Month: June 2010

inspiration

With Purpose In Our Lives

JoanneLeave a comment

“As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being”~Carl Gustav Jung.

Today, being Sunday, I am allowing myself the indulgence of not abiding by any schedule. The main purpose to this day is to just relax.

During the month of May, there was much debate on the topic of “Purpose”, as it was the theme of the month on The Calm Space.

I wrote a guest post myself, entitled “Monte Carlo…Or Me?” in which I recalled one particular night, many years ago, when I realised, without a shadow of a doubt, my ultimate purpose for being on this earth.

Being my ultimate realisation, it seemed appropriate to make that my choice for my article, but realising at the same time the importance purpose plays in all of our lives, every single day.

I was surprised, but also enlightened to the fact that some people are concerned, almost afraid, at the idea of having to find purpose in their lives, as if it is a form of obligation. If the trumpets don’t sound at the moment of their revelation, they feel that they have somehow failed in an aspect of their lives!

The pressure of finding their ultimate purpose seemed all too much to bear for some, almost as if the word purpose is over-rated.

Perhaps being an avid reader of Abraham-Hicks books prevented me from feeling intimidated by purpose. As they point out, “You want to know your purpose. You want to feel worthy. You want to feel good about others. And when you feel anything less than any of those things, you’re not being who-you-are”.

And to me, that says it all, in a nut-shell!

As the quote from Carl Gustov Jung points out, we must kindle a light in the darkness of mere being. And if we are feeling worthy and feeling good, we will have purpose. We are being who-we-are. Our light will be kindled.

Purpose is something that I live every day of my life, beginning with the most simplistic of actions; I feed myself food each day, with the purpose of staying healthy. And I choose to eat the food I enjoy. And on it goes.

By allowing your emotions to guide you, everyone has the opportunity to live purpose-filled days, every day of their lives…no fuss, no fanfare, no sounding of trumpets!

I will let Abraham-Hicks have the final say on the subject of purpose ~

“The purpose of life is joy”.

Need I say more? 🙂

challenges · Changes · inspiration

“You Can Only Ever Be Yourself, Because Everyone Else Is Taken”.

Joanne3 Comments

Question : “If you could go back in time and meet your 16-year-old self, what three things would you tell yourself?”

NaBloPoMo posed this question, a theme for a writing prompt, earlier this week. And my brain ticked back through time, to my days of independence, freedom, security, youth, simplicity, no responsibilities and no complications.

In this hypothetical meeting, would the teenaged me realise they were having a conversation with their older and wiser self?  I would strongly debate if, in fact, I am now wiser…or, did I actually have life worked out when I was sixteen?

I have to face the facts at this point. At sixteen, I lived within walking distance of a job that I loved and where my bosses appreciated my dedication.  A mere ten minute walk took me to a Gold Coast beach and a forty-five minute bus trip had me in the midst of the bright lights of Surfers Paradise.

Living on Queensland’s Gold Coast was heaven on earth for my sixteen year old self; it was all that I wanted. And did I appreciate this magical life?

First point of advice to sixteen year old self : Appreciate and enjoy your life to the fullest extent of your being. Savour every wonderful moment of every carefree day of your existence. Grab hold of every golden opportunity as it presents itself and run with it. Run like the wind!

Did my sixteen year old self run with every opportunity given? Did I follow my dreams until they became a reality?

The job that I had loved, where I was appreciated as a valued employee, in a major newsagency and bookshop, was not trendy enough for me. So what if I had the enrolment forms to start a course in writing and journalism, this was the Gold Coast! I had to live the part, even if I wasn’t living out my heart’s desire.

The next three years saw me travelling from one boutique store job to the next, where it really was just a J.O.B. – spending all of my hard earned dollars on clothes and shoes, in an attempt to look the part, actually did leave me Just Over Broke!

By age nineteen I worked for the money; my passion for writing had all but vanished.

Second point of advice to sixteen year old self : Fill out those forms, apply for the journalism and writing course and give it all you’ve got! And while you’re at it, stay at the newsagents; you love it there! It’s right up your alley, you’re at home there with all of those books, magazines and writing apparatus. The pay is great for your age and they value the effort you put in. Work on your own passions, not someone else’s!

Women’s Lib had well and truly kicked in by the time I was sixteen. From memory, “burning of the bra” days were long gone but I held enough rebellion in my heart to realise that I was equally as worthy as any man, maybe even more so, in some cases. I had a mouth, along with an attitude, and I wasn’t afraid to use either of them! (My daddy taught me well!)

Not that I looked for trouble where there wasn’t any. I was actually rather placid. But woe betide any man who expected he could run my life! Which poses another hypothetical question, why was I so strongly influenced by other people’s comments, in other areas of my life, as to what I should be doing with my life?

Third point of advice to sixteen year old self : If you follow your dreams and find out later they were not quite what you expected, nothing is set in concrete; change it! Don’t ever…do you hear me?…never, ever, ever be afraid you’ll make a mistake! Mistakes, once made, are a thing of the past, they’re over, gone, finished with. Get on with life, doing what makes you happy!

Hey, I might sound like a bit of a tyrant to myself! Would I listen to me? I’d be too scared not to!

Can we go back in time and in doing so, change our past actions? Of course not! Can we learn from our mistakes? You better believe we can!

I have been blessed to have four children and each of my children have had various snippets of advice from me throughout their lives. As I recall, I have emphasised three points; appreciate what you have, follow your dreams and don’t be afraid to make mistakes, but learn from them.

Even though the opportunity of advising my sixteen year old self of these things is obviously not possible in this lifetime, there are four other young souls who may have heeded a word or two I have uttered.

And as for me? I’m writing this blog post, along with many others, and loving every minute of it. I can’t walk past a book shop, they call out my name, asking me to visit, and I can’t be rude now, can I?

I’m following my dream. It’s never too late. 🙂

My advice to you, dear reader? All of the above, but most of all, be true to you!

cooking · gardening · pecan nuts · recipe

Pecan Pie Anyone?

Joanne6 Comments

This year my pecan tree has had a bumper crop. Now, the weather has turned cold and the once green leaves are changing to brown and dropping to the ground, but not before we collected bucket loads of nuts!

In a previous post, I have already waxed lyrical in total admiration of my garden, (yes, I do that sometimes, nature just gets to me), and you can see here the beautiful nuts growing happily away in my garden. Clicking on the photos will enlarge them.

In the days when I first made pecan pie I didn’t have a pecan tree in my garden, I simply bought a packet of pecans off the supermarket shelf. Now I have a beautifully matured tree and I personally find it is a far more satisfying experience to grow, collect and shell my own!

Being the creature of habit that I am I have used the same pecan pie recipe forever. I know there are other recipes out there, but what can I say? When I make up this recipe I could eat the whole pie to myself! Okay, maybe a slight exaggeration there. 😉

As far as comfort food goes, this is up there with the best of them!

Pecan Pie

Preheat oven to 200 degrees C.

Pastry ~ ½ cup shelled pecans

160g butter

1/3 cup caster sugar

2 cups plain flour

1 egg, beaten

Grind the pecans to a fine meal, in a food processor fitted with a steel blade, being careful not to over process the nuts to a paste.

Cream together the butter and sugar and stir in the ground pecans and flour. Add the beaten egg and blend together to form a soft dough.

Wrap the dough in plastic film and refrigerate for 20 minutes, roll out and line a greased, fluted, 20-23cm flan tin.

Filling ~ 190g butter

1 cup brown sugar

½ cup warmed honey

6 eggs

¾ cup of shelled pecans

Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, then add the warmed honey and eggs, beating together thoroughly.

Pour the filling evenly into the pastry case and sprinkle the whole pecans over the top of the egg mixture.

Bake for 10 minutes at 200 degrees, then reduce heat to 190 degrees and continue baking for approximately 20 minutes extra, or until filling is set.

Decorate the tart with 90g of melted chocolate and serve with cream or ice cream.

The memory of the day I was given this recipe by an old friend has just come back to me and in this day and age is rather amusing!

As I am copying the recipe to share here, from a stained, yellowing sheet of paper, I am reminded of my friend letting me try out her latest office gadget, on loan from her boss, to type out the recipe.

It was a marvellous gizmo, which had a tiny screen above the typewriter keyboard, showing the words as they were typed into the machine. When satisfied there weren’t any mistakes, a simple hit of a button would type out your work….

It was an early day word processor! Can you believe it? (Okay, you can stop laughing now…it wasn’t that long ago…really!)

Changes · daughter

Be Careful What You Wish For…You Just Might Get It!

Joanne2 Comments

My hair has always been curly. I was born with curly hair and have enjoyed cursing my curls my entire life.

During the 1980’s “big hair” was the fashion. Hairdressers charged a small fortune, giving women a temporary version of The Look, while I flipped my newly washed hair around a few times and had the same look for the cost of a blob of shampoo and conditioner, a plus for me, as the money I saved on hairdo’s could be put towards the equally as fashionable padded shouldered outfits!

Oh, how I loved to hate my hair! Rain made it curlier, humid weather did the same, straightening was only ever a temporary measure and something I stopped trying to do years ago, around the same time as I stopped painting my long fingernails and wearing fancy dress rings on my fingers. As I recall, the high heels were kicked off also, around the same time as motherhood kicked in.

Age brought with it the wisdom that it was easier to let go of the concept of sleek locks, on my head, anyway.

Advantages to a curly top became apparent. On a windy day, who knew whether I had brushed my hair or not? Curls are simplicity itself on a hot summer’s day, just drag them back and tie them up. Unruly strays, not making it into the hair band were assumed to be delicate curls, placed purposely around my hairline, when in reality they were the runaways!

Comments of “You’re so lucky to have curly hair” have been repeated to me, ad nauseam. Not only do I have curly hair, I have thick, curly hair. Why me?

Last Sunday night we enjoyed a family dinner, my eldest daughters twenty-second birthday. The six of us spend less family time together these days, since my daughter moved out a year ago. A sign of the times, making the nights we are all together more precious than ever.

My two girls asked, for approximately the nine-hundred-and-twenty-first time, could they straighten my hair…they were spending “sisters” time together, trying out new makeup, doing each other’s hair, just like when they were young…how could I refuse?

They fussed and fluttered around, with squeals of “I can’t believe Mum is letting us do this”, interjected throughout the process of “The Straightening”.

The softness of my hair amazed all three of us; my hair being as sleek and smooth as both of my girl’s youthful locks.

Monday morning arrived. Dragging myself into the bathroom, in my usual half-asleep state, I was startled by the sight of a complete stranger in the mirror…where had my curls gone?

I caught my husband, peeking at me sideways, out of the corner of his eyes. “Sorry, but the straight hair just isn’t “you””. No, it wasn’t.

Never have I flung my curls around with such abandon, as when I washed my hair and my curls sprang back to life!

I asked myself, how many times have I preached to my children, “Beauty is only skin deep” and “Looks aren’t everything”? Ah yes, how true….

….But there’s another adage, “Don’t try to be something that you’re not”. Yes, that’s the important one.

Now, I am my curls; my curls are “me”….Did I mention yet how much I simply adore my curls? 😉

challenges · inspiration

Challenging Myself

Joanne3 Comments

When I’m in gardening mode, muscles that I didn’t know existed in any person, let alone realising that I owned myself, rear their painful heads in shocked amazement at their awakening.

Not one to be phased by a little pain now and then, I continue with the task at hand, focusing my attention on the sheer delight of my gardening achievements.

And, my persistence pays off. Once that painful barrier has been passed, the sky is the limit!

Therefore, with absolute faith in my ability to conquer my own personal pain threshold, I have set myself a challenge…

My inspiration has arrived through NaBloPoMo, or National Blog Posting Month, who suggest to bloggers ~ “Post every day for a month. That’s all you have to do”.

I’m relatively new to the world of blogging, having only just dipped the very ends of my toes into the web “stream” last year. I think that perhaps, up until this stage anyway, I may have been lacking the discipline necessary to give it all I’ve got on a daily basis.

Now, I’m prepared to get my ankles wet!

Content could…perhaps…possibly, become a stumbling block. But then again, how could it be? Don’t I constantly have ideas running around my brain? Is it not I, who is never at a loss for words in any given conversation?

NaBloPoMo is just the boot in the brain muscle I need. In a matter of a mere day or two, my fingers will be running rampant across the keyboard!

What is it that I am hoping to achieve? More of the following three key words, which will become my focus ~ Discipline, Consistency and Confidence.

Discipline; no finding excuses. Anyone can find an excuse as to why they can’t take action; the real gain is in setting yourself the task and actually completing it!

Consistency; once the habit of writing on a daily basis has been given birth to, it can’t help but flourish and grow!

Confidence; okay, this is probably the toughest aspect and a small dose of the old “fake it ‘till you make it” adage won’t go astray!

So, the game plan has been set. Brain and finger muscles are poised for action. Motivational talk to self, now completed. 🙂

For me, the most important criteria for my challenge during the following month has already been met; that being, I enjoy writing.

And, isn’t enjoyment the ultimate factor we should all consider, when beginning a brand new project, task, job or challenge?

Enjoyment in how we spend our time enables every one of us to move through life with ease. 🙂