Moments

Where Has The Time Gone?

by 9grace

At the time that I am writing these words, right now, it is 10:54:11 am on Monday 5th of December, 2016. There are exactly 26 days, 13 hours, 5 minutes and 49 seconds until the new year of 2017 (Perth,Western Australia time zone). That is less than 1/13.76138147566719th of the year left!

…..and with that, here are some more fun facts and statistics about 2016.

  • As of right NOW, there are approximately 7,468,392,182 people in the world (and it increases 2<4 every second).
  • In the last 35 years, extreme poverty has decreased by more than 70%.
  • The dates of 4/4, 6/6, 8/8, and 10/10 have all fallen on a Monday, as will 12/12.
  • The last US, British, and Australian troops will withdraw from Afghanistan on December 31st, 2016.
  • The 2016 calendar is exactly the same as the 1994 calendar, right down to days and dates (including festivals).
  • There are approximately 3,515,474,044 internet users as of RIGHT NOW (and it increases by 8<11 every second).

So, there are some interesting statistic facts for you all to ponder over!

Yours faithfully,

Grace.

Aloha

by 9grace

Okay so as my first post after a long time away from the blog, I thought I’d write something that is relatively significant or meaningful to me.

A while ago my parent watched a movie called “The Fundamentals of Caring”. I had a fair bit of homework to do so I didn’t watch it with them, but I could hear some of it from my bedroom.

At the start, there was a female narrator, and she was addressing helping others (I think). She had a few good quotes, but the one that stuck in my head was a quote for a method for helping others, linking to the abbreviation ‘Aloha’:

Ask,

Listen,

Observe,

Help,

Ask again.

I think it’s really beautiful way to remember it since “Aloha” also means “Hello”. I think It’s also quite a lovely thing to have in your mind, not only for when you are helping people do something, but for everything.

For example, you wouldn’t just go up to someone who looks upset,  give them your thoughts and assume you’ve helped. You’d go up, ask them what’s wrong, listen to what they have to say, and then do what you can to make them feel better. You wouldn’t leave, however, until you had asked again if they were okay, or if they needed anything else.

I think it’s also great for helping yourself. If you’re struggling with something or having a hard time juggling things, you’d ask yourself what you are doing to cause the problem, consider what you are doing and your options, and depending on your situation, you might ask someone else for help.

Although, sometimes it’s hard to help ourselves. We don’t know what to think or how to express yourself, or how to ask for help. There was another quote later in the movie: “My needs are equal to the needs of the person that I am helping, and I cannot help that person any more than I can help myself”. That quote is very important when you are helping yourself or others. If things are bad, you need to get yourself back on track before you can reach out to others, and that’s something I am finding more and more as time goes on.

Umm so yeah, those two quotes have been circling my mind a bit recently, which is why I wrote a blog post about the two. I hope they make a bit of sense!

Yours faithfully,

Grace.

 

Emergency Bedside ‘Kit’

by 9grace

Student Blogging Challenge: Week 4 – Activity 2; ft. Mrs Smith’s post

For one of Mrs Smith’s activities, she asked us to write a post about what we would pack in an emergency bedside kit for if a natural disaster were to occur.

Here, one of the only major natural disasters that occur regularly in or around our region are bushfires. Now, I’m not sure if my family has an emergency kit, but I know that I don’t have a bedside one. I do know, however, what I would grab to take with me in an emergency before I left.

The first thing (after my family) would most definitely be the dog. Even if we do not get anything else out of the house, as long as my family is safe (including pets), everything will be fine.

The second thing I’d grab would be a phone, as well as dad’s two-way if we can get to them. That way we would at least be able to contact people.

The third thing I’d grab would be some water, for obvious reasons.

I would also like to grab my wallet so that we have some money. At least we would be able to buy some food. I would have said a map, but I know that we have a good travelling map in the car which we would take with us or remove from the car on the way out.

For a little while now, I have been putting anything that has a special meaning to me, or that I want to keep special, into a small box next to my bed. It includes letters, photos, trinkets and gifts, some drawings and some of my old journals. If I had time to, this box would probably be the final thing I grabbed before heading out the door.

I often think about what I would do if my family had to evacuate due to an approaching bushfire. I don’t think it’s a bad thing to be thinking about it, we need to be prepared anyway, but if I stick to the subject for too long then I start to stress myself out.

I know that what I have written isn’t exactly an ’emergency bedside kit’ content, but it is what I would take if I had a minute to get out of the house.

Yours faithfully,

Grace

 

Above Water

by 9grace

Student Blogging Challenge: Week 3 – Activity 4; Write the beginning of a story relating an image.

I Capture The Majestic Power Of Ocean Waves

Captured by Warren Keelan: http://www.boredpanda.com/author/warren-keelan/

 

Above Water

Stay, they’ll bring the boat back ’round…

I’d hurt my back when I got flung off. It was all I could do to try and keep my head above water.

Find the boat…

If I could do that I would be fine. You’d think, being a reasonably sized vessel, it would be easy to spot. Apparently not.

Stay above water!

This is getting harder. Paul had left the life jackets on shore to ‘make room for the catch’, though we didn’t need it. I could use a life jacket right now! I’m a good swimmer, but it seems like every time I take a breath, I’m shoved back under.

Where’s the boat!?

Okay mate, hurry up… I’m panicking now. Maybe it’s just my imagination, or my energy exhausting , but the waves seem to be crashing harder now, and more frequently too. Where are they?

Probably made a run for it…

NO! Don’t think like that…They, they saw me! Josh was on the deck with me. A wave crashed over the starboard side, pushed the boat down… I slid down the deck, flipped over the side. They saw that.

They knew today was going to be rough…

Yeah, so did I. I was stupid for agreeing to go with them, here of all places. Where are they! There’s not enough time to look for the boat anymore. The weather is worsening. Making it to the surface to get a breath is hard enough.

You knew they were being dodgy…

STOP! They’re coming, they’re just navigating the waves! It was just a fishing trip, not a murder mission. Soon they’ll come past and I’ll be able to hurl myself over the side. Then we can get out of here.

They aren’t coming back…

 

Dun, dun, dun!!

I think it would be really cool if people continued the story in the comments. I’d love to see how it unfolds. Take it to wherever you want. Have fun!

Yours faithfully,

Grace

 

Writer’s Block

by 9grace

Have you ever come up with a really brilliant idea! Like an amazing story topic or character.

Have you ever sat down to write it out and thought…”what was I doing again?”

Have you ever sat down to write something, started, and then completely forgotten where you were heading with your idea?

Have you ever gone to write something and just though, “…Ummm……?”

Well, I have. I have experienced all of those things and all of them more than once. In fact, so many people have experienced at least one of the above, that the experience itself has even been given a name – Writer’s Block.

I have writer’s block right now, well sort of… Not really, but I did. In the last 20 – 30 minutes, I have started three blog posts. One I deleted because I had no idea what I was even talking about anymore. The second was about future aspirations or something, I don’t really remember you see because for the last fifteen minutes, I have been sitting in front of another blank word document, trying to think of something else to write about.

I literally typed up blog post ideas in the Google search bar because I couldn’t think of anything. Actually, I did find one site – 101 Blog Post Ideas –  it has some pretty good ideas – just none I felt like writing about.

Anyway, I’m sure that, if you have ever experienced writers block, you will know how utterly, totally, completely infuriating it can be! It kind of makes you want to either forget about the task all together, or pull your hair out with exasperation.

I know it can be especially annoying when you are short on time; or you are only a few words under the required word count; or you haven’t had time to work on your homework until now because of all the crazy stuff going on in your life and hey, what do you know, homework is due tomorrow! Oops, totally not me…

Actually, I know a few things about writer’s block. I know it can sneak up and strike at the most unpredictable times. I also know that it’s favourite time to strike is when one is under a lot of pressure. This includes situations like writing essays, taking tests, writing letters, etc. Again, definitely not me!

One thing I don’t know is how to get rid of writer’s block. If anyone has the answer I would love to hear it, as I feel I/we/everyone could greatly benefit from the information!

Hopefully writer’s block will give me a bit of a break, and I will be able to write a more interesting post next week!

Yours faithfully,

Grace

 

 

 

Beautiful Moments

by 9grace

Isn’t it amazing the way an idea can come to us! Sometimes, it will hit you like a tonne of bricks, and make you gasp from the sudden spurt of inspiration. Other times, an idea will start small, and develop with time. Like a seed growing into a majestic, magnificent tree!

That’s the way my idea came to me. Like a seed, and it grew. The task at hand was to do a creative writing piece. The prompt; a short video of soft waves, lapping the shore at sunset.

It made me think of a picture I took the other day, whilst going for a stroll along the beach. Short and sweet, here is the story I came up with.

Beautiful Moments

I sit on the sand, with my feet extended, letting the waves roll up the beach and lap at my toes. This is my favourite thing to do. Just to sit, with my hands buried in the sand. With my eyes closed, listening to the waves. It calms me.

The ocean is an amazing place. Powerful and dangerous, yet so beautiful and serene. There is so much life there. Yet, all that life, it can all be taken away so easily. Just as if someone has flicked a switch. The once gentle, rolling ocean can change, and develop a savage, angry, destructive nature.

The tide is coming in, I can feel the waves reaching higher and higher up my calves. I shuffle back again, now the waves are only just reaching my ankles. God knows how long I have been sitting here. 20 minutes? 40 minutes? An hour? The sun is lower now. In half an hour it will be completely gone. I stretch my legs and stand up, I have to start heading back.

I walk slowly along the water’s edge, watching the waves lap the shore. I ponder as I walk.

There is so much we don’t know about the sea. So many great depths we haven’t explored. So much life, beautiful life we have yet to discover. But, do we really need to. We have already destroyed the land. Influenced with all our houses and suburbia. What would happen to the ocean then, if we went and explored, revealing all its secrets? Would we learn from our mistakes? Or would we do the same as we did with the land, destroying all of its natural beauty. Altering its landscapes to our own, selfish needs.

I exit my trance, and look up. I’ve walked too far. The sun, balances on the water, glowing golden against the deep saphire of the ocean. I become caught in the moment, fixated at the wonderous view. I should keep walking, I’ll be late otherwise. But I don’t. I stop and savour the moment. I see this every day, yet the view never fails to amaze me.

When the sun is almost gone, and the light is fading, I make my way back. Sad to leave, but content nonetheless. Beautiful. That’s the only word I can use to describe those few moments. Absolutely, naturally, and utterly beautiful.

image

Kalbarri Sunset – A truly beautiful moment.

I find the beach is a beautiful place to go to and just…be. To wander, swim, or sit and watch the sunset. To ponder ideas and contemplate life, or to let go of all your thoughts, emotions, troubles, and to just Zen.  There is something truly breathtaking about the beach that never fails to leave me awestruck. Whether it be the way the waves catch the light of the setting sun or how the current makes patterns in the water. Whatever it be, there is hardly a time when I leave the beach without feeling very, very content.

So, there you have it. My very first blog post! I hope you all enjoyed.

Yours faithfully,

Grace