The Divorce. So…I’ve taken the unprecedented step (for me at least) of stepping back permanently from Facebook. I started the account deletion process last week and, even though it’s going to take 3…

Live now at #deanfromaustralia - "The Divorce". At a certain point, the enshittification becomes so great, it can no longer be ignored.

#writing #selfreflection

deanmayesauthor.wordpress.com/2026/02/24/t...

The Poisoned Childhood. Why do I care so much about impressing people? The Daily Stoic Journal, Ryan Holiday & Stephen Hanselman. A long time ago (in a galaxy far, far away…) I was an impressionable child growin…

From the #deanfromaustralia archive - "The Poisoned Childhood" - a meditation on #childhoodtrauma and confronting it head on, decades later.

deanmayesauthor.wordpress.com/2025/03/31/t...

1982. It feels selfish to sit down and write about what I’m about to relate, given that I wasn’t central to this story. I often feel I have no right to reflect on my experience of this partic…

From the #deanfromaustralia archive - "1982" - a reflection on #childhoodtrauma & the echoes that still vibrate all these years later.

deanmayesauthor.wordpress.com/2023/02/25/s...

Fighting It. A few nights ago, I was nursing a patient who, earlier that day, had been given the news that the brain tumour he had been diagnosed with was a high grade GBM – that is to say, a high grade G…

This week at #deanfromaustralia - Fighting It.

Sometimes, I just can't bare to be in my own skin anymore.

#nursing #stoicism #glioblastoma

deanmayesauthor.wordpress.com/2025/12/10/f...

Fighting It. A few nights ago, I was nursing a patient who, earlier that day, has been given the news that the brain tumour he had been diagnosed with was a high grade GBM – that is to say, a high grade G…

New Post at #deanfromaustralia - Fighting It.

Sometimes, I just can't bare to be in my own skin anymore.

#nursing #stoicism #journaling

deanmayesauthor.wordpress.com/2025/12/10/fighting-it

Tumour. In 1989, when I was 14 years old, I was diagnosed with a spinal cord tumour know as a schwannoma. A schwannoma is a type of lesion that arises from the nerve cells in either the central or peripher…

From the #deanfromaustralia archive - "Tumour". Learning to love a fault in my stars.

#writingsky #medicalexperience #stoicism

deanmayesauthor.wordpress.com/2022/09/29/t...

Life In A Place Of Death. I went for a long walk yesterday. I took a path along Adelaide's west parklands to the West Terrace Cemetery and back again. All told it was about 5 kilometres and I felt really good - given that I am still recovering from my ruptured Achilles tendon and broken ankle. I find the cemetery a calming place - not at all disturbing or ghostly or any of the cliches one associates with a grave yard.

New post at #deanfromaustralia - Life In A Place Of Death. A moment of beauty that was transformative.

#writing #philosophy #stoicism

An Israeli Bloodlust. The most frightening book I have ever read is the 1982 graphic novel “When The Wind Blows” by Raymond Briggs. Released at the height of the Cold War 1980’s, it was a visual parabl…

Featured at #deanfromaustralia 'An Israeli Bloodlust'.

#Israel #Gaza #writingsky

deanmayesauthor.wordpress.com/2025/06/16/a...

A Gem At The Bottom Of The Shelf – Reading North to the Orient by Anne Morrow Lindbergh. I don’t know why it captured my eye. It was just another spine on a shelf of dozens of other spines. I’m talking about book spines by the way. A secondhand bookshop I have come to frequ…

This week at #deanfromaustralia - finding a gem in a trail blazing #woman.

#aviation #adventure #booksky

deanmayesauthor.wordpress.com/2025/07/28/a...

A Gem At The Bottom Of The Shelf – Reading North to the Orient by Anne Morrow Lindbergh. I don't know why it captured my eye. It was just another spine on a shelf of dozens of other spines. I'm talking about book spines by the way. A secondhand bookshop I have come to frequent here in Adelaide has amassed the most amazing collection of Penguin paperback titles - from the classic orange covers of great and small fiction, the green of of crime fiction, the blue of biography and memoirs, the red of the great dramas.

New post at #deanfromaustralia - finding a gem in a trail blazing #woman.

#aviation #adventure #book #feminism

Grandeur Of The Gilded Age – Visiting Martindale Hall. There's a place here in South Australia that I have wanted to visit ever since I moved here in the mid 90's but somehow, never got around to it. In the Clare Valley - roughly a 90 minute drive from Adelaide and tucked away in rolling green meadows reminiscent of the English countryside, stands a magnificent time capsule in the form of Martindale Hall.

New post at #deanfromaustralia - Grandeur Of The Gilded Age - Visiting Martindale Hall.

#southaustralia #tourism #gothic

All Up In My Own Head. My journal prompt for today asks the following; Can I keep my cool when receiving disturbing news? Ryan Holiday & Stephen Hanselman, The Daily Stoic Journal. I know I need to keep my cool. We all do. It is the stoic ideal state of mind traveling through our daily lives. The truth is, I don't always. In fact, I suck at it - most of the time.

New post at #deanfromaustralia. Reflecting on a perverse addiction to anxiety.

#writing #philosophy #menshealth

An Israeli Bloodlust. The most frightening book I have ever read is the 1982 graphic novel “When The Wind Blows” by Raymond Briggs. Released at the height of the Cold War 1980’s, it was a visual parabl…

New post at #deanfromaustralia - "An Israeli Bloodlust". I feel a familiar sense of dread today - a dread I've not felt since I was a child. I also feel rage but it's a disempwering rage.

#Israel #Gaza #politics

deanmayesauthor.wordpress.com/2025/06/16/a...

New post at #DeanfromAustralia
"Better". I don't know which is better - getting my pen licence in Grade 3 or this.

#nurse #icunurse #nursesky

deanmayesauthor.wordpress.com/2025/06/14/better

C’mon Bro – It’s The Wars! Nestled in the rolling green hills of the Latrobe Valley in Victoria, Australia lies a great big hole in the ground. It’s an open cut mine that, for the better part of a century, has been the…

From the #deanfromaustralia archive - "C'mon Bro - It's The Wars!"

My love letter to #StarWars

deanmayesauthor.wordpress.com/2019/09/27/c...

Look Mummy, The Tower Is Falling Down. I took an interest in a recent episode of “The Minefield” on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s Radio National in which a discussion around political slogans and buzz words…

New post at #deanfromaustralia - "Look Mummy, The Tower Is Falling Down" - a reflection on the paucity of political sloganeering. Progressive Patriotism is the latest brain fart out of Canberra, one which lacks any comprehension of history.

#auspol

deanmayesauthor.wordpress.com/2025/06/06/l...

Hide Away – A Thursday Doors Writing Challenge. I have to confess that, as a writer, I haven’t been overly good in at writing on the fly. It used to be the way I’d start my stories and writing projects. I was proud of being a perenni…

New post at #deanfromaustralia - "Hide Away: A Thursday Doors Writing Challenge".

Accompany me into a nightmare of my own creation and be scared witless.

#writing #flashfiction #horror

deanmayesauthor.wordpress.com/2025/06/01/h...

A Q&A With Myself. I have written about a lovely author friend of mine, Darlene Foster, who I met when I first became published with Central Avenue Publishing. Darlene is an author of a lovely series of books for you…

New post at #deanfromaustralia - "A Q&A With Myself" - aka I Think Too Much.

#writingsky #writer #nurse #ICU

deanmayesauthor.wordpress.com/2025/05/25/a...

Pilates, Bolognese Sauce & Routine. I’ve been thinking about the phrase, “We are all creatures of habit”. Routines are fundamental to human experience. They ground us. They give us meaning. They give us freedom. Wit…

New post at #deanfromaustralia - "Pilates, Bolognese, & Routine". This week, I cobbled together a few different thoughts but the throughline is the importance of routine & how it anchors us.

#writingsky #philosophy #selfhelp #Malta

deanmayesauthor.wordpress.com/2025/05/16/p...

Pilates, Bolognese Sauce & Routine. I’ve been thinking about the phrase, “We are all creatures of habit”. Routines are fundamental to human experience. They ground us. They give us meaning. They give us freedom. Wit…

New post at #deanfromaustralia - "Pilates, Bolognese Sauce & Routine". I have no click-baity, pithy one liner for this.

#writingsky #writer

deanmayesauthor.wordpress.com/2025/05/16/p...

Turn The Corner. I like butter and Vegemite on a piece of bread. This thought came to me as I made that very snack after having my lunch this afternoon. My wife buys this amazing sourdough loaf with seeds in it and…

New post at #deanfromaustralia - "Turn The Corner". Green shoots are pushing up into the sunshine. I see them now and they are filling me with hope.

#nurse #icu #writer #writing

deanmayesauthor.wordpress.com/2025/05/12/t...

Turn The Corner. I like butter and Vegemite on a piece of bread. This thought came to me as I made that very snack after having my lunch this afternoon. My wife buys this amazing sourdough loaf with seeds in it and…

New post at #deanfromaustralia - "Turn The Corner". Green shoots are pushing up into the sunshine. I see them now and they are filling me with hope.

#nurse #icu

deanmayesauthor.wordpress.com/2025/05/12/t...

The Seventh Week. I don’t know whether to call this week 7 or week 16. So much time has passed and January 16th – the day I had my first surgery to repair my ruptured Achilles tendon – feels like a…

New post at #deanfromaustralia - "The Seventh Week" - A reflection from an injured #Nurse on time, the dissolution of sanity and being trapped by a raw anger...

deanmayesauthor.wordpress.com/2025/05/06/t...

My “Pretty Woman” Right Turn. Occasionally, random memories will return to me without any prompting on my part. It is an involuntary phenomenon – quite outside myself, though I’m sure there’s a trigger I’m not seeing. This morn…

New post at #deanfromaustralia - "My Pretty Woman Right Turn".

Just so's we're clear - I am *not* a pretty woman.

#writingsky #booksky #humorsky

deanmayesauthor.wordpress.com/2025/04/17/m...

Less. What would less look like? The Daily Stoic Journal, Ryan Holiday & Stephen Hanselman. Less noise…Less visual stimuli…Less advertising, pressure selling, consumerism…A less fre…

This week at #deanfromaustralia - "Less". Reflecting on what less would feel like.

#writingsky #booksky

deanmayesauthor.wordpress.com/2025/04/13/l...

New post at #deanfromaustralia - "Less". Reflecting on what less would feel like.

deanmayesauthor.wordpress.com/2025/04/13/l...

Testing My Impressions. Can I step back and test my impressions? What would I find if I did? The Daily Stoic Journal, Ryan Holiday & Stephen Hanselman. I have not always been very good at testing my impressions. I hav…

New post at #deanfromaustralia "Testing My Impressions" - I have not been good at testing my impressions. I have made mistakes. Changing this has required me to be intentional & form a set of core values. I am making progress.

#philosophy #selfhelp

deanmayesauthor.wordpress.com/2025/04/09/t...

The Self As A Foreign Country. What bad assumptions, habits, or advice have I accepted? The Daily Stoic Journal, Ryan Holiday & Stephen Hanselman. I have lived long enough now to know there are too many to count. When I look…

New post at #deanfromaustralia - "The Self As A Foreign Country". In taking apart the person I once was, I have had to contend with an ever present regret. I'm better now but I doubt I will ever overcome that regret.

#philosophy #writing #mentalhealth

deanmayesauthor.wordpress.com/2025/04/08/t...

The Self As A Foreign Country. What bad assumptions, habits, or advice have I accepted? The Daily Stoic Journal, Ryan Holiday & Stephen Hanselman. I have lived long enough now to know there are too many to count. When I look…

New post at #deanfromaustralia - "The Self As A Foreign Country". In taking apart the person who I once was, I have had to contend with an ever present regret. I'm better now but I doubt I will ever truly overcome my regret.

#philosophysky #writingsky

deanmayesauthor.wordpress.com/2025/04/08/t...

The Colours Within. What thoughts are colouring my world? The Daily Stoic Journal, Ryan Holiday & Stephen Hanselman. Sometimes, the Calm of a Sunrise.Sometimes, the Reason of a Wise Elder.Sometimes, the Method of …

New post at #deanfromaustralia - The Colours Within. A Meditation on the very delicate balance between Nobility & Pure Chaos. The only bulwark seperating them - Intentionality.

#writingsky #writing

deanmayesauthor.wordpress.com/2025/04/01/t...