Chrysalis: The Emergence of My Love Affair with Learning

By Joan Morgan McCarthy

Like a magic carpet ride, my stories unfold before you.
Knowing the limitations of revealing a whole life, my memoir offers glimpses into rich and exciting life events.
I invite you to ponder these glimpses, then question and recognise, discover and honour, the gifts these unique events offer.
This is my gift to you. Enjoy.

 - Joan Morgan McCarthy

• Language: English
• Publisher: Joan Morgan McCarthy
• Release date: Feb 1, 2024
• ISBN: 9798224914197

Book preview

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My Love Affair with Learning

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Chrysalis

The Emergence of

My Love Affair with Learning

Joan Morgan McCarthy

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Copyright: Joan Morgan McCarthy © 2023

Author contact: [e-mail]

Phone [phone]

Other books by this author:

The Practical Book of Ceremonies for the Southern Hemisphere Behind the Label: The Naked Truth

The Crones Chrysalis

Peace and Harmony

Glimpses (co-author Maureen Smith)

Sixty Strong and Sexy (co-author Maureen Smith) Title: Chrysalis: The Emergence of My Love Affair with Learning Edition: 1st Edition

ISBN: 978-0-9924798-6-2

Subjects: Memoir – Short Stories – Women’s History – Birthing

– Autobiography

Layout, Cover and Design: Jenny Nash – @nashifruitdesigns First Published in Australia by:

Marjobooks ABN 11208841370

Copies available: marjobooks.com.au

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Contents

Introduction

ix

Mud Pies and Pan Toilets

1

For the Love of Dogs

7

The Wedding

15

It’s a Girl!

19

Orgasms 23

On Broadway!

27

The Love Affair

31

Joy and Anguish

37

A Trip with the Baker

43

It’s Time You Moved On

47

The Swimming Carnival

51

Christmas 55

The Day of the Leeches

59

Sesames 63

One Door Closes…

67

Sophia 73

Study in China

77

iv

The Dinner Party

83

First Grandson

89

Spoonerisms 93

You're the Voice

97

Million Minutes of Peace

101

Mr Happy Tooth

107

Flying High

111

The Change

117

Malfeasance in the Desert

121

Tanami 129

Life is Sexually Transmitted

133

A Sparkly Pen

137

Bring Back the Gold Mum

141

Who Does She Think She Is?

147

Come to Kunming

151

Let’s Get Physical

157

My Dad

167

Epilogue 173

References

175

v

vi

She listens as I flower Embraces as I cower

The gentle glow of sunset

Lighting darkening hours

Dandelion seed

On a singing summer breeze

Fairy queen to a child

Run with wolves woman wild

Morgan le Fay to Arthur

Monarch of Camelot

Butterfly on the wings path

Her burdens long forgot

Praise the play of living art

The stage is yours this hour

Return into the sacred heart

The place of greatest power.

Sean O’Connor

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Introduction

A few years ago, after being interviewed for the Melbourne Age the journalist printed, To describe Joan people use words such as: honest, straightforward, you know where you stand with her, ebullient, feisty, vibrant, intelligent, fun-loving, catalyst, caring, compassionate, creative, spiritual, and of course sexy.

While those words may still apply, maybe even more so today, now at 85 I find myself in yet another stage of life. Having published (among others) three books on older women and now at this stage 80 - 100 I'm curious to explore and reflect...

Some say that:

At this age, if we wake up today then we reduce our chances of waking up tomorrow.

Some say that:

Birthdays are dangerous; too many will kill you.

Some say that:

Life is like a toilet roll, the closer to the end the faster it goes.

Hmmm...

ix

It’s spring in Australia and my bush garden is flourishing as I walk along the aromatic path. I sit quietly on my verandah communing with Harry, one of the family of Eastern water dragons. I place a grape near my foot. He runs forward – grapes are his favourite.

Harry is gazing up at me while munching on his juicy snack while I sit and muse. And this memoir emerges...

As my life wanes I find myself asking, what is different right now?

The answer is...it feels like nothing much has changed. I continue to find joy and delight in my children. I'm still an environmental activist. I continue to look for ways to develop a just society. I still enjoy the adventures I find everywhere.

Though nothing much has changed, I do note that my interest in death and dying has been renewed. In 2023, as legislation is now making it easier for some to appreciate voluntary assisted dying, I continue to seek ways to expand that to an even more meaningful passing.

There are many ways to record a memoir, and yet I ask: is there a way to capture the whole of a person’s life in a story? I recognise that a memoir offers but a glimpse into a person’s life.

Adopting the short story format my stories, like a magic carpet ride, unfold before you.

My love of learning has always excited me yet it was not until I was close to my forties that I came to understand that maybe, just maybe I could consider myself intelligent! This memoir offers a window into my deep love affair with learning.

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Today, I continue to puzzle over the life lessons I have been privileged to receive.

So together let’s ponder and question, recognise and learn, acknowledge and honour the gifts offered by this unique last stage of life.

This memoir is my gift. Enjoy.

Joan

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Mud Pies and Pan Toilets

1941

Help! My Nanna is chasing me around the verandah of this lovely old farmhouse. No matter how fast I run she always catches me.

You see I’m considered a sulky child and castor oil is the cure.

This is duly administered with a chaser: a piece of fresh orange, and a chocolate. To this day I struggle to enjoy an orange, however, luckily, my love of chocolate has been left undiminished.

My brief memories of this time inform me that with the castor oil episode over, I’m off to play with the boy who lives on the farm next door. We love playing in the mud and use the white stuff from inside some sticks as ‘cream’ to decorate the mud pies that we make in abundance.

It is wartime and my father is away in New Guinea. My mother decides to move us to the country and stay with Nanna at ‘Guyalman’. This is their sheep farm on the banks of the Macquarie River, near Dubbo NSW. The Macquarie is the river 1

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where my great-grandfather found the gold and the diamond for a ring for my great-grandmother. This ring, shaped with a heart with an arrow through it, is a precious heirloom. It has been handed down to the first girl of each generation when she turned 21. Five generations later that ring is now with my granddaughter and in thirteen years will be passed to my great-granddaughter when she turns 21.

From this simple ring I have learned the importance of ancestry.

The heirloom gold and diamond ring given to

my great-grandmother and handed to me when I

turned 21 as the oldest girl in my generation.

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My dad has just returned to Australia and we move back to Sydney and rent in Mosman for a short time. This is where my brother, three years younger than me, has one of his adventures. My mother,