Tea & Whiskers first little pocketbooks 'Tiny Acts of Discipline' are available now in our brand new online Bookshop. As you may recall, a couple of months ago I mentioned that I was debating about going back to the Pain Clinic. Well, I did end up going back for that first workshop and...it...didn't go great.

For Christmas I was gifted a PS5 thank to several members of my family and my Personal Trainer, Ben. (Hi Ben! Thank you!!) Encase it isn't obvious to anyone, I love gaming. I've never considered myself particularly good at it, but it brings me a great deal of joy and satisfaction. I consider games to be another way of telling and receiving stories in our ever evolving human experience.

A reflection by Nana Gwen on the phrase ‘no longer’ and how faith in Christ transforms our lives from darkness, slavery, and striving into freedom and light.

I am working on something - really - I am...

“A good cook should be able to use whatever ingredients are to hand and make a feast fit for a king.” That was my sister Doris's motto, acquired by her stint as a Defence Force Cook. Doris had undertaken to teach me how to cook.  Teaching me to cook left her frustrated and me feeling like an Emu trying to be a swan.

A family of four, Dad, son, Mum and daughter, strode along the jetty into the setting sun. There was a purpose in their stride and the set of their shoulders. Father and son marched ahead, while mother and daughter brought up the rear. All were laden with crab-nets, fishing rods, buckets of food, bait and bags.

A reflection on mosaic art, broken pieces, and how God’s love restores what feels rejected, inspired by creativity, faith, and a life of service.

This Thursday, Nana Gwen reflects on religious stereotypes, tradition and the false images of God by using Jesus and the Gospels as our lens.

Maybe the internet hates everything. I don’t. A ramble about Star Wars, Avatar, He-Man, nostalgia, and letting people enjoy stories again.

A Photo Essay by Gwen Leane

A few weeks ago, I was asleep, and I presume I was in a deep sleep at about 2am in the morning. Suddenly, I woke up, and I sat up. Charcoal tumbled off me. It had hit me, the plotline of a novel inside a world that I had been sitting on for over a decade.

It’s still very clear in my mind, the day I walked into the Pain Clinic at Flinders. I was in my early twenties, and I immediately felt unsettled. The walls were rotting and peeling, and I felt squished and oppressed from the low ceilings and tight spaces. It was as though everything about the corridors and waiting area was designed to be as uncomfortable as some post-modernist Foucauldian institution.

I still remember the day I saw the poster to become a Host Parent hanging on the oddly placed community notice board at Aberfoyle Hub. I say oddly placed because it was near the toilets, but I suppose, I always did stop to read it - so perhaps it was correctly placed...

Today is Wednesday. Which means it's Cleaning Day in the Writer's Cottage. It is also Christmas Eve. So, I am cleaning on Christmas Eve. Which is very - normal.

Digital photography has changed the way we snap our photos.  My wife takes photos, many photos and I cry, ‘The cost, the cost, the cost!  What about the cost of film and development?’  But she laughs, and says, ‘This is the digital age, don’t you know.’ and continues on her way happily snapping.  If the snaps aren’t good she just deletes them and that is that. 

Kylie reflects on the loss of her long-time cafe sanctuary, and the struggle to find her creativity again in a new space.

‘Look that’s a lizard isn’t it, sitting on the guide’s shoulder?’ The children stared in fascination and amazement, having never seen such a creature before. Drago is an Inland Bearded Dragon and looks like a miniature dinosaur. He doesn’t look very handsome and is downright fearsome when he puffs out his and body and beard.

We’re so excited to have Sharon joining us again to deliver our next Baby & Child First Aid Course on Tuesday November 18th at 6:30pm at First Aid Training Group Ballarat.

Visiting Culloden Battlefield became a profound spiritual moment that changed how I see the world. A story of grief, ancestry, and God’s quiet presence.

A heartfelt reflection of the masks we wear to hide our pain, and how God calls us to live unmasked and truly known.