The Beautiful......... Frederick Turner

"The beautiful can exist at the edge precisely because it has nothing to lose and everything to give away"

"Say It Right" Nelly F.

"Say it right"

Initiation Michael Meade The Water of Life

"One purpose of initiation was to awaken the elder within a person"

Individuation Carl Jung

"The call to individuate is the call to become authentic - to live and affirm consciously one's own uniqueness"

Change The Way.........

"Change the way you look at things and the things you look at will change" Wayne Dyer

Have you ever? Robert Bly

"Have you ever seen anyone walk in the sun and yet the shadow was missing?

"What I Am" from "Miracles" Stuart Wilde

"What I am is eternal, immortal, universal and infinite. I see only beauty and strength in every moment of my life"

Louis and Me

Spent the afternoon with Louis at the sea or perhaps that should be 'in the sea'! We enjoyed a train ride to the coast, his first ever journey on a train. He was so excited by the views en route, the sprawling breeze filled trees, the horses and sheep dotted in the fields and the parked tractors next to farm sheds. The beach was a picture with an incoming tide and a grey sky up above but so warm. We played in the water and went with the ebb and flow...............magic moments!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Shadows Carl Jung

"That I feed the hungry, forgive an insult, and love my enemy - these are great virtues. But what if I should discover that the poorest of beggars and most impudent of offenders are all within me, and that I stand in need of the alms of my own kindness; that I myself am the enemy who must be loved - what then"?

Shadows of Light Robert Bly

"When one projects, one is really giving away an energy or power that rightfully belongs in one's own treasury"

"Say I Am You" Rumi

Rumi writes "Say I am you" . I say "I am you"

from Notes on Love and Courage Hugh Prather

"I am comfortable around my friend. For reasons not always clear to me, she loves me. She has seen me blunder; she is aware of my annoying self indulgences, my private habits. All the things I once thought no one could know about me and still love me, she knows. In her presence I have very little to guard against, because she distills me from my words. We have been together a long time, and now some grace within her can see me when her eyes are open".

On Miracles Stuart Wilde

"That is why adversity is so useful. It allows people to look for something beyond day to day reality, and this brings them in touch with their true inner selves. In desperation, they begin to pull on their unlimited power; and they realise anything can be changed, that suffering is a product of the inner self, and that by looking at their inner selves, they can transform them"

We Cannot Teach - Galileo (1564 -1642)

"We cannot teach people anything, we can only help them discover it for themselves"

Flowering - Elizabeth Haich in 'Initiation'

"In time our truths will flower"

"Useless Encounters" - Hugh Prather

"Are there any wholly useless encounters? I know this: there are no insignificant people. There is no one who isn't supposed to be there"

Authenticity - Barbel Mohr

"Authenticity gives power and connects with the Universe. To pretend that we see everything positively or act as if we were enlightened when we are not creates a distance between ourselves and the Universe. Accept lovingly your evolutionary stage."

Remain Unexplained

"Everything in life need not be explained. We have no responsibility to explain anything to anybody" from "Everyday Osho" 365 Daily Meditations for the Here and Now.

The Tibetan People Sogyal Rinpoche The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying

"Let us remember them always in our hearts, and let us all, also work to see that their land and its traditions are returned to them".

Chinese Proverb

"Respect out of fear is never genuine; reverence out of respect is never false"

Confucius

"What you do not wish upon yourself, do not do to others"

The Dalai Lama

"We are visitors on this planet. We are here for ninety or one hundred years at the most. During this period, we must try to do something good, something useful, with our lives. If you contribute to other people's happiness, you will find the true goal, the true meaning of life"

The I Ching or Book of Changes

"Cling to the power of higher truth"

Just For Today ..........The Children of Darfur

Just for today .....................Please remember the children of Darfur.

Tibetan Book of Living and Dying Sogyal Rinpoche

"In Tibet we say "Negative action has one good quality; it can be purified." So there is always hope. Even murderers and the most hardened criminals can change and overcome the conditioning that led them to their crimes.

Rabindranath Tagore

"Let me not pray to be sheltered from dangers but to be fearless in facing them"

Notes on Love and Courage Hugh Prather

"The character of a church, a business or a government can be seen in its attitude towards its detractors"

The Dalai Lama

"No imperialist power has succeeded in keeping other people in colonial subjugation for long"

Aung San Suu Kyi

Just for today...............Remember Aung San Suu Kyi

Rabindranath Tragore

"Death is not extinguishing the light, it is putting out the lamp because the dawn has come"

Remember Tianamen Square

Remember Tianamen Square

Dalai Lama's Meditation

"One aspect of compassion is to respect other's right's and to respect others views. The human spirit of reconciliation based upon compassion is working deep down, whether the person knows it or not. Our basic human nature is gentleness, therefore no matter how much we go through violence and other bad things, ultimately the proper solution is to return to human feeling and affection".

Autogenic therapy notes

Tears and crying are the main methods used by nature to help work through and resolve grief. If this is not done, tension may be stored by the body and manifests itself in a variety of uncomfortable ways. Examples are pain in the spine and joints, allergic reactions and tennis elbow. These are some of the symptoms which may indicate a crying need. Grief can be experienced as a result of a sense of loss relating to a hope, an object or a relationship which we no longer have.

Ibn 'Arabi writes

"There is no difference between the Sender and the thing sent, and the person sent and the person to whom he is sent"

"Fire and Rain"

"I've seen fire and I've seen rain
I've seen sunny days that I thought would never end"

James Taylor

Song for Louis

"All the stars are coming out tonight,
They're lighting up the sky tonight
For You, For You"

Louis and Me

Louis stayed last night. Most thoughtfully, he decided to go to sleep before Carole and I sat down to our evening meal. It's a real joy when he stays. It seems so easy to understand how he lives his life. His presence is magical and he is a blessing. He loves to interact and play, eat when he's hungry, be changed when he needs changing, have a roll on the floor after lunch and a little excursion in his pushchair in the fresh air to watch the river flow. He is enjoying a little story before sleep time. I know that sleep time is approaching when he gives the signals - repeated yawns, the rubbing of his eyes or a vocal request in the form of a little moan of displeasure, usually when he begins, with some frustration, to assault the particular story book he's reading. The last occasion he stayed with us was on New Year's eve. He woke just before midnight!
This morning we paid a visit to a friend's ceramic studio to see if Louis' footprint plate was ready. He really isn't keen on the waterproof hood of his pushchair, preferring to feel the raindrops on his face as we walk to the studio. We were there last week. He was so fascinated by having the soles of his little feet painted! I realised how difficult it was too, trying to get a perfect footprint, but I think the right foot smudged one looks just fine -- and as I gave up 'perfection' a few moons ago, what does it matter? - anyway I think it represents Louis at his present age - full of beans and not being still enough for one of his more lively moments to be held still in paint! When we arrived, he was excited as ever and keen to have a look around the studio. He certainly seemed to enjoy meeting my friend and her two children (who were busy painting plates at the time).
This afternoon we enjoyed a family sunday lunch together, sharing news, plenty of laughter and lots of catching up. Just a lovely warm occasion. Louis slept for the first part of the meal but joined us later, full of smiles and completely interested in everything that was going on around the dining room table. Everyone, it seems has adjusted in getting back to work, some more than others. A busy month ahead with family and friends birthdays. As we said our goodbyes at the end of the afternoon, I finally managed to hand over over the potted-up amaryllis bulbs to family members, which hopefully will be in full bloom by late February. Time is flying!

January 2008 Pluto enters Capricorn

Well, the Sun will be moving out of an earth sign and into the air of Aquarius today, representing a significant 'shift' in energies. The practicalities of life and the honouring of tradition and boundaries give way to big ideas and change over the coming weeks. Some interesting movements of the heavenly bodies in the month ahead including a retrograde Mercury. (Watch those phones, computers and communications with significant others!). Still, many souls in the astrological networks are tuned into the BIG event coming up in a few days time. For the past 13 years, Pluto, "the great transformer" in astrology, has been penetratively moving through Sagittarius (ideals and spirituality). Just remember all the big eruptive changes experienced in religious organisations over the past decade, from the 'conventional' to the more extreme and 'unconventional') -----------and even the Da Vinci Code (book) moved (slowly) to "bestseller" status!!! So, was your search for your truth realised during Pluto's transit through Sagittarius? On 25th January Pluto enters the earth sign, Capricorn, for the first time in 230 years! Capricorn - I'm thinking of convention, structures, authority, discipline and authorities, tradition, Saturn, self employment and 'big' organisations --- and I think of Afghanistan, Albania, India, Orkney and Shetland. Pluto's task is to bring in the changes so that transformations come about. Its going to be the start of something interesting!

"A Rose Will Bloom"

"A rose will bloom
And then will fade
So doth a youth
So doth the fairest maid"

Romeo and Juliet - William Shakespeare

Thought for today - Extract from Fire and Rain song by James Taylor

"Just yesterday morning they let me know you were gone
Susanne the plans they made put an end to you
I walked out this morning and I wrote out this song
I just can't remember who to send it to

I've seen fire and I've seen rain
I've seen sunny days that I thought would never end
I've seen lonely times when I could not find a friend
But I always thought that I'd see you again

Won't you look down upon me Jesus
You've got to help me make a stand
You've got to see me through another day
My body's aching
And my time is at hand
And I won't make it any other way"

Whispering the Sadness of That Old Song

"In the early morning rain
With a dollar in my hand
And an aching in my heart
And my pockets full of sand
I'm a long way from home
Lord I miss my loved ones so
In the early morning rain
With no place to go"

Dangerous Liaisons

Do you remember
When I told you that I loved you
And nervously, with disbelief you smiled and said "I love you too"
But that just wasn't going to last
Because in every hoping will come the fading
Like the sadness in a million falling autumn leaves
Nothing ever lasts
And you knew it too
All those giggles and laughs and shared times
That seemed so very special
And in the leaving we said we'd "be in touch"
And I knew then but couldn't say it to you
What it was I felt
But don't you know just how difficult real friendship can be
That fragile pressure of commitment
And the frightening intimacy of knowing another, a comfort too close for most
While you'd rather keep on travelling on and on
Searching for it out there and not inside
When you're living that life
I wonder how you do it?
How perfected in the art of making friends you must be
In that connection
You made with me
Only to leave me with your space and disappointment
And in moments of quietness I wonder "Were you ever left too"?

A Winter's Tale

Don't you just love the gardens at this time of year? Definitely a 'suspended animation' sort of energy about those exposed cold green spaces at the moment. Although the wallflowers were planted late in the autumn, they've really driven down strong, firm roots now and are standing proud in beautiful deep green clumps in different corners and spaces of the garden. We've moved the old birdtable from the back to the front recently and are really enjoying the daily garden visits and antics of the sparrows, blue-tits, blackbirds and robins. This morning, it looked like the starlings were the busiest though. Louis continues to growand is almost standing. He's also become a keen birdwatcher, fascinated by our feathered friends, smiling, chuckling and dancing up and down as he gazes out of the front window, tightly gripping the chairback cushion. Snowdrop, crocus and daffodil shoots are springing up all over, I think, responding to that horticulturally-perfect blend of raised air temperatures and regular showers. I love indoor plants too at this time - such a variety of form, colour and fragrance to transform the cold winter days. Most of the Christmas cacti (mainly Zygocactus truncatus) are approaching the end of their flowering cycle. In recent years, they seemed to have felt the benefit of a 'summer holiday' in the open air in a sheltered spot in the back yard during August and September. The hippeastrums (var.Red Lion), potted up after Christmas, are sitting, majestically in a light front lobbyway for the time being, these will be brought into a slightly warmer place inside the the house, once their main shoots /stems are underway. The pots of china blue and white hyacinths have been so beautifully abundant this year, filling our rooms with heavenly fragrance over Christmas and New Year. In a week or so's time the little potted Jasmine will bloom, spilling tiny white starry flowers over its miniature sword-like foliage. It's scent will bless the air and lighten up darkened rooms on those grey days over the coming weeks.