My sister posted on her blog today a post titled Taking Stock Checkup #3. In it, she used one word prompts to get her thinking about what’s been on her radar for the past few weeks/months. It’s the same words each time she posts (this is her third post using this format this year) although I’m not sure if they’re her words or someone else’s.
No matter.
As I’m having a day off today, I thought I might use the same prompts, just to see how it feels.
Appreciating: My latest book, Enacting a Pedagogy of Kindness: A guide for practitioners in Higher Education has just been published. I’m appreciating a few things:
- my friend, Airdre Grant, who invited me to co-edit the book
- the work of each contributor in telling stories of how they enact kindness in their practice
- how good it feels to have it out in the world (although I reckon it’ll feel even better when I get my hands on a physical copy)
- how hard it is to promote an academic text (I keep asking myself who wants to read it … I think every academic/teacher should because it’s a great book!)
Bingeing: I am currently bingeing the Happy Wall website. I am obsessed with wallpaper at the moment and spend way too long looking for one that’s ‘just right’. Loads of great designs, too few walls.
Cooking: Porridge for breakfast.
Doing: (Barely) promoting my book, searching through wallpaper designs, eating porridge.
Excited: Next month, on October 3, I will be attending a book launch at the Royal Historical Society of Victoria. They will be launching The story of Melbourne’s lanes: Essential but unplanned. The reason I’m particularly excited by the launch of this book is because they have chosen one of my images to be on the cover!
Feeling: Appreciative.
Going: To see Jesus Christ Superstar with my sister as a birthday treat next year.
Hoping: That Jesus Christ Superstar will be just as good as it was the first time we saw it in the early/mid 1970s (with Marcia Hines, Jon English, and Trevor White).
Important: Appreciating the good things is important. Particularly when the good things are simple things like cooking porridge.
Joining: I will be joining others from U3A Hawthorn at the Laneways book launch on October 3.
Kudos: To the paralympians.
Loving: Using my newly set-up photography studio. It’s fabulous to have light modifiers on the wall; somewhere to hang backdrops; and to have the lights set up so that I can get creative quickly and easily.
Managing: To get work done with all the distractions of book publication, the other book’s upcoming launch, my photo studio set up, wallpaper sites to trawl through …
Need: To choose paint colours.
Observing: The delivery man out the front at the moment. His truck won’t start and it’s interesting to watch him try to identify the problem.
Preparing: For yet another severe weather event. I don’t know what this one will be, but I guess I’ll find out when it hits.
Quirky: A word I used to search for homewares last week. Didn’t find anything I liked.
Reading: Tea leaves.
Smiling: Because, you know, my book … porridge … photo studio
Thriving: My garden is thriving because Spring is here. I can see buds on the weeping something tree outside my window, and blossoms on the trees that line the street.
Uncomfortable: At the idea of promoting my book.
Visiting: Soon I will be visiting my youngest son and his family. For the first time in 10 years I’ll have a child and grandchildren living in the same state as me and that means frequent visiting.
Wearing: Too many visits to my youngest son and his family might get wearing – for them at least. Not for me!
Xploring: Ideas … photographically.
Yes: Please.
Zero: No more words.
Musings from the cold 
So how did it feel to write this post with my A-Z Taking Stock prompts? I really enjoyed your responses and am so happy you joined in. Hopefully you might like to write these sorts of things more often as it can be fun to use the prompts as a reflection exercise. Congrats on the book too, that’s fabulous news, so get out there and push it into everyone’s feeds!
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