Hi everybody, 

I know this is probably very "Oprah-y" and "Naf", but I don't give a flying fec through a stained glass window.  I am going to start this blog with what I wrote on the facebooks this morning and qualify each point so you - whoever you may be - will know why I am so grateful and also why I write such "Oprah-y" and "Naf" stuff every day.  

To get this started there are a few things you need to know about me.  I am %# that is 53 years old.  I have Graves disease which is a thyroid disorder, causing hyperthyroidism,  (look it up)  In May this year I had radiation treatment which was supposed to fix me...well...it didn't...now I have the opposite of what I had before and I have hypothyroidism (look it up) so now they are trying to get my medication sorted.  (Groan)
So, over the last few years when I was struck down - as it were - and have found it really hard to get around and do stuff - I actually learned how bloody lucky I am.  I have an amazing life and I'm happy, and doing exactly what I want to do and I am so so so very...



Ten things to be grateful for this morning 

1. Waking up -  I wake up in pain every single morning.  (Don't feel sorry for me, heaps of people wake up this way) It's pain in my upper back, hands, arms, feet, legs and heart.  It takes a while to get motivated enough to get out of bed BUT I don't care.  
I am waking up and I am alive and being alive is incredibly wondrous and I appreciate every single moment I have on this earth.  
When I was young, I was angsting about every thing you could imagine and a lot of things you probably can't imagine.  Such as, being stupid, being fat, being a shit mother, being a bit mad, being broke (which was and still is constant, me and money have a Railway Station relationship) it comes in and goes straight back out again also, being shit at every single job I did.  Now I know I wasn't really crap at a few of them,  but overall I was a pretty catastrophic failure.  I know now it wasn't that I am a moron, it was because I was never following my dreams.  Now I wake up every day knowing that I am living the damn dream, so a few aches ain't no problem no dang way.  (sudden descent into generic southern drawl, dunno why)

2. Great friends - I don't have many "Hide the body friends" yeah, you know what that means, we've all watched Brene Brown on Tedx talking about shame and vulnerability *nudge nudge*  In fact I have only two, who are closely related to me and they know who they are.  

3. My awesome (patient) husband - My husband is my bestest friend, he is a "kill any bastard who hurt my feelings, chop them up into small pieces and dissolve them in acid" sorta guy - when it comes to protecting me.  
To everyone else he seems so laid back he is horizontal...well no, he isn't, not really.  He is Mr Macho "real bloke" kinda guy.  
He is the man I want between me and the whole wide world at all times because he isn't just a friend he is literally the other half of me.  He is the guy who screens absolutely EVERYTHING before it ever has a chance to get to me, including emails, texts and reviews of any of my work.  He is also the maker of chocolate icecream sundaes with salty nuts (yeah I know that is a double entendre) when I feel in need of comfort and the deliverer or copious cups of tea. 
 
4. My funny creative fabulous kid-dly wink Tama (maybe 20 isn't a kid any more) I dunno - Tamati is the funniest man in the world, but on par with his brother Nathan in a completely different way.  He also does most of the cooking and hes great at it.  He also is the creater of amazing music and the giver of bucket-loads of inspirational wisdom. 

5. Fresh new creative ideas - Ideas fly into my brain non stop...notice I don't say I have them - I say they arrive...because honestly, I don't know where they come from and I am never going to question it either.  I know I'm not an idiot, but I'm not a genius either, and the ancient Greek view of "Genius" is the one I will adhere to which is that genius is something outside of ourselves.  That's certainly how it has been from my point of view...I just write it down.
 
6. Miles and miles of green out my window - You really have to look out of my window to appreciate it.  From my bed I look at a hill covered in trees and it is glorious.



7. Being able to write - this is my raison detre ain't it. I mean, I write therefore I am, because face it, my super-modeling days are over aren't they (not that they'd ever started) Geez, I havn't been super skinny since I was 7 - apart from the bulimic 80's - but that is a whole other story.

8. Learning something new every day - The most fun thing on the interwebs is Youtube - there is Nothing you can't learn on there.  The stuff I really love is anything "Oprah" because I loves her so so soooooooo much, especially her Lifeclass and Masterclass.  
The other thing I adore is seeing and hearing writers talk about their process.  I have listened to Richard Curtis, my favourite film maker, give his "BAFTA guru" lecture seventeen times.  Because I love him and he writes just like me.  (With the exception of him being rich and mega sucessful) I have watched almost all the writers I really admire - except for the dead ones of course- but then you can watch documentaries on their lives.  No only that there are episodes of "Who do you think you are' and 'Graham Norton' not to mention a billion episodes of 'QI' the Youtubes are Fablulous and amazing.  

10. Poetry - Can't say much more about that except I love Byron (the dirty dirty boy) Keats, Coleridge, Wordsworth, Pink, Lily Allen, Adele, Pam Ayres and Me.

So you see, I am grateful, everyday, as I never want to be that person again, the one who doesn't exist in her own body, or life, the person who lets time clatter past...live in the moment, I know another "Naf" care-y share-y learn-y, journey statement, but I mean it...live in the moment and always try to be kind.

Love Olivia xxx