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Gratitude is a Super Power!

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I am grateful to be looking at gratitude yet again this blog!
Gratitude is an awesome superpower. I read recently that one of the most powerful statements you can make, feel or think is ‘thank you’. Thank you to others and yourself too.
 
It is so helpful to remember to be thankful to all those people in our lives who have been motherly, kind and caring toward us, including of course our own maternal mothers, to whom we owe so much, including our lives. Remembering to be thankful to friends, family and strangers too for the kindness they show us in all sorts of ways is powerful to promote our happiness and peace of mind. We'll talk more about gratitude for mothering kindness next blog, as it will be Mother's Day weekend. I'll be on board travelling from Canberra to Sydney!
 
It is also great to be thankful to others who give us the opportunity to be kind to them. This includes, friends, family, pets, strangers and of course our children or anyone we care for.

It's great to remember to tune into our wise selves to be kind and thankful to ourselves too. Seeing ourselves be a positive force in the world, being kind and grateful creates a happy perception. We can reinforce this goodness by being thankful to ourselves. We can be grateful to ourselves for doing our best to be a kind, positive force in the world. Remembering also to forgive ourselves and others for all those so called ‘mistakes’, more helpfully known as learning opportunities. 
 
The opportunities to extend kindness do not always come in the ways we expect and sometimes these kind acts are received without thanks. I find it helpful to thank myself, especially during those times like when I have spent a lot of time and effort doing something like making a family meal which is received with 'I don't like this!' Resting in my intention to have prepared a healthy meal and thanking myself helps to prevent resentment. A space I  have known very well. 

Sometimes extending kindness, especially as parents, can be in the form of a strong boundary like ‘please, don’t speak to me like that’, or ‘no, you can’t do that’. Such Kindness always has the intention to protect others from harm.

I can remember the need for such a strong kind boundary many years ago when I needed to enforce the ‘no sleeping with phone rule’ with my then thirteen-year-old. As I was saying goodnight to them, I discovered the phone under their bedclothes. I removed the phone and there was much subsequent protesting.  I needed to check in with my wise self to remember that my intention was to prevent harm and for them to get a good night’s sleep. I was then able to thank myself for being courageously kind, as the protests continued.  
 
More about gratitude and its awesome benefits next blog.
With love, appreciation and very best well wishes to us all 


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Knitting Connections

6/13/2017

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​What do you love to do? I love crafty things and have always enjoyed learning new crafts, crotchet, knitting, macrame (back in the 70's), sewing,embroidery and patch work. I think my passion for the handicrafts and cooking and love of practicality drew me to study Occupational Therapy and teaching. I am extremely grateful to all those kind people who have patiently taught me and connected with me over handicrafts.

I haven't always been so grateful though, and clearly remember when my teacher introduced me to fellow students at a US retreat as 'Maree from Australia, who enjoys the homecrafts; I was embarrassed.' Couldn't he have said  that I had been studying for the past eight years and was training to be a yoga teacher? I realise now that connecting through what I love feels right and am now so happy to be Maree, who enjoys the homecrafts.

As director of POM, as a friend calls me, I have the opportunity to share homebaked, heartfelt wisdom through weekly blogs, yoga, handicrafts, cooking and community connection and I am extremely grateful to you all for sharing with me. Hope you can join me for our POM Crafternoon. 

I come from a long line of handicrafters. My maternal Grandmother was a mother of ten and somehow managed to feed and clothe them all, and many friends and neighbours too, through sewing, knitting and cooking. My paternal Nan, was a tailor and loved to knit and crotchet too. I have lovely memories of being by her side in her 'granny flat' at our home in Footscray where she would be yelling encouraging words at the 'tranny', to her Bulldog or Cat footy boys. She taught me how to make a granny square and I made a gigantic one from her scraps of wool. I loved crocheting that rug and was so happy with it and the time I shared with Nan.

My mother was also a fantastic homecrafter and was an amazing teacher of all things craft and cooking. Like her mother she sewed and knitted all our clothes as kids. I can remember not being so happy or grateful about this at the time and longed for something from a shop. One Christmas Mum cleverly sewed a label on a nighty she had made for me. I remember being so excited. Now I am able to be so grateful for all she did and for her patience and kindness in teaching me too. 

My love of craft has brought others and myself so much joy. Even if it is just to provide a laugh. Like when I knitted my then boyfriend and now husband a Ken Done jumper complete with bright Australian animals everywhere. It was very long and thin, more like a tunic really, with one arm puffy at the shoulder and slightly longer than the other. Needless to say that jumper never made it back from the UK, but has provided us all with lots of laughs.

I find knitting very relaxing and for me it has drawn many beautiful connections. Like when we went on a camping road trip to central Australia with two other families, comprising of 8 young primary school boys and toddler Alice. I decided to make our car tech free! I can't imagine what technology was back then , but I think maybe gameboys and nintendo were the go. Anyway, much to our boys' horror our car was the guessing game, drawing and knitting car! Surprisingly the knitting caught on and pretty soon all the boys were knitting scarves. It was such fun to sit around the campfire at night all knitting together. Often on our lunch stops there would be plenty of mishap corrections and off we'd go again.  I was so happy to see my son Sam recently pack the scarf he had knitted during that trip in his bag for Germany. Pity he didn't remember to pack his passport too. 

Another wonderful knitting opportunity came when our daughter's chemistry tutor Nick asked me to teach him to knit a beanie for his girlfriend. I was delighted to assist and we formed a little group of first year Uni. boys who successfully knitted beanies for their girlfriends. What fun we had.

And more recently a lovely friend of mine Rosie, kindly asked me to knit a couple of teddies for her grand nephews, through POM. I was so happy to do them on our recent road trip and combined them with an eye-pillow, bag, and crocheted cotton washcloth and soap in a 'new parents POM pack'. You can see it pictured above and on the website pom-melbourne. I dropped them off on my 'Patience Limbo' Tuesday, when I got the right address! I shared a lovely time with Rosie and her daughter and they kindly encouraged me to get the POM Crafternoon up and running. I must admit, unlike many extremely talented crafters including my Mum, Meredith, my sister in law, and various other friends, I know only the basics but would be so happy to share and connect with anyone interested in coming along. I plan to run them every Friday from 2-4pm and every 2nd and 4th Sunday of the month, also from 2-4pm. Please see the dates for the next couple of months on the flyer above. 

Have a great week 
Thank you all once again for your continued support, friendship and generosity. And thanks to Tara who kindly edits these blogs for me each week. You may have noticed the use of grammar and spelling has greatly improved over the past months!
Kind Regards and Best Wishes 
Maree xx ​
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