WISDOM FROM THE KITCHEN BENCH: BENEFITS IN THE BANANA

In the world of consumer health, it’s all about slogans, shelling out the big bucks and the sanctioning of superfoods. It’s about brassicas, berries and a large amount of bullshit. To uncover prominent profundities in the produce and discover a balance in the bent; trawling supermarket isles becomes superfluous, ditching junk mail mandatory and a consumer wellbeing price check required that peels it all back to the bloody basics. If we are in fact what we eat, beyond the dazzling marketing mantras of the goji, quinoa…

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TERMINALLY UNIQUE – Cracking the Code on Self-Worth

Trying to write a piece on a topic that sounds like a disease is complicated. It’s not exactly a draw card, eye catching or essential reading; nor would it be a hit on the Top 10 Blog charts. When the phrase in focus, ‘Terminally Unique’, offers up an oxymoron, the reader is more likely to develop interest in a burnt piece of toast than sort out the conundrum of expression. But unlike charcoal toast, there is nutritional value in unpacking the paradox. For many of the…

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ALTERED TIME – Capacity in Crisis

  The twentieth ‘virus funny’ for the morning pings on my phone. Armageddon emails jam my Inbox. Conversation circles like birds of prey on the down draft, evaluating the state of play, waiting for opportunity or hint of change. House bound vistas framed by an ever- lowering ceiling, declare the faithfulness of an oblivious green canopy. Goodness beyond the pane/pain, of the COVID vortex. Blindsided we batten down hatches as the very buttresses of capitalism are battered, the security of familiarity is struck a blow and…

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ARE YOU KID-DING?

“Because the teachers hate me.” Is the sweaty response from the continuously complaining 14 year old as to why he was in the most difficult hiking group on the school camp. “That way they don’t have me hanging around base camp for three days.” His athletic, teen build and energetic aura hinted at the more likely reason he’d been selected to pound the three day trail from Tidal River, to Waterloo Bay and on to Sealers Cove. Radiating heat from rugged granitic rock faces smothers conversation…

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IMPRESSED

Bold expressions. Overt undertones. Contrasting canvasses. An arresting awareness of things optically, orally and aromatically atypical. An absorption of, immersion and participation in, the manifold encounters of cultural consonance and dissonance. I’m pressed to consider the new I’m pressed to adopt the unfamiliar I’m pressed to adjust periphery I’m pressed to admire I’m pressed to accept and embrace I’m pressed to understand I’m pressed to listen astutely I’m pressed to look deeper I’m pressed to learn richly I’m pressed to laugh I’m pressed to enjoy immeasurably…

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Two Little Vowels

  Trail and trial. Five exact same letters. Try saying them quickly multiple times over with a few additional words for a good tongue twister. A mere reversal of two vowels changes the entire context of expression, nuance of the communication or implication of the active out- workings of each noun. Def. Trail: a beaten path through rough country such as a forest. A route planned or followed for a particular purpose. Def. Trial: a test of the performance, qualities, or suitability of someone or something.…

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“I sense great fear in you, Skywalker”

Questions of life loom large when you find yourself in a galaxy far, far away. Spun off into a parallel universe. “Traveling through hyperspace” certainly “ain’t like dusting crops, farm boy.” (Han Solo). People of many cultures have charted the heavens by the stars, looked for meaning, foreordination, inspiration and a sense of the divine. Overawed by cosmic magnitude; a recognition of place, and humility in the orbits of ego, and constellations of universal wonder. Cancer, Taurus, Aries or Vertigo, signs predicting future. Astrologists purporting to…

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Premium Unleaded

The excitement is electric in a sporting match when a goal is kicked or crucial point or run is scored. There’s a visceral frenzy in the moment, an identity with success and optimism invested in what’s to come. Energy is recharged as the intangible manifests into reality. We believe, identify, support and confirm value in the sweat, pain, progress and ultimate end goal. Momentum is achieved, investment solidified, sweetness celebrated. There’s no guaranteed outcome to positive progress. No automatic equation for an overarching victory. There’s identification…

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Andante

A walking group generally consists of the leader and the “whip”. Destinations are clear, expectations set, orientation established and navigation routes devised. (Crutches obviously ditched!). There’s a confident sense of excitement, underpinned with a tentative curiosity and introspection as to the trail, its requirements, and one’s own capacity to meet the demands of the territory, distance and pace. The steady rhythm of footsteps settle like a metronome, shuffling between andantino and allegro, while kilometres are clocked and collective identity shared and shaped. Stories are traded, souls…

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Base Camp

“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary.” Henry David Thoreau There’s a hill near our place that has been provoking me, beckoning to…

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