I turned 60 this month. It feels ridiculous.

It will be our first festive season without Dad. His past presence is felt deeply in his absence. I’ve been thinking about the great care we received at the end of his life. Some places are a soft place to land when life feels particularly heavy. At O’Mara House, we found a true community of care at a time when my dad needed it most.

The Conversation: What can trees teach us about resilience and loss? A grieving daughter reflects. “She asks “what would the world look like if care became our organising principle?””

The Conversation: How charitable are Australians? “Evidence shows that both giving and receiving from others is associated with better mental health.”

Rune Soup: The Purpose of Ghosts

I’m pleased to finish this year. Amongst the challenges, there have been good things. I feel closer to my siblings. I appreciate the loving support from my family and friends. I’ve experienced joy as my kids and grandson grow and live good lives and share them with me. I have made home improvements, getting my fence repaired (thanks Peter) and bought furniture I love in the bedrooms. I achieved the VIT registration, as much as it annoys me that I had to do it. My collegues at work have been fun to work with and I couldn’t ask for more a more supportive workplace. I have continued learning astrology and Portuguese. I read 31 books, according to Goodreads; I think there were more, but I haven’t kept it up to date. I’ve donated money to causes that I care about.

November 2025

December 5, 2025

johblogs

In October I lost my dad. It was a loss after long and difficult months of declining health. I miss him. I started missing him a little when he was sick and those little realisations of parts of him that I’d lost. The thought processes that went “I’ll ask dad about that… oh I can’t because he can’t anymore.” Little waves of grief would capture my breath, bringing tears that had to be quickly brushed away to deal with the real demands of keeping him alive. I have no words for how grateful I am to have had him for all these years.

I’m thankful for the people in my life who turned up and supported us during the time of being in and out of hospitals. I’ve been to a whole new world, hospitals, nurses, doctors, aged care, and disability were not a regular fixture in my life. It was an experience I both want to keep with me to absorb into care and compassion for others, as well as package up and throw out with the rubbish, hoping to distance myself from it forever. There were some truly excellent professionals that I have seen in action. They work in difficult systems and circumstances, and I truly value their dedication. Many things were not ideal, though, and it was difficult to bear. At the end of it all, I don’t want to complain. If I could think of how to improve it, I would, but I really don’t understand enough to make a suggestion.

“The invisibility and under-recognition of “women’s work” – that is, the work that society assigns to women – is not just a matter of numbers.

It’s an erasure and diminishing of the value of women’s capabilities and contributions to our economy.”

https://theconversation.com/unpaid-womens-work-is-worth-427-billion-new-research-shows-see-how-much-your-unpaid-labour-is-worth-267860

Every week I listen to this man’s podcast and laugh. I enjoy them very much. https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/stream-of-contentedness-with-lewis-garnham/id1779506603