“Have no fear of perfection – you’ll never reach it.” ~ Salvador Dalí “You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it.” ~ […]
Setting Clear Boundaries for 2016
“Setting boundaries is a way of caring for myself. It doesn’t make me mean, selfish, or uncaring because I don’t do things your way. I care about me too.” ~ Christine Morgan 2016 is a very important year, for many reasons. One is that it is a foundation year. Our choices in 2016 will […]
A Lovely ‘Double Happiness’ Spagyric Tincture Offer for You!
“Health is not just the absence of a disease. It’s an inner joyfulness that should be ours all the time; a state of positive well-being.” ~ Deepak Chopra My dear friends Paul Hardacre and Marissa Newell make the most deliciously health-giving spagyric herbal tinctures through their small family business Mare Maia. To close out […]
Feathered Friends Come Visiting
“What use is care? What good is watching for that matter? People are forever watching things. They should be seeing. I see the things I look at. I am a see-er.” ~ Patrick Rothfuss As I sat at my desk on my little office veranda yesterday I had many visitors. First a kookaburra flew down […]
My 2016 Personal Planning Summit!
“As for the future, your task is not to foresee it, but to enable it.” ~ Antoine de Saint Exupery Today is a day I always look forward to. After a relaxing Christmas, and a delicious day of doing completely NOTHING yesterday, today I begin my personal Planning Summit for 2016. I’ve set aside four […]
Christmas Full Moon – 2015
“The songs of our ancestors are also the songs of our children” ~ Philip Carr-Gomm Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! There is a full moon tonight – Christmas Night, 2015. (I know, I know, some of you dear readers are only up to Christmas Eve, but I’m in Australia, where it’s tomorrow already!) It […]
Santa’s Unhappy Helper
“How long do I have to wear these stoopid things? Where’s my Schmackos and Scoobie Schnacks?” ~ Nurse Bert I tried for a cute shot of two dogs in reindeer ears. Harry ate his. Or rather, ripped them to pieces. Bert was slightly more well behaved, and stoic in his misery. It’s beautiful here […]
Ready For Going Home!
“Mr. Fred shook hands with her, said he was glad to see her, drew out a wet Coke from the machine, wiped it on his apron, and gave it to her. This is one good thing about life that never changes, she thought. As long as he lived, as long as she returned, Mr. Fred […]
Who Would You Invite To Dinner?
“You can’t forget how important coming together is, whether it be a mom and a son, a dad and a daughter, whether the family be ten people, or twenty people, or a million people. Dinnertime is the perfect time for that. Dinnertime is the perfect time when you can sit down, you can offer thanks […]
The Sunday Session – or How to Plan Your Week
“If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll end up someplace else.” ~ Yogi Berra In Australia the expression Sunday Session is most commonly associated with a lazy day of hanging out with your mates, consuming rather a lot of alcohol. Preferably in a beer garden, with some live music and decent food. That […]
Things Not To Get Me For Christmas
“We no longer live life. We consume it.” ~ Vicki Robin When I was a kid, Christmas was something to look forward to. We’d get a new toy or two, maybe a book (mine was always books), a dress or a t-shirt, socks and undies. The toys would last us for the year, the […]
Monthly Subscription for Year of ME course now live!
“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” ~ Arthur C. Clarke I have done something I never thought I would do. I learned to code. That weird HTML thing that finally allowed me to put a magical button on my Planner’s Monthly Subscription option. Because, you see, my shop function doesn’t allow for […]
Last Minute Christmas Cooking and Gift Ideas
“Christmas is a tonic for our souls. It moves us to think of others rather than of ourselves. It directs our thoughts to giving.” ~ B.C. Forbes It’s less than two weeks until Christmas, but there is still plenty of time to whip up a tasty treat or two to share with friends, to gift, […]
A Special Christmas Altar for Healing and Remembrance
“It has been said, ‘time heals all wounds.’ I do not agree. The wounds remain. In time, the mind, protecting its sanity, covers them with scar tissue and the pain lessens. But it is never gone.” ~ Rose Kennedy “To live in hearts we leave behind is not to die.” ~ Thomas Campbell Christmas […]
What Love Looks Like
“Love is not love Which alters when it alteration finds, Or bends with the remover to remove. O no, it is an ever-fixed mark That looks on tempests and is never shaken; It is the star to every wand’ring bark, Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken.” (Sonnet 116)” ~ William Shakespeare, Shakespeare’s Sonnets […]
All Things Fairy!
“Things that fairies love? Well, every fairy is different, just likes peoples are. So I will tell you what I love. I love flowers and crystals and shiny sparkly things, and babies smiling, and people laughing, and music, and the smell of puppy feet. And I love you! Thank you for believing in fairies!” ~ […]
It’s Here! The Year of ME Planner – 2016
“Our soul is like a soft and gentle flower, it needs to be nurtured, cared for, tended to, with sufficient sunlight, fresh air and freedom to bloom into its most precious and beautiful form. This, my friend, is self-love.” ~ Miya Yamanouchi I’m so proud and excited to announce… the launch of my Year […]
Dreams That Come True
“You are the magical fairy that makes things happen in your life. Don’t wait for someone else to make your dreams come true.” ~ Natalie Rivener I’m launching my Year of ME Planner – 2016 tonight, and tomorrow it will go live here on my blog. In reflection, it’s the continuation of my great […]
Project Madness and Jean-Luc
“And how many hours a day did you do lessons?’ said Alice, in a hurry to change the subject. Ten hours the first day,’ said the Mock Turtle: ‘nine the next, and so on.’ What a curious plan!’ exclaimed Alice. That’s the reason they’re called lessons,’ the Gryphon remarked: ‘because they lessen from day to […]
Do What Makes Your Heart Sing
“I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: ‘If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?’ And whenever the answer has been ‘No’ for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.” ~ Steve […]
December 2015 – What to Expect
“Dare to dream, for in the daring there is defiance to live beyond your circumstances.” ~ Su Williams, Dream Weaver Hello, Lovelies! We’ve almost made it through the year. Already we are under the influence of 2016 and her glorious possibilities, which is why December is an important month for tuning in to the […]
Pretzels and Early Morning Strolls
“I can’t think of anything that brings me closer to tears than when my old dog—completely exhausted after a hard day in the field—limps away from her nice spot in front of the fire and comes over to where I’m sitting and puts her head in my lap, a paw over my knee, and closes […]
Come to my Christmas Party – and other cool events!
“Be merry all, be merry all, With holly dress the festive hall; Prepare the song, the feast, the ball, To welcome merry Christmas.” ~ William Robert Spencer This Friday, December 11, I’m holding a pop-up shop and Christmas Party, and I’d love you to come! The pop-up shop will open at 3pm, and we’ll […]
Endings and Beginnings
“No, this is not the beginning of a new chapter in my life; this is the beginning of a new book! That first book is already closed, ended, and tossed into the seas; this new book is newly opened, has just begun! Look, it is the first page! And it is a beautiful one!” ~ […]
A Sneak Peek at My Secret Project!
“A goal without a plan is just a wish.” ~ Antoine de Saint-Exupéry I always thought that the first book I brought out into the world would be a story. But it isn’t my story. It’s yours! Here’s the sneak peek I promised you of the project I have been working on. It’s a […]
What Bravery Looks Like
“I don’t like and even resist, being broken wide-open. But, when the contents of my unconscious self spill out of me and I sift through all the disowned parts of who I am… it’s an uncomfortably enlightening and eye-opening experience. It feels a bit like emotional bloodletting. I guess every now and then, I need […]
A Morning Walk
“A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal […]
After the Storm…
“When you come out of the storm, you won’t be the same person who walked in. That’s what this storm’s all about.” ~ Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore One of the things I love about our retreats at Sangsurya is that we are always so supported by the natural environment. We’ve been doing […]
It’s Okay to Keep Changing – and How to Cope with People Who Don’t Recognise That
“If people refuse to look at you in a new light and they can only see you for what you were, only see you for the mistakes you’ve made, if they don’t realize that you are not your mistakes, then they have to go.” ~ Steve Maraboli, Life, the Truth, and Being Free I […]
In My Happy Place!
“The cure for anything is salt water — sweat, tears, or the sea.” ~ Isak Dinesen My Soul Sanctuary Retreat begins today. Before my work begins, before my week kicks off, I have this. The beach, the dawn, the rising sun, the smell of salt and the foam of waves. I have my husband’s […]
A Little Bit Of Chaos
“Floyd could imagine a dozen things that could go wrong; it was little consolation that it was always the thirteenth that actually happened.” ~ Arthur C. Clarke, 2010: Odyssey Two I thought about writing a blog titled ‘Reasons for Screaming Yesterday – My Top Five’. They would have been: The microbat in my bath-towel […]
Crazy Wild Farm Life!
“Patience is the calm acceptance that things can happen in a different order than the one you have in mind.” ~ David G. Allen Behold the beautiful flat space where my new vegetable gardens shall go. It seems so peaceful, doesn’t it? Part of that peacefulness is derived from the fact that the excavator […]
Crystals To Soothe Anxiety
“P.S. You’re not going to die. Here’s the white-hot truth: if you go bankrupt, you’ll still be okay. If you lose the gig, the lover, the house, you’ll still be okay. If you sing off-key, get beat by the competition, have your heart shattered, get fired… it’s not going to kill you. Ask anyone who’s […]
A Christmas Gift for Yourself
“You’re gorgeous, you old hag, and if I could give you just one gift ever for the rest of your life it would be this. Confidence. It would be the gift of confidence. Either that or a scented candle.” ~ David Nicholls, One Day I was talking with a girlfriend yesterday. A very organised […]
Riding Out The Heatwave
“Dawn, then, was a time where things changed element for element. Air ran like hot spring waters nowhere, with no sound. The lake was a quantity of steam very still and deep over valleys of fish and sand held baking under its serene vapors. Tar was poured licorice in the streets, red bricks were brass and gold, roof tops […]
Making Art and Magical Carrots
“Write it. Shoot it. Publish it. Crochet it, sauté it, whatever. MAKE.” ~ Joss Whedon I’m finishing up the last little bits of my secret project just now. It’s a project that has involved a lot of planning, and more writing and oracle card consulting and rumbling through my many bowls and boxes of […]
Easy Miso Udon Noodle Soup
“An army travels on its stomach. Soup makes the soldier.” ~ Napoleon Bonaparte This quick and easy soup is one of my all-time favourites. It’s healthy, and you can throw it together in a couple of minutes. Perfect for when life is crazy-busy, or when you’re tired and need an easy meal. Ingredients: 1 […]
Crazy, Beautiful, Sustainable Madness
“There is no such thing as work-life balance. Everything worth fighting for unbalances your life.” ~ Alain de Botton It’s a crazy time of year for me. As the end of year/beginning of the new year always is, in my line of work. I have a retreat coming up in less than two weeks. […]
A Message From Harry Dog!
“Sometime you just gotta get out of the house, breathe the clean morning air, run around like a mad thing, and bark at some waves.” ~ Harry the Cafe Dog Hello! This is an action post, because this morning is an action morning. Everyone has been stuck in the house for days because of the […]
A Meditation To Ease Suffering in Self and Others
“Ring the bells that still can ring Forget your perfect offering There is a crack in everything That’s how the light gets in.” ~ Leonard Cohen With all that is going on in our world right now it is easy to feel small and insignificant – unable to help when all we feel in […]
Planning For A Wonderful (and Ordinary) Life
“Do not ask your children to strive for extraordinary lives. Such striving may seem admirable, but it is the way of foolishness. Help them instead to find the wonder and the marvel of an ordinary life. Show them the joy of tasting tomatoes, apples and pears. Show them how to cry when pets and people […]
Festive Christmas Fudge Recipe
“They always gives me bath salts,” complained Nobby. “And bath soap and bubble bath and herbal bath lumps and tons of bath stuff and I can’t think why, ‘cos it’s not as if I hardly ever has a bath. You’d think they’d take the hint, wouldn’t you?” ~ Terry Pratchett, Hogfather I’ve had so […]
Stop Fighting Your Lack Of Flow
“I have come to accept the feeling of not knowing where I am going. And I have trained myself to love it. Because it is only when we are suspended in mid-air with no landing in sight, that we force our wings to unravel and alas begin our flight. And as we fly, we still […]
This is How The Universe Works…
“There are no ordinary moments. There is always something going on.” ~ Peaceful Warrior “Everything around us is made up of energy. To attract positive things in your life, start by giving off positive energy.” ~ Celestine Chua A few days ago, as I sat at my desk early, early, early in the morning, looking at my […]
Remembrance Day, 2015
“It has been said, ‘time heals all wounds.’ I do not agree. The wounds remain. In time, the mind, protecting its sanity, covers them with scar tissue and the pain lessens. But it is never gone.” ~ Rose Kennedy At 11am on the 11th of November 1918 the guns of the Western Front finally […]
Dreading Christmas This Year?
“It struck him that how you spent Christmas was a message to the world about where you were in life, some indication of how deep a hole you had managed to burrow for yourself” ~ Nick Hornby, About a Boy For many people, Christmas isn’t a Hallmark moment. It’s a time of stress and […]
My Favourite Crystals For Spiritual Connection
“The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.” ~ W.B. Yeats Meditation, connecting with our guides, getting into a channelling space or spiritual flow, doing readings or healings, clairvoyance, clairaudience, clairsentience, working with energy, astral travelling, improving our psychic and metaphysical abilities – all of these things […]
A Simple Breath Meditation for Stress, Anxiety and Fatigue
“Feelings come and go like clouds in a windy sky. Conscious breathing is my anchor.” ~ Thích Nhất Hạnh Meditation doesn’t have to be complicated or long. This is a soothing and energising technique that is simple to understand and that can bring a sense of increased calm and peace in as little as […]
Big Brave Bert And The Terrifying Fly!
“Courage is found in unlikely places.” ~ J.R.R. Tolkien Summer is fast approaching here at our little farm, and with summer come the March flies. March flies are big flies. Big. Did I say big? Some people call them horse flies too. Besides being big they are also bullies. They bite, and their bites […]
Traditional Christmas Cake – Make and Mature
“I love the Christmas-tide, and yet, I notice this, each year I live; I always like the gifts I get, But how I love the gifts I give!” ~ Carolyn Wells I have so many fruit cake recipes, but if you have the time this one delivers a perfect Christmas Cake that is moist, […]
An Afternoon Concert for My Cows
“Ah, music,” he said, wiping his eyes. “A magic beyond all we do here!” ~ J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone The first time I heard Albinoni’s Oboe Concert #2 in D Minor I was seven, a little girl sitting in the music room of her primary school, eyes closed as instructed by the […]
Simple Summer Bruschetta Recipe
“Sweet, sweet burn of sun and summer wind, and you my friend, my new fun thing, my summer fling.” ~ k.d. lang It’s not quite summer here in Australia yet, but gee it feels like it! The sun is beating down, the sky is wide and blue, the grass is plush and green beneath […]
November 2015 – What to Expect
“A goal without a plan is just a wish.” ~ Antoine de Saint-Exupéry “Without leaps of imagination or dreaming, we lose the excitement of possibilities. Dreaming, after all is a form of planning.” ~ Gloria Steinem Hello, Lovelies! Well, here we are at November. Can you feel it? Can you feel the sweet energies of […]
Listening as a Healing Tool
“You do not have to be good. You do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting. You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves. Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine. Meanwhile the world goes on. […]
Weekend Roasts, Owls and My Email Address!
“Are you still forgetting things?” “I don’t know, I can’t remember,” I said.” ~ Stephen King, Duma Key Last night Angela’s husband came around to the farm for a roast dinner. It’s only a week since Angela passed away, and everything is so hard and new for him. Before her breast cancer diagnosis Ange had […]
Date Savers For Working With Nicole Cody 2015 and 2016
“My greatest joy is to help people feel and trust the presence of their own soul wisdom, their own intuitive and psychic connection, their own gifts and talents, the wonders all around them and within them.” ~ Nicole Cody Hi Lovelies! I thought it might be a good idea for me to give you a […]
Mean Girls, Temper Tantrums, Narcissists and Sociopaths
“Three things in human life are important: the first is to be kind; the second is to be kind; and the third is to be kind.” ~ Henry James I was raised to be well-mannered. A nice girl. A polite girl. A kind girl. A girl who was first and foremost considerate of the […]
Bacon and Egg Sandwich with Caramelised Onion
“When you wake up in the morning, Pooh,” said Piglet at last, “what’s the first thing you say to yourself?” “What’s for breakfast?” said Pooh. “What do you say, Piglet?” “I say, I wonder what’s going to happen exciting today?” said Piglet. Pooh nodded thoughtfully. “It’s the same thing,” he said.” ~ A.A. Milne […]
Soul Sanctuary Retreat 2015 – Just a Few Places Left!
“The greatest hazard of all, losing one’s self, can occur very quietly in the world, as if it were nothing at all. No other loss can occur so quietly; any other loss – an arm, a leg, five dollars, a wife, etc. – is sure to be noticed.” ~ Søren Kierkegaard “Self-care is never a […]
Life Returns To Its Usual Rhythms
“The longest way must have its close – the gloomiest night will wear on to a morning.” ~ Harriet Beecher Stowe We decided to come back to the city last night. Ange’s memorial was beautiful, and very Byron Bay. We gathered at the Lighthouse, all dressed in our most colourful happy clothes, as a […]
The Stories That Bind Us, Heal Us
“Don’t try to present your art by making other people read or hear or see or touch it; make them feel it. Wear your art like your heart on your sleeve and keep it alive by making people feel a little better. Feel a little lighter. Create art in order for yourself to become yourself and […]
There Was No Blog Post This Morning Because… Life
“Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.” ~ Leo Buscaglia I’d had every intention of blogging early this morning, as I usually do. As I’ve missed […]
10 Easy Steps For Self Care During Troubled Times
“They called her witch because she knew how to heal herself.” ~ Te’ V. Smith It’s simple enough to be well-intentioned and kind to yourself when life is going smoothly. Or if you are on holidays. Or in a really good head space. But when we are hard up against it – when we have crushing […]
For Angela, On Your Last Morning
“I would rather walk with a friend in the dark, than alone in the light.” ~ Helen Keller Good Morning, Darling Friend. My first thought this morning is of you, on this, your last morning. As I lay in my soft bed, in my still-dark room, I thought of how I left you last […]
Melt ‘n’ Mix Sultana Slice Recipe – Easy!
“When I observe Gram, I see how fragile the notion of tradition can be. If I take my eyes off the way she kneads her Easter bread, or if I fail to study the way she sews a seam in suede, or if I lose the mental image I have of her when she negotiates […]
Emergency Crystal Help for Solar Flare Energies
“Here I came to the very edge where nothing at all needs saying, everything is absorbed through weather and the sea, and the moon swam back, its rays all silvered, and time and again the darkness would be broken by the crash of a wave, and every day on the balcony of the sea, wings […]
Home In My Own Bed!
“I live in my own little world. But it’s ok, they know me here.” ~ Lauren Myracle There is something so sweet and good about sleeping in your own bed after a long time away. It’s a little crowded just now though. Harry and Bert refuse to leave my side. Not that I’m complaining. […]
My Unscheduled Five-Star Holiday!
“Whenever I pull an oracle card for myself, it always seems to have one message… Rest!” ~ Nicole Cody Hello Lovelies, I’m having a little enforced rest in this lovely five-star resort (some would call it a hospital!) due to my naughty misbehaving heart. Thank you, Lyme Disease. Even on the way out of […]
How to Be At Home Wherever You Are
“Home wasn’t a set house, or a single town on a map. It was wherever the people who loved you were, whenever you were together. Not a place, but a moment, and then another, building on each other like bricks to create a solid shelter that you take with you for your entire life, wherever […]
Easy Goat Cheese and Mushroom Canapes
“A good time occurs precisely when we lose track of what time it is.” ~ Robert Farrar Capon This is a super little recipe – it’s healthy, quick to make, and utterly yummy. You’ll find that it goes perfectly with afternoon tea, as canapes with drinks, or for a plate to share. With the […]
Cancer, Coffee and Community
“My silences had not protected me. Your silence will not protect you. But for every real word spoken, for every attempt I had ever made to speak those truths for which I am still seeking, I had made contact with other women while we examined the words to fit a world in which we all […]
October 2015 – What to Expect
“If you feel lost, disappointed, hesitant, or weak, return to yourself, to who you are, here and now and when you get there, you will discover yourself, like a lotus flower in full bloom, even in a muddy pond, beautiful and strong.” ~ Masaru Emoto, Secret Life of Water Hello, Lovelies <3 October snuck up on […]
Bush Lemons And Farm Strolls
“Lemons. He liked lemons. They made you make funny faces when you bit them, and a very, very long way in the future there was a really amazing planet where they’d evolved into people and lived in harmony with a variety of hyper-intelligent bee. Evolution. Thousands and thousands of years of tiny changes could turn […]
Batman Or Iron Man? Which one are you?
“There are two types of people on planet Earth, Batman and Iron Man. Batman has a secret identity, right? So Bruce Wayne has to walk around every second of every day knowing that if somebody finds out his secret, his family is dead, his friends are dead, everyone he loves gets tortured to death by […]
Lovely Herbal Tincture Combos to Help You Heal
“A wise man ought to realize that health is his most valuable possession.” ~ Hippocrates My friends Paul Hardacre and Marissa Newell of Mare Maia, who make the spagyric herbal tinctures that have been so beneficial in my own journey back towards health, have just created some very good value packs with three tinctures […]
Chilled Coconut Soup with Tapioca and Rockmelon
“Pull up a chair. Take a taste. Come join us. Life is so endlessly delicious.” ~ Ruth Reichl Many years ago, when my sister and I were sharing a house, we’d sometimes venture out for dinner to a little Asian Restaurant in Market Square at Sunnybank. Our restaurant of choice was called Gourmet Court – […]
HSPs, Empaths, War and Refugees
“I know a few things to be true. I do not know where I am going, where I have come from is disappearing, I am unwelcome and my beauty is not beauty here. My body is burning with the shame of not belonging, my body is longing. I am the sin of memory and the […]
Romance Novels and Heroin
“It’s funny: I always imagined when I was a kid that adults had some kind of inner toolbox full of shiny tools: the saw of discernment, the hammer of wisdom, the sandpaper of patience. But then when I grew up I found that life handed you these rusty bent old tools – friendships, prayer, conscience, […]
Are You In Survival Mode For No Good Reason?
“Oh! that gentleness! how far more potent is it than force!” ~ Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre Most of us are used to pushing, to working hard, to gritting our teeth and carrying on. If there is a crisis in your life, that is often the only thing to be done. But sometimes, it seems […]
Colouring Crew Clubhouse!
“Maybe we should develop a Crayola bomb as our next secret weapon. A happiness weapon. A beauty bomb. And every time a crisis developed, we would launch one. It would explode high in the air — explode softly — and send thousands, millions, of little parachutes into the air. Floating down to earth — boxes […]
The Little Boy Who Used To Be John
“For the first forty days a child is given dreams of previous lives. Journeys, winding paths, a hundred small lessons and then the past is erased.” ~ Michael Ondaatje, Handwriting *Please note that names have been changed to protect the identity of those involved. In suburban Brisbane lives a little boy whom we will […]
Keeping Bert Quiet…
“The way you help heal the world is you start with your own family.” ~ Mother Teresa Nurse Bert is healing well from his cruciate ligament surgery. Next week he’ll have an x-ray to see if the bone has healed. If it looks good, the vet says Bert will finally be allowed to run free. He’ll […]
How Listening To Music Can Increase Your Abundance
“Ah, music,” he said, wiping his eyes. “A magic beyond all we do here!” ~ J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone On my last retreat I channelled through some information for the group about money and financial abundance. We were given a number of practical tips to help us to look after the […]
The Coral Bird
“Our memory is a more perfect world than the universe: it gives back life to those who no longer exist.” ~ Guy de Maupassant When I was growing up my mother’s parents, Ceddie and Marga, owned a boat (first a yacht and later a motor cruiser) and they would often take us out into Moreton […]
Will You Join Us For The 2015 Soul Sanctuary Retreat?
“The most fundamental aggression to ourselves, the most fundamental harm we can do to ourselves, is to remain ignorant by not having the courage and the respect to look at ourselves honestly and gently.” ~ Pema Chödrön I’m holding a residential retreat from November 28 to December 5, in beautiful Byron Bay. It’s a […]
Blueberry Coconut Pots with Chocolate Sauce and Toasted Almonds
“Life is too short for self-hatred and celery sticks.” ~ Marilyn Wann I held an impromptu dinner for friends last night. Roast lamb with baked pumpkin and garden vegetables, and then for dessert these little pots of joy. The pots of joy idea arose from me looking in the pantry and wondering what I could […]
The Kinds Of Questions I Get Asked…
“There is a misleading, unwritten rule that states if a quote giving advice comes from someone famous, very old, or Greek, then it must be good advice.” ~ Bo Bennett If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you’ll know that I live and work as a psychic. In my spare time I write, […]
Why This Teacher Is Still A Student
“It is not that I’m so smart. But I stay with the questions much longer.” ~ Albert Einstein I first discovered meditation when I was eleven. My dad worked for a book company, and he’d bring home boxes of books which I was allowed to trawl though. Some of them were about meditation, working […]
Rain, Whales and Orchids
“The greatest thing in the world is to know how to belong to oneself.” ~ Michel de Montaigne Whenever we are on Retreat the weather always seems to mirror and support our journey. For the past two days, as we have laboured under the Usurper’s Moon, dealing with all of our shame and self-betrayal […]
In Order to Really Hear You Need To Stop Talking
“For now she need not think of anybody. She could be herself, by herself. And that was what now she often felt the need of – to think; well not even to think. To be silent; to be alone. All the being and the doing, expansive, glittering, vocal, evaporated; and one shrunk, with a sense […]
We’re on Retreat!
“In order to understand the world, one has to turn away from it on occasion.” ~ Albert Camus Hello Lovelies! We’re on Retreat at Sangsurya in Byron Bay for the next six days, as I teach a group of delightful souls how to reconnect with their intuition, and to use that intuition as a […]
It’s Phone A Friend Day
“True friends walk in when the rest of the world has walked out.” ~ Walter Winchell There’s no great governing body that has declared today Phone A Friend Day. No. Sorry. It’s just me. But still, I think it’s a good idea, and I hope you pay attention and adopt this worthy challenge. In a […]
A Gentle Morning
“Have you ever heard the wonderful silence just before the dawn? Or the quiet and calm just as a storm ends? Or perhaps you know the silence when you haven’t the answer to a question you’ve been asked, or the hush of a country road at night, or the expectant pause of a room full […]
Hot Buttered Apples with Tumeric and Ginger
“Do your little bit of good where you are; it’s those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.” ~ Desmond Tutu This sounds like a tasty and warming dessert, right? Well, it is, and if that’s how you want to enjoy it, go right ahead, It’s yummy and good for you. But […]
The Strange Dream With The Even Stranger Twist
“Tis strange, – but true; for truth is always strange; Stranger than fiction: if it could be told, How much would novels gain by the exchange! How differently the world would men behold!” ~ George Gordon Byron, Don Juan *Please note that I have changed the names below to protect the privacy of those involved. […]
Feeling Better Every Day!
Hi everyone. It’s Nurse Bert reporting from Mum’s phone cos we have no power. This bed’s a little crowded! We’d like to be blogging but actually, we all slept in because of the blackout. It was lovely. We are here at the farm and today I get to go for a very short walk on my […]
Sometimes The Best Way to Honour The Dead is to Celebrate
“We’re all ghosts. We all carry, inside us, people who came before us.” ~ Liam Callanan, The Cloud Atlas My beloved Nana would have turned one hundred yesterday. She passed three years ago, and I find myself missing her more as time goes on. We had a very special connection, and I still talk with […]
September 2015 – What To Expect
“And so taking the long way home through the market I slow my pace down. It doesn’t come naturally. My legs are programmed to trot briskly and my arms to pump up and down like pistons, but I force myself to stroll past the stalls and pavement cafes. To enjoy just being somewhere, rather than […]
Nana’s Delicious Ginger Cake Recipe
“And I had but one penny in the world. Thou should’st have it to buy gingerbread.” ~ William Shakespeare, Love’s Labours Lost This was my Pa’s favourite cake. It is a heavy, moist old-fashioned ginger cake and it has very good keeping qualities. Teamed with an afternoon cup of tea or an early morning […]
Full Moon Supermoon Ritual – August 29, 2015
“Compassion hurts. When you feel connected to everything, you also feel responsible for everything. And you cannot turn away. Your destiny is bound with the destinies of others. You must either learn to carry the Universe or be crushed by it. You must grow strong enough to love the world, yet empty enough to sit […]