Apologies to all 5 readers of our blog for being in absentia - I have to regain my blogger mojo somehow, it's been M.I.A. for too long.
It's not as if there's nothing to say, because we've been doing lots and I've got images from various events to share.
The futility of blogging set in big-time for me over the past month with the cyclone in Myanmar and the earthquake in China taking over the news, and showing shocking images of people in distress and shock.
My anger at Myanmar's paranoid rulers for not allowing aid into the country when their citizens are suffering is tinged with a glimmer of understanding about why they are acting this way. God knows how many secret service agents will pose as aid workers to use the opportunity to infiltrate a country that has been so impenetrable to scrutiny. Through their military eyes, the suffering of their people comes second to allowing in the gooks and spooks.
I've cried when viewing the grief of the Chinese people who have lost everything. It's almost unbearable to witness the sense of loss - especially in those parents whose only child has died. So many schools collapsed due to shoddy building practices and corrupt officials who lined their pockets with bribes from construction companies that shouldn't be allowed to build dog kennels, let alone schools. China's "one child" policy is now being questioned, but my thoughts are that the death toll would have been far greater if the families had more than one child each because not many children survived their schools pancaking into rubble as they did.
Blogging has seemed rather frivolous when confronted by such serious tragedies, coupled with news of blatant racism and ignorance with kaffiyeh-gate in the USA and Camden-gate here in Australia.
I'm getting too angry at things which I cannot fix. It's a waste of energy; clutters my mind; renders me less effective in what I have to achieve and with what I can control.
So I've decided that I have to turn off the TV. It sucks the essence out of my soul. The last 12 months in Australia has seen me turn away from past decisions to not watch TV. It's been too easy to switch it on and sit in front of it, especially when most of my time has been spent living alone while J has been back in Germany.
It's not that I will be blocking myself off from the world, it means that I will now choose to read what I want to learn more about, instead of mindlessly watching what someone else has chosen for me to view.
I know that I am a better person when I do this, and I'll be even better when we leave Australia at the end of June - and J and I are back together again.
