The Hero

"Momma, can you please put this on?"
I look at the tiny purple Barbie shoe..and the hopeful face in front of me full of unwavering faith in my abilities to save the day. The clasp doesn't fit the foot of THIS particular Barbie, and i say so. But i take it anyway..i try anyway. And i FIGURE out a way to do it. Somehow wiggling, stretching, shimming..(the barbie's foot) - i succeed.My fingers are sore and i'm stressed for no good reason but..

I receive a BIG SHINY EYED SMILE..and my 3 year old walks away on tippy-toe. A sure sign she's happy. And my sore fingers smile too. They feel so useful.

I am not saving the world today with my fingers. I am not generating economic value either.
I merely made a child feel important and happy. And she reminded me that i can do anything if i will only try with all my heart. The force of the LOVE from that moment..i believe just echoed through the Universe.

Honestly..my 3 year old thinks i'm her hero..what she doesn't realise is that she's mine.

Light the Candle..of your heart

And these three remain: faith, hope and love. but the greatest of these is LOVE

Everyday..whether a song, a short movie clip, an excerpt of a book..or merely watching someone lovely for 5 minutes..or a flower even..awaken LOVE inside you

This is the poet's way..or else his words, his music or his brush will still...and the world will mourn after he is gone because he wasted away in silence..And they will regret that they did not shield him more from the darker parts of reality..so that he could brighten their days for more and for longer..

But what if YOU are the poet? Then seek all that will keep you shielded..all that will keep you safe in your dream..so your candle will remain burning and become a great fire that can never be engulfed..

And your brush, your song, your words..will flow freely..
blessing many as it finds its way back to the ocean of love.


Originally posted on Facebook Fan Page on Tuesday 3 August 2010

Normal..is just a setting on my washing machine

When you have a challenge..like bipolar, or autism, or depression..or a weak kidney.. you actually have two choices: Live It Up or Survive. To me, it's an opportunity to finally Live It Up because now you get to REALLY live life fully. A challenge makes you wake up and make choices and really push limits and know what you are all truly capable of achieving in life. So many people have routine lives and get bored to death inside. But a challenge provides just that extra ingredient in your life that can make you live your best life EVER.

There is no such thing as a disability..in God's eyes all of us are disabled in one way or another..a fiery destructive temper, silent passive aggression, stubborn irresponsibility, thoughtless critic. Are't those disabilities too? (In fact, they actually wreck far more lives) So 'disability' is actually just a pointless label. Heard of the woman who has no arms who can fly an aeroplane? The man with no limbs who can swim? I see them and i think..who's actually disabled? More like the people who complain that life is tough and do nothing but expect others to make it easier for them. Or those who could do something to ease the burden for others, but choose to stay indifferent. These are the true 'disabled' in my eyes.

Nope..if you have a challenge (even if it IS a fiery destructive temper) - you actually have the opportunity to have a better life than most. You can become more conscious of your choices and responses and by doing so, live better deliberately - you Live It Up.

Yes, you will have rainy days - who doesn't? Nature even has typhoons and floods hit the landscape, why should your heartscape be any different? Rainy days are NOT a measure of the quality of your life. It's what you do when the sun is shining - that truly defines an extraordinary life worth living

Originally posted on Facebook Fan Page on Friday, 27 August 2010

Affirmation Versus Loving Admonishment

The world seems full of duality. In seeing everything in duality we define life as as good and bad, pleasure and painful, united and separated. What if we see it as merely Ying and Yang? Two sides of the same coin? To walk away from the 'right' path and suffer pain, is it truly 'bad'? Or merely consciousness versus unconsciousness? We talk of pain being necessary for growth. We talk of darkness being necessary to appreciate light. How do we know the beauty of one end of the spectrum without allowing the other? I am on this journey now.

I spent 10 years in church faithfullly learning to see black vs.white, good vs.bad. Hearing messages of love balanced with admonition to stay on the path. But what is 'the path'? We see one man's ruin, but 10 years on he may be a totally different person, far more loving than before as a result of his suffering. The world will say he finally returned to 'the path'. But what if it was his own individual path from the start and the seeming deviation in my eyes was merely part of his road to take him to his personal destination. I may not prefer the same road but does that make that road 'wrong/bad'?

Both my husband and father are examples of men categorised as 'unwise'. And i was filled with pain looking at them from a duality view of 'good' vs 'bad' choices. But only after removing duality could i see that they both have their own wisdom and that life had to be that way for them and that no wrong road was ever wrong in the end. It was wrong for me in my shoes, but it need never turn out bad in the end IF we have love, affirmation and those walking alongside us who KNOW that each of us have Shadows we cannot escape and need not fear those shadows. Embracing those shadows, even if it be the trait of being slow to meet wisdom on her terms, is what makes us whole and connected to each other. How many times now have i frozen my opinions on my daughter's choices that seemed unwise to me only to be so glad later that i did. With my love and affirmation, what seemed a 'wrong/bad'poor' choice of hers turned out good BECAUSE she had me there to love her through it and that awakened her to meet wisdom eventually.

I am left wondering, after many years of having to be healed of the scarring effects of duality thinking in my childhood and later in church , if it's possible for there to be only messages of love and affirmation that AWAKEN consciousness rather than promote duality. And enlightened mind can easily see the words that sound admonishing but has hidden pearls in it, but simpler minds only see the admonishment and their hearts are not fed.

Even as i share this, i know that we are all different and while many can be happy with the encouraging messages framed in duality, my heart sees a need for these lovely messages to be also 'translated' in a non-dual affirming way for the too many people out there scarred by a century of ego-based upbringing and systems and are thirsty for affirmation after years of 'loving admonishment'. They can fly but are too afraid because they've been warned far too much of the 'dark side' they must beware of. Time to tell them - "Believe and Jump! Your heart is pure and that's all God sees. He won't let you fail because darkness and light are alike to him and even if you have a fall and get bruised, it's not the end. It's part of the adventure." No admonishment, just affirmation that erases all possibility of fear so they can dare to LOVE and LIVE their dreams.

The Natural Link

Love in My Mother's Embrace

I will go into an open field.

There I will lay down upon the ground,

my arms open wide

and stare up at the sky.

I will see clouds forming shapes my mind cannot recognise.

I will smell the perfume of weeds and grass

crushed beneath my muscle and bones...

and while it will be familiar

it will bring no memory

of the hustle of my life

behind closed doors and concrete walls.

I will gradually see the colours around me

blend into each other...

sensing everything and yet nothing in particular.

And as I gradually dissolve

into nothingness of consequence

I will become

the very essence of the universe

~ an accepting abundant love.

When i am most overwhelmed, being out in nature so restores me. And i have heard the same of so many others who seem to gain a calming, restoring sense of well-being when they go to a place in nature that is greater than themselves. When i feel tired of my daily routine, a visit to the park refreshes me. When i am overwhelmed by endless caregiving, a trip to the forest in all it's wild disarray works better - almost as if my mind finally recognises something far greater than it can ever handle and backs off, leaving my soul the space it has been needing to finally breathe clearly.

The more 'lost' i feel inside, the greater the natural element i need to calm my inner tempest. Perhaps that's why the ocean is my ultimate soothing balm of nature. When i stand on the fringes of the ocean, i know there is no way i could ever be in control. My mind is defeated by the truth that i am finally facing a force so great, and a peace washes over my heart..of accepting that the mighty force before me is governed by a Love so great that it holds the ocean in place. Surely it is doing just as well, holding me.

Real Life Fairytales

Why do we seem to think troubles mean the end of a fairytale or that because of troubles and pain, there are no fairytales in real life?

We have selective amnesia.

It's part of every fairytale - the poisoned apple, evil stepmothers, dragons and ogres. But we tend to forget all that and just remember the happy starts and the happy-ever-after endings. I think we could all benefit greatly from reminding each other of the "betweens" in fairytales. To be unscared to proclaim that difficult parts exist alongside and before the eventual happy ever afters. Because once we can accept that fairytales have troubled parts, we can then accept and reinstate the magic of fairytales in our minds. We then gain the amazing power of once more allowing ourselves to believe that we can have the happy endings our hearts long for.

And for days when we can't look to fairytale Cinderella and the bullying she endured for inspiration to keep believing in a happy ending, we can turn to all the real men and women of history who made it through doubt and persecution to their dreams. Men like Gandhi and Albert Einstein. Women like Florence Nightingale and Oprah Winfrey. It's all too easy to see their successful dreams, or their 'easy' lives and forget their difficult 'betweens'. We forget and thereby deny ourselves the gift of believing that somehow the power that sustains all life - the great Universal Love - is also able to take us, just like them, to our happy ever afters IF we just keep on believing.

Yes, I will still have pain, but I don't need to believe it's the end. From now on I'm going to build my fairytale muscle, and Cinderella's wise words are a good start: "No matter how your heart is grieving, if you keep on believing, the dreams that you wish..will come true."

The Art of Living

Every one has a WORD. 

I first heard of this from Elizabeth Gilbert in her book EAT PRAY LOVE. I think it's possibly why one of the famous lines from the Gospel is "In the beginning there was the Word." That makes sense to me now. 

Reading Elizabeth's Italian friend ask her "What's your WORD Liz?" was a life changing moment for me. I knew right then that I had to find MY Word.

I think maybe our Word can change as we evolve. I think maybe it's always the same underneath but can change, like a shadow does,  until we find IT - the actual object forming that shadow.  

My Word is HEART. 

It can be rearranged as Earth ~H(Eart). 

Heart. Earth. 

Yes..to me it makes complete sense to live my life on this earth only one way ~ from my heart. 

I am an Artist and my canvas is my life. 

Love is... my inspiration.