Chocolate? Dogs? Netflix?

-

A few months ago I thought it might be fun to write a blog, so I did a little research on blogging and every source asked me the same question:  what is your focus going to be?  Food?  Poetry? Travel?  I felt an instant zap of irritation at the confinement and limitations of this question. It reminded me of those quizzes on Facebook where you have to choose 2 things out of a list of 15 to keep in your life during the pandemic.  Chocolate? Dogs? Netflix? Books? Pajamas? My phone?  Well, I’m a 61-year-old woman who hasn’t been to the hairdresser in a year and I choose them all.  

 

The world is a sprawly, complicated place and like everyone else, I’m a sprawly, complicated being with multiple facets and interests.  Other people’s stories, my toddler granddaughter, my mother’s death when I was 18, the turkey vulture that I’m watching gliding in the wind as I’m writing this – they are all interesting to me and part of who I am at this moment in time.  


I’ve raised two children to adulthood, spent four days in a detention center in Paris, watched a mother elephant persuade her baby to follow her out of the mud and back home again, and I’m giving myself permission to write about any of that or none of that. 

   

It’s always been hard for me to settle down and focus on just one thing.  As a kid I was reprimanded by my teachers for being a loskop (Afrikaans for scatterbrained) and a daydreamer and the truth is, I haven’t changed all that much.  I’m an all over the map kind of person, so that’s what I've decided to call my blog.  I’m not quite sure where I'll be going with it right now, but maybe along the way I’ll find out.  










Comments

  1. Joyce EllenMarch 1, 2021 at 3:35 PM

    Coming to visit Brigi and I can't wait for all the places I will get to go with you my dear friend!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Brigid BrettMarch 1, 2021 at 5:24 PM

      That sounds wonderful to me, Joyce Ellen! A road trip with a very dear friend.

      Delete
  2. SandyMarch 2, 2021 at 6:39 AM

    May your journey down the path of life, be filled with many side trails full of wonder and adventure!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Brigid BrettMarch 2, 2021 at 11:33 AM

      I love the sound of that so much, Sandy. And I know I don't have to go very far to find all kinds of wonder and adventure.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

"It's not a war, it's not a battlefield: It's a massacre."

-
Image
           When my daughter was preparing for her Bat Mitzvah, the Jewish rite of passage that prepares 13-year-olds to take their place as adults in the community (Bar Mitzvah for boys) she did a project on Jewish values regarding the treatment of animals.  That’s when I learned that it’s forbidden for Jews to hunt for sport, as it can cause prolonged pain and suffering for the animals.         I’d forgotten about that until October 7 th  and the days that have unfolded since then, watching and listening to the reports of 260 of young people at a music festival in the desert being hunted down and slaughtered, raped, burned and taken hostage by the Hamas terrorists.        And more reports of entire families being hunted and tortured and slaughtered in their homes. Mothers, fathers, babies, grandparents.   Many survivors have talked about the laughter of the killers throughout the massacre.      Shaylee Atary, the mother of a one-month-old baby, described being hunted by the Hamas terr
Read more

Please keep your lord out of my mammogram

-
Image
The weirdest thing happened to me a few weeks ago when I was getting my mammogram. My right breast was being gently shmooshed by the technician and I told her I was grateful to her for being so skillful and not causing me excruciating pain as has happened in the past with less skillful people.   Her response:  “I’m so glad to hear that. But don’t thank me -- thank Jesus.  Now please lean a little more forward and to the left. Perfect.  Excellent.  Now hold your breath a few secs so I can get my photo.”   I did what I was told, while feeling more than a little weird about her Jesus comment.   When she came back she set my breast free and proceeded to tell me about how hard her life had been until two years ago. She said she’d had a rough childhood and kept making bad choices when it came to men. She was a single mom of a teenage boy who was getting into trouble.  Then she found her church, her pastor, and Jesus and things became so much better.   “When you’ve found Jesus and you know yo
Read more

Wish you were here

-
Image
When I was little my father would sometimes take me and my little brother to a place that the English speaking natives of Cape Town, South Africa referred to as The Gardens .  I liked wearing my sailor dress and sunhat and always remembered to bring a brown paper bag filled with breadcrumbs.   Our first stop was usually the dinosaurs at the National History Museum, where I'd stand and stare with a mixture of horror and fascination at the huge beasts tearing at each other and leaving bloody wounds. Then we'd stroll through the rose gardens, inhaling the perfume of a thousand flowers.  Voices speaking languages I couldn't understand blended with the buzzing of bees. Table Mountain, with its tablecloth of white clouds, loomed against the brilliant blue sky and served as the perfect backdrop to the roses in their gaudy summer splendor.  Next, we'd continue along shaded pathways to the aviary, which housed a few scruffy parrots that refused to talk to me. I got a much more e
Read more