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Category: Life

What we need now is kindness
15 May 202026 May 2020 Janette Bennett

What we need now is kindness

Coronavirus, Life, Reinvention, Writing

Where is the acknowledgement that we are frightened and in pain? Why are we not comforting each other? This reality demands a new kind of intelligence from us. No-one alive has been here before. Let me rephrase: unless you are

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Facing up to the new normal
21 April 202021 October 2020 Janette Bennett

Facing up to the new normal

Coronavirus, Handmade, Life, Reinvention

If you’ve wondered why and how to make masks, then this post is for you. Making facemasks almost broke me. Apparently I saw the need for cloth masks to help in our battle against the coronavirus pandemic some time before

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The mask makers of Rhodes Village and Zakhele
9 April 202021 April 2020 Janette Bennett

The mask makers of Rhodes Village and Zakhele

Coronavirus, Eastern Cape, Handmade, Life, People, Reinvention

Celebrating ordinary people emerging as heroes of the COVID-19 pandemic Long before the dust started settling on the mask-or-not debate, people in Rhodes Village and its Zakhele township in the mountains near the South Africa-Lesotho border were crossing old barriers

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What will you do when it comes for you?
31 March 202021 April 2020 Janette Bennett

What will you do when it comes for you?

Coronavirus, Life

Let’s talk about stigma – you know, that nasty human tendency to shame groups of people as outcasts because it makes you feel better than “them” and somehow protected from “them”. Stigma remains a defining feature of how we have

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A tale of two viruses
18 March 202021 October 2020 Janette Bennett

A tale of two viruses

Coronavirus, Life, Writing

About 30 years ago, when the first stories about HIV and AIDS emerged, I was a health reporter on the Sunday Tribune in Durban, the main city of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. This province initially seemed to be hardest hit as

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A few of my favourite things
12 December 201912 December 2019 Janette Bennett

A few of my favourite things

Environment, Sustainable living, Technology, Work-life

My most favourite things right now are a small inverter, two water tanks and a sense of humour. It’s been hard to keep the latter when the foremost givens – access to clean piped water and a reliable electricity supply

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I’m planting trees. Are you?
5 December 20196 December 2019 Janette Bennett

I’m planting trees. Are you?

Environment, Technology, Trees, Work-life

Every single time I do an Internet search, I am planting trees. Yes, you read that correctly. And you might have noticed that I did not say, “Every time I Google.” That’s because I changed my Internet browser from Google

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Today smiles on us
26 September 201224 November 2019 Under the milkwood

Today smiles on us

Handmade, Life, Work-life

After weeks of foul weather, today smiles on us with sunshine and a cooling breath of wind. That breath is becoming a hot berg wind, though, and the heat is surely a warning that more foul weather is on its

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An ode to singing souls
20 September 201221 November 2019 Under the milkwood

An ode to singing souls

Life

Whether it’s a passing touch of the blues or sheer horror that can persist for years, bad times happen to all of us. When I’ve been able to stand back and look at my own bad times with some sort

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The power of getting lost
16 August 201224 November 2019 Under the milkwood

The power of getting lost

Handmade, Life, Reinvention, Work-life

My goal these days is to work (as in do paying work) for half the month and do life things, like garden and be with my people, for the other half. The thing is, I’m no longer immersed in weeks-long,

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Recent Posts

  • The many roads that take you there
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  • The anatomy of a scapegoating 19+
  • Charity shoppingA Durban thrift adventure 9+
  • Giving wings to scraps and threads 9+
  • Rhodes VillageThe mask makers of Rhodes Village and Zakhele 8+
  • Taking a walk with Nomama Mei 8+
  • What we need now is kindness 8+
  • The power of needle and thread 7+
  • Freeing ourselves from supporting harm 6+
  • I’m planting trees. Are you? 6+
  • Facing up to the new normal 5+

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