I have met avid readers who tell me they won’t go near memoir and personal essay, perceiving it a self-absorbed genre full of trauma or egoistic navel gazing. It’s hard to hear because I mostly write about myself and my world, hoping to at least tap into a universal human experience for readers to relate to in some shape or another. It never occurred to me that the missing ingredient to that relatability might be a rich setting or environment.
Category Archives: memoir
…on mental health, Tourette’s, horses and cats
Our property really isn’t ideal for horses. We only have a few spare acres of slope, prone to bog in the wet season, wild weeds in the dry. We would need some sort of shelter, and storage for feed. We’d need to shore up our fences and gates and make allies of our neighbours. There’dContinue reading “…on mental health, Tourette’s, horses and cats”
…on coming home
My husband grew up in Mackay and I grew up in Gympie and we met at The University of Queensland. When we married we eventually lived in the Brisbane suburb called The Gap, which is where we started our family. When we were courting (does anyone say that now? how old fashioned!) and in ourContinue reading “…on coming home”
…on being liked
My name is Jodie Miller and I am a people pleaser. Sometimes it works in my favour. Sometimes it doesn’t.
…on maintaining creative practice
I have always aspired to have a daily creative practice but have never managed to sustain it for long. I love my garden – but it would surely be more wonderful if I spent a little time in it every day. I love to write – but the bulk of my writing energy goes toContinue reading “…on maintaining creative practice”
… on cultivating adult friendships
Confession: I crave deep and genuine friendships with other women. I suppose I want to replicate the kind of besties that I easily found in high school or my university years, upon starting a new job, and becoming a mother. Back then, with more available time and energy, fewer commitments, a different attitude to vulnerability and spontaneity, connecting with other women was relatively effortless. What has changed?
… on bleeding.
“Uterus” by Fanni Fazekas (copyright 2002). Pencil, pen, coloured pencils on paper. A naked woman lies over a spherical uterus drawn with blood vessels. Her hair spills in colour over the floor. The image “Uterus” represents the woman at the beginning of her menstruation, at the point when the veins break under tension in the womb.
Always was, always will be.
If your grandmother communicates to you that something you’re doing is offensive to her, even if you don’t understand it, you attempt to make amends. You don’t have to understand why. You just change it, for her, because she’s your grandmother and it’s a kindness to her.
Being Born is born!
What Does It Feel Like Being Born is a memoir about having babies, juggling family life and accidentally becoming an activist.
…on aging as a woman
It was an off-the-cuff question from an eighteen year old boy. He faltered a little by the end, realising too late that he might be breaking etiquette, crossing a line. I’m his employer. It’s none of his business. I probably should have reminded him of that.
Jodie Miller writes... 