Sickness, Spring & Authentic Living in October
A monthly wrap up of life, gratitude, inspiration and writing.
Hello Friends!
I have changed this regular segment to a monthly overview.
Here's what you'll find in today’s newsletter:
A Piece of Life in Focus This Week
A little poem about sickness
Authentic Living This Week
Gratitude Corner - Chai Lattes, Vaccines, Overcast Days & Jacaranda Trees
Making Memories - Family Park Fun, Craft Day and a Halloween Party
Reality Check - Bad Hair Cut
Fiction Writing Progress & Learnings - Editing and Beta Readers
Inspiring Reads - Substacks and Audiobooks
Welcome to My Substack! My Name is Tania.
I invite you to join me on a journey of embracing authentic living. Through honest stories, personal insights, and reflections on authenticity, I seek to find the extraordinary in the ordinary. Subscribe for free & tap the ❤️ if you enjoy this post!
Life in Focus This Week
Coming out of Winter and into Spring, our household has been stuck in an endless cycle of sickness, so I wrote a poem about it. I’m sure many of you out there can relate!
Surrendering to sickness
Sweltering, scowling and shivering
Sprawled out and screaming
Scrunched up and silent
Sad, sore and scared
Snot, sniffles and stomach aches
Savouring soft snuggles
Somehow sustaining sanity
Sinking slowly into sickness
Authentic Living in October
This Substack series is devoted to everything that adds authenticity and realness to my life and I hope it helps you focus on the authentic joy you can create and experience in your day-to-day lives too.
Gratitude Corner: Finding Appreciation in the Everyday
Taking time to find things to be grateful for in everyday moments is a great way to stay grounded and remind yourself of the things that really matter.
This week I’m grateful for:
Chai Lattes. As someone who does not drink coffee (I’m one of those strange people who hates the taste of coffee, I know, weird right?) Chai Latte or Chai tea is my go-to drink of choice. It’s creamy, and spicy and cinnamon-ey. It is hard to describe the taste accurately, but it’s delicious hot and cold. I have now recently converted my mum into drinking this too. Is Chai popular outside of Australia? I’d love to know.
Vaccines. My youngest son recently had his 18-month vaccines, and after dealing with a range of mild to moderate illnesses with my kids recently, I’m especially grateful that my boys will not get the nasty near-death diseases that vaccinations protect them from. While the experience of getting my kids vaccinated is not pleasant, I know that initial pain is worth it in the long run.
Overcast Days. So it is Spring in Australia right now, but it’s already starting to feel like summer, and boy does summer hit hard here. Feeling the impact of this heat months earlier than we’d usually expect has me worried about what full-fledged summer will be like this year. So, with that in mind, overcast days are much appreciated. Those clouds keep the scorching sun at bay, drop the humidity slightly and transform the outdoors into a bearable place to be in the daytime. To give you an idea of what a full-sun, no-cloud day is like here on a hot day, standing on cement or bitumen for too long can burn the bottoms of your feet. So when the sun is periodically hidden behind clouds, we are all better off for it.
Jacaranda Trees. Every Spring here in Brisbane, the beautiful jacaranda trees that fill our city and suburbs are brimming with purple flowers. The large, overhanging branches clustered with bright purple-blue flowers are like our version of the cherry blossom trees in Japan. It’s a coveted natural Springtime event here and they sure are stunning to look at during our regular commutes. My son loves to spot and count them all while we are driving.
What are you grateful for this month?
Making Memories: Cherished Moments & Milestones
Making memories and recording them has always been incredibly important to me. Our memories tend to fail us, so keeping a record of precious moments enhances our memory-keeping abilities.
Here is my favourite memory from this week:
Family Park Fun: After a few weeks of illness, a Sunday afternoon in a shady park was just what we all needed. My 3-year-old soaked up daddy’s attention by throwing his blue wiggles ball down to daddy from the top of the big playground while I chased my 1-year-old as he scampered his little feet in, over and around every square inch of that park and playground. After being cooped up, he wanted to make good use of his little toddler muscles, and mummy’s too. I tapped out and did a child minding swap with daddy just as my 1-year-old thought that running towards the road and having daddy tackle him and lift him into the air to keep him safe was a hilarious game he insisted on doing over and over again.
Craft Day: It had been two months since having a craft day with my girlfriends. With everyone getting sick over winter at different intervals, it was to be expected. Having a few hours in my friend’s calm, quiet house with no kids, a delicious cheese board, good company and a relaxing craft to complete was much-needed therapy for my soul. I completed a few random art journal/junk journal collage pages with a folder full of papercraft supplies while two of my friends made complex Lego creations and the other knitted a rainbow scarf.
Halloween Birthday Party: We arrived at a new seaside playground on the other side of town for my nephew’s 5th birthday party. Picture a sprawling park and new playground next to calm lapping waters with a bevy of black swans bobbing on the surface in the distance and mangroves curved around the edges of the sandy stretch. Throughout the playground, young children dressed in Halloween outfits loudly ran, jumped and played on the pirate ship, trampolines, swing set, and slides. They climbed the large trees with thick, low-hanging branches and splashed in the water pump play area. It was a perfectly overcast afternoon in Spring. The shaded picnic table claimed as the hub for the party was covered in Halloween-themed decorations and snacks with an aqua-frosted birthday cake covered in gummy eyeballs in the centre. The boys had an absolute blast.
What memories have you made this month?
Reality Check: Navigating Life’s Challenges
Writing about or vocalising the tougher and less pleasant moments in life helps us process them and knowing we're not alone in these struggles is helpful too.
I got a new haircut, and while I’m glad to get the literal weight of it off my head and shoulders, due to the thickness of it (which my hairdresser said is equivalent to three heads of hair), I have not had much success getting a shorter cut that looks good on me, and this time was no different.
I asked for it to stay long enough to tie up. However, a few pieces of hair have been cut shorter to shape around my face. Those loose locks have been causing me trouble. Clips, headbands and little hair ties have all failed to keep these locks at bay, all due to a stupidly thick hair problem that’s given me a genetic disadvantage when using hair accessories.
Picture me trying to carry my screaming toddler out of a park with wind, whipping hair around my face, preventing me from seeing properly and nearly tripping over the uneven ground in the process. Recipe for disaster. So this is a trivial annoyance, and I know it. But at least it isn’t the worst haircut I’ve had, so I’ve got that going for me.
What do you feel like venting about this month? This is your safe space! No judgment here.
Fiction Writing Progress and Learnings
I’m currently focused on improving my fiction writing skills and working towards publishing my first novel. Follow me on my journey.
Editing is taking far longer than I anticipated, but that’s totally fine. It’s all part of the journey, right? I am going through the ‘make it make sense’ draft, where I tie off loose plot points and holes in my stories, and go deeper into the characters, setting and situation to make sure it all pops and ties back to the main theme and plot. I am aiming to get the editing done in the next few weeks and then I will get my story to beta readers.
If you’re interested in beta reading my Aussie Rom-Com story ‘Y2K Love’, and would enjoy having the opportunity to provide valuable feedback that will directly impact the outcome of this story before it’s ready for the world to read, please reach out and let me know :)
Inspiring Reads
Inspiration helps drive us to do more, be more and perhaps even take our lives in a whole new direction.
Substacks
Here are a few Substacks that enjoyed reading this month:
Why I’ve decided to self-publish my debut romance novel by
Many authors dream about the day they sign their first publishing deal. I’ve been dreaming about the day I self-publish my first book.
Fear is a part of the writing process. Fear of hitting that publish button. Fear of the post flopping. Fear of sub numbers rising and then falling. Fear of not being good enough. Fear will never go away, but if you like writing…if the necessity to share your stories or thoughts, or experience is greater than that fear, well then… I guess you’re a true writer.
I’m not supposed to have an agent or a book deal rn. I’m drafting. I’m currently in that “years and years” phase. I’m in my pre-book deal era!! And that’s exactly where I’m supposed to be.
How to describe mediocrity—it goes beyond being average, ordinariness, all of the bland, soulless words Miriam and Webster use. It’s the ticking time bomb in your ear, counting down how long you have in your lifetime to create something special.
Fiction Stories
I have gotten through quite a few fantastic audiobooks over the last month and a half. Here’s what I’ve listened to in order:
The Other Bridget by Rachel Johns: An enjoyable, light-hearted Aussie rom-com with some parallels to Bridget Jones’ Diaries.
Daughter of No Worlds by Carissa Broadbent: Book 1 of a well-written Fantasy series with a slow-burn Romance in the mix too.
A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J Maas: I have to say I loved the big battle scene at the end of this one. A couple of good twists and surprises which I enjoyed.
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin: One of my top reads of the year so far. What can I say? This is a deep story centred around video game creators with elements and thought-provoking scenes I still think about now.
A Court of Frost and Starlight by Sarah J Maas: A sweet and short Christmas interlude in the series. A simple, pleasant tale after the action and chaos of the first three books in the series.
It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover: Another favourite of mine so far this year. I get why it was made into a movie. The story was captivating with some really eye-opening elements to make readers aware of the harsh realities of domestic violence.
What books have inspired you this month?
Here are a few little quotes I plucked out of thin air for you this month x
Sharing is caring
Kindness, always
Just keep swimming
Please let me know what you think of my posts by leaving a comment below or reaching out to me in the app. If you enjoy reading this newsletter consider hitting subscribe. Have a wonderful day!
Thank you so much for sharing my post, Tania! 💖 The new monthly overview format is awesome.
And I'm sorry you and your family have been struggling with health lately. I hope everyone feels better soon!
Love the new format Tania ! 🙂