Away With The Cows .
I’m off….to a place free of billboards. Buses wrapped in something to sell. Drive-throughs. Being stalked by bargain hunters circling for your spot. Pushed and shoved by commuters thick who’ve left their manners at home. Blasted for taking your time. Fingered for errors along the way.
No. I want to stand in hot, steaming cow poo in sloppy boots that scuff along gravel tracks. Sniff the coats of horses. Toss fans of grain to bossy chooks. Squirt full cream milk from an udder warm to touch – save some for the snow white cat. Poach an egg of bright, bright orange plucked straight from a nesting hen (which seems a touch cruel for a city slicking, supermarket savy sort). Doesn’t pay to think to long, so on and on I’ll go…
Bottle feed the orphan lambs yet to lose their tails. Stick grubby fingers into mouths of calves to fee the suckle of a spiky tongue. Dodge the hungry pegs of pigs in mud and mosh and slush. Say ‘hello’ to sweat and dirt – say ‘goodbye’ to clean. Wake to cock-a-doodle-do and moo.
And I’ll come back home feeling pleasantly stripped of all things urban and clean. With a John Wayne walk from long forest rides. Feeling oh, so pleasantly sozzled from lazy long days free of clocks and diaries oh so full. And no internet connection – eeeh haaa!
(Clunk & Jam book, 2019).
Baring Souls.
Below is a talk I presented from The Black Dog Project at Princess Margaret Children’s Hospital, Bridge’s inspirational evening, during Body Image and Eating Disorders Awareness Week, September 2008. Audience – patients, sufferers, carers, families, health professionals.
I think a lot of you here tonight would have heard of or know about The Black Dog Project so I’ve decided to step out from behind the Black Dog tonight and talk (uncomfortably) about myself. I’ll start by talking about what prompted me to change the focus of my talk.
On Monday I attended the launch of Body Image and Eating Disorder Awareness Week. One of the speakers was Chris Harris (a Psychologist from Princess Margaret Children’s hospital). Chris said something very simple yet quite profound. It was along the lines of;
“ . . . eating disorders are an indication that something’s not right. “
It was the ‘not right’ that made me sit a little taller in my seat. . . . his use of not right when he could have said ‘something’s wrong’.
Being diagnosed with having something wrong with you can feel much like being crushed into the carpet. I’ve been diagnosed with depression, anxiety disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, and post traumatic stress disorder. It was so refreshing to hear someone flip the whole ‘disorder’ business on its head with a slight change of words. And words are really that powerful, that significant, to who we are and how we feel. How we see and perceive ourselves and the world around us.
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Fat – A Dirty Word?
There are people you meet who have a profound impact on your life —Michael Levine is one of them. Recognized as an ‘eating disorders prevention expert’ he is much more. He is a ‘voice’, a window into the souls of women and girls through his sensitive articulation of the many issues that construct who we are. He is a conscience for men and boys, making this article an essential read for everyone.
Not only do his views have the potential for creating a better world but so too the experience of feeling his warmth; his depth of compassion and empathy; and most of all, his humility. The following article was written by Michael Levine for the Bronte Foundation newsletter ’Our Journey’ and Michael has kindly made it available to share on ‘Black Dog’. The article is presented in its entirety.
Article…
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