Community Spirit

On the weekend I helped cook 600 sausages at the boys’ school Athletics Carnival. I’ll be brutally honest here and say a large part of my motivation to do this was to make seven hours go a lot faster  I would dash out and see the boys do their event and then go back as did all the other helpers . We had so much fun chatting and cooking and selling a sausage in a piece of bread for $2…do you want onions with that?  I met new parents, I met old friends and we laughed and we were all their with a common goal of helping out and raising some funds for the Middle School section of the school. I left at the end of the day feeling really happy and with a sense of achievement as did the boys who got PBs for their events. 

Now I have just got involved in community activities because that’s what my family did. Dad belonged to the Yacht Club, mum helped out at school, I met my husband in amateur theatre and then when the kids started at kinder and school it was a natural progression to be involved. Sometimes it gets a bit stressful but 99% of the time it’s a really positive experience. It seems what I know intuitively has been given a name!

The University of Pennsylvania has a department called ‘Positive Psychology.’ It’s all about authentic happiness. What’s that? Well, it isn’t about what the media are constantly telling us makes us happy..thin, rich, stylish etc.  What it is about it is connecting with people. The research shows that when we give of ourselves we feel happier. 

I get a lot of letters about the towns in my books and the sense of community. Often the town comes together for the greater good and the fete in Miracle:Twin Babies is an example of this.  Miracle: Twin Babies is on sale now in Australia. You can grab it at Big W, Target, Kmart, Borders or online at Mills and Boon Australia.

Oh, and if you’re interested, take the happiness quiz at the Authentic Happiness site..it makes for interesting reading.

Father’s Day

                                                                           

Yesterday was Father’s Day ‘down under.’ It was a lovely spring day inbetween the rain showers so we took ten mintues to throw the esky, sausages, sauce and some salad into the car and we headed twenty minutes down the road to a National Park. We climbed 450 steps to the highest peak and surveyed the view. The canola fields are just coming into flower and the far flung paddocks of gold looked like flagss from the top of our volcanic outcrop. We saw eagles hovering and kangaroos hopping and then we raced down the steps much faster than we’d climbed them.

Boy wonder 15 isn’t home this year for FD (but he did write a letter) so boy wonder 11 was in charge. We fired up the BBQ and ate like Kings under the sunny skies. Nothing beats getting out into the bush