IQ, UQ, We all Q...for what exactly?

 

Occasionally things pop up on Facebook and  elsewhere, on the subject of IQ. They make me feel a little tetchy. Why? Because I already believe that we live in a society that totters precariously on its collective left brain, while allowing its right brain to atrophy in a jar; that IQ tests are culturally biased (Aboriginal kids do not, as a rule, fare well in them). And because, all too often, what is missing from the topic of achievement  and genius, is a parallel discussion of emotional intelligence and what that means for the planet.

 

Don't get me wrong- my brother is a Mensa candidate and I myself was an academic high achiever, even early in life- in advanced everything, dux of primary school, and the recipient of a swag of awards in various subjects throughout high school. I know myself to be a skilled and natural teacher, which is reflected in the High Distinctions I achieved for units in a post-graduate teaching diploma...yet I ran from it screaming, unable to complete the necessary study. I'm also an eclectic songwriter and have received a modicum of acclaim for it...yet apart from two EPs some years back, have baulked at recording my not inconsiderable archive of songs, allergic to the whole intense, studio experience. I have a number of manuscripts sitting waiting for submission, born of my love of the process of writing...but I am yet to become a best-selling author, since the process of getting published completely floors and bamboozles me.

 

I've been giving quite a bit of thought to this in relation to the notion of 'life purpose'. While I've carved out a reasonably satisfyingly creative life for myself, and am grateful for my little patch of the universe, I still don't think I've entirely found my niche, so I'm asking myself (not for the first time): "what, exactly, got between me and my potential?"

 

The short answer lies in the discover some years back that I am what is referred to as as a Highly Sensitive Person or HSP, one of a normal and healthy 15-20% of the population. Go here, here and here for some excellent information on the subject of HSPs and it's enlightening relationship to traditional notions about introversion and extroversion.

 

In a nutshell, being HSP means that no amount of academic success, in and of itself, ever helped me to survive and thrive in an overwhelming world. Indeed I made the difficult choice to 'de-institutionalize' myself , with the consequence that, while I do have something of a 'magical mystery tour' story to tell about what has happened since, I do not have the publically-recognized credentials one would expect of a smarty pants renaissance multi-talent, and indeed I am rather more of an underachiever than an overachiever, by many people's standards.

 

 Having manoeuvered my way through an alien landscape as an adult, I've made the best of my life and responded to what life presented me with. Equipped with a greater awareness of my HSP nature, my history now makes total sense in a way that it didn't in earlier epochs, when I judged myself lacking. There were periods in my life when I didn't know that I was allowed to trust my own nature and intuition, instead of buying into ideas about success and failure, and what I 'ought to' have been able to do to survive. As a non-HSP, I might have made more purposeful choices, been rewarded with greater social approval and found a more 'successful' path. But I didn't. The question now is: am I satisfied, is it enough (for me) and what does that mean  anyway?

Winter Beach

Today's mini piccolino holidayette-chen kecil, a trip to our local dog beach, was inspired by  July two week school holiday break drawing to a close, and to reward Charlie Brown for his patience. Stormy days and his Mistress' illness have diminished our darling pooch's opportunities for walks of late, so it was his turn to run feely in the only part of Fremantle where he has permission to do so as yet another crisp sunny day dawned. We talk a lot about 'taking turns' in this 'single child' household, so I informed my beloved son that it was Charlie's turn!

Bryn was nose-out-of-joint grizzly all the way there in the car and down to the sand, but once absorbed in beach play- gathering starfish washed up by the storm, throwing rocks at the cliff, running around with Charlie, and even at one point lying on the sand day dreaming he (predictably) thoroughly enjoyed himself!

His Mum was engrossed in with her camera, on a picture book day with a blue and fluff ball cloud sky, and had a particularly satisfying photo shoot, what with the picturesque and highly photogenic backdrop of sand, ocean, saltbush and melaleuca trees. Again I say- how lucky we are- even the local dogs enjoy an unpopulated, sometimes private beach, surrounded by pristine coastal scrub!

Afterwards, we stopped in at Peter Kennedy's barbershop on South terrace to render Bryn's head less attractive to lice.Then we went for a 'fish and chip' lunch and cake at Kailis Brothers, Fishing Boat Harbour in downtown Freo. My Tourist in My Own  Town discovery of the day is that Kailis Brothers is famous for fish and chip flavoured gelato- "hmmmm, think I'll pass" says Bryn!

The lad was dropped off en route home, to spend time with Dad. And so I type this in the afterglow of my leisurely yoga class/swim/spa/sauna session at the gym, and the prospect of a sleep-in in the morning!

 

Look Mum, I'm an eagle (me horizontal on the sand)

 

3 minutes drive away- we  live in a truly idyllic place...

 

 

look what the storm washed up mum!

 

 

I snappa da mama

 

 

lemon meringue pie?-yum! fish and chip gelato?- pass!

 

 

So cute in the 'gumnut' beanie I crocheted last winter!

Mini Piccolino Holiday-ette-chen Kecil (The 3rd)

A week of lurgies, storms and resultant housebound-ness gave rise to a compulsive need to flee towards sunshine and the great outdoors again today, another Tourist in My Own Town small adventure. I've taken to calling these day trips 'mini piccolino holiday-ette-chens kecil' as tribute to all the languages-other-than-English that I speak. I figure if I 'talk global', I will feel more like I am on holiday somewhere exotic!

 And so, Bryn, Oupa (my Dad) and I headed for Heathcote, via the scenic river route.

Heathcote, an ex-psychiatric hospital, was built high on a cliff in Applecross, in the Melville district, south of the river here in Perth, and east of where we live. It was born in 1929,  an era progressive in its thinking about the milder forms of 'mental illness'. The theory was that in-patients would benefit from the calming vistas of a spacious, green-gardened facility overlooking the water. I dare say they were right. A friend of mine once spent some time there as a vulnerable young adult and reports having enjoyed it because of its riverside location and comparatively 'softly softly' approach to her well-being. How lucky we are to have access to such gorgeous sites, reclaimed as public-access open spaces, with such a rich history, south of the river in Perth.

Even Charlie Brown didn't entirely miss out on today's reprise of (mostly) splendid blue sky- Heathcote itself is a dog-free zone, so he slept in the car awhile, however we made various stops en route to and from, on the flat land down by the river, that were dog-friendly, with plenty of interesting river weeds and stinky fishy things for him to sniff.

The playground at Heathcote is sensational- all timber and corrugated iron, with tunnels and bridges and  a maritime-themed allusion to shipwrecks. The Lad spent a happy couple of hours there before coming a-cropper on a bridge, at which moment (at least after a consoling cuddle), I decided it was time to point the car back towards Fremantle, via as watery a route as we could manage.

Said lad turns seven in ten days, and I'm pondering the what and where of  a party. I toyed with Heathcote, which has barbecue facilities and a café for the grownups...but I'm inclined towards something closer to home - a Sensational Seven Sausage Sizzle - and to keep it simple- 'hotdogs' on the barbecue, vegetarian and non, popcorn, hot drinks for the grown-ups, Yours Truly's annual cake creation, and some free play.

 

 

An ice cream and coffee break a the Bluewater Café, Heathcote with the stunning

Swan River

vista in the background.

 

 

Bryn of course made a beeline for the amazing Heathcote playground

 

 

 

 

The funky automatic loo down on the river in Applecross!

 

A Tourist in My Own Town

Plans for a holiday to Bali went pear-shaped, due to nothing more than an internet banking glitch. As winter truly sets in, the sudden whisking away of the prospect of some restorative 'time out' in the tropical sun, free of mundane responsibilities, weighs heavily. But sometimes, and in small ways, things can be done to achieve the sense of being on holiday, softening the disappointment.

So it was today, when I availed myself of an opportunity to head for the hills to go orange-picking with my beloved boy. The plan was to collect the fruit from the orchard of a friend of someone at school, and to make an array of delectables such as marmalade and cordials, back home at Pinakarri, to sell at our school fete later in the year.

Winter in the hills of Perth can mean cold nights with crisp sunny blue sky days, and that is exactly the weather that blessed us today. It was a day of marvellous, small synchronicities as well: the supermarket  en route there had exactly what we needed- sushi and fancy pants freshly-squeezed juice, on special for a dollar  apiece, which allayed my anxiety about how, when, where and what to eat for lunch, simply and inexpensively.

With a carload of  fruit boxes bulging with fresh-from-the-tree oranges and mandarins, I decided it would be fun to explore the sights near Bedfordale. So Pixie Munchkins and I drove from Bedfordale through the bush to Churchman Brook reservoir, where Bryn and I examined the  contents of the dam, then he spent a happy half hour swinging from the monkey bars and playing peek-a-boo in a tunnel. We spent time photographing the gorgeous golden wattles (acacia), which bloom in profusion in the winter in Perth.

We continued on an ice cream quest through the winding narrow roads to Roleystone, where I serendipitously ran into an old friend outside the antique shop. She recommended a divine little vegetarian café close  by called Genesis- all scrumptious home-baked cakes and cosy sofas on higgledy wooden verandahs, with paintings adorning the walls and a decidedly spiritual and new age energy about it, set among the verdant bush landscape. A talented local artist holding his exhibition opening there, whose ocean-inspired work I coveted, offered me a champagne and a pre-opening viewing, and we bought a book about Vikings for B's imminent seventh birthday. I plan to return there to work on my novel, imagining myself, laptop at the ready, on the two seater sofa at the end of the verandah with the stunning bush outlook !

As the sun dipped, we meandered back down the hill and, on account of the chill and my disinclination to cook, settled on a pub dinner next to a roaring fire, where Bryn immersed himself in some kids games and puzzles after tucking into the hearty, warming, generously-proportioned good value meal, easily enough for two.

And so, I felt like a tourist in my own town, fortuitously and gently shaken out of my coastal comfort zone and offered fresh, altitudinous perspectives. As I drove home with the tiredness that comes of physical labour and time spent outdoors, in the company of a pint-sized energy ball, I couldn't help reflecting on the parallels between Bali and Perth: Despite the climatic differences, Rottnest Island is to Perth what Nusa Lembongan is to Bali, and a trip from Oceanside Fremantle to our lusher hills inland is a little like the journey from the southern Kuta coast to cooler, greener Ubud, only more tranquil and less polluted, with a conspicuous absence of gnat-impersonating scooters. For now, I will feed the fantasy, finding small, doable ways to be 'on holiday' in my heart and in my head. It's soul-nourishing to embark on manageable explorations of  new, strange and greener pastures, yet in my own beautiful, pristine Perth, returning to my own, comfortable bed at night.

 

Golden Wattle in bloom

Bryn has his own camera, courtesy of Oupa!

 



At the dam

 

Delicious chocolate coconut cake treat at Genesis in the bush (instead of ice cream)

 

 

Stunning bush setting of Genesis café

 

 

Cosy sofas and verandah heating in the bush at Genesis café

 

Elizabethan Village. A bit pricy with an unappealing menu, so we ate by the fire at

Ye Olde Narrogin Inne in Armadale, en route home.