Midlife Rebel

The end of the year is approaching and it's the ideal time to reflect on my Rebel journey so far. I joined the Rebels in September and have learnt a few new things along the way. The Rebel Badge Book is a source of inspiration for how to spend your free time. I began with the Artist badge as I have done art all my life so this seemed like a good place to start. I made a mosaic for the first time and also a wire sculpture. My drawing skills are a little rusty these days but I sharpened my pencils and put them to work. I feel drawing is a skill which I possess but I don't have the same passion for this as I did in younger years. It's nice to do now and then though when the urge strikes. Due to finances, I decided that certain badges I would like to do will have to wait for now.  So I began the November 'Write Every Day Challenge', the Good Habits badge and the Reader badge. I wrote thirty haiku for the November challenge. This was fun to do for a short time but I'...

As part of the Reader merit badge for the Rebel Badge Club, I am to write a review of a book for one of the clauses. I have chosen to write about The Myth of Normal by Gabor Maté and Daniel Maté. This is a long and very interesting book which I chose as I have an interest in mental health and physical health. I was first introduced to the work of Dr Gabor Maté on Dr Rangan Chatterjee's Feel Better, Live More podcast. Maté is an expert in trauma, addiction, stress and childhood development. The Myth of Normal explains how modern living is contributing to the rise of ill health. Trauma, stress and life experiences affect our physical health aswell as our mental health. To put it simply, a suffering mind takes it's toll on the body. For example, in his book Maté observes that people who suffer from the neurological disease ALS are people who are too nice. There are a lot of thought provoking matters in this book and many of which most of us will be able to relate to in our own liv...

It's starting to feel a little while ago that I wrote these poems but at last here are the final ten haiku I did for the Rebel Badge Club's Write Every Day Challenge. Admittedly I don't have much of an interest in poetry but these simple haiku were fun to do. I don't see myself as much of a writer although I have done a bit of writing over the years in various forms. Sometimes writing comes naturally and other times not so much. I think because I don't have high expectations of myself when it comes to the written word I don't over think it therefore I find writing quite pleasurable rather than a task that needs to be perfected.  I like the haiku I have written for the November monthly challenge but have no plans to write anymore in the future.

Here are ten more haiku which I wrote for the Rebel Badge Club's Write Every Day Challenge. I will share the final ten haiku in my next post.

I recently took part in the Write Every Day Challenge which was the Rebel Badge Club's monthly challenge for November. For this challenge I wrote thirty haiku, one for each day of the month. A haiku is a short form of poetry from Japan which normally takes the format of three lines of five, seven and five syllables. The poems don't rhyme and are usually written about nature and the seasons. Here are the first ten haiku I wrote for the Write Every Day Challenge.