New Soul

Hello readers,

It has been quite a while since my last blog post hasn't it? Well I will get around to blogging more regularly but in the meantime I couldn't resist sharing this song with you. I just heard it on Chill radio station and I looked it up. It is called "New Soul" by Yael Naim and David. I hope you like it!

Enjoy!

Peace, love and light,

Sarahxxx

Day 36, Season 1 - 100 Day Reality Challenge - Highs and Lows

Hello Readers,

Happy Easter to all of you wherever you are! Its been a while since my last video blog post for the Co-creating Our Reality Challenge. Here is my latest update and as you can see its a bit longer than usual!

Enjoy.

Peace, love and light,

Sarahxx

Synchronistic Encouragements in the Everyday

I like to go for a stroll now and again. I enjoy being on the move, feeling a breeze on my face, my feet firmly on the ground, left, right, left, right....

While beginning the 100 Day Reality Challenge I made a conscious decision to be more alert and pay attention to the world around me.



And do you know what happened?

When I did, I began to notice little signs in the everyday that encouraged me a lot and filled me with gratitude.

I recorded them on my phone camera to remember them and share them with you!

Enjoy and be encouraged too!

The Wonders of my Little Pink Book

Me and my little pink book.

I'd like to introduce to you my little pink book. I think everyone could benefit from having one, or a blue one, or a sunshine yellow one or even one with silver sequins on it. It is an adorable, handy-sized, object of pinkness, which has a very useful function indeed.

I take it with me wherever I go. For example in the mornings I jot down my dreams, while I can still remember them on waking, later on I record my ideas, thoughts and reflections for blog posts and other pieces of creative writing as well as any observations  that occur to me while I am out and about and my own readings from Angel Oracle cards (more on those another time).

I suppose it is a form of journaling in a way. A momentary stream of consciousness here and there that I can draw upon. I love my little pink book.....and it loves me too! We are connected you see. 

Day 21, Season 1 - 100 Day Reality Challenge - Relaxing and Slowing Down

Hello Readers!

Happy St Patrick's Day to you all wherever you are around the world. Here is my video post for Day 21 of my Season 1 of the 100 Day Reality Challenge. Enjoy!

Day 17, Season 1 - 100 Day Reality Challenge - Enjoying Simple Pleasures.

Today has been about enjoying the simple pleasures in life that make me feel good and grateful to be alive. For example a brisk walk by the Thames on a beautiful, sunny, spring day, great tasting coffee from Deli Boutique up the road and having a hair cut at Goges that makes me feel very glamorous!

Do you like my hair?

I'm gradually getting in to the habit of blogging about my experiences during my season 1 of the 100 day Reality Challenge I mentioned a few posts ago and using video as one of the means of recording them! As you can see by my attempt below, recorded at Battersea Reach, its a work in progress and I hadn't realised the background noise from the helicopters and the sound of the wind. Never mind, it all adds atmosphere.....well that's my story and I'm sticking to it. After this I popped in to Cake Boy (a patisserie) for some English Breakfast tea and a super-indulgent chocolate cupcake.

In the video I mention another video, a recorded interview between Lilou Mace and Mike Dooley, in which they talk about 'showing up' and 'being on the move', meaning that it is important to be alert and open to new opportunities, try new things, notice synchronicities and move towards them instead of being static. I'm reminded of a conversation a few years ago when someone told me "God can't direct a stationary vehicle"and I think this is true! Here's that interview if you are interested.

Now get moving and take a leap of faith!

Day 16, Season 1, 100 Day Reality Challenge

Hello readers,

Well here I am, a second video blog, this time marking day 16 of my season 1 of the 100 day reality challenge. Doesn't time fly when you are having co-creating fun?

Energy

Hello Readers,

I wish to share with you a useful and inspiring resource produced by Lee Harris - a monthly energy forecast. See the March 2013 forecast below.

Lee Harris is an energy teacher and channeler and I am struck by his humility, warmth, kindness and love that radiates through his broadcasts. In his energy forecasts he highlights the energetic opportunities and challenges each month. Being sensitive to energies on a number of levels, I have found these resources encouraging as they help me to understand and accept the energy changes and patterns going on inside and outside of myself. 

In this March forecast he talks about the 'energy dance' and 'energy waves' that are moving across our planet, feeling stuck, the flow and speed of life, choosing to 'dwell in the body' and spending less focus on expending energy on the 'mind' and learning to expand, which leads us to become more peaceful, centred and open to our creativity. I hope you enjoy this as much as I do!

I am also reading his book Energy Speaks, which is a collection of channels from his collective guides on topics such as relationships, awareness, peace and happiness, family peace and abundance. I particularly enjoyed the chapters on the power of women and the mastery of sleep. It's well worth a read!

More info on Co-Creating our Reality

Hello Readers!

I've been offline for a few days. Wishing you all a very happy Mothering Sunday today!

I thought I'd share with you another video on the Co-Creating Our Reality 100 Day Challenge in case you are interested in trying it out for yourself. This video is by one of the original co-founders, called Lilou Mace. She's a very inspiring lady!

Enjoy!
Peace, love and light,

Sarahxx

Day 1, Season 1 of 100 Day Reality Challenge

Dear Readers,

In my last post I mentioned I had signed up to the Co-Creating our Reality Challenge website. Well here I am, it is day 1, season 1 of my 100 day reality challenge and my very first video blog post - scary!

Enjoy,

Peace, love and light,

Sarahx

Co-creation, Crypt and Courthauld's

It's all c's today isn't it? Yesterday I decided to sign up to the Co-creating our reality 100 day challenge and I will begin my season 1 of the challenge next Monday, 25th February 2013. This is a global community and website where individuals put into daily practice the law of attraction, law of deliberate creation and law of allowing and so on. As I have been one for setting goals at the beginning of each year for some time now, this new challenge is not too far removed from that.  I think that the laws of attraction, deliberate creation etc are actually aligned with my walk with God....after all he/she created these laws and they are called many other names too! For example, if I reflect on prayer, I conclude that praying to God is about setting my clear intentions  - that is my intention towards God, the Universe, other people and the world around me as well as to myself. When my prayers are answered, then that is an example of how a co-created reality with God becomes manifested. I like the co-creating our reality 100 day challenge because it is very practical and there is already a loving, supportive and global community living this out on a day-to-day basis. I think it will be fun! I heard about it from watching Lilou Mace's Juicy Living Tour as Lilou is one of its co-founders and is living proof that it works! I'll let you know how I get on.

Moving on to the second 'c' for Crypt, I walked from my home in Battersea all the way along the Thames path in the glorious early spring sunshine and up the Mall to Trafalgar Square. Having worked up an appetite for lunch I went down to the Cafe in the Crypt at St. Martin in the Fields in Trafalgar Square for a tasty soup and pud washed down with a scalding hot pot of English breakfast tea.  

Music has been so much a part of my life but in recent years I have put it aside while running around in the field doing aid work, so today, after lunch, I decided to enjoy one of St. Martin's free lunchtime concerts. Trio Aquilon gave a magnificent performance of Timothy Salter's 'Shadows I and II" and Ravel's Piano Trio in A minor. The church was packed to capacity.

After that uplifting experience I strolled up the Strand to the Courthauld Gallery at Somerset House, to take advantage of the cut price tickets available on Mondays and I soon immersed myself in the wonders of Renaissance and Impressionist painters and sculptors as well as catching the Becoming Picasso exhibition, well worth a visit! What a fabulous day, I wonder what tomorrow will bring?

Declaring a year of creativity

When the clock struck midnight on December 31st 2012, I declared to myself that 2013 would be a year of creativity for me. For quite a while I had been longing to express my creativity in different ways but had often put off making a start in favour of focussing on my humanitarian aid work. Now I feel it is important to bring into balance the other facets of my life and personality and make room for them. By this I mean I feel I am more than a humanitarian aid worker - I am a writer, a musician, song-writer, painter and drawer, photographer, energy healer, naturalist (not naturist!) and cook.

I had started this process a little before December 31st 2012 though, having made home-made peppermint creams for my friends and family over Christmas! Yummy! They went down well...And forayed into the realms of producing photobooks through Photobox, which is fun and very satisfying. I made a photobook for mum for Christmas covering many of our day trips to palaces and parks in London and I have just produced another for my boyfriend for Valentine's Day, a little memento of a long weekend in Brisbane when I popped over to Australia on R&R from Papua New Guinea where I was on mission to the United Nations. Ssshhhhhh don't tell him!

In recent weeks I have been fascinated by mandala art. Mandala is a Sanskrit word meaning the container of essence or energy, circle, totality, completion and/or primordial sound. It is the space where inner and outer worlds meet, a place that can hold the powerful energy of intention (creation). 

Isn't that wonderful? Mandala's have often been used in spiritual practice for meditation in Hinduism, Buddhism and Christianity to name but a few ... think rose windows of cathedrals for example. I find them a celebration of the beauty of form, the splendour of colour and sacred geometry, in which the mysteries of life are held.

I had been yearning to do some drawing and painting for a long time and felt prompted to have a go at drawing a mandala. Where to start? Well, I found many useful 'how to' videos on Youtube. I plucked up the courage to pop into Ryman's to buy a sketch pad, compass and felt tip pens and then sat down to 'have a go'.  My first challenge was to overcome the fear of not doing it right! I took a few deep breaths and swirled the pencil and compass around the page. When I relaxed I began to notice energy imprints on the page, which guided me to put down the shapes and I intuitively felt, which colours to place next to each other. See photo on the right for the finished mandala. What do you think?

The experience of drawing the mandala took on a therapeutic, almost trance-like quality as I found myself zoning out and feeling lighter as I put colour to the paper. Today I completed another mandala, this time it is in monochrome - black and white. 

Inspired by birds, I call this "soar". I hope you find it as uplifting to look at as I did to draw it! I am interested in your feedback. 

Back on the blog - getting creative!

Dear readers,

It feels like spring is on its way and I thought it about time that I resume blogging. I hope you are enjoying 2013 so far. In the next few weeks I aim to catch up with posting my thoughts, ideas and reflections on spirituality and wellbeing as well as reviews of books and videos I have found helpful and snapshots of creative expression!

Stay tuned.....

Peace, love and light,

Sarahxx

A few thoughts on oneness

Over the last few months I have been reading plenty of articles and watching videos on oneness from a variety of seekers along the journey from all around the world.  It seems like there is a global awakening taking place as we reach a threshold of a new era in human civilisation and evolution.

My distilled reflections so far can be summed up as:

We are all ONE with every living thing in the universe.
We are all infinitely connected to each other and to source.
Everyone is your friend, your brother or sister unless YOU choose otherwise through your thoughts and actions.
Your thoughts manifest your own reality.
The flower of life is our life pattern.
Energy is sound and light waves resonating at different frequencies.
The higher we vibrate, the closer we are to source and to peace, love and harmony.
We can do ANYTHING if we believe as if we have already achieved it.

On the serious business of happiness....

Riot clean up, St John's Hill, Clapham Junction

Hello readers! I'm back. I've been on a field trip and then when I returned to Windhoek I was distracted by the terrible news of the riots, violence and looting in UK's towns and cities. I was gobsmacked and worried about my family and friends and I wondered how this could happen? Even my home community, Clapham Junction, was badly affected, shops and businesses were smashed up.  But then I was encouraged by the outpouring of real community spirit and love as people flocked onto the streets of our towns and cities, in their marigold gloves and waving their brooms to join hundreds of others in riot clean up.

Scenes of calm but strong defiance. Anyway I'm still processing my thoughts and feelings about these events.

Meanwhile I've been contemplating happiness again and you may remember a few posts back that I suggested that happiness is a choice. Well I've just stumbled across a trailer to a film on YouTube called "Living Luminaries - on the serious business of happiness" which explores this further. You may have seen it already but it is the first time I have and I now would like to watch the whole film.  Here's the clip to whet your appetite. Are you ready for the journey to happiness?

Still mutant and still proud - wayseers manifesto

Watch this! Yeah, this is me......makes me feel normal ha ha

Join the movement!

Encountering crows

When you see a crow, what springs to mind? Do you shrink back in Hitchcock-induced fright imagining it is watching you and sending signals to its brethren to come and launch an imminent attack?

Do you view it as a cheeky kleptomaniac with a fondness for bright and shiny things? Or do you perceive it as a guardian, like the ravens, standing sentry at the Tower of London, as the video below explains?

I had two encounters with crows within 24 hours before I came out to Africa for my present mission.  The first one happened when I took a leisurely Sunday afternoon stroll towards Putney and decided to cross Putney Bridge, turning left into Bishops Park. I wended my way through the lovely courtyard rose garden, past the memorial dedicated to the soldiers from Fulham who had died in the Spanish Civil War and on to the path down by the river. I continued walking under the trees until I came to a viewpoint. I stopped for a while to look out over the river and a crow flew down on to the ground a meter or so away from my feet. He stood there, cocked his head to one side and stared. It seemed like he contemplated me for a while. I moved a step, he moved a step, quite tame really.  It was nice to have some company! The weather turned colder and it began to drizzle so I said "Goodbye Mr Crow" and walked home. I know what you are thinking....."she's bats, she talks to animals", well hear this, I talk to animals often and, like Prince Charles, I talk to plants too! ha, so there! And I haven't been carted off to the funny farm yet....

Anyway I digress, the very next day, two crows flew down on to my balcony at my little flat in Battersea. I came to the patio door but they were not fazed, they chattered merrily and stared at me for a while and after some minutes flew on their way. I pondered these encounters. Were they just a coincidence or a synchronicity?

In shamanism, animals are considered sacred spiritual guides, teachers and protectors. And why not? Why should God or the Universal Life Force only speak to us through human beings why not through other animate created entities? These animal spiritual teachers are called animal totems.  Wisdom attributed to crows and rooks include

• Guardian of the place before existence
• Ability to move in space and time
• Honoring ancestors
• Ethics and Ethical behavior
• Carrier of souls from darkness into light
• Working without fear in darkness
• Guidance while working in shadow
• Moves freely in the void
• Understands all things related to ethics
• Shapeshifter

I find this fascinating, inspiring and uplifting at the same time. I began to think about animal messengers further and was reminded of several instances in the bible including the white dove of peace carrying the olive branch to Noah after the flood, signalling the appearance of dry land, Balaam's donkey that saw an Angel and was given the power to speak to its master and the ravens who brought food to Elijah by the brook Cherith. 

We are all one

Hello readers!

I would like to share this video with you as it fairly warmed my heart! Please watch and listen to the kids of today speaking out confidently about shalom, unity, peace and love. It's great! You just have to share it.

The Wisdom of the Ancients 2 - Making room for Rumi

Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Rumi was a 13th century Muslim poet, jurist, theologian and Sufi Mystic. After his death his followers founded the Sufi order of the Whirling Dervishes.

I discovered his poetry quite late really, during the film "The Kite Runner" in which some of his verses were quoted. I say late but is it 'late' to discover something that is already there? I was transported through time and marvelled at how his wise and beautiful words and phrases transcends time and space. For him God is the ground as well as the goal in life. To have once been cut off from the divine root, love propels us forward through our spiritual journey to evolve and be reunited with the divine. 
Enjoy one of his poems here, set to music and beautiful pictures

I bought a book of his poems called "Swallowing the Sun" which I have brought out to Namibia to meditate on. Will you join me across time and miles? Say I am You.

Happiness is.....

....a choice.  When you wake up in the morning you have a choice. You can start the day believing it to be a day of opportunities, filled with hope, love, laughter, adventure and interesting encounters or you can get out of the bed the wrong side, dreading the day ahead, thinking that it will be full of unwanted challenges, irksome people, stress, mistakes and anguish. Why even choose the latter? Why do we do this to ourselves? We can be our own worst enemies by succumbing to negative patterns of thinking and behaviour. Yet the alternative is there to be grasped. We don't have to wait to be happy. Happiness can be found, here, now in the present moment if we choose it to be so.