Kalli

I'm just over 50 now, the last half of my life has been a mad journey through personal pain, grief, supporting and witnessing illnesses in my immediate family friends and myself. I've grown but not without pain. I've chosen to go the route without the props most might enjoy, alcohol and drugs, having given up drugs when I was 26.

I've loved and lost one born child, and several unborn children. I'm lucky to have had a second daughter who is still with me now and has been amazingly couraegous in her life. She's had to cope with a hurt mother, much as I tried to be fully there in the beginning, it wasn't easy.

I'm now looking towards writing as therapy. Not sure that it's going to work, or even help. I've written my way through the last 22 years in journals - it's painful looking back but there is a need to write.

I hope I don't bore people - I'm not looking for accolades as a good writer, I see myself as a writer in training at the moment.

I also love song lyrics - some of the best lyrics are out there by Bob Dylan, Nick Drake, Keith Reid (Procol Harum) and Syd Barrett too. There words have helped me to survive a life that was worth living. Now I want to give something back.
Kalli

A FAVOURITE QUOTE....

The Engleesh Patient
Katharine Clifton writes while dying�.

My darling. I'm waiting for you. How long is the day in the dark? Or a week? The fire is gone, and I'm horribly cold. I really should drag myself outside but then there'd be the sun. I'm afraid I waste the light on the paintings, not writing these words. We die. We die rich with lovers and tribes, tastes we have swallowed, bodies we've entered and swum up like rivers. Fears we've hidden in - like this wretched cave. I want all this marked on my body. Where the real countries are. Not boundaries drawn on maps with the names of powerful men. I know you'll come carry me out to the Palace of Winds. That's what I've wanted: to walk in such a place with you. With friends, on an earth without maps. The lamp has gone out and I'm writing in the darkness.

Gabriel Yared � musical score
Michael Ondaatje's � Booker prize winner/writer