Cauldrons and Cupcakes

Celebrating Life, Spirituality, Creativity and Kindness!

Tag: coping with chronic illness

Off To The Doctor Again

There are only two sorts of doctors: those who practice with their brains, and those who practice with their tongues. —William Osler Hey, Lovelies. I’m off to the city with Ben to see my favourite physician, get some test results, and the next steps in my journey. I’m also in the thick of doing testing, […]

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 […]

One Of The Best Gifts I Ever Gave Myself

The best gift I ever gave myself is a gift that keeps enriching my days. It’s a gift of time and care, of comfort and support, of gentle and of hard questions, and sometimes, hard answers. It’s the way I manage life. The way I cope with the things that should break me. I highly recommend it…

Losses and Gains

Train yourself to let go of everything you fear to lose. Yoda Hey, Lovelies. I went back to my regular yoga practice yesterday. I have a routine I do every morning, using an app to which I subscribe. Lots of floor based work to help my lower back, lots of stretching and flow poses. It’s […]

My Need For Quiet

“Smile, breathe and go slowly.” Thich Nhat Hanh So, Lovelies, I am sure some of you will relate to what I am about to share. I’m a Highly Sensitive Soul. I am sure you may be one too. Because of my sensitivity, my intuitive and psychic abilities, I am able to connect deeply with people. […]

My Own Pfizer Post-Vax Journey – Part 1

Laughter is the only medicine without side effects. Shannon L. Alder Hey, Lovelies. I promised I’d keep you posted on how I travelled after my first Pfizer vaccination. I live with chronic illness, heart problems, thyroid issues, autoimmune stuff and late-stage lyme disease. Plus a bunch of genetic things. So, I was a little concerned […]

Don’t ignore that niggle!

Nicole, honestly, how much worse did you need this pain to be before you actually took it seriously? Doctor to me, ER Hey, Lovelies. This is a short, sharp and sweet post, but it’s important. If you know your body, and it starts behaving in a way that is not normal, do something about it. […]

True Love In The Shape Of A Star Trek Toy

It’s not safe out here. It’s wondrous, with treasures to satiate desires both subtle and gross; but it’s not for the timid. Q – Star Trek Hey, Lovelies.I’ll be honest. It’s been a little rough here on the health front. Nothing catastrophic, but I’m experiencing some old Lyme symptoms that haven’t shown themselves for a […]

Stop Being So Hard On Yourself

Butterflies can’t see their wings. They can’t see how truly beautiful they are, but everyone else can. People are like that as well. Naya Rivera Hey, Lovelies! My inbox is groaning this week with messages from people who are really struggling right now. If you’re having a hard time too, please know that you’re not […]

Dear COVID Long Haulers – Don’t Give Up

Sometimes even to live is an act of courage. Lucius Annaeus Seneca Dear COVID Long Haulers, Welcome to my club. I’m so sorry you acquired membership to this motley band of chronic illness warriors, but you’re here now, so as newbies I’d like to show you around, and help you settle in. 1. Let’s talk […]

The Newsletter That Really P*ssed Me Off!

Don’t underestimate me, and don’t devalue me, just because I live with limitations. Nicole Cody Hey, Lovelies. I received a newsletter in my inbox yesterday, that really p*ssed me off. It was written by a friend who has a huge following in the entrepreneur and wellness industry, and it began with a photo of athletic, […]

The Old Photo

What I like about photographs is that they capture a moment that’s gone forever, impossible to reproduce. Karl Lagerfeld Hey, Lovelies! A dear old school friend (Thanks, Genevieve!) sent me a photograph via Messenger last night. It was a picture of me, taken at a friend’s eighteenth birthday party. I laughed so hard. It was […]

Don’t ever give up on change

The secret of change is to focus all of your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new  Socrates Hey, Lovelies! I’m back in the city after my whirlwind trip away. I am delighted to inform you that I drove safely to my destination, had a relaxing time with family, and then […]

Finding The Calm Strength Within – Monday Oracle 16 March 2020

“Instead of forcing yourself to feel positive, allow yourself to be present in the now.”  Daniel Mangena Hello, Lovelies! March is a month for creating space in your life, for breaking patterns and creating new ones, for inspired thinking and new directions. It’s also a month where extreme self-care and deep rest may be needed. […]

Shiny Unicorn Attack (Cos It Had To Happen…)

“Never laugh at live dragons.” ~ J R R Tolkien So, I’m standing in a health food store yesterday, waiting while someone finds a product I’d ordered. I’m miserable. My eyes are streaming and one is gummed closed. My face is blotchy and puffy. I have a UTI and a chest infection and I am […]

Start Again In June!

“Today is the perfect day for a fresh start. Stop delaying, stop making excuses, stop putting it off. Now. Today is the perfect moment. You can change things, you can try. Don’t give up.”  ~ Akiroq Brost I had so many messages yesterday from readers and students and clients all asking me if they could start […]

Sorry You Missed Me Yesterday…

  “Persistence and resilience only come from having been given the chance to work through difficult problems.” ~ Gever Tulley I was intending to blog yesterday, and then I couldn’t. Early on Monday morning I was strapped into a heart monitor and holder for twenty-four hours, and while I was wired I had to stay […]

The restorative power of deep rest

“It’s in the morning, for most of us. It’s that time, those few seconds when we’re coming out of sleep but we’re not really awake yet. For those few seconds we’re something more primitive than what we are about to become. We have just slept the sleep of our most distant ancestors, and something of […]

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 […]

A Very Quiet Anniversary

“Let there be spaces in your togetherness, And let the winds of the heavens dance between you. Love one another but make not a bond of love: Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls. Fill each other’s cup but drink not from one cup. Give one another of your […]

Let The Dying Live!

“You’ve got this life and while you’ve got it, you’d better kiss like you only have one moment, try to hold someone’s hand like you will never get another chance to, look into people’s eyes like they’re the last you’ll ever see, watch someone sleeping like there’s no time left, jump if you feel like […]

The Very Valid ‘Not Coping’ Style of Coping

“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, […]

Today’s Sunday Planning Session And Some True Confessions

“Live in the moment but just be mindful that you are working towards something.” ~ Eric Zaccone   I know, I know. It’s Sunday. And on Sundays I don’t blog, and I don’t go on the internet and I don’t do any work. Except that on this particular Sunday I am! I’m taking some time […]

This Dawning Day

“Veil after veil of thin dusky gauze is lifted, and by degrees the forms and colours of things are restored to them, and we watch the dawn remaking the world in its antique pattern.” ~ Oscar Wilde   I woke earlier than usual today. 3am. The night air was cold, the comforter pulled right up […]

Don’t Isolate Yourself When the Going’s Hard

“No person, trying to take responsibility for her or his identity, should have to be so alone. There must be those among whom we can sit down and weep, and still be counted as warriors.” ~ Adrienne Rich   I’ve noticed a worrying phenomena lately. People are going to great lengths to make their life […]

Doctor, Doctor…

“As my sufferings mounted I soon realized that there were two ways in which I could respond to my situation — either to react with bitterness or seek to transform the suffering into a creative force. I decided to follow the latter course.” ~ Martin Luther King Jr.   When do you accept your current circumstances, […]

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” […]

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 […]

Where’s Your Focus?

“Very occasionally, if you pay really close attention, life doesn’t suck.” ~ Joss Whedon On Friday I posted about a beautiful ordinary day, and how much I had enjoyed such simple things as a trip to the farmers’ markets, clean sheets on the line, sunshine and crisp ripe apples. After that post I received two emails, extracts of […]

My Early Christmas Present

“I wandered everywhere, through cities and countries wide. And everywhere I went, the world was on my side.” ~ Roman Payne, Rooftop Soliloquy   Monday was my day off. A day to rest, sandwiched between two days of psychic work on either side. I am in Brisbane right now, and the plan was that Ben […]

Today’s Post Is Short For A Very Good Reason

“We have to allow ourselves to be loved by the people who really love us, the people who really matter. Too much of the time, we are blinded by our own pursuits of people to love us, people that don’t even matter, while all that time we waste and the people who do love us […]

What It Means To Be There For Someone

“There is a primal reassurance in being touched, in knowing that someone else, someone close to you, wants to be touching you. There is a bone-deep security that goes with the brush of a human hand, a silent, reflex-level affirmation that someone is near, that someone cares.” ~ Jim Butcher “Too often we underestimate the […]

The Power of Story

“After nourishment, shelter and companionship, stories are the thing we need most in the world.”  ~ Philip Pullman   The past few days have been rough for me. It’s a lyme thing. Partly because of the pathogens that have invaded and taken up residence in my body and partly because of the ongoing treatment to evict […]

Lessons on Waiting and Being Delayed

“How did it get so late so soon?”  ~ Dr. Seuss “If we can just let go and trust that things will work out they way they’re supposed to, without trying to control the outcome, then we can begin to enjoy the moment more fully. The joy of the freedom it brings becomes more pleasurable than […]

Reminders from my Younger Self

“Stories you read when you’re the right age never quite leave you. You may forget who wrote them or what the story was called. Sometimes you’ll forget precisely what happened, but if a story touches you it will stay with you, haunting the places in your mind that you rarely ever visit.”  ~ Neil Gaiman, M is […]

Two powerful insights on Change and Healing

“Water does not resist. Water flows. When you plunge your hand into it, all you feel is a caress. Water is not a solid wall, it will not stop you. But water always goes where it wants to go, and nothing in the end can stand against it. Water is patient. Dripping water wears away […]

Three Key Strategies for Dealing with Life’s Hardships

“And once the storm is over, you won’t remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive. You won’t even be sure, whether the storm is really over. But one thing is certain. When you come out of the storm, you won’t be the same person who walked in. That’s what this storm’s […]

Well, that was a bit premature…

“Patience is the calm acceptance that things can happen in a different order than the one you have in mind.”  ~ David G. Allen I was kind of hoping to be sleeping right now. It’s 2am, and I was only fretfully sleeping at best between 8 and 11pm. Now I’m wide awake and I know the […]

The Freedom of Four Wheels

“Not all those who wander are lost.” ~ J.R.R. Tolkien Something fabulous happened late last week. I drove a car. All on my own. Yeah, you might be thinking. No biggie. But actually, for me, it was. I haven’t really driven a car since November 2012 when my health took a turn for the worse. Problems […]

Maybe Visualization Works After All…

 “You take the blue pill, the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill, you stay in wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.”  ~ Morpheus, The Matrix I have teetered between unwell and totally incapacitated for my entire adult […]

Pay Attention to the Messages You Get!

“There is nothing so strong or safe in an emergency of life as the simple truth.” ~ Charles Dickens Sometimes, I wish I’d had more faith in myself as I was starting out. One of the things I always teach my students is the importance of trusting and paying attention to the messages they receive when […]

It’s Lyme Time!

“What to do if you find yourself stuck in a crack in the ground underneath a giant boulder you can’t move, with no hope of rescue? Consider how lucky you are that life has been good to you so far. Alternatively, if life hasn’t been good to you so far, which given your current circumstances […]

Easy Baked Cheesecake Recipe – Gluten Free, Sugar Free

“Stressed spelled backwards is desserts.  Coincidence?  I think not!”  ~ Author Unknown One of the not-fun parts of being unwell, or being on a restricted diet, is that treats seem to be harder to come by. So many desserts are crammed full of sugar, grains and fats. Or they have twenty steps, weird ingredients and […]

The Patient should be Sleeping

“It is an awful thing to be betrayed by your body. And it’s lonely, because you feel you can’t talk about it. You feel it’s something between you and the body. You feel it’s a battle you will never win . . . and yet you fight it day after day, and it wears you […]

Lyme Schlyme!

“I keep sailing on in this middle passage. I am sailing into the wind and the dark. But I am doing my best to keep my boat steady and my sails full.”  ~ Arthur Ashe The past few days have not been among my best. Physically I’ve struggled. It started earlier this week, of course, […]

Soundtrack to Pain

“One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain.”~ Bob Marley Music saved my life earlier this week. Music and drugs. Those of you who follow my blog will know that I am suffering from end-stage Lyme disease. I’ve recently embarked on a protocol of high dose antibiotics, antibacterials, herbs and […]

Howling at the Moon

 Those are the same stars, and that is the same moon, that look down upon your brothers and sisters, and which they see as they look up to them, though they are ever so far away from us, and each other. ~ Sojourner Truth It’s 2 o’clock in the morning and I’m wide awake; fretful […]

Fear of Crossing Roads

“No one has traveled the road of success without ever crossing the street of failures.” ~ Unknown I have an embarrassing confession. I’m not good at crossing roads by myself. It’s a legacy of the neurological damage caused by chronic Lyme Disease and various co-infections. Like most things it’s worse when I’m tired or unwell. My reaction […]

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