World Day Against Trafficking in Persons

Surprise! Hello!

Two post in two days? And on a Sunday? What is this?

Excellent question! This is me taking the opportunity to talk about something I am very passionate about. Today is World Day Against Human Trafficking in Persons.

Human trafficking? As in, like, slave trade? Didn't Wilberforce deal with that? Wasn't the American civil war about that? Yes and no.

Excellent strides have been made throughoht history to battle the buying and selling of humans. Unfortunately, human traffick is, from what I understand, an even greater "trade" than it used to be.

Children get kidnapped and sold as sex slaves. Men and women are forced to work in unfair conditions on little to no wages. And that's just what I am most aware of.

I confess, I don't know as much as I should. I'm willing to bet you don't either. May I take this opportunity to extend to you the same challenge I have given myself: find out!

Go looking. Become informed. You will probably be surprised and horrified by just how much of your own life is affected by human trafficking and modern day slavery.

To help you on the search, here are a couple of places you can go for information:

Stop the Traffik
I'll be honest, I only came across this site today, so I don't know it as well as I should. Still, from what I've seen, it's a good place to go to find out about the reality of trafficking.

Destiny Rescue
I have supported Destiny Rescue for a few years now. If you've been following along with this blog for a while, you'll have come across them before. Their focus is on child sex slavery and exploitation. They do excellent work rescuing and restoring children (and women) who have been forced to work as sex slaves. They also do work raising awareness and protecting at risk children. Go check them out!

Fairtrade
I love these guys! This site as a lot of information about slavery in the most common of our products: chocolate, tea, sugar, coffee and clothes, among other things. Their main focus though is not in raising awareness (although it is a large part of what they do), but in working with organisations and companies to help them be more ethical in their business practices. This is super, super important, as it is helping to fight slavery and poverty in practical ways that really make a difference. But they can tell you more than I can!

As I'm sure you can see, this is a massive issue. And really important. After all, all humas are made in the image of God - therefore they are worthy and should not be treated as cattle.

Love,
Laura Dee

Sunrise, Bad Weeks and Knitting

Hello beautiful friends!

Come in, grab a cuppa! Personally, I don't actually have a tea at hand. "What??" you say, and quite rightly. I'm not in the mood, which for the tea addict in me is a sign of the times.

Which leads me to: update time! As you have probably figured out, the last couple of weeks haven't been so good. Last week was difficult and this week was downright awful. I didn't post last week in hopes that a day with no responsibilities, with knitting and the company of Anne with an E, would help help me regain enough energy to be able to attend all four hours worth of lectures this first week of uni. See how high my bar is set at the moment?

And no, it didn't work. I didn't even have all four hours at once. I didn't even have two hours together. It was one hour per day for four days. I made it to two of them. And was reduce to an exhausted, anxious wreck of a woman by them. Even after unintentionally having two extra days of rest, I still reached Friday and was so worn out it took me THE ENTIRE DAY to strip my bed, wash my sheets, hang them out and put other sheets back on the bed. And I needed the help of one of my housemates to get that last stage done (thank you, beautiful!). The only other thing I accomplished was to go to the shops and buy a bunch of junk food. I would like to say that I did that easily, but... I nearly broke down crying in the supermarket (twice) and collapsed onto a bench outside for about 10 minutes before I could face the walk home.

So... yeah... not been doing so well. I had a good long chat with my mum and one of my housemates last night and have an idea of what I want to do moving forward. That's really helpful, but I do need to work out whether it is: a) wise and b) feasible. So, if you are the praying type, please pray!!

There is a lot more that has happened over the last couple of weeks, which I will talk about on here over the coming months, but for now, on to the next part!

Despite everything, some really exciting things happened over the last fornight that I am super grateful for.

For starters, I was able to catch up with quite a lot of my extended family. Well, the Australian side. One of my uncles is currently visiting with his children, and I was able to go up and see everyone. By everyone I mean nearly all my maternal cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents. Which, given how scattered my family is, is a really big deal. And I loved it. Even if I was shattered afterwards.

I also got to see my mum and youngest sister as they stopped in for a cuppa on Sunday. It was nice to be able to host them at my place and get some help from Mum on my knitting.

Which is another thing I'm grateful for. I love knitting. I really do, but it is so hard to stay focused and motivated with everything else that is going on. So, I was really excited to be able to get back into it these last couple of weeks!! I finished off a project I've been working on for a number of months now and made a decent amount of headway on a blanket I just started. Take a look:

But what I'm most grateful for was last Saturday morning. I woke up super early. Like, at four. And wasn't able to go back to sleep. I didn't even feel tired. Instead, I was keen to get up and eat breakfast. So I did. Then I realised I had plenty of time before sunrise. Now, I live on the eastern side of Australia next to what, I think, are some of the best beaches in the world (I am biased though, so don't hate me!). This meant that the temptation to drive to one of the beaches and watch the sunrise was irresistable. So I grabbed a tea, my knitting and my gratitude journal and jumped in the car.

Best decision I have made in a long while. I mean, see for yourself!

Anyway, I'll wrap it up here. Please let me know what you've been most grateful for this last fortnight in the comments below. I'd really appreciate hearing about it!

Love always,
Laura Dee

Friends and Weddings: What I'm grateful for this week

Hello dear friend,

Come on in! I wasn't sure I'd get a chance to write this week, as my energies are running really low and today is pretty much filled with the wedding of some friends. I have, however, seized a few moments of quiet and solitude by the river and figured I may as well write a quick post.

As I said, this week has been a really low week for me. After a couple of intense (for me) days on Monday and Tuesday, I crashed on Wednesday and am still recovering. This has involved feeling suicidal, the strong urge to just have a cry, and no energy to do anything except eat and sleep.

I tell you this because a) I want to keep being honest and b) because I get the feeling that when I tell people I'm "much better" they are hearing "back to health". That is not the case. I say "much better" because the fact that I'm able to eat and shower pretty much everyday is a vast improvement on where I was. I still have a long way to go before I'm "back to health", and have been feeling increasingly isolated by people reacting as though I'm well again when I'm not. I'm doing better, but I haven't even reached my baseline in terms of health and energy.

Having said that, there are things I'm grateful for. At the beginning of the week, I had the chance to reconnect with old friends, both from my teen years and my childhood years. I have also been able to start connecting with a new friend and I am so excited by that!

I also spent a couple of hours on the beach on Thursday, which was pleasant and probably the most rested I've felt all week. I'll just finish with some photos from that time!

Thanks for sticking with me guys!

Laura Dee

Beaches, Bread and Books: what I'm thankful for this week

Hello friend!

Come in, grab a cuppa! For myself, I have a delicious mug of camomile and spiced apple in front of me. It's a favourite.

As I've said, I've been making plans for this blog and this post is the first step towards implementing them. The goal is to post a blog talking about what I'm thanking God for each week. I can't promise to post every single week to begin with, but I'll definitely post once a fortnight. As well as that, I will slowly start building up the regularity with which I post about other things. But that's for another time.

For now: what am I thanking God for this week?

First of all, this week had been a mostly good week, so there is actually an awful lot that I'm thankful for. I'll try to keep the words short and have lots of pictures.

Some dear friends of mine were away on holiday for most of the week. They had asked me to look after their animals while they were gone, which was a privilege. It was wonderful to start each day by visiting their house; interacting with their animals; exploring their garden; and spending time reading, writing and praying.

I was also able to spend some time with family this week. I visited my parents and youngest sister on Monday and on Tuesday my grandparents came to see me. We headed to the beach, enjoyed a delicious meal and wonderfully warm weather for a stroll along the beach!

I was also able to bake some bread, cook a nice dinner to share with friends and organise my journals - it was a productive couple of days, which I'm so thankful for!

Other joys included spending more time in my own garden and discovery delights like a bird bathing in a rain filled wheelbarrow; a cheeky cockatoo stealing our lemons; roses fallen to the ground; and just lying on my back watching the clouds through the trees.

And I would be remiss if I didn't mention the way my week started on Sunday and ended last night: stretched out on a blanket, eating chocolate and chatting with friends about anything and everything. And the joys of welcoming home two dear housemates who have both been away for far too long! Welcome home, loves :)

So what about you, dear reader? What are you grateful for this week? Let me know in the comments below!

With love (and tea),
Laura Dee

The Importance of Self Care

Hello, come on in!

I haven't been sure what my next blog post would be on. Hence the longer silence. I've toyed around with a few ideas and have a few things in the works. Really though, I just need to be able to sit down and work out a plan for how I'm going to manage the blog so that I can be writing and posting regularly without overloading myself. But, that's for another time.

Right now, though, I wanted to talk about something that had been on my mind a lot. Something that I think Christians can be particularly bad at. And what is that? Self care.

I mean, there are fairly obvious reasons why this has been on my mind. My entire life is currently a process of figuring out how I can effectively look after myself, so that just living is not an exhausting endeavour. And, as a Christian raised to believe that if I'm not serving, if I'm not being active for God one way or another, then something is wrong. I have chaffed against my body; bawled my eyes out over having to pull out of a commitment last minute; and collapsed in bed after leaving a wedding early, heart aching over my physical weakness and mental exhaustion.

And it's odd. The more aware of it I'm forced to be in my own life, the more aware of it I am in the things other people say.

"Oh, I don't want to take time off, it doesn't show a good work ethic." But you're sick?

"I'm so tired and so stressed but I can't pull out of anything. It's all good stuff, God stuff." Sure, but so is rest. Like, it was one of the ten commandments. Heck, God rested Himself after creating the world. So, maybe, just maybe, taking the rest you need is also a God thing? Just throwing it out there.

Now, I'm trying to keep this short, so I'll finished with a little letter direct to anyone and everyone reading this who feels tired, is stressed, struggles to live life with chronic illness or in any other way needs to be encouraged today:

You, my dear, are oh so precious. You were carefully, lovingly made by the Creator of all things. He walked this earth and shed His blood so that He might rescue you: that's how precious you are to Him. He loves you. He knows you. He understands you. Trust in Him and rest in the knowledge that He had got this.

And, dear one, so feels exhausted and weak, here's something I'm learning: as long as we remain faithfully putting one foot  front of the other, trusting in God for your daily bread, you are serving Him. You are serving others. You are showing that He is trustworthy. You are encouraging others to trust in Him.

And to finish, I'll share this wonderfully encouraging thing a friend shared with me yesterday: God created our bodies, our minds, our emotions, our souls. As with all the rest of Creation, they are not our own to do with as we please. They are God's and we are merely stewards. Therefore, it is our job to look after them, to tend to them they need tending to. To give ourselves both the work and the rest they require. There is no shame in being ill or exhausted or stressed. There is no shame of taking care of ourselves. To do so is to take part the job God had given to all of humanity: the care for His Creation.

Love,
Laura Dee

P.S. if you have any stories you'd like to share with me or things you'd like me to pray about for me, please feel free to contact me and let me know.  LD