It has been a little while since I last posted.  With the school holidays, our lives took a completely different rhythm, with loads of reading, long lie ins, doing a beautiful big puzzle, snuggling with cups of milo and a quick visit to family in Zimbabwe and Johannesburg.  It was great.  We are back into the swing of a totally quick paced beat with school having started on Monday, but we are all rejuvenated and our wells filled.

Here is a picture of the puzzle we did.  It is a picture of giraffes done in the Tanzanian Tinga Tinga Art form which I really love.  It's funky, colourful and fun ...

                         

Last Wednesday I was reminded of The Four Agreements, written by Don Miguel Ruiz, and remembered just how powerful they really are.  I had them written up on my fridge a few years ago and then the board they were written on broke so I took it down and have forgotten about them.  So I am delighted by the reminder. It also jolted me into seeing how I had made an assumption with one of my friends the day before.

If you are not familiar with the four agreements, they are:

1.  Be impeccable with your word; 
2.  Never make assumptions; 
3.  Don’t take anything personally; 
4.  Always do your best


They seem so simple and so obvious, but are actually much deeper and far more powerful than meets the eye. I wanted to share with you a snippet of what I read up on the first agreement which blew me away (again!!)  

"1ST AGREEMENT: BE IMPECCABLE WITH YOUR WORD

“The first agreement is the most important one and also the most difficult one to honor. It is so

important that with just this first agreement you will be able to transcend to the level of existence

I call heaven on earth. The first agreement is to be impeccable with your word. It sounds very

simple, but it is very, very powerful.”

First, let’s look at how Ruiz defines the word impeccability: “Impeccability means ‘without sin.’

Impeccable comes from the Latin pecatus, which means ‘sin.’ The im in impeccable means

‘without,’ so impeccable means ‘without sin.’ Religions talk about sin and sinners, but let’s

understand what it really means to sin. A sin is anything that you do which goes against yourself. 

Everything you feel or believe or say that goes against yourself is a sin. You go against yourself when you judge or blame yourself for anything. 

Being without sin is exactly the opposite. Being impeccable is not going against yourself. When you are impeccable, you take responsibility for your actions, but you do not judge or blame yourself.” Brilliant.

So when we’re impeccable, we don’t use our word against ourselves indulging in guilt or shame.

We also don’t use our word against others in blaming, criticizing or gossiping. We also honor our

commitments and only make commitments we intend to follow through on.

How’re you doing on those fronts?"  (http://www.zikbay.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/the-four-agreements.pdf ) 

If this resonates with you, get yourself a copy of the book.  It's definitely worth reading and putting into practice.  I'm going to try with this one first. :-) 

I enjoy the poetry by David Whyte, and when googling the other day, saw an interesting link to his poem "Sometimes".  I really enjoyed reading it and thought that some of the questions he asked were really real, really powerful, and definitely worth some pondering ...

SOMETIMES

Sometimes
if you move carefully
through the forest

breathing
like the ones
in the old stories

who could cross
a shimmering bed of dry leaves
without a sound,

you come
to a place
whose only task

is to trouble you
with tiny
but frightening requests

conceived out of nowhere
but in this place
beginning to lead everywhere.

Requests to stop what
you are doing right now,
and

to stop what you
are becoming
while you do it,

questions
that can make
or unmake
a life,

questions
that have patiently
waited for you,

questions
that have no right
to go away.

~ David Whyte ~

(Everything is Waiting for You)

Here is the link to his 10 questions that have no right to go away ...

http://www.oprah.com/oprahs-lifeclass/Poet-David-Whytes-Questions-That-Have-No-Right-to-Go-Away_1

My sister-in-law posted this on her FB page and suggested I post it on my blog.  I love it - in fact - I think I should make a big poster of it and stick it up in my kitchen!!

Don't you just love it; especially the "Be Legendary" - how daring is that?