The latest project...

This years project from R, ten years on from the original one - a painting every day of 2010 - those on facebook will already know about it, but those who aren't please take a look - you don't have to be registered on Facebook to view the group and the paintings... :o)

It's been a while since I sat and wrote here - daily contemplation takes many forms I guess and I've been busy doing other things too, learning new skills, aswell as dredging up some from the past which have been hidden in the recesses of my mind since school days!

music has a habit of making time travel possible, and earlier I listened to this from a long time ago - fun filled, youth fuelled, sparky, out there ready to take on the world memories, oh and hard times in there too...bitter sweet!



Just got me thinking, while I was at the gym, where I am 'upping the ante' and working harder in preparation for the Playtex moonwalk in May, about how being able to raise our game when we are called to, can be far more effective than wasting energy from being in a constant state of expectation - that being able to meet life face to face as it presents itself is a quality worth nurturing all round...

and yet how human the fight response is, especially in youth, and how conditioned we get to the expectation of things always remaining the same, which can so easily blind us to the true picture...

Anyhow, 'up the ante' is called for seriously here, as an ankle operation looms in a couple of days and I have no real idea of what the result will be - my brain says a few sutures and a sticky plaster.. whereas older and I tend to think wiser folk say a big bandage and crutches as a necessity instead of optional extra.. so we will see!! I am keeping my purple killer heels well in focus throughout this regardless though :o)

The new skill? African drumming... huge fun with new friends, great for stress release and harder than I'd thought!!
and the old skill...blanket stitch for darning pointe shoes ~ a true labour of love!

A wonderful prayer - thanks Tim

Just wanted to keep this here at hand - sometimes what I read online speaks way more than things I hear spoken in church here - there is much wonderful wisdom out there.. this is a most beautiful prayer for Christmas... please take a look.

complete escape... :)

Hey, I am around - the kids are back at school tomorrow so I should have time to catch up time I hope.

Happy New Year :)

From me there are no resolutions as such, more wishes perhaps.

New Year started cut off on a tiny island, only accessible at low tide, which meant we had it completely to ourselves. For two days it was our very own island...full of it's own unique treasures.

A perfect escape with some great people ~ a chilled out, beautiful group of creative, expressive, thoughtful, fun loving friends, some old and some new ~ eating, drinking, walking, playing games, relaxing, just being. Forgetting time and enjoying experiencing the moment.

It was ~
A new start,
a clean slate,
a new day,
a new year ~ full of possibility, potential, dreams...

I returned refreshed and renewed ~

perhaps the wind blew more than cobwebs away,

the stillness focused the soul aswell as the mind,

and the beauty did more than inspire and re energise...

It was a couple of days to step out of this life, and at the end of it walk back across the causeway into a new year and ready to face whatever wonder 2010 holds.

For a while we stepped off this world and came back a year later... with new eyes perhaps...

thoughts, words and feelings

There are thoughts,
there are words,
there are feelings....

sometimes they don't all come together cohesively.

Words lose some of the feelings and thoughts in their construction, and generally seem inadequate.
Feelings that are best expressed without words, but instead with eyes and hearts and touch.

At the moment I am
grateful ~

that life is a journey,
that sometimes - often, and almost always, if we strive, things do turn around, work out..
that perhaps instead of watching with bated breath I can maybe now start to breathe a little easier at the end of what has been the most difficult year of my life so far.

I could have, should have trusted after all... maybe...
yet trusting in the unknown future is so very hard to do.

I am aware that even when things get easier we are never given the respite to fully recover but have to do it 'on the run' when in fact we'd quite like space to sit and do it all properly...

Recovery doesn't happen overnight, although sleep does heal, but the body takes it's time to catch up and we must be patient :)

It really is true that the more you love, the more you care, and so the more you hurt when they do, and the more you feel for and with them ~ how cruel is that?
The price we pay for love.... that we wouldn't be without.

Thoughts, words, feelings... caught up within living... and constantly in colourful flux.

The tree is up, and once again we have hit the festive season. I am aware of the world around me, both on a small scale and far wider, further afield...
I find I get lost in thought, in a place where words often fail, and the heart yearns and hopes.
A tangle of thoughts words and feelings... and hope for so many's unknown future.

head for the skies

It's been a long time since I sat and wrote here,
Movember has been and gone, friends have grown 'taches and shaved them off again in aid of prostate cancer awareness
Motivation and unity have struck me watching this growth across the island, a public display of support and commitment which has made me smile more than a few times and been the cause of at least one double take before I realised what was going on!
All around me people are achieving and making progress.

A few weeks ago our moonwalk group was born for this year ~ 'too hot to trot' made it off the starting blocks and all being well we'll be 'not trotting' around London in May for 26.2 miles overnight.

Motivational moments are contagious ~ reasons to celebrate ~ the small things aswell as the big.
Nourishing the seeds with praise and recognition and encouragement, and watching them grow.
Filing the less fruitful experiences in a separate place ready for archiving at some point...

Some people seem to get trips to the moon now and again, a hand reaches down, grabs theirs and away they go skywards...
We had one of those this week when S was chosen as a finalist for a local art competition, which opened today and is now awaiting the public vote over this month to see who wins. Winning really is secondary to the pride and excitement she felt, and the very real sense of achievement from her work (play) being acknowledged this way.

That rarely happens in such a wonderfully sparkly way. It seems that most of the time we spend motivating one another and ourselves to keep reaching upwards, bouncing on worn but trusty trampolines, yet upwards we go supported by those around us...
that was very much the feeling I came away with from the first group on a course I have just run.

I am humbled by many of the people I come across and their stories and incredible attitude to life.
There is no doubt life throws no end of challenges and difficulties our way, but somehow we always seem to keep bouncing , even when we are tired of it... persistence often pays off (am thinking health care systems and red tape at this point!)

and just maybe the trips to the moon we see around us keep us believing anything and everything really is possible...

Rewards

Rewarded with the glimmer of what may be,
and what lies ahead,
as opposed to looking backwards at what we have left behind.
Rewards for perserverence,
for faith and hope and love.

When suddenly light seeps through and possibility makes an appearance,
When all those never ending tiny steps seem to have made one smallish step in a direction somewhere, anywhere,

and we stretch and bathe in the warmth, as we remember the cold darkness.
Lessons learned,
wiser perhaps, maybe, possibly, we hope...

It's warm, it's bright, it's beautiful...

it's a new beginning..

all over again