Mary Atkins Author | Writer

Mary Atkins Author

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21.01.2022 This remote island country in the South Pacific Ocean has a scant Kiwi population of 4.1 million and is home to the unbeatable All Black Rugby team. New Zealand may be small but the Kiwis lead the world on many human rights issues. In 1840 the Waitangi Treaty was signed giving Maori and the European alike equal rights. It was the first country in the world to give women the vote in 1893 and in 1899 the first country to introduce the 8-hour day. This youngest country in the wo...rld spawns pioneers. It is the scene of possibly the first flight ever made by man - Richard Pearce flew his homemade aircraft 150 yards in early 1903. Legendary Auckland born Sir Edmund Hillary was the first man to reach the summit of Mount Everest in 1953. Lesser known but just as remarkable is the achievement of Ernest Rutherford, known as the father of nuclear physics, who won the Nobel prize for chemistry in 1905 and more recently 28 year old Eleanor Catton the youngest woman ever to win the prestigious Man Booker Prize for her second novel 'The Luminaries.' New Zealanders credit their innovation and successes to their country’s isolation and their ‘can-do’ attitude to life. The term ‘Number 8 Wire’ is common usage in the New Zealand vernacular. It is Kiwi shorthand for a bloke or a 'blokess' who can turn his/her hand to anything. It is believed that with a length of a Number 8 baling wire and some string they can fix anything. And if you want to see examples of # 8 Wire ingenuity at its best visit director Sir Peter Jackson and special effects guru Sir Richard Taylor’s home base at Miramar a suburb of Wellington. It would be easy to miss Weta Cave as it is situated in a timber house typical of the area. But inside you will find a museum and workshop. The Weta companies provide the magic of special and digital effects used in a string notable movies - Avatar, King Kong, Lord of the Rings Trilogy, Chronicles of Narnia and The Hobbit. But all this innovation and cleverness is now a whimsicality compared to the nation's latest achievement. Which was shown in their powerful reaction to the minority faction of their population who suffered most grievously from a crime of hate. For a little country, the size of California, and with a population of 4.5 million, their new turn of phrase 'We are one,' coined by their PM Jacinta Arden, is reaching out around the world. And the world is listening. Once again New Zealanders are leading way -- this time with demonstrable displays of humanity, tolerance and love.

19.01.2022 This quote was in response to watching my grand-daughter's netball team in action. But reading it today it gave me the kick in the bum I need to get back to working on my second novel. I have a smidgin of natural talent and am at one when writing, but to make it eminently readable I have to determinedly learn more and more about the craft of writing. Equally I have to take the critique of my work with detachment. But most importantly I have to FOCUS on the end result of connecting with my reading audience.

18.01.2022 So good to be reminded today of this powerful review of A Journey of Creative Healing xx

18.01.2022 It is so good that today’s modern parents are conscious of the importance of speaking positive messages to their children. Like ‘I love you,’ ‘I'm proud of you,’ ‘excellent work,’ ‘you are special,’ ‘what a clever little girl/boy you are’ and more. Studies report that this positive re-enforcement style of parenting not only helps build a child's sense of self esteem but also acts as a valuable tool when trying to modify a child's behaviour. But I wonder though that somet...imes parent’s, anxious to do the right thing, are in unnecessary overdrive when it comes to praise. Seemingly voicing uplifting phrases that are without merit. From my experience kids are much more savvy than we give them credit for, they know at a deeper level when an affirmation is sincere or it is simply trotted out because parents think this is an essential part of good parenting. So I speculate that it is more than possible that the 'should/must praise' him/her words become trite to the child and in so doing lose their value. Also are we teaching a child to become dependent on others validation with this steady stream of this soft messaging in their early development ? Don't get me wrong I do believe wholeheartedly in the value of positive reinforcement but I question the hollowness of approbation for the sake of approbation. Much as we want o protect our children there are times when reality checks need to be absorbed by children as they grow. Such as the bewildering dynamics of school life absorbing not only the three R’s but also learning to interact with teachers and other children. These are the stepping-stones to puberty and adulthood. I believe the gift of real love comes from time and energy given to them not from just mere words. This will enable them to handle life's hiccups much more so than 'you done good.' I remember my mother taking my hand as a small child and with a light touch ran her finger around the palm reciting 'round and round the garden like a teddy bear, one step (moving her finger up my arm) two step (eyes meeting mine as her finger crept higher towards my armpit) three steps and tickle you under there.' Love flew sparks around the room as I fell into her arms giggling. I did not need to hear the words ‘I love you,’ ‘I'm proud of you,’ and ‘you are special.’ I was secure in the knowledge that I was loved. Love that she showed me in so many different ways has stood me well throughout my life. It has taught me resilience in the face of adversity. And surely isn’t resilience one of the greatest gifts we can give our children?

17.01.2022 Writer and anti-aging champion Ashton Applewhite's 19 minute Ted Talk 'Let's end Agism' should be compulsory viewing.

17.01.2022 Recently I found myself buying into the whole enchilada of fearfulness about this wretched COVID 19. I imagined an asymptomatic carrier could have done my grocery shopping for my home delivery. What he or she touched I then touched and then my face.. Ghastly images arose of not being eligible for a ventilator and dying in an overflowing hospital corridor, with no loved one by my side. I am sure a lot of older folk have dabbled in this terror as the Mums and Dads are sick wit...h worry about loss of jobs and how to pay the mortgage. Fortunately I am an optimist and bounce back from the negative fairly quickly. I knew I had been here before, fifty plus ago when I battled the fear of the affects of chronic disease and my ability to cope when I was a single mother of two infants. In my memoir ‘A Journey of Creative Healing,’ I write about the six steps I took in recovering from six years of ill health coupled with the loss of my husband in a plane crash to return to good health both physically and mentally. I think these beneficial common sense steps are even more relevant today in helping us to deal with this ‘unprecedented’ threat to our health and livelihood Each of these homespun steps that I attribute to my healing has a body of scientific evidence to support them. So over the next six days I will post each step and give you mine and other more academic views, which illustrates its value as an action that will help with our ability to cope with the terror of this COVID 19. Of course any cynics may think this is opportunistic, a way of promoting my book, yes of course it is, but hand on my heart I know that these actions helped me overcome one of the most difficult times of my life, and I believe it is important that I share these. Keep watching my posts for all of the steps. Tomorrow is Step 1 ACCEPTING RESPONSIBILITY See more

17.01.2022 I love working with my intuition when writing a blog post. This blog written seven years ago is worth repeating today. Sometimes my intuition is quite perverse, nominating a subject that requires a more knowledge that I have in my limited understanding. This time the knowledge I thought, underline thought, was needed was physics and meteorology. But that little person working my intuitive state would brook no argument and said firmly UPDRAUGHT. So I googled updraught and it... said 'hot air heated by the ground rises' (yeh hot air rises that’s a taken) 'and expands when it meets the descending cool air.' There was an interesting Youtube from Germany called Witches of the Updraught about the top 50 women glider pilots. Updraughts are a danger to aircraft but . I was really resisting this subject. I decided to leave it and put the washing on instead. As I dropped a pile of tea-towels in the machine, it came, the memorable image of Marilyn Monroe standing over a New York subway grate with her skirt billowing up from the updraught of a passing train. ‘Seven Year Itch’ was the film co-starring Tom Ewell. Forever I have been a MM fan. Her family had a history of mental illness and her childhood was spent in eleven different foster homes and a year in an orphanage. At the age of sixteen she married James Dougherty to avoid being sent to yet another foster home or being returned to the orphanage. No wonder they called her complex. She was far more intelligent than people imagined and had highbrow crushes on Albert Einstein and, long before she married him, Arthur Miller. She loved dogs, did yoga, read the classics and was an excellent cook. The FBI listed her a communist sympathiser and many people, still today believe she was murdered rather than having committed suicide. My all time favourite film of hers was 'Some Like it hot.' She found it incredibly difficult to learn lines and rumour has it that she took sixty takes over the line ‘It’s me sugar.’ Still today Monroe is my idea of the ultimate screen goddess, a beautiful face and full body; the scrawniness of today’s stars with their sculptured muscle tone I find disturbing to say the least. I, like millions of other fans, loved her vulnerability, her childlike yearning that round the next corner was the love of her life, a chance of fulfilment and happiness. This so brazenly obvious when wearing nothing but a spectacular illusion of a beaded dress as oblivious to the rest of the world and Jackie K, and sang to JFK in her little breathy girl voice 'Happy Birthday Mr President.' Now my head is filled with Elton John singing ‘Candle in the Wind. Good bye Norma Jeane.

16.01.2022 A couple of years ago I had a 'trigger finger.' Randomly, and without me being aware, the first joint of my little finger fell inwards to lay flat on the palm of my hand. There to stay like some mute testament to a neat amputation until I noticed it and physically pulled it out straight again. It did not hurt but it was disconcerting. ‘My word that’s a perfect trigger finger,’ said the ultrasound tech upon examination. Secretly I was chuffed after all it’s quite a interesting...Continue reading

16.01.2022 My friend George is a quiet contained serious sort of man, the kind of person that you know instinctively if you told him your most shameful secret he would nod sagely and take it to his grave. If you had to describe him using one adjective it would be respectful. But his alter ego is a complete contrast. In his free time he is a clown, big bold and brash. He adopts the role of an auguste clown, like Cam in Modern Family, and wearing his signature make up, baggy clothes and ...a red nose he entertains children in hospitals. Now I see George in a new light. The perimeters I had drawn for him dissolved. He was no longer confined to one-dimensional George, the considerate, trustworthy decent bloke. Here was a man with a twinkle in his eye, a sense of outrageousness and hilarity. The trick is scratching the surface of those that you meet. Bothering to go beyond their front of house character they have adopted to fit in to the world. George needed length of tenure of the friendship to disclose his heart, with others it was simple to get glimpses of their hearts through actively listening to them. The hard ones are those people that give you cause for a pinch of dislike or jealousy, that really takes a commitment to see their authentic side. George pulled me up short because I’m often banging on about people putting my persona into a neat little box. And yet here I was in all my wisdom limiting his greatness. Good lesson for me and I’m sure there will be many others before I actually lie prone in my box.

16.01.2022 Regrets I have a few, but most too personal to mention. It would be a rhino-opic wallow in the muddy waters of the ego if I indulged these tales of remorse. But one regret that bares writing about and should not exploit the reader’s emotions is that why did computers come so late into my life to try me? I have just spent three hours getting my old Apple I Phone to sync with my new very smart 7.06 model. Am I talking your language? Cause if so I need you in my life. The saga... is too long, too complicated and would bore you but if I say old software not only on my computer but on the phone, needed upgrading, computer not compatible with new upgrade, phone in two different names . You, who cheerfully and confidently punch a couple of keys to fix any techo problem would know how to fix this in a jiffy. I learned to type on the metal rimmed keys of an old Remmington typewriter that besides ripping the quicks from your finger nails it needed the strength of Samson to depress the keys to leave their metal imprint on the page. You could say I am like stone-age man who has been given a box of matches and a packet of fire-lighters where all he has ever known is the act of rubbing two sticks together to make fire. I am completely challenged when it comes to understanding how a computer works, the penny dropping moment of understanding is hard won. In my defense I do try. It’s just that I seem to come to the solution so tardily. We used to call it Sod’s Law in my day that you tried every way but which way before success came. Still I did it! I transferred, strike transferred, I synced all my data from one mobile to the newie. I can put the frustration behind me until the next challenge. Then once more I will say but not in a shy way regrets I have a few. See more

14.01.2022 All the lovely and mega talented writers I had the honour of working with on my last cruise on the Holland America Line Eurodam around the Hawaiian Islands. So much joy in encouraging them to get their work into the world. Am off again this week to repeat the voyage and meet new aspiring writers.

13.01.2022 Do you remember as a child singing and dancing to this nursery rhyme? 'Ring-a-ring-a roses, A pocketful of posies, A-tissue, A-tissue, We all fall down' Supposedly the rhyme comes the time of the Great Plague in 1665. A rosy rash was one of the first symptoms, sneezing and coughing the final fatal symptom before you dropped down dead. Baa-Baa-Black Sheep origins come from the medieval wool tax of 1275 while Three Blind Mice with the Farmer’s Wife who cut off their Tails wit...h a Carving Knife was in all probability Queen Mary 1 who had three Protestant bishops burnt at the stake and the allusion to blindness refer to their Protestantism. Georgie Porgie Pudding and Pie - rumour has it that it has its basis in a gay scandal involving Charles 1. Jack and Jill now here is a dark and ghoulish tale, refers to the beheadings of the French King Louis and Queen Marie. Evidently after beheading the head and body are alive for eight seconds so during that brief time the person can still see and the executioner holds up the head so that it knows it is detached from the body. With a brief search of the internet I have only found one that is seemingly innocent, 'This little Piggy went to market,' you know the one where it goes 'Wee, Wee, Wee all the way home.' It seems that nursery rhymes were the medieval equivalent of our social media, a seemingly innocent vehicle to quickly spread the message.

12.01.2022 Step 2: Understanding Life has to Change Pretty obvious eh? Our lives have already in few short weeks changed dramatically. Following on from Step 1 we are in a better head and heart space having accepted ‘our lot.’ Like Pavlov’s dog we practice social distancing, our hands are hopefully and constantly hot-water-soaped lickety-split clean and we are staying home. And as we settle into our lockdown we have time to reflect on life. Like I did half a century ago, you may determi...Continue reading

12.01.2022 TODAY MARKS THE 75th ANNIVERSARY OF THE END OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR - in recognition I give you a teaser from my new novel, a family drama set in England during the WW11. Deadline for publishing early 2021. Note: Morrison Shelter is an indoor air-raid protection steel cage. 'THE sound of bombers overhead seemed more threatening tonight. Livia listened intently to the familiar thud of the bombs hitting their targets over London. She must have nodded off for a while as s...he was woken by the sound of the aircraft heading back to the Fatherland. The noise of the engines was less intense now their deadly cargo had been jettisoned. Livia breathed a sigh of relief knowing that the all-clear siren would go soon. She closed her book and plumped her pillows ready to snuggle down. A screeching whistle came, the floor shuddered beneath them and the dining door blew open and then slammed hard shut. The glass of the taped windows exploded, pop- pop-pop, sending silvery shards into the Morrison shelter. In a searing white flash the curtains rose and stretched vertically from their curtain rods. Smoke whirled across the room. Livia snatched Marcella to her, folding her body around her still sleeping infant. She saw the flashlights pinpointing their way through the house, the wardens dodging the mangled masonry but with the ringing in her ears, she was deaf to their calls as they steadily made their way to HER.'

12.01.2022 Marion Jean Woodman was a Canadian mythopoetic author, poet, analytical psychologist and women's movement figure. I need to read more about her as this quote really resonates. She died in 2018 at the age of 89.

11.01.2022 On ABC the other day, I watched an interview with author Daniel Ziffer who recently published his book about Royal Commission into the misconduct in banking industry in Australia. An important book, an eye opening read for sure and one that is on my bucket-reading-list. But it was the title that captured me ‘A WUNCH OF BANKERS’ Such a clever spooneristic title for the startlingly shocking results found in this year-long Commission. A spoonerism is according to the Oxford... dictionary ‘a mistake in which you change around the first sounds of two words by mistake when saying them, often with a humorous result, for example 'well-boiled icicle' for well-oiled bicycle.' Named after the irreverent Reverend William Archibold Spooner (1844 1930) who studied and then lectured at New College Oxford for sixty years. He was not what you would call a handsome man he was small, an albino with a head too large for his body. He suffered defective eyesight, which may well have added to his verbal confusion. But he was clever, oh so clever and it is thought that his mercurial brain raced ahead that his tongue could not keep up, especially when he was agitated and so began his art of switching words around. A few of his delightful gaffs ‘kisstomary to cuss the bride,’ ‘a blushing crow’ (crushing blow), ‘the Lord is a shoving leopard' (loving shepherd,) and in a speech to Queen Victoria ‘I have in my bosom a half-warmed fish,’ (half formed wish) and when finally giving a toast to her majesty ‘three cheers for our queer old dean’ (dear old queen) You can only imagine how his students and congregation flocked to his services in the hope they could add to the list of his slip-ups. And of course his sermons gave them ‘soap in their holes.’ (Hope in their souls) So you have got the drift - on this grey day 'roaring with pain,' instead of 'chipping the flannels' my 'plaster man' is writing this blog. But now it is time for me to 'shake a tower' and 'chew the doors' and so that’s your 'looming blot' from me. Now it is your turn just 'boo your dest' and share 'derbal velights' with me. See more

07.01.2022 Any one who has read my book ‘A Journey of Creative Healing’ knows that I am an advocate for alternative healing that has the potential to work compatibly with orthodox healing. I have always been convinced that the power of music has the ability to heal, even more so after a Sound Therapy experience some twenty odd years ago Kimba Arem is an international recording artist and engineer, molecular biologist, classically trained musician and sound therapist. In addition to her ...Continue reading

06.01.2022 Travelling only in my dreams and to the bin and back so time to post a travel blog - written few years back titled Mindfulness in Ho Chi Minh. Ho Chi Minh, (Saigon as it was) is a destination where I could sense my neurons lighting up with alacrity as I observed the city street scenes embracing a culture so different from Australia with its sights, smell and sounds of Asia teasing you at every juncture. We had visited Vietnam once before, briefly on a cruise with day visits ...Continue reading

06.01.2022 STEP 1 ACCEPTING RESPONSIBILITY - IT IS WHAT IT IS. Psychologists will tell you that ACCEPTANCE will be always be the objective of therapy because without it no significant progress can be made. It was the fulcrum in my recovery from multiple sclerosis and the rawness of overwhelming grief over fifty years ago. . The world is in crisis and we are all struggling with fears of loss, abandonment and deprivation. IT IS WHAT IT IS. So for any real progress back to some form of nor...malcy we must Accept that IT IS WHAT IT IS. It takes no prisoners either physically or financially. It has little regard for a country’s economic stability. No regard for its victims either rich or poor, famous or commoners. (Prince Charles being the latest). It has no regard for the hardships that its ravages will bring to society. As Peter and I weather our voluntary imposed self-isolation (day-7) following two six-week cruises around Australia, we have come to terms with the unfolding progress of the disease in Australia. We acknowledge that our 14-day stint may well become substantially longer. But acknowledgement is very different on the emotional Richter scale to the inherent power of ACCEPTANCE. To come through this traumatic time in a well adjusted way we need to go beyond an intellectual understanding of its potential and really dig deep to face our fears and emotions. It takes a pinch of courage, of which I am sure you have a lot, to probe and investigate these fears. As we do it we should brook no stiff upper lip. No repressed emotions open up your bruised heart to rail and grieve. Unburdening ourselves will lead us to a deep level of Acceptance. Not always easily done but so worth persisting. You know you have achieved when the conflict is gone, or an old fashioned way of putting it is that you are spent. This heart felt place can help you see troubles through new eyes, the joy of loving others, the joy of nature, what about these butterflies we are seeing and today here in Peregian Beach the bell bird choir was awesome. Sometimes the worst of times can you lead you to the best of times. Recently I have fallen in love with the teachings of Jeff Foster, a young English teacher, an astrophysicist and now author of several philosophical books that lead us to our heart. Jeff expresses my conviction that we will view life differently and I will let his words do the work of inspiring you. ‘Life will eventually bring you to your knees. Either you’ll be on your knees cursing the universe and begging for a different life, or you’ll be brought to your knees by gratitude and awe, deeply embracing the life that you have, too overwhelmed by the beauty of it all to stand or even speak. Either way, they’re the same knees. Jeff Foster, Falling in Love with Where You Are Tomorrow: Step 2: Understanding that life has to change See more

04.01.2022 My latest blog - FOCUS ON THE GOOD STUFF In my book A Journey of Creative Healing I tell my story of how as a young woman, widowed with two infant children, I was diagnosed, with an aggressive form of multiple sclerosis. I had suffered random episodes of symptoms for a few years before these became too obvious to ignore. Intuitively I rejected the diagnosis. I felt that my illness was a reflection of traumas and challenges in my life and that my illness was a physical and...Continue reading

01.01.2022 Step 3: Not Buying into the Fear In my book, A Journey of Creating Healing, this step has to do with my rejection of the diagnosis of multiple sclerosis. In the 1960s little was understood about the disease and its prognosis was grim. My refusal to believe I had a disease of that magnitude stood me in good stead as I viewed my illness as a physical and emotional breakdown caused by shock of the loss of my young husband. But if I had accepted the diagnosis I believe the outco...me of a return to good health may well have been very different. This step of refusing to buy into the fear of the unknown is just as relevant in our COVID 19 world today. There is no other news that fills our screens, blasts from our radios and fills our newsprint than this virus. Government and health authorities discuss the plight every hour, every day. Hypothesising that if we keep on this trajectory there will be no beds for other medical needs, there will be a dire shortage of respirators. And it does not stop there, so many in our community are joining the long agonising queues at Centrelink and face dire financial stress. You would have to be living under a rock to not to be fearful. According to science our primordial part of the brain has an appetite for bad news. In fact this reptilian part of our brain is constantly scanning our horizon looking for anything that will threaten us. If it finds a nub of juicy danger it doesn’t send this through to the neo-cortex of our logical thinking. Instead lizard-synapses-firing it retains it, constantly edgy ready to initiate our fight or flight response. Put it simply we are addicted to bad news. Which, very nicely thank you, plays into our potential for the nocebo effect. Nocebo, (from the Latin I shall harm) is the counterpart to Placebo (I shall please). The Placebo has many ‘pleasing’ studies that show the benefits of a sugar coated pill but the Nocebo challenges even the most radical researchers for the obvious reason they could harm patients. But it is well recognised by the medical world that people develop symptoms or an illness by either suggestion or our own negative conditioning. In other words be careful what you wish for! The answer is simple make a real effort not to dwell in adversity. We know what we need to do to keep us safe, social-1.5m-distancing, washing your hands repeatedly and stay home. Restrict the amount of news you listen to. Try not to workshop with your bubble folk every questionable step those in authority make. Set your intention to embrace mindfulness and practice gratitude as in Step 2. Indulge in light-hearted movies, especially anything humorous, sex (if you are still up for it, okay double-entendre weak but hey hey) exercise, dance, sing or anything that will release the good chemicals into our systems. It was Franklin D Roosevelt, no stranger to adversity himself, who said ‘The only thing we have to fear is fear itself’