Allowing the Magic to Happen

August 29, 2013 Joanne12 Comments

“Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them; that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.” ~ Lao Tzu.

The days have flowed naturally forward for me this past month, in fact they have flowed with so much ease that I am wondering where the last month has disappeared to. It’s not a complaint, but more of a learning process than anything. I’m actually having difficulty in finding the words here to describe how I feel.

Resistance is subsiding. I would love to be able to declare that resistance has disappeared from my life completely, but there are still occasions when I will bristle slightly, catch myself and tell myself all is well. I have learnt how to calm any adverse feelings very quickly.

I’ll be the first to admit that the recent anesthetic I had for a small hospital procedure has played its part. For two weeks I floated through each day with my feelings wrapped in cotton wool. Without the thought stresses of everyday living my household chores were completed with ease, a raised voice didn’t bring any feelings of tension, so my world just wafted along on the late winter breezes.

In realising that my anxieties over any given situation would neither make nor break the outcome I could see the benefit in letting go, giving up resistance, staying calm, letting what will be ~ be. I would even go as far as saying that my calmness may have even neutralised situations where other family members were involved.

During my time of still being under the peaceful spell of an anesthetic I made the choice to continue this gentle life after the chemical cushioning had left me, to allow the magic of life to just happen.

Situations are what they are, people do not change unless they choose to do so themselves, the world continues to spin, night becomes day and day becomes night again. The sun continues to rise, the tides ebb and flow. Birds build their nests and look out for juicy worms to catch. A baby is born, someone loses a loved one. And these events will continue, day after day, whether I am stressing, or not.

This must be why there are people who become hooked on drugs or alcohol, I contemplate. When the cushioning is felt, it’s a feeling you want to have stay around forever. How sad it is though, when the addicts don’t realise that chemical substances will wear off, needing to be replaced time and time again. I wish for those people that they eventually can find the magic within themselves, without the chemicals.

Life experience has brought me to the place where I’m now at. The difficulties of life are our greatest teachers. If you have read my last two posts, you will know what I’m talking about, how resistance can take us to an unhappy place. Talking, honestly, the kind of talk in which we wear our heart on our sleeve to our loved ones is a great remedy.

Imaging the worst case scenario, which I did before my bliss-giving anesthetic, only to learn that there was nothing wrong with me in the first place was a real eye opener for me. Worry didn’t change the reality of the situation, but worry may, and probably would have, caused a major health issue. Who needs that?

We will always experience human feelings so long as we are alive. Joy, pain, happiness, sadness, we want to feel emotions, but what is worry, is it even a real emotion? I know it can be destructive, so I am working towards banishing it from my life completely. I hope you can do the same. Show worry, resistance and stress out the door; flow with the tides of life, accept and enjoy what is.

These beautiful kookaburras who came to my garden when we were digging around in the earth, waiting patiently for a worm or some other grub to show itself for them to swoop down and enjoy for their dinner don’t seem to have a care in the world. We have so much to learn from animals and birds. They stay calm, remain patient, don’t complain about the sun or the rain, cold or heat, and they don’t hold any grudges against that dratted bird next to them who catches the worm before they do!

We have the choice, we can choose to put our busy minds into neutral and allow the magic to happen. It takes practise, but it can be done. How cool is that? 🙂

Australia · enchanting · freedom · pecan nuts · photography

Ethereal

June 17, 2013 Joanne13 Comments

“To hear never-heard sounds,
To see never-seen colors and shapes,
To try to understand the imperceptible
Power pervading the world;
To fly and find pure ethereal substances
That are not of matter
But of that invisible soul pervading reality.
To hear another soul and to whisper to another soul;
To be a lantern in the darkness
Or an umbrella in a stormy day;
To feel much more than know.
To be the eyes of an eagle, slope of a mountain;
To be a wave understanding the influence of the moon;
To be a tree and read the memory of the leaves;
To be an insignificant pedestrian on the streets
Of crazy cities watching, watching, and watching.
To be a smile on the face of a woman
And shine in her memory
As a moment saved without planning.” ~ Dejan Stojanovic.

The first day that a flock of Sulphur-Crested Cockatoos invaded my Pecan Nut Tree was indeed a happy day for this bird-loving, photo taking blogger. For weeks I had listened to their raucous screeching sounds as they flew through the ether, bypassing my garden and heading off to parts unknown.

These are large native Australian birds, and whilst some may regard them as pests, there are many more, including myself, who love the personality, character and appearance of cockatoos.

During one of my early morning photo session I could hear my next door neighbour calling out “shoo, shoo” and when I looked towards her garden, there she was, running around her yard, waving a stick and obviously attempting to remove these angelic beauties from her garden. Not that she had many in her yard, and they were my pecan nuts they were munching on.

I chuckled to myself and continued clicking away with my camera. The cockatoos ignored the stick-waving human. The stick-waver gave up.

We planted our pecan nut tree about eighteen years ago, so you can imagine how large it is now, and we have enjoyed many seasons of munching away on the pecans ourselves. In fact, I’m sure I have a post, somewhere in the archives, of my delicious Pecan Pie…..

…..Here it is! And look at that, I added the recipe on June, 18th, 2010, almost three years ago to the day! And I’m more than happy to share my pie recipe with everyone, unlike my cockatoo friends, who are very possessive with what they regard as their own, as you can see here!

During the silence of the early morning, with around two dozen cockatoos breaking open the hard shells of the pecans, the collective cracking of shells being broken open resembles the sound of a fire burning. You know the crackling sound a fire makes when logs are burning in the fireplace? That’s the noise that the cockatoos make with the shells.

Their white feathers are so pristine in appearance and with the birds being so large, between fifteen to twenty inches in length, when their wings are spread they seem to look as I imagine an angel in flight would look.

Oh okay, yes, you’re right, I don’t imagine an angel with a rounded beak and black beads for eyes, but you do get the picture, don’t you? Their white wings look like gossamer, cascading through the air. I suspect in reality those wings hold power, though my heart wishes to believe they are gossamer.

A white flurry of gossamer wings.... — A white flurry of gossamer wings….

Cockatoos can be tamed and kept as pets, even taught how to talk. Apparently they are very demanding pets. I’ve also read that they are very affectionate birds, which doesn’t surprise me, after having been privileged to watch them interact with one another in the wild.

The long yellow feathers on their head, the crest, has its own set of muscles, allowing the bird to lift their sulphur crest when happy, excited or playful. As I have watched them, I’ve noticed that when something catches their eye somewhere in the distance, they will raise their crest before flying away.

My neighbour, who also feeds the wild birds, (not the stick waving woman!) has a huge pine tree in her garden and the cockatoos love chewing on the pine cones too. In captivity, they can destroy furniture, as they love to chew on wood. Perhaps the stick waver thought they were plotting to destroy her trees…..?

They seem to be quite partial to the exotic orange blooms of my African Tulip tree too. I’m guessing there must be seeds inside the flowers that they enjoy eating. I’ve also watched and wondered, as they shake their heads back when they have a mouthful of delicious orange-ness, just as this next cocky is doing.

I must admit, I wondered whether the cockatoos had left me any pecans on the tree at all! Not that I needed any, as I already have two buckets full on the veranda, waiting to be shelled, so I took another bucket down to the tree last weekend only to find that there were heaps of pecan nuts left for me! These gorgeous white-winged angels are not greedy at all. 🙂

Australia · friends · new beginnings · quotes

Just sidling by….

May 30, 2013 Joanne9 Comments

“Piglet sidled up to Pooh from behind. “Pooh?” he whispered.
“Yes, Piglet?”
“Nothing,” said Piglet, taking Pooh’s hand. “I just wanted to be sure of you.” ~ A.A. Milne, from Winnie the Pooh.

Today I am impersonating Piglet, sidling up to you just to say hello, with nothing in particular to say.

Don’t get me wrong, I do have plenty to say. My mental list of blog posts is longer than my arm, but just now I’m focussing my attention of Other Important Things. I need this time to stay focussed. See what a great job I’m doing with staying focussed? Just had to drop everything and write a quick blog post, between completing This Job and starting The Next Job. 😉

“You can’t stay in your corner of the Forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes.”~ A.A. Milne, from Winnie the Pooh.

Actually I have achieved a lot today, sitting here at my desk, attending to work that I have put off simply because it is way too boring. Even boring jobs have to be completed at some stage, and today I have managed to cross a few of those jobs off the list.

It hasn’t been all boring work though, not by any means. Do you remember a while ago I spoke about starting up something new, work-wise? Today I have registered my new business name, (it’s all so exciting!) and I have a very clear image of what I would like to achieve. When I have all the details in place I will tell you all about my new venture. It is going to take a while to set everything up and it will be continually evolving, but that’s just what I need right now, work that I enjoy, which changes and evolves, which I can do from home.

“Tis the privilege of friendship to talk nonsense, and to have her nonsense respected.”~ Charles Lamb.

Since the weather has cooled down here in my part of the world I have been getting into some spring cleaning too. Yes, I know, it’s nearly winter here. Let’s just say I’m getting a head start. Honestly, by the time spring arrives, around about September, I’ll want to spend every spare moment out in the garden, not cleaning the house!

I’ve been doing a lot of forward planning lately, but for now, I’d better get back to The Jobs at Hand. If I concentrate on those jobs, without getting distracted by wondering how my blogging friends are getting on, I’ll get through the work much faster, right? 🙂

“There is nothing better than a friend, unless it is a friend with chocolate.” ~ Linda Grayson.

These photos today show just a few of my regular feathered friends who have visited lately. So many new birds have appeared too! I have so many photos to show you all and will do so soon. We have some of the most unusual looking birds here in Australia, even I’ve been amazed by some of the new arrivals.

“Organization is what you do before you do something, so that when you do it, it’s not all mixed up.”~ A.A. Milne.

For now, I will get back to my organising, chores and planning. The sooner I get through these things, the sooner I’ll be back to regular catching up on my blog, and catching up with my blogging friends, which is a very happy place to be.

I just had a thought. I called my blog a distraction….perhaps it’s the jobs I have to get through that are actually the distractions, keeping me away from what I really want to do! Either that, or I’ve just been reading way too many Winnie the Pooh quotes….. 🙂

A Sense of Spirit · Australia · daughter · photography · son

Two Posts in One…or Two Countries…or Too Much?!

May 14, 2013 Joanne15 Comments

I really have no idea where the whole of last week went to. Do you suppose I could blame my broken down dishwasher for my lack of writing time? I could if I wanted to, but really, I’m still enjoying hand washing my cups, dishes and plates every night, and even though this spare part which is on order for the repairs has already taken double the estimated time to arrive, I’m in no hurry to hassle the repair guy to have it fixed. I’m finding dishwashing rather therapeutic at the end of a long day. 🙂

The building of the new World Trade Centre.

I did spend a lot of time away from home last week actually, some time spent on work related events and some on pleasure, so while you look through the rest of the New York photos that my son Ben has given me to show you all, I will tell you about my pleasurable adventures.

Memorials at Gound Zero. — Memorials at Ground Zero.

I’ve said it before, but Ben really did enjoy his eight-day stay in New York City. I would rather like to go there myself one day, although eight days would be way too much time in the big city for this quiet blogger! Ben seemed to have been quite moved by his visit to the Ground Zero memorials and seeing the new building in progress there. He vividly remembers the unbelievable news hitting Australia on the morning of 9/11 as do we all.

New building against the blue spring skies.

So, back to last week. Ben and my eldest daughter Hayley had bought me a beautiful oil painting on canvas, about four years ago now, which required framing. An unnamed party had promised to have it framed for me, so the canvas had waited patiently on the shelf in my cupborad for four long years, waiting. With Mother’s Day approaching last Sunday, one day during the week Hayley had asked me if there was anything I could think of that I would specifically like to be given as a Mother’s Day gift.

Apparently (according to Hayley) I am a very easy person to buy for, as I like so many things and have so many interests! That’s good to know, as some people are absolutely impossible to please! So I gave her question some thought and soon remembered my lovely oil painting, awaiting a frame. Ben and Hayley are again going shares in this gift, but Hayley asked me if I would like to go with her to the framing shop to choose a frame that I would be happy with.

I suggested we make a lunch date of it, inviting my other daughter Emma to come along as well, so off the three of us went to see a man who Hayley had spoken to on the phone.

Choosing a frame for my lovely painting turned out to be quite the memorable experience. As a general rule, I take people as I find them, but I must admit that I found this picture framing shop proprietor to be just a tad, shall we say, over the top with his comments?

Firstly, he asked my daughter how much she had paid for the painting, rude to begin with, I thought, followed by, “I hope you didn’t pay any more than $20.00 for it”!!

Throughout the course of us choosing a frame, he managed to insult the colours of my home, explained to him by my girls in an effort to have him show us the desired coloured frames, and he also laughed profusely at his own jokes…..which I would describe as sarcastic comments rather than jokes.

So whilst The Obnoxious One guffawed away to himself, my girls and I had a great old time, ignoring him, and helping ourselves to various coloured frames which we sat beside the painting.

Digressing slightly, is the above photo Times Square, can anyone tell me? Ben and his mates were in Times Square one morning and were approached by someone giving away free tickets to the David Letterman Show. All they needed to do was answer some simple USA topical questions, which none of them knew the answers to being freshly arrived from Australia, so blatant hints were handed out, they won their three free tickets to the show and had a great time applauding throughout the show on queue and laughing loudly when requested!

Now, back to the framing shop, where my daughters and I had made our choice of frame, being ultimately my choice, although my daughters both agreed they could see it looking wonderful where I had told them both I would be hanging my painting. The Obnoxious One disagreed with my choice, adding, “You’ll probably end up having your own way, women usually do”…..okay, is it just me? Was that rude and insulting? Although I didn’t voice the words, I did think, “You’re darn tootin’ I’ll get my way!” Geeeezzzz……..

Central Park against the buildings of New York.

Between guffaws, The Obnoxious One did relate a very interesting story, of how he had taken a recent delivery of framed pictures from a deceased estate. Almost an entire family had been killed in an accident, with one remaining survivor, and the spirits of the deceased had helped him, he claimed, with frame choices since they arrived.

I wonder if the spirits had mentioned to him the old adage, “The customer is always right”? 😉

Back to the USA, and here we are in Central Park. Ben told me that the park was positively huge, and they didn’t have the opportunity to cover the whole area. I had rather hoped he would find John Lennon’s memorial area of “Strawberry Fields”, but unfortunately not.

Apparently one day, a huge crowd was clustering in an area where a celebrity had arrived, causing great excitement in the area. It turned out to be Ricky Martin, who is this year one of the judges on the Australian version of “The Voice”, and what a very lovely man he seems to be too.

Looking over the water from Central Park.

After stamping my foot in a most polite and woman-like fashion, getting my way and ordering my picture frame from The Obnoxious One, Hayley, Emma and I went back to Coolangatta for an alfresco lunch of sushi, just across the road from Coolangatta Beach. Emma passed me some chopsticks to eat my sushi with, followed by instructions on how to use them, telling me “It’s easy, mum!” I’m happy to say that most of the delicious sushi reached my mouth (apart from that one piece that dropped, then proceeded to fly across the table, nearly landing in Emma’s lap!)

Hmm….next time, I’m asking for a fork!

Katz's Delicatessan. — Katz’s Delicatessan, apparently a very famous deli in New York.

In other last-week-related-news, I decided to stop adding posts to one of my other blogs, “A Sense of Spirit”, not due to lack of interest, but rather because I am finding more and more that the posts I’m adding here at Home Life usually relate to spirit in some way anyway. It seems to me that the two blogs do not have separate purposes, so I have transferred all the content from “A Sense of Spirit” across to this blog, tagging all the posts with “A Sense of Spirit” for easy finding. Combining the two seemed like the sensible thing to do.

Ben’s last three photos here of Wall Street, the Stock Exchange and the Trump Building seem to me to be very “Ben-ified” places to visit. He is, and always has been fascinated by the workings of the stock market and is the most amazingly disciplined person with money that I have ever met in my life!

Not only is he first-rate when it comes to saving money, he can keep a secret like no one else I know. As a two year old, I would tell him, “Don’t let anyone know what their Christmas present is, it’s a surprise” and that boy wouldn’t breathe a word, not for any amount of coaxing in the world!

I seem to have waffled on a bit today, so hope I haven’t sent anyone to sleep with my ramblings.

Please do let me know if I have labeled any of Ben’s photos incorrectly. In the next leg of the trip, he and his mates headed south to Nashville and he loved it there too. I think it’s safe to say that Ben loved his trip to America.

Finally, here are the links to all the posts I have transferred across from “A Sense of Spirit”. Please do not feel obliged to read all or any of them, they are just here for anyone who may be interested. I do, however, recommend reading “The Optimist’s Creed”, very sage words indeed. I wish I had written them!

Believe in yourself.

The Optimist’s Creed.

A Chair to Remember.

Parting is such sweet sorrow.

The Souls we remain with throughout time.

A Synopsis of Spirituality.

The Car with Spirit.

Finding Uncle Albert.

A Bond that Lasts for Eternity.

Thoughts as I press my nose against the window of life.

Taking our own advice.

Australia · autumn · blessings · gardening · photography

Three Hours of Gardening Bliss ~ Part 1.

April 26, 2013 Joanne15 Comments

A Noisy Miner bird, watching me gardening from the safety of the lemon tree branches.

“Everything that slows us down and forces patience, everything that sets us back into the slow circles of nature, is a help. Gardening is an instrument of grace.” ~ May Sarton.

Mother Nature has waved her magic wand over our autumn days here in the Tweed Valley during the past week and today I have spent three hours in the garden, achieving much, yet feeling more energised at the end of the toil than I did before I began.

Miss Tibbs adds even more meaning to my time spent in the garden.

“If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.” ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero.

I would change the above quote slightly, to read, “If you have a garden to share with a fury friend or two, along with a few feathered friends, you have everything you need. If you also have a library, where you can sit quietly with a book whilst your aches and pains disappear after the gardening, with a hot cup of coffee, you are doubly blessed.”

Another recent regular visitor to the skies above my home, a Brahminy Kite.

The blue skies were dotted with clouds of a million-and-one shades of white and grey today. A pair of Brahminy Kites flew silently overhead, but I could only get one at a time in a photo. You’ll have to take my word for it, there were definitely two Kites here today.

Massive balls of cotton wool, floating overhead.

“A garden is a grand teacher. It teaches patience and careful watchfulness; it teaches industry and thrift; above all it teaches entire trust.” ~ Gertrude Jekyll.

There were a few grey clouds among the white balls of fluffy cotton clouds, yet the sun continued to shine all day long.

Look at that intense shade of blue in the sky!

Looking up at the expanse of blue sky with the explosions of white clouds can be absolutely breath-taking on a day like today.

Miss Tibbs so enjoys her time in the garden.

“What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have never been discovered.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Miss Tibbs and I are totally on the same page when we are in the garden together. I can completely relate to the way she rolls and rolls over the grass, with the sun shining and warm on her silky fur, showing her absolute delight in the garden.

When I crawled under my Tibouchina tree to remove a few weeds (and as my hands were playfully grabbed by Miss Tibbs), I came across this magnificent red flower. Actually, there were more than one of these flowers on the plant. It may be a Bromeliad, but I’m not absolutely sure.

My Camellia is covered in precious pink flowers this autumn, so delicate and beautiful. Even the fallen petals still look absolutely glorious.

The overseer of all things garden related.

“What a man needs in gardening is a cast-iron back, with a hinge in it.” ~ Charles Dudley Warner, My Summer in a Garden, 1871.

My only complaint about gardening is the aches and pains I feel in my body when I return indoors. If the discomfort is there whilst I’m gardening, it wasn’t noticed today, although I have become familiar with a few previously unknown muscles tonight! But it isn’t really a bad complaint. Gardening wouldn’t be gardening without the excercise.

My beautiful Tess came down to the garden with me today too. She’s ten now and she hurt her front paw a couple of years ago, which has left her walking with a limp. Tess doesn’t venture too far from the house nowadays, but she did enjoy her time in the sun today.

Always alert, always the Protector of Family and Home, Tess doesn’t rest for too long, but a word of reassurance had her enjoying her place in the sun again before long.

Is there any Chai tea left for Miss Tibbs to share?

As I headed back towards the house, Miss Tibbs sat on my garden seat, next to my empty mug. Was she telling me it was time for another coffee break?

“There can be no other occupation like gardening in which, if you were to creep up behind someone at their work, you would find them smiling.” ~ Mirabel Osler.

I don’t know if I smile when I am spending time in the garden. I’m not conscious of physically smiling, but I’m always aware of smiling on the inside!

“In the garden I tend to drop my thoughts here and there. To the flowers I whisper the secrets I keep and the hopes I breathe. I know they are there to eavesdrop for the angels.” ~ Dodinsky.

I have more photos to share of my time in the garden today and will add those here next time, but for now I will end today with a photo of the beautiful moon I saw tonight, smiling down at the front door of my home. 🙂

Do you see the face of the man in the moon? :) — Do you see the face of the man in the moon? 🙂

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