Life

Larissa Dann

The Christmas break. I set myself two main tasks: help the family prepare for Christmas; and clean out the garage. You know, declutter. I found, however, that Nostalgia became my subverting companion in these missions.

Larissa Dann.

Slipping the key into the lock, I turn the handle, and step into times past. Immediately, I inhale the scent of my mother’s life, captured forever in the carpet, the cupboards, the air contained within the walls of her home.

Only – it’s not her home anymore. This house (once a home) is a museum for family memories.

I was fortunate to be interviewed by Hunter Clarke-Fields on bringing up children using gentle, mindful parenting from Parent Effectivness Training. Here is her introduction:

"Have you ever wondered what it would be like if you could look into the future and see the results of mindful parenting?

I gaze at my son across the table. His lean face concentrates on the screen in front of him, the lower half of his face covered carefully in just-the-right-length male fuzz. He looks up and his blue eyes pierce mine, trusting and innocent in their expectations of our relationship. His tenor voice fills me in on the current difficulty he is having booking a flight.

My child. My boy. My young man. My son.

I am as awed now as when I first met this person newly emerged from my body.

My Baby.

Larissa Dann

When someone you know has had cancer, please be mindful. There is never really a ‘had’ when cancer is involved. ‘Had’ implies finished, final, gone.

‘I had cancer’ is not like ‘I had a cold’.

Being in remission is not the same as being cured.

Why are my children always on their phone? Why can't they just put the phone down and read a book?  I'll never understand their need for their devices!

These were my constant thoughts and frustrations with my children and their phones.

That is, until the day I lost my own smart phone. Then I discovered my own frightening depth of attachment to this inanimate object.

Larissa Dann 25th April 2017 (updated 27th April 2017)

By Larissa Dann.  5^th April, 2017.

A week before writing this blog, a dear friend of mine died suddenly and unexpectedly. Her death has shaken me to my core.

As I sat writing for her memorial service, I read and re-read my final paragraph.

‘Thank you.  For everything.  For being your complex self, and a supportive friend. I’m so sorry I never thought to say this to you earlier.  Thank you.’

By Larissa Dann.

(printable version of questions here)

For me, the day my father celebrated his 85^th birthday was particularly poignant.  He had had metastatic cancer, two hip replacements, pneumonia and numerous other hospital stays over the last 18 months.  I did not think he would make the distance.