A bit of time, a bit of money. A live saved.

What's the longest you've gone for without food? Skipped lunch? Or maybe you fasted for 12 hours!

It might seem like a great sacrifice, whatever your reasons, but around the world, in every country, there are millions of people (men, women, children, babies) dying daily from starvation. And by that I mean not from the lack of a meal, but from the lack of every meal. They not only have no food, but they have no soil to grow food and no money to buy food. They lack the energy, due to hunger, to study to get a job; they lack the energy to lend a hand to earn money for food. They have no means of fixing their lifestyles and the repetitive cycle continues.

In Rwanda, the country World Vision are focusing on this year, 43 percent of children under five are malnourished. The life expectancy is 63 years of age.

It's come to that time of year again where we all put together, (both time, effort and money) to make a difference. 

A $40 donation can feed a family of 6 for an entire month. If we all pitch in, even $5 can save a life.

Please help me reach my goal of $500 this year by donating whatever sum you can spare as I give up food for 40 hours. This coming Friday night, through to Sunday noon, people all around the world are making a difference. 

It would mean a lot to me if you could support me! The link for donating is below. 

https://40hf2014.everydayhero.com/au/rachael-21

like sand between my fingers

Every once in a while, a sense of contentment fills me. 

It seeps through my being, like sand between my fingers.

The contentment is simple. Like a hunger that is satisfied by food. Or a hot day relieved by rain. 

The contentment is, perhaps, caused by nothing - nothing triggers it, nothing takes it away. 

And yet it comes. 

The feeling that hits me presses on the core of my heart and fills me with a sense of exhilaration; if I could run for a thousand miles I would still have the energy to run a thousand more.

The nothing that takes it away.
It is a bitter wind that tosses leaves and brings a winter slouch. A prose that is indecipherable.
The elation I felt has been taken away, even as I speak it seeps deeper into my mind, taking hold of it with an iron fist.

Nothing is explained and nothing is expected to be.

Lost, but now I am found;
I can see but once I was blind.
I was so confused as a little child, trying to take what I could get
Scared that I couldn't find all the answers, honey.

Adventures in Wonderland

“In another moment down went Alice after it, never once considering how in the world she was to get out again.” 

                                               "Do you suppose she is a wildflower...?"

"Your heart and my heart are very, very old friends."

"Actually, the best gift you could have given her was a lifetime of adventures..."

To be |adventurous| brave| creative|

Do you know that amazing feeling you get when your day has started off exceptionally bad; then suddenly, something makes you smile or someone makes you laugh. And your day rotates. And there's that amazing feeling? 

That is what the New Year has been like for me. 

From the last day of 2013 to the third day of 2014, my days were tiring and average. It felt like 2014's only purpose was to remind me of every thing I've ever done and regretted or not done and regretted. 

Then something made me smile. And someone made me laugh. 

The first picture of 2014. Two of my sisters and a dear friend. It was a happy photographed moment. 

I know this year has the potential to get better and to get worse. But for now, as I write, I like to think Better will be more pronounced. And if circumstances do not allow this to be, I intend to make the Better of Everything. 

I want to be the happiest I can be, the most hopeful, the least doubtful. 

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. 

So much adventure and happiness. It tugged at the strings of my heart. It was one of those films that inspired me the way Stand By Me and August Rush always do.

I write short stories, but have always felt like there won't be much I can do with them. They'll stay saved on my laptop as "Short 001" and up, for my eyes only.
When Walter Mitty credits rolled and "Based on the short story by James Thurber" came up, my heart fluttered.

Perhaps I can do something noteworthy and mentionable enough one day. I'm not interested in the fame (which would undoubtedly come) but to bring a story to the surface, to let it see the light of day. 

Can you imagine how incredible that would be? 

So I think, with what I now hold in the palm of my hand, I shall be adventurous. Brave. Creative.