“The afternoon knows what the morning never suspected.” ~ Robert Frost I’m feeling achy and sad inside today. Late on Monday afternoon, we sent Ben’s elderly mum to hospital. She’s in her nineties and has always been stubbornly independent. And she’s been able to stay at home on her own with help which is just the […]
Energies of June – 2018
“Without leaps of imagination or dreaming, we lose the excitement of possibilities. Dreaming, after all is a form of planning.” ~ Gloria Steinem Hello, Lovelies Take a deep breath, schedule some downtime, and welcome the energies of June. June is a quieter month that invites us to spend time with loved ones, time on […]
Revisiting Our Guiding Card for 2018
“Be the celebrators, celebrate! Already there is too much—the flowers have bloomed, the birds are singing, the sun is there in the sky—celebrate it! You are breathing and you are alive and you have consciousness, celebrate it!” ~ Osho As May comes to a close I thought it time to revisit the guiding energies for […]
Are You Using The Hive Mind Yet?
“Hive Mind – a collective consciousness, analogous to the behavior of social insects, in which a group of people become aware of their commonality and think and act as a community, sharing their knowledge, thoughts, and resources” ~ dictionary.com “Twitter in particular has often been termed a “hive mind” that connects users to draw on the help […]
Being Okay With Where You Are
“Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them; that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.” ~ Lao Tzu I’m still recovering from the flu, and gee, it’s taking muuuuuuch longer than I would have liked. On top of that I managed […]
Keeping It Real For You
“A good selfie is when you successfully capture the feeling of that very moment!” ~ Anamika Mishra Yesterday I ventured out into the world for the first time in weeks. This flu has really laid me low, and I’m still far from well but yesterday Ben, Cafe Dog and I went out to check the […]
My Latest Obscenities…
“Whenever you speak the truth, someone will be offended.” ~ Laurence Overmire Yesterday I posted about having the flu (no fun!) and with that post I included pictures of myself showing me as I am right now – sick with the flu! Thanks to everyone who sent me messages of love, care and support. I’m so […]
Me, Flu and You!
“There are in nature neither rewards nor punishments — there are consequences.” ~ Robert G. Ingersoll You might have noticed I’ve dropped off the face of the Earth these past few weeks. There’s a reason for that. I’ve just come face-to-face with a very nasty strain of influenza. For most people flu is a mild […]
Three In a Row!
“The best cure for insomnia is to get a lot of sleep.” ~ W.C. Fields This morning I’m celebrating a minor miracle at my house. For the past three nights I have gone to bed, fallen asleep and then woken in the morning. It’s been years (at least fifteen!) since I’ve had an uninterrupted night’s sleep, […]
Will You Honour Your Own Needs This Weekend?
“Don’t sacrifice yourself too much, because if you sacrifice too much there’s nothing else you can give and nobody will care for you.” ~ Karl Lagerfeld Hello, my lovelies! I was reminded of something powerful yesterday, while attending this three-day professional development conference with Ben. I know you’ll understand because it’s something that almost all intuitives […]
Are You Making Time To Learn And Grow?
“The best thing for being sad,” replied Merlin, beginning to puff and blow, “is to learn something. That’s the only thing that never fails. You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see […]
I Have A Favour To Ask You
“When you have once seen the glow of happiness on the face of a beloved person, you know that a man can have no vocation but to awaken that light on the faces surrounding him. In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.” ~ Albert Camus If you […]
Monday Oracle -12 March 2018
“Don’t be afraid of your fears. They’re not there to scare you. They’re there to let you know that something is worth it.” ― C. JoyBell C. Hello, Lovelies! March is a month for relationships, commitment to what matters to us, and for being unapologetically ourselves. The more we stay true to ourselves in March […]
Opening Our Hearts to Love -Monday Oracle 5 March 2018
“She warned him not to be deceived by appearances, for beauty is found within.” ― Narrator, Beauty and the Beast Hello, Lovelies! March is a month for relationships, commitment to what matters to us, and for being unapologetically ourselves. The more we stay true to ourselves in March the more we will be able to […]
My Charming Coffee Companion
“Coffee is real good when you drink it. It gives you time to think. It’s a lot more than just a drink. It’s something happening. Not as in hip, but like an event, a place to be, but not like a location, but like somewhere within yourself. It gives you time, but not actual hours […]
It’s The Weekend. I Have A Project For You!
“I live to enjoy life by the littlest things, feeling the grass between my toes, breathing fresh air, watching the wind sway the trees, enjoying the company of loved ones, a deep conversation, getting lost in a good book, going for a walk in nature, watching my kids grow up. Just the feeling itself of […]
How to Check In with Yourself Each Morning
“Morning is wonderful. Its only drawback is that it comes at such an inconvenient time of day.” ~ Glen Cook After yesterday’s post where I talked about the importance of self-care and of knowing and honouring your priorities in life this year I had a flood of messages from people asking me how to actually do […]
In case of trauma, Melbourne Breakfast…
“I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.” ~ Douglas Adams I’ve had a busy few days since Friday, the day of our anniversary Vomageddon. I worked all Saturday in Brisbane doing psychic readings and coaching, which was wonderful and then […]
Ah, the Romance… (sob)
“Romance is the glamour which turns the dust of everyday life into a golden haze. ” ~ Elinor Glyn Thank you so much for all of your anniversary wishes. Ben and I are very grateful for your love and support. I’d like to tell you that yesterday was truly romantic – the stuff of dreams and […]
A Gentle Reminder to Make Room For Life This Week
“Enjoy the little things in life, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.” ~ Robert Breault Hello, Lovelies! Here we are staring down the final days of January, and the refreshing breeze that is February energy is already being felt. 2018 is a fabulous year for creativity, planning, […]
Soul Journeying OR You Are More Than Your Earthsuit
“Life’s journey doesn’t start on the highest mountain peak where a clear view of the trail ahead, obstacles and all, is laid out for us to observe before setting foot on the path. No. Life’s journey begins on a low road, in a valley, or even down inside a pit where the trail beyond can […]
Just Tell One Person…
“The key is this: Meet today’s problems with today’s strength. Don’t start tackling tomorrow’s problems until tomorrow. You do not have tomorrow’s strength yet. You simply have enough for today.” ~ Max Lucado Did you read yesterday’s post about the energy of this week? It’s a week of help coming our way, and of hope being […]
15 Tips to Fuel Your Creativity
“Every child is an artist, the problem is staying an artist when you grow up.” ~ Pablo Picasso 2018 is a fabulous year for all forms of creativity. Creativity. NOT productivity. Go back and read that sentence again if you have to! Productivity is the act of producing something. The dictionary defines productivity as […]
Holidays, Temples and Planning My Year!
“Without leaps of imagination or dreaming, we lose the excitement of possibilities. Dreaming, after all is a form of planning.” ~ Gloria Steinem I’m on a cruise ship in the middle of the ocean right now. There has been far less possibility for internet connection that I had expected, so I’ve had all of this lovely […]
The Energies of January – 2018
“And now we welcome the new year, full of things that have never been” ~ Rainer Maria Rilke Hello, Lovelies It’s January! It’s a time for easing ourselves into the energies of 2018, for resting and recharging, for planning and dreaming and for tuning in to what can support us in the year ahead. Cards […]
2018 – Guidance for the Year Ahead
“Be the celebrators, celebrate! Already there is too much—the flowers have bloomed, the birds are singing, the sun is there in the sky—celebrate it! You are breathing and you are alive and you have consciousness, celebrate it!” ~ Osho Happy New Year, Lovelies, and welcome to 2018! New Year’s Day is always a special time […]
Demon Banishing And Custard Buns In Hong Kong!
“We travel not to escape life, but for life not to escape us.” ~ Anonymous I’m in Hong Kong right now, for the first part of the surprise holiday Ben bought me for my ‘Congratulations on turning fifty and thank you for not dying’ present. We’re having a fantastic time. Every day is crammed with […]
Off On A Grand Adventure!
“We travel not to escape life, but for life not to escape us.” ~ Anonymous By the time you read this I’ll be at the airport, or maybe even on my way overseas! My darling husband Ben bought me a surprise three-week holiday as a belated ‘Congratulations on Turning Fifty and Thank You For Not […]
Love is Love but it needs to be Law!
“At some point in our lifetime, gay marriage won’t be an issue, and everyone who stood against this civil right will look as outdated as George Wallace standing on the school steps keeping James Hood from entering the University of Alabama because he was black.” ~ George Clooney On the 27th of June 2015 I […]
Music For Dinner
“Music expresses that which cannot be put into words and that which cannot remain silent” ~ Victor Hugo Last night we were so churned. We couldn’t eat. We couldn’t sleep. After a while we turned off the lights and lay in the dark, side by side, dogs snuggled up beside us, and we played music […]
50 Things I’ve Learned From 50 Years of Life
“A happy birthday this evening, I sat by an open window and read till the light was gone and the book was no more than a part of the darkness. I could easily have switched on a lamp, but I wanted to ride the day down into night, to sit alone, and smooth the unreadable page with the […]
Road Trip Treasures!
“You can either be a victim of the world or an adventurer in search of treasure. It all depends on how you view your life.” ~ Paulo Coelho Late last week Ben and I slipped away from the farm for a few days. We took a simple road trip into country New South Wales. […]
I’m Taking A Short Road Trip
“Go outside. Don’t tell anyone and don’t bring your phone. Start walking and keep walking until you no longer know the road like the palm of your hand, because we walk the same roads day in and day out, to the bus and back home and we cease to see. We walk in our sleep […]
5 Simple Ways To Love Yourself Better
“Have the courage to love yourself like you always wished someone would.” ~ Vironika Tugaleva Everyone knows that self-love is vital to building self-esteem and self-confidence, for setting healthy boundaries and feeling good about yourself. Problem is, if you don’t feel good about yourself to start with, if you don’t like yourself much […]
The Turn In The Road Where My Worries Fall Away
“Though a lifetime of listening to the music of the world has passed, even now the tone of the rain on the roof of my home is the sweetest sound I have ever heard.” ~ Kensi Brianne Smith We’ve been up in Brisbane this past week, and it’s been full on. I’ve had doctors’ […]
What To Do When That Tsunami of Suffering Hits
“Suffering has been stronger than all other teaching, and has taught me to understand what your heart used to be. I have been bent and broken, but – I hope – into a better shape.” ~ Charles Dickens, Great Expectations None of us is immune. As I have grown older, through the private worlds of […]
How To Ask For A Sign
“The Universe sets out little signposts for us along the way, to confirm that we’re on the right path.” ~ Michelle Maisto This week’s energies are supportive of connection, communication, signs, breakthroughs and synchronicities (you can read more about that here). But how do you ask for a sign? I recommend that you ask […]
The Energies of July – 2017
“Pull a thread here and you’ll find it’s attached to the rest of the world.” ~ Nadeem Aslam Hello, Lovelies Here we are at July. It’s a perfect time for reflecting on how the first half of the year has gone for us, to gather our lessons and wisdoms, and then to determine a path […]
A Morning Dose Of Happiness!
“Morning is an important time of day, because how you spend your morning can often tell you what kind of day you are going to have.” ~ Lemony Snicket Something wonderful happened to me yesterday morning! I woke up with energy. After months of being unwell it was a precious gift. So we did […]
10 Simple Hacks For Creating More ‘Me’ Time
“In truth I suspect that merely slowing down is not a very satisfying answer. What I need has less to do with my pace of life than my peace of life. At any speed, I crave a deep and lasting inner peace. And if it’s solace I’m after, I don’t need to pace myself like […]
The Energies of June – 2017
“For true love is inexhaustible; the more you give, the more you have. And if you go to draw at the true fountainhead, the more water you draw, the more abundant is its flow.” ~ Antoine de Saint-Exupery Hello, Lovelies Suddenly, here we are at June. June is a gentle month of revitalisation, redirection and […]
It’s Hard To Blog When You Can’t Find Your Slippers
“It’s easier to put on slippers than to carpet the whole world.” ~ Al Franken The mornings have suddenly turned cold here at the farm. I’m meditating with a heavy prayer shawl around me for my 4am starts, and choosing to stay sitting up in bed so I can remain cosy. Normally when my meditation […]
The Possibilities Before Us – Monday Oracle 24 April 2017
“Could we change our attitude, we should not only see life differently, but life itself would come to be different. Life would undergo a change of appearance because we ourselves had undergone a change of attitude.” ~ Katherine Mansfield Hello, Lovelies! Here’s the oracle card I have chosen this Monday, and my take on the energetic […]
Fancy Gumboots – Perfect For Dancing!
“Dance, when you’re broken open. Dance, if you’ve torn the bandage off. Dance in the middle of the fighting. Dance in your blood. Dance when you’re perfectly free.” ~ Jalaluddin Rumi “You’ve gotta dance like there’s nobody watching, Love like you’ll never be hurt, Sing like there’s nobody listening, And live like it’s heaven on […]
Science-ing Our Way Back to Health!
“Molecular biology has shown that even the simplest of all living systems on the earth today, bacterial cells, are exceedingly complex objects. Although the tiniest bacterial cells are incredibly small, weighing less than 10-12 gms, each is in effect a veritable micro-miniaturized factory containing thousands of exquisitely designed pieces of intricate molecular machinery, made up […]
My Current Top Five ‘Not Blogging Reasons’
“Of all the words of mice and men, the saddest are, “It might have been”.” ~ Kurt Vonnegut Ben and I came home from holidays with the world’s worst gastro bug. Due to illness-induced misery coupled with jet lag and insomnia, I was only ever awake at ridiculous o’clock, and never at blogging central time. Somewhere […]
Travelling With Bukowski
“One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words.” ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe I always travel with a book. Sometimes several. But this trip I decided to load e-books on my kindle, as […]
Highlights of Cebu
“No man needs a vacation so much as the man who has just had one.” ~ Elbert Hubbard I’ve been in Cebu the past several days, attending a wonderful conference for entrepreneurs. (Thank you, Chris Ducker!) While I’ve been here I have also made healing mandalas for my morning meditation each day, I have […]
Let There Be Sleep!
“We went down into the silent garden. Dawn is the time when nothing breathes, the hour of silence. Everything is transfixed, only the light moves.” ~ Leonora Carrington My conference here in Cebu is drawing to a close. Last night we finished the formal activities with a White Party on the beach. A fabulous […]
Highlights of Vietnam
“A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving.” ~ Lao Tzu Vietnam has been a fabulous holiday – full of delicious food, temples, crystals, lots of opportunities for meditation and quiet time, and for immersion in the hustle and bustle. One of the best things about this trip has been […]
Listening To My Body
“The world is too much with us; late and soon, Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers; Little we see in Nature that is ours; We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon! This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon, The winds that will be howling at all hours, And are […]
A Taste Of Vietnam
“To my mind, the greatest reward and luxury of travel is to be able to experience everyday things as if for the first time, to be in a position in which almost nothing is so familiar it is taken for granted.” ~ Bill Bryson So, here I am in Vietnam, and our first day […]
Five Things That Made This Week Extra Wonderful Already!
“Reflect upon your present blessings — of which every man has many — not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.” ~ Charles Dickens 1.New Journal Challenge! It’s been a while since I ran a journal and oracle card challenge, so I’ve decided to cook another one up for you. It’s […]
Only Someone Who Has Chronic Pain or Illness Knows…
“Illness is the night side of life, a more onerous citizenship. Everyone who is born holds dual citizenship, in the kingdom of the well and in the kingdom of the sick. Although we all prefer to use the good passport, sooner or later each of us is obliged, at least for a spell, to identify […]
Acceptance – A Short Documentary about Owning Who You Are
“The things that make me different are the things that make me.” ~ A.A. Milne “You are always welcome at my table.” ~ Nicole Cody Last year I invited my friend Kerry Warnholtz to come spend some time with me as I prepared for and then ran my Chakra Wisdoms retreat. Kerry is a […]
Why I Know The Universe Supports My New Friday Scheme
“These are the days that must happen to you.” ~ Walt Whitman I decided recently, as part of my yearly Year of ME Planning Summit, to make Fridays ‘Ben and Nicole Days’. I already have ‘Unplugged Sundays’. I started that last year, and it has been one of the best things I’ve ever done. […]
Choosing Your Perspective
“If we are always arriving and departing, it is also true that we are eternally anchored. One’s destination is never a place but rather a new way of looking at things.” ~ Henry Miller I have never been much good at arranging flowers. I’ve never had the eye for it. That is, until I found […]
Rain, Words and Silence
“A poem begins as a lump in the throat, a sense of wrong, a homesickness, a lovesickness.” ~ Robert Frost It was raining in the city. Raining and I couldn’t sleep, my head so full of thoughts and my body so tight with pain. Now I’m home, home at my farm, it’s sometime before […]
An Update from Nicole
“Life can be like a roller coaster with its ups and downs. What matters is whether you are keeping your eyes open or closed during the ride and who is next to you.” ~ Ana Ortega Hi, Lovely Friends. You may have noticed I’ve been absent for a few days. I’ll be honest in […]
Feeling Fragile Or A Little Low Just Now?
“Sometimes we get sad about things and we don’t like to tell other people that we are sad about them. We like to keep it a secret. Or sometimes, we are sad but we really don’t know why we are sad, so we say we aren’t sad but we really are.” ~ Mark Haddon, The Curious […]
10 Things You Might Not Know About Me – Part 1
“A friend is someone who knows all about you and still loves you.” ~ Elbert Hubbard I think that one of the most important things about being friends is being able to know each other well, to be able to keep secrets together, and to understand not only who we are now, but […]
Things I Have Discovered While Travelling
“Why do you go away? So that you can come back. So that you can see the place you came from with new eyes and extra colours. And the people there see you differently, too. Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving.” ~ Terry Pratchett Hello, Lovelies! I […]
Holidays – in less than two weeks!
“What is that feeling when you’re driving away from people and they recede on the plain till you see their specks dispersing? – it’s the too-huge world vaulting us, and it’s good-bye. But we lean forward to the next crazy venture beneath the skies.” ~ Jack Kerouac, On the Road If you’re working with […]
30 Things That Changed When I Took An Unplugged Day Every Week
“My imagination functions much better when I don’t have to speak to people.” ~ Patricia Highsmith In January this year I made an important decision. I have a life where I am almost always on call. Always connected and reachable. Always busy. Even though I work for myself and love my work, and I […]
Retrograde Woes
“We are stuck with technology when what we really want is just stuff that works.” ~ Douglas Adams I’ll be off air most of today and tomorrow. (Hopefully no longer than that!) Here at the farm we’re having huge ongoing telecommunication issues. Ancient phone lines and hardware, laid underground years ago over hill and […]
Requiem For These Passing Moments
“Every one of us is losing something precious to us. Lost opportunities, lost possibilities, feelings we can never get back again. That’s part of what it means to be alive.” ~ Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore “It all goes away. Eventually, everything goes away.” ~ Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat, Pray, Love Sometimes, life is […]
Help Me Honour Mr Mac This ANZAC Day
“Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them.” ~ Marcus Aurelius Today is ANZAC Day in Australia – a day where we stop to remember the fallen – the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps of the Great War – and all of the service men and women who have […]
Bluesfest 2016 – A Little Ray of Sunshine
“Life is for the living. Death is for the dead. Let life be like music. And death a note unsaid.” ~ Langston Hughes, The Collected Poems This Easter I’m spending some time with Ben and our friends at Byron Bay’s Bluesfest. Bluesfest is one of my favourite music festivals. The atmosphere is always so […]
My First Morning at Home Again!
“There is a kind of magic-ness about going far away and then coming back all changed.” ~ Kate Douglas Wiggin Hello, beautiful friends! So, here I am, back in Australia once more. Can I admit to being a little misty-eyed when my husband Ben pulled up outside Brisbane International Airport to pick me up last […]
Saying Hi from the PI
“Maybe you had to leave in order to really miss a place; maybe you had to travel to figure out how beloved your starting point was.” ― Jodi Picoult, Handle with Care (Hi Everyone! This is Chelsi, Nicole’s Virtual Assistant – posting this blog post in behalf of Nicole ) Just a quick update from […]
Packing My Suitcase…
“Wandering is the activity of the child, the passion of the genius; it is the discovery of the self, the discovery of the outside world, and the learning of how the self is both “at one with” and “separate from” the outside world. These discoveries are as fundamental to the soul as “learning to survive” […]
The Things That Really Matter
“Perspective is as simple as answering this question: If I had 5 months to live would I experience this problem differently?” ~ Shannon L. Alder As you read this, my friend Liz and her young family are readying their bags. They are heading to the airport. They are flying to Hawaii for the holiday […]
For Success – Just Be Who You Are
“The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are.” ~ C.G. Jung “Authenticity is a collection of choices that we have to make every day. It’s about the choice to show up and be real. The choice to be honest. The choice to let our true selves be seen.” ~ Brené Brown […]
2016 – The New Energy of Connection and Disclosure
“Anything that’s human is mentionable, and anything that is mentionable can be more manageable. When we can talk about our feelings, they become less overwhelming, less upsetting, and less scary. The people we trust with that important talk can help us know that we are not alone.” ~ Fred Rogers Since early this year […]
The Power Of Shared Experiences
“Pull up a chair. Take a taste. Come join us. Life is so endlessly delicious.” ~ Ruth Reichl We went to a neighbour’s house for belated Christmas drinks yesterday. On a rainy summer’s afternoon we sat on the veranda talking and laughing and sharing stories. It was lovely. And then it was magical. One […]
The Feeling Of A Free Sunday
“Rest and be thankful.” ~ William Wordsworth I worked yesterday. Just a few clients. Just a few jobs. My second-last Sunday of work for this year. But there was no blog post to write. No social media. No emails. When I finished work, mid-afternoon, there was time for journalling and planning and a big […]
Sundays – An Experiment in Me Time
“Sunday is the golden clasp that binds together the volume of the week.” ~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow I’m working today. After a leisurely breakfast with Ben and Cafe Dog and a good friend – at a favourite cafe filled with other friends. As far as working days go, mine rank right up there as […]
Does Planning Your Future Press All The Wrong Buttons In You?
“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.” ~ […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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. […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
A Shopping Day
“I had a dream about you. You wanted to go shopping for shoes, and I suggested we go to the bowling alley. Where else can you go to rent such stylish shoes and have a FREE game of bowling thrown in? ” ~ Jarod Kintz I did something marvellous yesterday. I went shopping! That may […]
Mum’s Priority!
“Biology is the least of what makes someone a mother.” ~ Oprah Winfrey Dear Peoples, There’s no blog today. It’s my fault. I had a bad night. My leg was sore so I was crying. Mum had to come and sit with me. She gave me some healing and it made me feel a […]
What Else Can You See?
“To acquire knowledge, one must study; but to acquire wisdom, one must observe.” ~ Marilyn Vos Savant A wise and talented memoirist and creative writing teacher, Beth Kephart, has her students do an exercise where they go out into the world and take ten photographs. The students know they are going to come back […]
The Joy Of Ordinary
“And while it takes courage to achieve greatness, it takes more courage to find fulfillment in being ordinary. For the joys that last have little relationship to achievement, to standing one step higher on the victory platform. What is the adventure in being ordinary? It is daring to love just for the pleasure of giving […]
Those All-Night Conversations…
“Good communication is as stimulating as black coffee and just as hard to sleep after.” ~ Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Gift from the Sea I’ll keep this short, because I am seriously just about to go to bed at a little after 6am. I’ve had one of those nights with my beloved. One where we both […]
Reflections From A Cancer Clinic Waiting Room
“From even the greatest of horrors irony is seldom absent.” ~ H.P. Lovecraft, Tales of H.P. Lovecraft A small family cluster of us sat endlessly in the waiting room of a cancer clinic yesterday. It was a busy place, at a busy hospital. On the way to the clinic, we’d passed a young woman who […]
Was He Born This Way?
“Right or wrong, it’s very pleasant to break something from time to time.” ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky This is a picture of Harry, known to some as Cafe Dog. It is, in fact, our very first picture of Harry, taken two years ago. Pretty cute, huh? In retrospect, there is a worrying glint of mischief in […]
You’re Stronger Than You Think
“That which does not kill us makes us stronger.” ~ Friedrich Nietzsche “Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.” ~ Lao Tzu I remember once, ten or so years ago, sitting in the carpark of a hospital. At the time my husband was working overseas, run ragged by the […]
No Trouble Here!
“Whether you’re being good, or you’re up to no good, try not to look guilty.” ~ Jarod Kintz They look so sweet and innocent, don’t they? Bucket-Head Bert and Cafe Dog Harry… But looks can be deceiving. Could these two dogs possibly be responsible for: a) the raiding of the kitchen bin b) […]
Honouring the Living This ANZAC Day
“People always talk about how hard it can be to remember things – where they left their keys, or the name of an acquaintance – but no one ever talks about how much effort we put into forgetting. I am exhausted from the effort to forget… There are things that have to be forgotten if […]