5 minutes of peace...

Sometimes the only way to face a raging storm is to sit down in the middle of it, let the thunder shatter you to pieces and the rain pour down over you, cleansing you from the inside out...and when the storm finally passes you can take the light that finds its way in through the cracks and shine it on the pieces you want to pick up, and let everything else go... let the rain water wash it all away and bath yourself in the newly found ray of hope...

Some other rays of hope for times like these...


"Be still, and know that I am God..."

/Psalm 46:10/

And one of my favourites...

"I said: what about my eyes?
God said: keep them on the road.
I said: what about my passion?
God said: keep it burning.
I said: what about my heart?
God said: tell me what you hold inside it.
I said: pain and sorrow.
God said: ....Stay with it. The wound is where the Light enters you."

/Rumi/

And one more to remind us of the power of gratitude towards simple things...

Thankful

         for the day
when light falls
         like a gift
the angle of each hour
         shines like a blessing
quiet minutes
         become an offering
of limitless possibilities
         like that of enormous Love

/Eve Jackson from Poems in the Waiting Room issue 75/

Sometimes all you need to do is dance... or lie down in the grass and watch the water flow...

Sometimes all you need to do is dance...

Some indigenous people knew the secret to connecting with their truth. They would dance before any important decision was made. How grateful I am right now for Shakti dance and any dance at all and for the freedom I find in allowing my soul to express itself through movement. Sometimes we can be so stuck in our heads that instead of finding answers to our questions we can find ourselves in a swampy mess of thoughts pulling us down and completely distorting our view of ourselves and our surroundings. Sometimes I find that the only thing that brings me peace and clarity is meeting myself through dance. No rules no routine steps, just flowing, just exploring in whatever ways bring you joy and lift your spirit.

Don't take my word for it. Next time you find a boulder in your way and it's too heavy to lift, try dancing around it and watch the magic unfold... xxx

Notes to self on prayer and listening

Here I was thinking I was doing all the right things, handing over all my worries and doubts in prayer and waiting for a miracle to happen. But guess what I've learned? Prayer is not a one way street, it needs to be a dialogue otherwise it's a one way conversation. It's like talking to someone but then not taking the time to let them respond, it's like the yin without the yang, the sun without the moon, a day without the night, phoning someone and then saying what you want to say then hanging up on them before they get the chance to speak. Not good. So I got my knickers in a twist and started getting very disillusioned with my faith thinking why is He leaving me in the dark when I need Him most... And then it hit me, almost quite literally. I was talking to someone the other day and this lad just kept talking and talking and talking some more, but there never seemed to be a pause long enough to get a word in let alone a sentence. I realised that's how God must have felt with me lately. I didn't pause long enough for him to sigh let alone speak to me...

Until today. In reply to a good old whinge my very wise friend yesterday reminded me again of the power of meditation. I loved the fact that she helped me remember that all the answers are actually within me, yes, the best advice ever. So I finally took the time to sit down and listen.... I prayed and I listened and prayed again and listened some more. And as has always been the case in my life when i kept faith, light came pouring in in the most unexpected way, in a way i never could have come up with myself....

So very appropriately on this beautiful summer solstice, the longest day of the year, all that invigorating, hope giving, uplifting light managed to find its way into my darkness and I am deeply grateful.

It is only in giving that we truly receive...

Today I am grateful for the two best friends one could ever wish for. It is true that it is only in giving that we truly receive. One of my very special friends gives very healing, magical massages and the other is a beautiful mother to a gorgeous 10 month old and was therefore in need of some tender loving care herself for a change. I put the two together and the result was divine, the lovely mum was transported to heaven and back, little miss heavenly hands was yet again reminded what a gift she has and I had the undescribable honour of having a ten month old little gem fall asleep in my arms. Utter bliss, especially when motherhood is something that at this point in time is not in the cards for me for some reason..

I am grateful for my journey into healthy eating, although at times obsessive and frustrating, teaching me so much at the same time. Thanks to Aivanhov's The Yoga of Nutrition my awareness is shifting from placing obsessive importance of what I eat and how much to how I eat. It's brought up a need to make a physical and spiritual space for meals and a deeper mindfulness of everything around eating.... And also frustration for the time being being the insane perfectionist I can be, trying to get everything right even before starting haha!

I am grateful for the courage and initiative to deactivate Facebook, I really didn't like the information overload and the superficial nature of it, less is definitely more for me in terms of connectedness...

Thank you for quiet Saturday evenings, with your doggies lying by your side and your special other lovingly forgiving of your wild and often reckless nature, somehow always finding a way to love you even when you really struggle to love yourself...

Thank you for writing, which I've neglected lately but keep rediscovering as a very healing practice.

Thank you for the idea I got from my special friend today to spend five minutes a day visualising things that make me happy, I shall try it and expect good things to come my way...

Spelt bread recipe and other harvest inspirations...

Yesterday I promised a photo of the bread... It's not going to happen, it was too delicious and disappeared before I got the chance to take a picture.

This was not the sourdough bread yet, it was an improvisation, to have some home made bread while we're waiting for the sourdough to ferment.

Here's the recipe if anyone would like to try it:

Ingredients:

500g wholemeal spelt flour
400ml warm water
1tsp salt
1 tsp soda bicarbonate
1 tbsp honey
1 tbsp olive oil
A sprinkle of sunflower seeds to go on top

Mix the flour, salt and bicarbonate of soda together. Dissolve the honey in the warm water, mix in with flour, then add olive oil and keep working the dough thinking of happy things and what you're grateful for, perhaps singing :)

Let the mixture rest for a while, I left it a few hours then poured it onto a greased, floured tray. It doesn't make a perfect loaf, more like a cross between a pizza and a loaf :)

Brush with a bit of olive oil, sprinkle sunflower seeds and score with a knife, then bake in a preheated oven for 30-45 minutes checking depending on your oven.

Enjoy with a lovely bowl of seasonal vegetable stew with lovely grains and pulses cooked in a slow cooker, or on its own, I couldn't even wait for it to cool down and had to have a nibble soon after it made it out of the oven :)


I am so grateful for the inspiration to start practising yoga again. Today after a bit of a grumpy start to the day I managed to find some beautiful peace and stillness just by doing ten minutes of mindful breathing and some gentle stretching

Another blessing today was the very simple but tummy soothing dinner I enjoyed in the form of cooked organic millets from a Polish shop, sprinkled with a bit of cinnamon and a chopped up pear. My tummy feels really light and soothed at the same time. Oh and second day without meat, still working on the sugar and dairy especially as our sweet granddad showed up today with a fruitcake he had baked for us, it would have been so rude to not have any! ;)

I so cannot wait to start uploading photos to go with these entries, thank you for your patience with my technophobe and clumsy self when it comes to sorting things like that! ;)

Wishing everyone a peaceful Sunday night, may we drift off to sleep grateful for harvest, for all the wonderful things mother nature provides us with like beautiful grains, nurturing fruits and vegetables, not to forget the gorgeous autumn sunshine we were blessed with on this early October day :)

Night night xxx

Spelt bread recipe and other harvest inspirations...

Yesterday I promised a photo of the bread... It's not going to happen, it was too delicious and disappeared before I got the chance to take a picture.

This was not the sourdough bread yet, it was an improvisation, to have some home made bread while we're waiting for the sourdough to ferment.

Here's the recipe if anyone would like to try it:

Ingredients:

500g wholemeal spelt flour
400ml warm water
1tsp salt
1 tsp soda bicarbonate
1 tbsp honey
1 tbsp olive oil
A sprinkle of sunflower seeds to go on top

Mix the flour, salt and bicarbonate of soda together. Dissolve the honey in the warm water, mix in with flour, then add olive oil and keep working the dough thinking of happy things and what you're grateful for, perhaps singing :)

Let the mixture rest for a while, I left it a few hours then poured it onto a greased, floured tray. It doesn't make a perfect loaf, more like a cross between a pizza and a loaf :)

Brush with a bit of olive oil, sprinkle sunflower seeds and score with a knife, then bake in a preheated oven for 30-45 minutes checking depending on your oven.

Enjoy with a lovely bowl of seasonal vegetable stew with lovely grains and pulses cooked in a slow cooker, or on its own, I couldn't even wait for it to cool down and had to have a nibble soon after it made it out of the oven :)


I am so grateful for the inspiration to start practising yoga again. Today after a bit of a grumpy start to the day I managed to find some beautiful peace and stillness just by doing ten minutes of mindful breathing and some gentle stretching

Another blessing today was the very simple but tummy soothing dinner I enjoyed in the form of cooked organic millets from a Polish shop, sprinkled with a bit of cinnamon and a chopped up pear. My tummy feels really light and soothed at the same time. Oh and second day without meat, still working on the sugar and dairy especially as our sweet granddad showed up today with a fruitcake he had baked for us, it would have been so rude to not have any! ;)

I so cannot wait to start uploading photos to go with these entries, thank you for your patie nice with my technophobe and clumsy self when it comes to sorting things like that! ;)

Wishing everyone a peaceful Sunday night, may we drift off to sleep grateful for harvest, for all the wonderful things mother nature provides us with like beautiful grains, nurturing fruits and vegetables, not to forget the gorgeous autumn sunshine we were blessed with on this early October day :)

Night night xxx