I do live in an area filled with individual gum trees—the Australian bush is different.
Mothballs—back in the day clothes were packed up at the end of the season and stored to make room in the wardrobe for the next seasons clothes. To stop moths and silverfish eating holes in the clothes, two or three balls made of naphthalene were added to the storage container. These had a strong smell and when it came time to change the clothes back again for the next season, it took a long time for the clothes to lose the smell.
Epoxy resin—as a child my father made many things as he is creative and talented. I loved it when he worked with epoxy resin—I loved the smell and how quickly it worked. I am sure it wasn’t good for me but as it wasn’t an everyday occurrence it wasn’t a problem.

I have enjoyed remembering my childhood smells. I will keep this post as a work in progress continue to add smells as they come back to me. If you are from a similar era—what smell do you remember? I would love to hear about them.

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/the-transporter/

Tomorrow Is Another Day

February 10, 2015 inspiringmax

Take a quote from your favorite movie — there’s the title of your post. Now, write!

As a child in early primary school I can remember going to the movies to see Gone With The Wind. It is a movie that changed my life.

I loved it.

I left the movie theatre that day thinking, I as a girl, growing up in the 1970’s could do anything. Scarlett O’Hara was my hero. What I saw as a child was a woman who, if she wanted something, went out and got it. She was a tough, resilient survivor and I needed to know that was possible. I, of course missed all of her relationship difficulties, which are another part of the movie, but I was too young to understand.

The concluding scene of the movie and the title of this blog post has lived with me everyday since—”tomorrow is another day.” Whenever things get tough—I like Scarlett—remind myself “I can’t think about that now, I’ve got to think about it tomorrow, after all tomorrow is another day.” I usually find by giving myself some space, by sleeping on my problem—the next day I have an answer. My problem may still be as big but at least I have made a plan to get through it. When problems are really tough, I go back to an earlier blog post and ask St Francis of Assissi for advice.