Happy 10th Birthday Precious Girl

Today is my oldest daughter's 10th birthday and what a special age!!  (It is also her granny's 70th birthday and we will be celebrating them together in the gorgeous mother city.)

Having children has taught me so much, not just about parenting, but mainly about me; my fears, my needs, my beliefs, my ideas of right and wrong; and this gorgeous girl of mine, has brought so much for me to look at and work with and I am deeply grateful for how she has enriched my life and helped me to grow.

Thank you my beautiful

In the silence between your heartbeats ...

What in your life is calling you?

When all the noise is silenced,

the meetings adjourned,

the lists laid aside,

and the wild iris blooms by itself

in the dark forest,

what still pulls on your soul?

In the silence between your heartbeats

hides a summons.

Do you hear it?

Name it, if you must,

or leave it forever nameless,

but why pretend it is not there?

Terma Collective, The Box    

Visioneering ...

A few friends and I are working through Danielle LaPorte's book "The Fire Starter Sessions" and the chapter we have just worked through is 'Visioneering' and it's all about your dreams; what you would love to accomplish and do and be!  We had a magical morning sharing our dreams and challenging each other.  We spoke about how important it is to dream, to talk about our dreams and actually, how very few people make enough time and space to really think about what their dreams are, how to work them and what road they are taking in life.  Then I saw this quote and it really spoke to me and of course I just had to share it with you ...

Make your road matter!!

My Weekend Red Tent

I've just had an absolutely gloriously DIVINE weekend away with my women's circle group.  The environment was so magnificent and I feel truly blessed to have been able to enjoy such a wondrous piece of paradise. My soul has been nourished, pampered, fed and loved and it was just magical.  I can actually see and feel how my energy is vibrating at a totally different level - it feels like it is just oozing love!  I am so grateful for this unique and special group of women who have come into my life.

Fun on the beach!

A few years ago my hubby read "Anticancer" by David Servan- Schreiber, and read about some research done by David Speigel on women who had been diagnosed with breast cancer and the impact that the support groups they formed had on their coping abilities, recovery and survival. The study shows that those women who where part of a group where they spoke openly and honestly about about their life, their fears, the cancer, how they were feeling etc. lived longer and coped better than those who were not part of a support group. He even observed a difference in those who had attended sporadically and those who had attended regularly.  He links the findings back to Satre and Kiekergaard's idea about people being able to be as authentic as possible and that in confronting the fear of death, human beings become fully themselves.   I was blown away by that research and also so delighted as I feel that my circle groups give women the opportunity to be as real as possible, to become fully themselves, to stand in their truth and live life fully ALIVE!

Jump for JOY!!

This quote by Louise Bernikow sums it up so beautifully;  "Female friendships that work are those in which women help each other to belong to themselves." 

Thank you so much girls!!

My Found Poem

I did a fun exercise with two of my women's circle groups and it worked out really well and is quite fun to do.  My wonderful and arty friend Anne told me about Found Poems, which are compositions made by combining fragments of newspapers, signs or menus and rearranging them into the form of a poem.  I love this idea as I think it takes away the 'fear' that many people have around writing a poem.

So, I took a whole lot of poems, divided them up into fragments and phrases and dealt those out to the group and I was amazed at the poetry that sprung forth!!

Here is my one - it is rooted in my thoughts around my dad's passing ...

CRACKED OPEN

I want to write about faith.

I cannot tell you that I know the road;

Life! Burning so extravagantly 

and black sticks left when the fire has gone out

The caged bird sings with fearful trill.

Yet the time will come when

I rise

I rise

I rise

and the world will turn into the light again;

and our hearts will continue to expand

out from our individual self

What is this source from which we drink?

Forgiveness - an interesting take

I really like the thinking behind this and the suggestions of how to make it work for you.  Click on the link below ...

A word on forgiveness