A little bit about me ...
I’m Amanda, a writer, poet and lifelong muser. I was born and grew up on Turrbal Yuggera country (Brisbane, Australia) and then spent most of my adult life anywhere but there. After 25 years away, including 6 in the wilds of nowhere, I came full circle and landed back around the corner from where I was born.
After years of living what I thought was my wildest life, the niggling feeling that it was still ‘out there somewhere’ remained. I’ve realised though that there is a difference between flying and fleeing. Stepping back into the flow of the life I’ve always longed for is a matter of remembering and reclaiming without necessarily going anywhere.
In amongst the migrations and multitudes, writing has always been there to remind me of who and where I am, and of the greater web of life that I am always connected to. When I’m not writing, you can find me close to art, music, the land, poetry and on the dance floor - doing pretty much anything that helps reunite the wildness of my internal and external worlds.
These days I mostly write poetry and personal essays on everyday emancipation, everyday sacredness, everday mysticism and practical animism in my quest for a wilder more deeply connected life.
Why “Appetite for Living”?
We come into this world tasked with remembering our true belonging to what the poet Mary Oliver describes as ‘the family of all things.’
In amongst the shoulds and coulds of our everyday lives, I believe Life is always there inviting us to rediscover our true appetites for living and in doing so, to liberate ourselves and each other from the cages that keep us from the more beautiful, just and compassionate world we long for, and from our wildest most deeply connected lives. Revolution really is an inside job and meaningful change above ground starts below ground with the smallest emancipations.
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Every Sunday you’ll receive a written letter or poem on remembering, reunion and radical hope, the three things that keep me tethered to Life in amongst the chaos.
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I appreciate you and your precious attention. Offering it here in these saturated times is no small thing, so thank you!
Take good care and hope to see you in the Appetite for Living community.
Until then, much love and in radical hope, Amanda
P.S. When I’m not here, you can find me on my website and on Instagram. xA
I acknowledge the Yuggera/Turbal peoples, the traditional owners of the land I’m writing to you from and I pay my respects to their elders past, present and emerging and to the ancestral spirits, waterways and lands on which I live.
I also acknowledge my own ancestors from Lismore and the northern tablelands of New South Wales, Knockbride and Central Ireland, the East Midlands, London, Northeastern Scotland, Heiligenhafen, and Danzig/Gdańsk who carried me here.
May we all know that it’s never too late to repair the ongoing damage of forced colonisation, resolve the collective, ancestral and individual trauma of the past, remember our interconnectedness and restore right relationship with all beings.
It's a great privilege to live and create on this beautiful country for which I am deeply grateful.
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