Blog everyday in May - a challenge

Last year to kick start this blog I participated in a blog challenge called 'Blog everyday in May'. The challenge was put together by Sunday Granger at LoveHappyDaily.com - a blog that has disappeared into virtual thin air.

As repetition is one of my favourite things I plan to do this challenge again. Would you like to join me?  You can play along either on your own blog or you can simply add a comment here each day. From May 1 I will have one of these linky things set up so please add your link.

This is the list of prompts that Sunday put together in 2014

Day 1 

Goal setting.  What are your plans for today?  (And/or this week?  This month?  This year?)

Day 2 

What’s in your cup?

Day 3

Write a Less/More list

Day 4

What’s a compliment you have been given that has stuck with you? Who gave it to you? When?

Day 5

Write a ‘How to’ post teaching everyone … well, how to do something! Cooking, crafting, or anything else that takes your fancy

Day 6

A favourite photo of you.

Day 7 

Where are you writing from today?

Day 8

Share a book that you’d like to read but haven’t yet.  What draws you to it?

Day 9

5 things you love on a Saturday

Day 10

A fashion, beauty or life tip

Day 11

Go for a photo walk.  (It’s a walk where you take lots of great photos and share them

Day 12

Tell us how your blog got its name (and tagline)

Day 13

Write a poem or piece of creative prose

Day 14

Make us laugh.  Share a funny story or picture.

Day 15

Create or share a poster, card or artwork that shares a message that inspires you.

Day 16

Blogging is about sharing the love.  Tell us about 5 blogs that you love reading regularly

Day 17

A day in the life.  Photo journal your day today

Day 18

10 things that make you happy

Day 19

What is your Dream job?

Day 20

Who inspires you?

Day 21

What’s on your plate?

Day 22

Share a video clip that you are loving at the moment.  It could be as simple as a song on YouTube or an inspirational speaker on TED Talks

Day 23

Write a post about a particularly good or controversial comment someone left you

Day 24

If you could have 3 people to dinner tonight, who would you invite?

Day 25

A list for the week ahead

Day 26

Invite someone to guest post for you

Day 27

Share a project you’ve been working on

Day 28

Family.  What do you love?  Best traits? What crazy genetics do you have in common?  Fave photo?

Day 29

What have you said ‘yes’ to today?

Day 30

Best advice you’ve received lately

Day 31

Gratitude

If anyone is still  in contact with Sunday please let me know. I'm really excited to revisit these prompts and I look forward to hearing how they inspire you too.

Happiness is the longing for repetition - Milan Kundera

What has meaning to you? Anzac Day 2015?

It has been a miserable day here - the greyest of grey skies, non-stop rain and a wintery temperature. Yet none of this appears to have dampened the general public's observance of ritual and tradition this ANZAC day.

ANZAC Day occurs on 25 April every year in Australia and New Zealand. Today is the 100 year commemoration of the ANZAC landing at Gallipoli in 1915. And the 'hype' through out the community and media has been big. Understandably so.

Yet I have approached this day with a mixture of ambivalence and trepidation. No buying of badges for me. No chatting with the oldies. No sentimentality here. Avoidance was my plan. Denial my overriding desire.

Why? I hear you ask. Well - this is the first year my child has been fully exposed to the ceremony of this event through the instruction of the educational institution she attends.  I was worried about her sensitivity to the facts of the occasion. I wanted to shield her from the harsh realities and horrors of both our present day and our past.

But what a great learning opportunity! I hear you suggest.  Here they argue 'young children will have an opportunity to understand the importance of this national day, and its role in building peace in communities today.' My child however had a lot of questions (and shed some tears) about war, guns, young men dying and 'baddies'. And yes this did give me the opportunity to allow her to speak of her anxieties and frame the day in a more child centred way.  

But I still feel angry. Actually I'm pissed-off. 

I'm pissed off that my child has begun the journey of the loss of her innocence. 

I'm pissed off that some random fourteen year old, thousands of miles away, thought it would be a great idea to behead a police officer at an ANZAC parade. 

I'm pissed off that 100 years ago thousands of young vital men of varied nationalities - and their families and communities - lost their innocence and hundreds more lost their lives. 

And what really sits under all my heated negative feelings?  I hear you wonder. The ever constant pain of grief.  I know I am not alone in my experience. Nor does it make me un-patriotic. Simply my meaning of this national day this year is separate from the masses.  I know my response is not fixed. It will change as I do. As we all do.

How has the anniversary impacted on you in 2015?  Let me know.

What a cruel thing war is... to fill our hearts with hatred instead of love for our neighbors - Robert E. Lee