Reverb10 December 26 – Soul Food

December 26 – Soul Food #reverb10 

What did you eat this year that you will never forget? What went into your mouth & touched your soul?

(Author: Elise Marie Collins)

I have pondered this prompt since it arrived yesterday and I truly cannot think of an answer!

While I have enjoyed many memorable meals in 2010, it has really been the people, not the food, which made them memorable. However, because of the 365 Project, I do have quite a few photos of food from this year, so I am just going to share them instead!

Reverb10 December 25 – Photo – a present to yourself

December 25 – Photo – a present to yourself #reverb10 

Sift through all the photos of you from the past year. Choose one that best captures you; either who you are, or who you strive to be. Find the shot of you that is worth a thousand words. Share the image, who shot it, where, and what it best reveals about you.

(Author: Tracey Clark)

November 12 2010

Mothering the Bride

Taken by my eldest daughter

At the nail spa, two days before the wedding.

I love fun. I love my children. I love to nuture.

Reverb10 December 23 – New Name

December 23 – New Name #reverb10

Let’s meet again, for the first time. If you could introduce yourself to strangers by another name for just one day, what would it be and why?

(Author: Becca Wilcott)

I think I am one of a rare breed of people who are quite happy with their name!

Sure, there are times when I wish I was "Jane Smith", but they are fleeting moments when I have to spell out my entire name for someone who couldn't care less what my name is and is just writing it down as part of their job. In fact, I am just happy when they spell it right!

My names (I have three given names in all!) were all chosen just for me, while my (younger) sister was named after both our grandmothers. I have always suspected this might indicate that one or the other would have liked me to have their name, however I am near the tail-end of 14 grandchildren on one side and 11 on the other, so there were plenty of other chances!

My father also had three given names and went through life known by the second, not the first. My mother  was nick-named after an aunt, which she preferred to what was, at the time, a very formal first name (Sarah!) which she didn't feel she lived up to. Names are funny things. As a genealogist, it is amazing to see just how many people go through life called something different to the name on their birth and death certificates, which makes it just a bit tricky for we poor family historians!

So i will stick with what I have, thank you all the same, because She is who I am!

Reverb10 December 22 – Travel

December 22 – Travel #reverb10

How did you travel in 2010? How and/or where would you like to travel next year?

(Author: Tara Hunt)

Travel is something I enjoy watching others do - travel books, travel blogs, travel films ... 

Exiting Wagga Wagga in June 2008 

Me, I don't really get to travel, not anywhere very far from home, I mean! Just the way life works out - as a child, we only traveled occasionally and then only to see family interstate. As a young adult, I was home raising babies when others went back-packing and then sacrificed luxuries like holidays to be a stay at home mum with them! Our immediate family all live close by, so there is no holiday travel needed and we have never felt the need to go north for theme parks etc. Ironically, my children have traveled further than I, having all done school trips to Central Australia and my eldest back-packed in New Zealand for two years. My husband is well-traveled for work purposes and has regular trips to Japan and around Australia - it is just me that has no real excuse to go anywhere!

But do not despair that my suitcase spends all its time gathering dust. I do manage the odd weekend away and have a love of long-distance train travel which I hope to indulge more in coming years. Who knows what my second adulthood will bring - perhaps I might even venture overseas in time! But that would bring about decision making of where, a task too difficult to imagine!

However, I must share the world trip I have been enjoying online for the past couple of years - a wonderful travel blog of a couple Going Slowly around the world by bicycle - a must-read!

Reverb10 December 21 – Future Self.

December 21 – Future Self.

Imagine yourself five years from now. What advice would you give your current self for the year ahead? (Bonus: Write a note to yourself 10 years ago. What would you tell your younger self?)

(Author: Jenny Blake)

In five years time, I will be 52, not terribly much different from being 47, just on the other side of 50!

I would tell myself to do that which I keep promising myself but finding reasons to put it off.

Ten years from now, I will be 57 - starting to think about turning 60! By then, my children will be in their thirties, which is more staggering! I guess the next decade will involve more weddings, new lives and major changes on the domestic front as everyone moves away from the family home.

I would tell myself to hang on and enjoy the ride!!!!

Reverb10 December 20 – Beyond Avoidance.

December 20 – Beyond Avoidance.

What should you have done this year but didn’t because you were too scared, worried, unsure, busy or otherwise deterred from doing? (Bonus: Will you do it?)

(Author: Jake Nickell)

I don't like the word should, so straight away this prompt made me uncomfortable. I can't help but notice a trend in the Prompts in this project that presume a starting point of disappointment in the year.

The two things I feel I have done less of this year than I would have liked are hardly life-shattering: reading and scrapbooking! LOL!

Reverb10 December 19 – Healing.

December 19 – Healing. #reverb10

What healed you this year? Was it sudden, or a drip-by-drip evolution? How would you like to be healed in 2011?

(Author: Leonie Allan)

Warning: this could be a bit deep and meaningful!

The journey up to and inclusive of my daughter's wedding in November was a time of sadness for me, as well as joy.

There was something missing, you see - my parents.

My father passed away in January 2003 - and in the days soon after this loss, I also lost my mother - but not to death.

My Aunty Dorothy - my father's sister
was with me at my daughter's wedding.

It is a very long story, of which I am weary of telling and choose not to go into here. But the short story is  I chose to sever contact with my mother and have not spoken with her since. In fact, it is several years since I have seen her and I have no idea of her whereabouts, or even if she is still alive. I cannot find out from other family members, as she is no longer in contact with any of them - children, grandchildren, siblings, nieces or nephews (just in case you thought it was just me!)

From the moment the engagement was announced, there was a missing piece. It is not that I lack family - indeed I have made an active effort to reconnect with cousins and aunts over these years. It was more the awareness that someone who should be there to celebrate was not - as a consequence of her own choices and actions.

On the actual wedding day, a candle was lit during the ceremony to remember those who were not there - specifically for the lost grandfathers of both bride and groom. But that moment was also one when I reflected once more that we were not the ones who had lost, rather my mother had lost so much. While we all still had each other, she had chosen to have no family in her life.

Scars may heal, but they do not disappear. However, they are part of the whole that make a life. A scar is a sign of recovery. And scars fade over time.

(If my mother happens to read this, please know you are missed.)

Reverb10 December 18 – Try

December 18 – Try #reverb10

What do you want to try next year? Is there something you wanted to try in 2010? What happened when you did / didn’t go for it?

(Author: Kaileen Elise)

There are always lots of things I want to try - of course, I can't think of them right now!

I would like to try exploring more art in 2011.

I would like to try to keep a gratitude journal - one idea is to do so via Facebook, making your first status update each day a statement of gratitude - I would like to try that.

In 2010, I did try - and succeed - to take part in the 365 Project and have taken a photo every day this year. I don't need to continue that into 2011, so I am looking for another project I can try.

Mostly, I will just try to make the most of every day!

Reverb10 December 16 – Friendship

December 16 – Friendship #reverb10

How has a friend changed you or your perspective on the world this year? Was this change gradual, or a sudden burst?

(Author: Martha Mihalick)

When this prompt appeared in my inbox, my heart actually went flip-flop! A friend? Singular? Out of the whole year? My friends change me and my perspective every day!

Then I thought a bit deeper and ended up realising it was my oldest friends of all - or, longest-known: old implies they are old or the oldest people I am friends with, neither of which is true - who continue to be my rocks.

This friendship circle was created in our first year of high school - S and I were already firm friends since I moved across the road from her when we were about 8, K had been at primary school with us both and J was in the same class as them when we all arrived at secondary school: I just came with the package!

Yvette with a camera has always been at hand!
Here we were about 17/18.

We were a "gang of four" over the next four years we spent at school, went on to party briefly as young adults and then all married in our early twenties. Various arrangements of bridesmaids in early 80s dresses! 

It is my wedding that is missing - there was a photo taken,
the first in the series, but sadly we can't find a copy

As three of the four started families (while the fourth starting a heart-breaking battle with infertility), we drifted away as we found our feet as independent adult women, staying in touch with Christmas cards and major life moments. It was not intended, perhaps not even realised, but our life paths took us in different directions, with some connection remaining close, while others stretched apart.

June 2008

Then when we were 30-somethings, we regathered and began meeting for lunch (about) four times a year, around each of our birthdays. Our children grew up (or never arrived :( ) and we nurtured each other through the highs and lows. We continued to get older, reaching our milestone 40th birthdays and soon looking back on them! We are now all approaching the next life-stage - menopause creates as many questions and answers as puberty did just a short time ago!

Three quarters of the circle - October 2010

All four marriages are still intact. Those same shoulders to cry on that got us through first broken hearts will be there again, with tissues and chocolate, if needed. Those with children are becoming grandmothers, mothers-in-law and empty-nesters, with new challenges that our mothers were faced with only a few years ago! Parents are aging or have gone, careers have paused, changed, stopped or never appeared.

Soon we will no longer by 40 somethings - how will our lives be when we pass the half-way mark? What will mid and later life bring? Most importantly - where will we next have lunch!

Reverb10 December 15 – 5 Minutes

December 15 – 5 Minutes #reverb10

Imagine you will completely lose your memory of 2010 in five minutes. Set an alarm for five minutes and capture the things you most want to remember about 2010.

(Author: Patti Digh)

Dear Yvette,

I hate to tell you this, but in five minutes you will lose all your memories of 2010, so I am trying to save them for you.

Okay - first things first! The most crucial thing you need to know about 2010 is the fact you captured a photo every single day to record it! So, even though you might lose your memory of the year, the memories are safe and sound! Just look here and all will be revealed! There are hard copies too, in a Project 265 scrapbook - hope they help!

But it has a been a big year and so filled with really important memories, it would be such a shame to lose them.

Your daughter Kaitlyn got married to Ashley on November 14, so a lot of the year was focused on this wonderful event. But there was a lot more.

You joined the Goddess Circle and met a lot of wonderful new friends and began to see the world from a new perspective.

You didn't read nearly as many books as you should have, but that's okay, because they are all still sitting there, waiting for you! If you can't work out which are Read or To Read - relax and go to Good Reads :) - phew, glad you did that work!

You didn't scrapbook as much as you thought you would, because you were busier creating memories than recording them. But that's also okay, as they are also patient. You can see what you did do here

You ate really well! Sometimes too well - this seemed to occur at coffee shops every time a wedding excursion took place! But mostly, you re-discovered your love for whole foods, learned you love raw foods and generally improved your eating habits - good for you!

You worked so hard! The Breastfeeding Centre you work at just continued to grow and thrive. You met so many lovely mothers and gorgeous babies - it is sad to lose those memories :(

And .........