Being Healthy
Without Prejudice
I have to put health at the top of my list. Its practical which suits me, and cheap, which also sits well with me as being stingy is the new black, as is being green, recycling, saving and being as happy as you can with a whole lot less. Some people can make it in to an art form and it's a lifestyle I admire as its basic, simple and makes you happier than anything else.
I have at least 3 friends who are frugal and they are smart people. They just love to save money wherever they can and good for them, they say it's a life time habit. I had parents that spent money on high days and holidays and not too much on what was practical. They could be zany and funny but totally irrersponsible with money.
We had to move all the time, simply sometimes because the bills had added up. We kids found that a pain in and hated having to pack up and move schools. It was a big strain on us all. One we were not to forgive our parents for, even though in some ways the experiences we had were amazing. And I thank them both for trying their hardest, they were caring parents and their children were their lives.
But we suffered with the many moves and it's not a good thing for a child, especially a highly sensitive one like me. I was always going to be nore affected than the others, younger, smaller but I found I liked to observe and then write it out later. It helped me with understanding and books were my escape from often harsh reality. I can't begin to tell you what it was like to escape to the lands of the Water Babies, the banks of the cool river of the Wind In the Willows.
My imagination soared above the hot fibro houses we lived in and flew to cold England with shivering kids in the snow. Jane Eyre was a favourite, even at 7 or 8 I could "see" the orphanage and the huge house with the mad woman in the attic. Then I was on the Mississippi banks and boats with Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn and I was Becky. I was Annie Oakley, Katie from what Katy Did and Jo from Famous Five.
I wanted gorse bushes to abound in our dirt backyard, devoid of any plants, save for the sweet violets that grew under the tap at the side of the house, and green mint and I would bury my face in the moist violet cachous smell of the violets and imagined them crystallised on cakes I had read about at rich parties, while I
The Little Matchstick girl pressed my nose to the window of sumptuosness of food and life. I could stare in at jellies and sweetmeats, goose and roasted vegetables when my reality was hunger most of the time.
And grinding poverty. It wasn't too bad where I was as everyone was pretty much poor and being poor was not in itself an excuse, it was normal. That is, it was up to a certain age, and then it was just a pain. Mum and Dad didn't like others to "think,we weren't doing "well" so there was a lot of ducking and weaving to hide it. Our impoverished state. But we couldn't hide it and I can remember the burning shame of some of it from very young.
To be Continued .........
I have to put health at the top of my list. Its practical which suits me, and cheap, which also sits well with me as being stingy is the new black, as is being green, recycling, saving and being as happy as you can with a whole lot less. Some people can make it in to an art form and it's a lifestyle I admire as its basic, simple and makes you happier than anything else.
I have at least 3 friends who are frugal and they are smart people. They just love to save money wherever they can and good for them, they say it's a life time habit. I had parents that spent money on high days and holidays and not too much on what was practical. They could be zany and funny but totally irrersponsible with money.
We had to move all the time, simply sometimes because the bills had added up. We kids found that a pain in and hated having to pack up and move schools. It was a big strain on us all. One we were not to forgive our parents for, even though in some ways the experiences we had were amazing. And I thank them both for trying their hardest, they were caring parents and their children were their lives.
But we suffered with the many moves and it's not a good thing for a child, especially a highly sensitive one like me. I was always going to be nore affected than the others, younger, smaller but I found I liked to observe and then write it out later. It helped me with understanding and books were my escape from often harsh reality. I can't begin to tell you what it was like to escape to the lands of the Water Babies, the banks of the cool river of the Wind In the Willows.
My imagination soared above the hot fibro houses we lived in and flew to cold England with shivering kids in the snow. Jane Eyre was a favourite, even at 7 or 8 I could "see" the orphanage and the huge house with the mad woman in the attic. Then I was on the Mississippi banks and boats with Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn and I was Becky. I was Annie Oakley, Katie from what Katy Did and Jo from Famous Five.
I wanted gorse bushes to abound in our dirt backyard, devoid of any plants, save for the sweet violets that grew under the tap at the side of the house, and green mint and I would bury my face in the moist violet cachous smell of the violets and imagined them crystallised on cakes I had read about at rich parties, while I
The Little Matchstick girl pressed my nose to the window of sumptuosness of food and life. I could stare in at jellies and sweetmeats, goose and roasted vegetables when my reality was hunger most of the time.
And grinding poverty. It wasn't too bad where I was as everyone was pretty much poor and being poor was not in itself an excuse, it was normal. That is, it was up to a certain age, and then it was just a pain. Mum and Dad didn't like others to "think,we weren't doing "well" so there was a lot of ducking and weaving to hide it. Our impoverished state. But we couldn't hide it and I can remember the burning shame of some of it from very young.
To be Continued .........
