A description of me based on the things I pack to go away for one night
Pen, notebook, four books, laptop, kindle
I wrote my first novel after fighting with my brother and getting in trouble with mum. A short argument involving a vacuum cleaner and who should have done something with it led to100 foolscap pages being typed, single spaced, top to bottom and edge-to-edge on an old fashioned type-writer, with ribbon and clackety-clack keys that occasionally got jammed. It was a complete rip-off of Stephen Donaldson but a nice way to spend the summer holidays.
My first play was performed by the students of the country
school I went to for six-weeks while my parents were overseas. I was the
only grade six student. I was a city kid out of place in the country, unable
to shoot an air rifle or make good decisions on the football field. Why I
thought writing a play was a reasonable idea is anyone’s guess.
My second play, Noisy Bodies, was long listed for the George Landen Dann Award, run by Queensland
Theatre Company.
My third play, Kill the Wolf, won the 9 Minds 9 Works competition and was performed at The Black Box Theatre at Victoria’s Performing Arts Centre in 2008.
My prose has been published in a few magazines you’ve never
heard of and which I didn’t even bother to purchase myself.
I was lucky enough to be volunteering at Meanjin Literary
Magazine when my own submission made it through the slush-pile, so was able to
quietly reject myself.
I am currently working on writing down a lot of words in
the right order. The basic challenge.
I've completed a BA (Hons) in English and various
playwriting and screenwriting short courses, read lots of books, and still
think writing is hard but good work.
Five Fingers, running clothes, swimming gear, three tennis balls. (Optional: bike (or two), sea kayak, paddle, vest etc.)
Of course, the bikes and the kayak depend on how I'm travelling.
Getting on and off trains while travelling with fully-laden bikes from Verona in Italy to Nime (or was it Nice) in France was more an adventure than a nightmare, but it definitely showed that sitting on the bike and pedalling it is by far the easiest way to travel with it.
When (many moons ago) I tried to organise to get my kayak from Brisbane to Melbourne so I could race it in the old JLL Challenge, I was met at the airport with a simple, "No." One of those situations where it's just "No." No suggestions, no alternatives, no options. No. Can't be done, Go away. (I'm still convinced it was just one of those occasions where I was talking to the wrong person. Imagine if Olympians from all over the world couldn't take their gear with them...)
Three tennis balls are an invaluable resource for me when travelling. It means I can play any number of different games, and also practice juggling.
But all of them have in common the desire to enjoy being physical, to play, but with a certain attention to the experience which for me is all about mindfulness. What Buddha called "bare attention" - the spider's thread of awareness that means a person is engrossed in what they are doing, neither distracted but also not self-conscious or focused in a military, intense kind of way - that's the state of flow I'm interested in cultivating and sharing with others. For me it connects the playfulness of trying to juggle while balancing on a swiss ball with the calm flow of endurance running, cycling or paddling. It links the balance and flow of swimming with the same qualities in basketball and tennis. Nature, other people... That connection is what I'm interested in.
I grew up playing traditional sports: basketball, cricket and tennis, but anything involving a bat and ball, really. After 24 years of playing and 8 years of coaching basketball, I was introduced to Outdoor Education and followed that through into "adventure sports" like kayaking (marathon, whitewater and sea), rafting, climbing and snowboarding. In between, I rode my bike a lot, including from Sydney to Melbourne and around Italy and through France. I got my MA in Outdoor Education and started studying flow theory, which made a lot of sense. I did a few triathlons, adventure races and rogaines. As a teacher I taught circus, set up a fitness program and worked at being a better running coach - looking as always not just at running but how it affects a person's connections to themselves, to their communities and to the world around them.
I still run, do yoga, ride, swim and paddle, and the desire to understand it all through experience is still very much there. Looking carefully at how mindfulness extends flow theory and other modern ideas on the body is a passion. Live life.
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| More an ambition. |
Video camera
The new thing. A new way to tell stories. Look out. I'd love to capture more of the way people speak, the immediacy of their stories in the places they tell them.
Check out The Perfect Day Project for the main starting point for my documentary-making forays.
This also reflects my interest in social justice and the desire to connect people and generate empathy and understanding around the world. For an inspiring story about this check out this fantastic story about Barefoot Filmmakers in India. The power of story to change the world!
The main reasons I write this blog and have started metta.magazine and the Rotunda Writer's Network are to try to connect people and inspire hope, creativity and good will. I'm interested in Non-Violent Communication, Restorative Justice, Playback Theatre and a range of ways mindful and peace-oriented practices can take on the challenge of encountering other people, communities and the need for change in the world.
Food
Who doesn't take food!?