Did you know I started my first blog over 10 years ago? I’d almost forgotten about it until I remembered 😜.

It was basically a blog about the things I liked and experienced. My intro was: “Hi, I’m Sue. If you'd like to 'see' who I am, have a look at some of my photos at the bottom of the page. This is my very first blog. I've been a school principal at a couple of primary schools in Sydney Australia. I loved this role. Now I’m working as an education officer. I'm also studying for my masters. In my out-of-work time I like interior design, fashion, travel and a whole lot more. Check out my other blog if you're interested in education” (no longer active, replaced by tweets).

Where’s photography in my out-of-work time???

I guess it’s in the “and a whole lot more” section. The blog was definitely pre-Instagram.

My very first post was in March 2009. I shared a poem by Nobel-prize winner Derek Walcott. Here’s a little insight into my ten year old thoughts…

“It was in my Masters of Educational Leadership study that I came across Love After Love. It’s amazing isn’t it, how one field of interest can lead to another – and they’re so singularly very different! Educational Leadership to Poetry! I was reading an article on Authentic Leadership by Bill George and low and behold, here was this poem that clearly spoke to me – hit me right in my emotional entrails. In his article, George articulates how in his early days as a leader, he felt he had to be perfect, or at least appear that way. He felt he had to hide his weaknesses from others, fearing they would reject him if they knew who he really was. Eventually, he realised that they could see his weaknesses more clearly than he could himself. In attempting to cover things up he was only fooling himself. He refers to the poem Love After Love as speaking to the benefits of being in touch with your disowned aspects and welcoming them into your life. If you are able to do this, you can become more comfortable with yourself and then more authentic in interactions with others.”

Love After Love

The time will come

when, with elation

you will greet yourself arriving

at your own door, in your own mirror

and each will smile at the other's welcome,

and say, sit here. Eat.

You will love again the stranger who was your self.

Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart

to itself, to the stranger who has loved you

all your life, whom you ignored

for another, who knows you by heart.

Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,

the photographs, the desperate notes,

peel your own image from the mirror.

Sit. Feast on your life.

There you have it - my ten year old thoughts and musings. What were you thinking about and experiencing ten years ago?