The blog today is one from the vault: A story about blood and transfusions and little enzymes.

Click here for Just a Little Thing.

And by the way, Coco isn’t getting her transfusion for a few more weeks, but given the critically low levels of blood stores this week, I thought it was worth remembering how a little thing like a giving blood can mean so much to a little person.  Coco might not like getting transfusions, but she definitely loves how she feels afterwards.

If you are able to donate, please consider doing so this week. 

…From The Ashers xx

Some things are more important than a blog.  (I know, who knew?)

Here is a real news story that I’d love you to read, and perhaps share, and most importantly do.

A story in our local paper, The Sunshine Coast Daily  please have a squiz.

Thanks

…From The Ashers xx

Image: Wikipedia

Blood.

It is our life force.  It is a clever fluid that carries oxygen to our cells.  It takes our every breath, to every part of our bodies.  And then it lets us breathe out again.  In.  And out.  In.  And out.   And repeat.

Without it our cells would be gasping, asphyxiated.

And we would die.

Blood.

It looks alarming when we see it outside the precious tubes of our arterial network.  It is so bright, so vivid, and so shiny that it almost seems to have a life all of its own.  If you look at a drop of blood closely it seems somehow thick with vibrancy and hope.  A crimson lustre, full of promise and potential.

It scarlet-shouts at us: lookatme lookatme lookatme.  Full of its own importance, for it knows: without it, we would die.

Blood.

Most of us don’t think much about it.

From time to time some of it may leak out of us, in scratches and cuts and scrapes, and we wipe it efficiently away- red blots on white tissues- and discard it without a mind, for we know our clever bodies will make more and more and more.  And repeat as required.

For without it, we would die.

But sometimes people can lose more than they can make.

And sometimes, some bodies have diseases that break down the blood too quickly.

And some other people, through no fault nor folly of their own, make thousands and thousands of the ruby red discs, but those bloody little frisbees are left wanting: wrong shape, fuzzy edges or missing some parts, so the intelligence of the body sends them to the liver.  For termination.

And yet, without these biconcave saucers: they will die.

This child is one of those.

Thankfully, she doesn’t need your blood this week, but one day soon, she will.

Please, roll up your sleeve, and share some of your carmine elixir of life.  You’ll make some more, I promise.  In fact, you’ll do it without even knowing.

She, however, simply can not.

Blood stores are at a critically low level at present, so you will be hearing me parp on about this all week.

Please call 139596 to make an appointment, or visit the Red Cross Website to find a location, check your eligibility, or share this information with your friends.  

Not everyone CAN donate, so those of us who are able to, have the ability to SAVE A LIFE… I think that’s a super-power.

…Thanks and Love, From The Ashers xx

It seems a bit trite to cobble together a list of five hits, in a week where I would have preferred to hang out in my bed, listen to the waves or dreary old Smiths songs, and let the days crawl by.  A week where I know I should be feeling grateful to be alive in this time, this place, with these people.  But nonetheless a week where I didn’t want to force a smile or glibly pretend that everything is fine and everything is fine and all manner of things will be fine.

Helen Razer wrote a book once, called “Everything’s Fine” but it came with a sticker that you could stick on the cover and obscure the ‘fine’ with a ‘fucked’.  I would have kinda liked that sticker this week.  Not for the entire week of course, for there were many moments of joy to grasp onto, but to have it available on and off, then on again.

So in this week of weeks, what I’d mainly like to do is to give thanks.

Thanks to Friend for tweeting Q and A with me on Monday night.  I can’t imagine what you handle, and I don’t want to, but you still make me laugh and I’m in awe of your strength.  Hayls chose well mate, she was a clever cookie that one (and I WILL win that dinner someday; I will get a tweet on Q and A yet).

Thanks for all the sweet comments on Blog’s birthday.  She liked your style.

Thanks to Suze for the gift of bold colour.  I love that we didn’t need any words, but that you knew that something bright would be good for my heart.

Thanks to my long suffering Husband.  Man you put up with some moody shit Nath.  I don’t know how, or some days even why, but I guess I must be a bit like Hayls: I chose well.  I might even give you one of my beers as a reward (see below).

Thanks to both of my beer delivery ladies.  Undeserved as they were, they shall be savoured with great satisfaction, come the weekend. Mwah.

So there you have it, no hits, but lots of thanks.  And don’t worry, this isn’t going to turn into some kind of Facey thing with lists of gratitude every day.  I wrote this lot to remind me that I am very lucky.  That yes, I can be sad, it is allowed, but that I do have much to be happy about, once the clouds have shed their tears.

Okay, come on, just this once, tell me what you need to give thanks for.

…From The Ashers xx

I am the world’s worst best procrastinator.  I put off everything that I can, until it becomes painfully impossible to ignore it any longer.  I create situations where I have a feeling of ‘something hanging over my head’, that gets so heavy and cumbersome that it pushes me forward and threatens to crush my lungs .  It is only then that I do it.

I did it today.

In fact I did two ‘its’.

Together, they took three and a half hours, tops.  Two things that had been squeezing the joy out of my evenings, as I would plant my lazy bum on this very comfy couch and make deals with myself about how I would get up and at least start one of them soon/next ad break/after writing this next blog/as soon as I finish this cuppa.  After sufficient time had elapsed and it would become obvious I wasn’t even going to start them, I would skulk off to bed, vowing to get up at 5am and eat the frog.

But I never ate those frogs.  And of course I never got up at 5am.

The only frogs I eat are choccy

So like I said, today I made a deal with myself that I would do just one of the maligned tasks, and then strangely, I felt so relieved and energetic after one, I did the other.  They weren’t even difficult.  And now I can breathe fully again.  Just like that.

That’s not to say that that is the end of tasks that require my attention, but having those two millstones removed has created a space and a freedom that I didn’t even realise was being so choked off.

I’m writing this blog to share my relief and elation, so that I might come back here some day, should I ever get to this level of procrastination again, and remember how wondrous it felt, to be like Nike.  I’m also writing this in case you too are putting off some reviled task, with the futile hope that it will go away.  I want you to get a sense of how BLOODY GOOD it feels once it is done.  Of how you can completely relax your shoulders.  Of how you can take your time over dinner.  Of how you can savour your evening, instead of wishing it away.

Kelly Exeter shared a tip one day: if it takes less than a minute to do, do it right now.  (I’ve changed that to two minutes).  It has lead to a life with much less clutter.  Previously I had too many jobs ‘for later’ stored up in my head.  Ten simple jobs that could be done in the moment can add up to a lot of mess.

The other thing that helped me today was to really get into the feeling of euphoria once the first job was done.  I’m trying to create a cell memory of that in my mind and body so that I can try and access it next time the old pleasure/pain strategy of putting things off until they are stressfully urgent tries to rear up.

I don’t know if this new strategy will be the end of a lifetime of procrastination and cramming, but stranger things have happened.

I’ll let you know.

What are you putting off?

Will you start it today?

…From The Ashers xx

Today is Blog’s first birthday.  One year old.

Blog has seen a lot in her one year.  If I was computer savvy not so lazy, I’d do one of those Instagram photo montage thingies.  Probably with Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life) playing softly in the background.  We might share a tear together, you and I, watching the year fly by, and remembering the laughter and the tears of our first year.

But of course I am lazy.

So if you want to do that you’ll have to flick through yourself.  Most of the posts are pretty short, definitely not the recommended 2000 words per post, that is required, should I wish to “make my blog explode”.

When I started this hobby, it was my intention to blog every day for a year, and then re-evaluate.  RRs will know I fell off that wagon for a bit over summer when camping, with the shite wifi coverage and it being too hot to sit a computer on my legs.  I can only do so much for the sake of my ‘art’.  That, and the fact that those Coronas and Mojitos weren’t gonna drink themselves.  And the blog-a-day thing got shelved pretty early on too, when I realised that children suck the creative right out of my brain, so five a week is all I can manage.

So I suppose we’ve settled into a bit of a rhythm here, you, and I.

I hope you’re still having fun over here with blog.

I am.  And I’ve made some inroads into making this little hobby a bit more than that.  I have some ideas of things you might like to read as ebooks, and I have enrolled in a seminar to help with getting more readers over here, and possibly to make some money to pay for hosting fees and my swisho new business cards.

So thanks for reading this past year.  Thanks for sharing, and thanks for all the comments.  Those things really make this space a fun place for me to come and play.

So on blog’s birthday, I’d like to give you a chance to give me some feedback, constructive criticism, that kind of thing.  Tell me what you love and hate about blog, what you’d like to see more of.  You can answer down there in the comments.  I’ll listen, I promise.*  I might even send you a pressie.*

*Fingers might be a little bit crossed

…From The Ashers xx