My new year resolution (meditation)

This is how I start 2014:

Yep it's all the Christmas chocolate and cakes.... but to stay like this without becoming a beachball with legs, here is a gem I discovered in the holidays: Doreen Virtue's: The Lightworker's Way, which has some beautiful meditations for morning and bedtime and invaluable guidance on how to stay well and true to our higher self. I am so grateful to have rediscovered this book by 'accident' after 11 years of coming across it and thinking I had lost it...

Farewell to 2013 - welcoming a hopeful and adventure filled 2014

A fun and fulfilled farewell to a beautiful year with my best friends in the world:

and welcoming the new rays of sunlight as we approached 2014....

A warm thank you to the best companion and doggy friends, family and non-furry friends from all around the world, horsey, yoga, NIA and other lovely connections, and all the beautiful people at Bay tree and BU for making this a year wholesomely lived one filled with growth and happy memories. Love and blessings to you all for the New Year :)

Garbage Warrior

One of the ways forward in this world, I'm 'on board'! :) Garbage Warrior full length documentary

Love...

To my special One, thank you for a beautiful weekend.... ...Love... When love beckons to you, follow him, Though his ways are hard and steep. And when his wings enfold you yield to him, Though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you. And when he speaks to you believe in him, Though his voice may shatter your dreams as the north wind lays waste the garden. For even as love crowns you so shall he crucify you. Even as he is for your growth so is he for your pruning. Even as he ascends to your height and caresses your tenderest branches that quiver in the sun, So shall he descend to your roots and shake them in their clinging to the earth. Like sheaves of corn he gathers you unto himself. He threshes you to make you naked. He sifts you to free you from your husks. He grinds you to whiteness. He kneads you until you are pliant; And then he assigns you to his sacred fire, that you may become sacred bread for God's sacred feast. All these things shall love do unto you that you may know the secrets of your heart, and in that knowledge become a fragment of Life's heart. But if in your fear you would seek only love's peace and love's pleasure, Then it is better for you that you cover your nakedness and pass out of love's threshing-floor, Into the seasonless world where you shall laugh, but not all of your laughter, and weep, but not all of your tears. Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself. Love possesses not nor would it be possessed; For love is sufficient unto love. When you love you should not say, "God is in my heart," but rather, "I am in the heart of God." And think not you can direct the course of love, for love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course. Love has no other desire but to fulfill itself. But if you love and must needs have desires, let these be your desires: To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night. To know the pain of too much tenderness. To be wounded by your own understanding of love; And to bleed willingly and joyfully. To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving; To rest at the noon hour and meditate love's ecstasy; To return home at eventide with gratitude; And then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart and a song of praise upon your lips. Kahlil Gibran

The coming of the ship..

Wishing you all a peaceful Sunday with Kahlil Gibran's words brought back to me by the boat at Hengistbury Head.. the coming of the ship love and light....

Sacred time in Hengistbury Head

There's something about the sky above Hengistbury Head that always makes it a magical place to be. After a healing visit to a special place in Wareham my 'homework' was to write a letter to Archangel Michael and release all that no longer serves me and ask for all the abundance I would like to welcome into my life. Thank you for the miraculous guidance.... I wrote the letter in the company of my two loony dogs and a bumblebee that would not leave me alone and then allowed the liberating waves of Hengistbury Head to take my letter to where it needed to go... I looked up at the sky afterwards and this is what I saw:

The little red light next to the setting sun was actually a tiny rainbow that appeared in the sky.. And then I noticed this boat on the horizon:

... which made me think of Kahlil Gibran's Prophet, such a soulful reading. Thank you for a magical day...

Welcome back to my 'secret garden' and meet my future avocado trees, thank you to The Hungry Mouse for sharing the brilliant tutorial! Speaking of garden, if you haven't heard the song Woodstock by Matthew's Southern Comfort (originally written by Joni Mitchell) now is the time, I can't get enough of it. Thank you Joaozinho for the inspiration which has led me back to the guitar. Today I picked up my guitar again after many months of not going anywhere near it and will not put it down until I've perfected this song :) (Big thank you to youtube and Alan Robinson for making it possible!) And if that song doesn't give you hope, open The Return of the Bird Tribes by Ken Carey :) It's my second time reading it, the first time it didn't mean that much to me.. this time it's changing my life and speaking to an inner truth i cannot explain. I know it will find the right people, please enjoy and share...

project 'my secret garden'

“You are never given a dream without also being given the power to make it true. You may have to work for it, however.” ― Richard Bach At home in bed again, and sick and tired, literally of being ill. This time I've got Darth Vader syndrome, when my boyfriend tried to call me to see how I was he thought he called the wrong number, that's how scary I sound! So here's what I'm going to do about it. I'm setting the goal of doing one small thing a week (at least) to make our home more organic, healthy and as self sufficient as possible. My step for this week was finding a little treasure chest called Kitchen Gardeners International already subscribed and started looking at all the goodies there, tips and recipes yay! Join me if you like on my journey and I'll keep you updated on where all of this takes me :) Oh and two gems from Louise L Hay and Sarah Wilson (whose blog is great!) that led me to my project today: 7 louise hay insights for healing your life (and a thyroid tip) and yes! louise hay tells me her #1 healing trick A big thank you to both!

Gut and Psychology Syndrome -

A very interesting talk shared by an always inspiring friend of mine: GAPS Thank you Agnieszka for sharing :)

Cruelty-free perfume shopping for all you animal lovers

Love Nature :)

I used to be a perfume fanatic until I found out that a lot of major brands do unspeakable things to animals to produce their products. This put me off all perfumes for about 5 years in which I stuck to LUSH and Body Shop loyally. Only recently it occurred to me to further investigate whether there is a wider range of products I could use that are still animal friendly and smell nice at the same time. Here's a helpful website for other animal lovers: PETA I wish everyone a peaceful Sunday afternoon with this soothing song that's playing in our cosy living room: Starlight and You Thank you my Love for sharing it :)

Be happy for no reason...

My motto for tomorrow :)

Namaste :)

The two most important days in your life....

Wow! :)

A tale of two boys - from the 7 day Inner Engineering course

I listened to the third class in my inner engineering course yesterday and in this session Sadhguru spoke about taking responsibility in our lives, about responding to life and the things around us. Instead of saying 'this is my responsibility' we always have the choice of at least considering what to do about a situation. This session made me realise how much it troubles me that my grandmothers are living thousands of miles away from me and how much I miss them and would like to include them in our lives more. It also made me realise that instead of just saying they're not my responsibility, I can look at what options are available to get nearer to them. Just the mere act of thinking about the situation and exploring options has lifted an enormous load off my chest. I called one of them tonight and told her how I felt and that I would like to do something about this. She said she wants to stay right where she is. Maybe nothing will really change in our situation, but this communication and sharing has made all the difference. Sadhguru told a story about two boys that I would like to share. A father had two sons, an optimistic one and a pessimistic one. They happened to be twins, so as their birthdays approached, the father decided to do a little experiment with them. In the pessimistic son's room he piled up a heap of expensive toys, all the amazing gadgets you can imagine. In the optimistic son's he placed a pile of horse poo. When the boys came home and ran upstairs, the father listened curiously to what their reactions will be. All of a sudden he heard a loud sobbing. He followed the boys upstairs worried that he overdid it with the horse poo a bit.. Only to find his pessimistic son crying beside the heap of expensive toys. When his father asked him what he was crying about he said: 'I'm crying because now I have to read all these instruction manuals and when my cousins come over tomorrow I'll have to share all of these...' The father then went to his optimistic son's room and found him whistling and dancing around the pile of manure. When his father asked him what he was so joyful about he replied: 'well, if there's horse poo, there's bound to be a pony somewhere nearby!'

speaking of ponies :) a peaceful night to you all xxxx

Somewhere over the rainbow... juicing vs pizza and cakes

...is where I walked the doggies today :) However, this last weekend I was far from being over the rainbow! It took me a while to figure out that what I put into my body might have something to do with it, duh! Whereas the weekend before I was spoiling my body with kale, cucumber, tomatoes, grapes and blueberries and an endless list of energising goodies, this last weekend I ended up going the opposite way: cakes and and pizza on Friday in lovely company, but still packed with sugar and wheat. Not such a good idea as it turned out. I could really feel the difference in my mood, in my body, the difference was shocking. I am writing this down so that next time I will remember! The outcome of this little indulging episode is a non-New Year resolution, to keep one day of the weekend as a cleansing day whenever I can and have an overdose of morning glory and bruschetta tang instead of margherita pizza! I am not against pizza, far from it, but if I want to deviate once in a while, a cleansing day will surely follow! :)

Guess who helped out with our laundry this weekend?

This little beast:

and of course this one couldn't miss out on sunbathing on top of the pile either!!! :)

The Lady (Aung San Suu Kyi)

I'm speechless after watching this film: The Lady Please watch, be inspired and share.

Juicing continued..

Although I'm not juicing all day, I now (thanks to all the juicing inspiration) start the day with 2 glasses of fresh juice and that's all I have until lunch time. I've been drinking: 4 apples, 4 oranges and half a bag of spinach leaves or 4 apples, 4 oranges, 2 beetroots and quarter of a lemon, both delicious, nutritious and energising :)

My favourite soup recipe for autumn :)

As the weather gets chillier, the temptation grows for comfort food! Here's a few recipes that might help beat the cravings: The best butternut squash soup I've ever tasted with roasted garlic and red lentil: Ingredients: 1 large butternut squash, diced, skin left on 4 garlic cloves left whole, papery skin removed olive oil for cooking 1,5 tsp dried mixed herbs 1/2 large red onion finely chopped 250g red lentils 750ml to 1 litre veg stock 3-4 tsp green pesto (optional) sea salt and black pepper Method: Preheat oven to 200°C Place the diced squash and garlic in roasting tin and drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt, pepper and dried herbs. Mix well and roast for about 20-25 minutes or until the squash is browning at the edges and the skin is crisp. Heat a little olive oil in pan (I use coconut oil lately) and cook onion for about 5 minutes, or until softened. Add the roasted squash, garlic and lentils and enough veg stock to cover and simmer until lentils are cooked. Season with salt and pepper and process or blend. Transfer tonserving bowls and drizzle with a swirl of pesto if using. Good for: skin, immune system, heart and circulation, and the digestive system and deeeeelicious! Enjoy :)

Epic

Just finished watching 'Epic' animation, highly recommend it! Very entertaining and meaningful at the same time. What I do NOT recommend is taking a farty dog to the DVD rental place, unless you can be very convincing at saying 'it wasn't me' :) If that hasn't brought a smile to your face then let me show you Dorka dog's first experience with a horse:

and dreaming of the times when the sun was still scorching us in August, sharing with you a happy memory from Cornwall, St Michael's Mount (a must see, one of my favourite places in the world) the Giant's heart:

Thank You :)

To all of you who bring sunshine into my life, I hope you know who you are! ;)

And some 'little wings' for those who also dream about riding with the wind: 'Little Wing' thank you Catarina :) Noemi xxxx