Cauldrons and Cupcakes

Celebrating Life, Spirituality, Creativity and Kindness!

Category: Philosophy

Boxing Day Planner Sale — A Gentle Reset for the Year Ahead

Boxing Day holds a quiet kind of magic — a pause between what has been and what’s about to begin. As the rush of Christmas fades, this gentle in-between space offers a chance to reflect, reset, and step into the year ahead with clarity and intention. For a short time, the Journeymaker’s Planner is available at a discounted price, offering steady support for thoughtful planning, personal reflection, and a calm, grounded beginning to the new year.

Unrealistic Optimism

There’s magic all around us, if only we can slow down enough to notice. This is especially true when life is hard. That’s when we need that magic the most.

Thoughts on Childhood

Parenting is hard. And it’s such an important job! Hugs to all of you who have helped raise a child – the parents, the grandparents, the aunts and uncles and friends and guardians and older siblings and cousins and next-door-neighbours and coaches and teachers and librarians. Thank you!

A Reminder to Revisit your Guiding Word

  I’m choosing happiness over suffering, I know I am. I’m making space for the unknown future to fill up my life with yet-to-come surprises. ― Elizabeth Gilbert Hey, Lovelies. I work with my Journeymaker’s Planner over the year to help me, learn, grow and evolve. One of the tools I use is a Guiding Word. […]

Tenderness

Tenderness in action – and lessons in love. That’s what today’s post is all about.

The Benefits Of Our Little Road Trip

  I have never believed that vacations are luxuries. They are our necessities–just like shelter, clothes, and food. They make us feel like humans and not like animals that care only for survival. ~ Alexander Babinets Hey, Lovelies! As most of you probably know, Ben and I headed off for a short road trip adventure […]

Clarity

Isn’t it funny how everything is a mess one minute, and then suddenly it all falls together!

When You Know Something’s Wrong

  Intuition is a combination of historical (empirical) data, deep and heightened observation, and an ability to cut through the thickness of surface reality. Intuition is like a slow motion machine that captures data instantaneously and hits you like a ton of bricks. Intuition is a knowing, a sensing that is beyond the conscious understanding […]

#AlwaysWasAlwaysWillBe – Australia Day

“The land is my mother. Like a human mother, the land gives us protection, enjoyment, and provides our needs – economic, social, and religious. We have a human relationship with the land: Mother, daughter, son. When the land is taken from us or destroyed, we feel hurt because we belong to the land, and we […]

The Old Boyfriend

  Reunions are the first day of school all over again. Time casts away familiarity and replaces it with warm confusion. Seeing how the years have frayed the friends of our youth reminds us that we too have irrevocably changed and can never return to a state of innocence again. ― Stewart Stafford Hey, Lovelies. I’ve […]

Worrying. Not Worrying.

  If a problem is fixable, if a situation is such that you can do something about it, then there is no need to worry. If it’s not fixable, then there is no help in worrying. There is no benefit in worrying whatsoever. ― Dalai Lama XIV Hey, Lovelies. The good old Dalai Lama is usually […]

Come Join Me For A Free Webinar!

Ready to find your flow in 2023? Come join me for a special free webinar where I will be explaining the energies of the year ahead and how to make the best of them. Details in post.

If You Are Feeling Flat Or Exhausted Right Now, Read This

  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, […]

Are You Still Waiting For Someone Else To Meet Your Needs?

  With every act of self-care your authentic self gets stronger, and the critical, fearful mind gets weaker. Every act of self-care is a powerful declaration: I am on my side, I am on my side, each day I am more and more on my own side. Susan Weiss Berry Hey, Lovelies. It’s so easy […]

Do You Need To Be Self-Centred This Christmas?

  Self-care is never a selfish act – it is simply good stewardship of the only gift I have, the gift I was put on earth to offer others. Anytime we can listen to true self and give the care it requires, we do it not only for ourselves, but for the many others whose […]

Heroes and Vulnerability

Name one hero who was happy. ~ Madeline Miller Hey, Lovelies. As some of you know I am slogging through NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) right now, creating a new beginning, a new sub-thread and an ending for the novel I began writing in NaNoWriMo 2021. My hero is Dave. I know – not a […]

Watching Your Thoughts And Choosing To Change

Change your thoughts, change your life. ―Jeanette Coron Hey, Lovelies. As we are moving through the tail end of this energetic shift I have a little advice for you. Watch your thoughts. Then pause. Don’t act. Don’t do anything! Just pause for a second. Ask yourself if these thoughts serve you, and if they are […]

Shadow Work

  The shadow is needed now more than ever. We heal the world when we heal ourselves, and hope shines brightest when it illuminates the dark. ― Sasha Graham Hey, Lovelies. November is a wonderful month for Shadow Work. Have you heard of this before? Shadow Work is any work that helps you to see the […]

Life Lessons From A Deathbed

Dying? I’m quite looking forward to it. ~ Annie D. Hey, Lovelies. A friend of mine died. I couldn’t write about it yesterday – after she passed on Tuesday night – I was still too choked with emotion. But she wanted me to write about it, so, here it is. My friend Annie died the […]

Milestones

  My path has not been determined. I shall have more experiences and pass many more milestones. ~ Agnetha Faltskog Hey, Lovelies. It’s been a pretty crappy 14 months healthwise, between late stage Lyme, a misbehaving heart, an intractable UTI superbug and a myxedema crisis – but I am delighted to say that I am […]

The Backup Plan

  Even when God is your co-pilot, it pays to pack a parachute. ― Dean Koontz Hey, Lovelies. I am feeling proud of myself this morning. A while ago I decided to get someone to help me on a project, and we made a start. But communication wasn’t good, there were always excuses, and as the […]

Peaks and Troughs

  Life is just a series of peaks and troughs, and you don’t know whether you’re in a trough until you’re climbing out, or on a peak until you’re coming down. And that’s it you know, you never know what’s round the corner. But it’s all good.  ~ Ricky Gervais Hey, Lovelies. In chronic illness, […]

Universal Right Timing

  Coincidences link us to the unknown and weave us into it. ― Doug Dillon Hey, Lovelies. Isn’t hindsight a wonderful thing? Yesterday, after a rough night, I needed to get myself to an early-morning hairdressing appointment about 30 minutes from my home. I got Ben to drive me there, because I wasn’t up to it, […]

What it means to sit with a big question

  Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer. ~ Rainer Maria Rilke Hey, Lovelies. One of the most important gifts you can give yourself is the patience and care to sit with something that forms a big or […]

The Soul-Sucking Reality Of Chronic Illness

  Having a chronic illness, Molly thought, was like being invaded. Her grandmother back in Michigan used to tell about the day one of their cows got loose and wandered into the parlor, and the awful time they had getting her out. That was exactly what Molly’s arthritis was like: as if some big old […]

I always said I was no good at art

  Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life. – Pablo Picasso Hey, Lovelies. Yesterday I made art. This is something very new for me. I have always considered myself no good at art. Childhood experiences left me terrified to even make marks on a page. But recently I put together some […]

The Usefulness Of Tears

  Tears are words that need to be written. ~ Paulo Coelho Hey, Lovelies. I’ve had an unexpected companion these past few months. Tears. They sit just below the surface most days, and digging deeper rarely helps me see a cause. At first I had thought they might be illness related, but now? Now I […]

Getting to know my other neighbours

  I think the most important quality in a birdwatcher is a willingness to stand quietly and see what comes. Our everyday lives obscure a truth about existence – that at the heart of everything there lies a stillness and a light. ― Lynn Thomson Hey, Lovelies. One of the best things about living in the […]

The Slow Climb Back

  I think that little by little I’ll be able to solve my problems and survive. ~ Frida Kahlo Hey, Lovelies. I have missed you. Also, I have missed myself. These past two weeks have been hard. (Don’t know what happened? Go here.) It has taken time to get my new medication right, and we’re […]

Well, That Was Unexpected…

  She looked as if she were about to burst into tears, but she was wonderful at catching the ball of her own mood in mid-air. ~ Rebecca West Hey, Lovelies. Well, this has certainly been the year. As you know, I live with a complex bucketful of dodgy genes, autoimmune diseases, chronic infections, post-viral […]

Owning Our HeART Space

  …and then, I have nature and art and poetry, and if that is not enough, what is enough? ~ Vincent Willem van Gogh Hey, Lovelies. Yesterday, art happened. Ever since we moved to the treehouse, our walls have been mostly bare. We own art, but it was not on the walls. We wanted to […]

Not Everyone Peaks Early

  So called ‘late-bloomers’ get a bad rap. Sometimes the people with the greatest potential often take the longest to find their path because their sensitivity is a double edged sword- it lives at the heart of their brilliance, but it also makes them more susceptible to life’s pains. Good thing we aren’t being penalized […]

This Quiet Moment – A Way To Cope Better With Life

“Feel your emotions, Live true your passions, Keep still your mind.” ~ Geoffrey M. Gluckman Hey, Lovelies. One of the skills I have honed (by necessity) over many years is coping. Yep. Coping. Here’s the definition according to the APA Dictionary of Psychology: coping n. the use of cognitive and behavioral strategies to manage the […]

Pantser vs Plotter

  The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go. ~ Dr. Seuss Hey, Lovelies! In preparation for my first session with my writing coach tomorrow, they have sent me notes on the manuscript excerpt and synopsis I recently submitted to them. The […]

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