Seek the silence beneath the noise

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Seek the silence beneath the noise

"There is no need to go to India or anywhere else to find peace. You will find that deep place of silence right in your room, your garden or even your bathtub."—Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

Everyday, I listen for the silence beneath the noise.

We live in a busy world—daily work to earn a living, chores and to do lists, relationships to nurture and maintain, places to visit, fun to be had, plans to make, dreams to achieve.

We live in a noisy world—small talk, conversations and laughter, the constant chatter of social media and news, not to mention the thoughts that run rampant through our minds.

Yet beneath the busyness and the noise, there is silence.

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The wild spirit in me

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The wild spirit in me

"Like a true nature's child,
We were born, born to be wild."—Mars Bonfire

The wild spirit in me revels in wonder. She experiences magic in every moment, in every breath she feels me inhale, in every thump she feels my heart beat, in every sensation against my skin, in the beauty she witnesses in everyday life. She sees and experiences it all even when I am walking through life a little sleepy or distracted with my eyes down.

The wild spirit in me calls me awake. She summons me to sunsets and to marvel at the muscular trunk of the old gum tree, the tiny grasshopper playing dead on the concrete in front of my feet, the cool sea wrapping its salt around my skin.

The wild spirit in me doesn’t colour inside the lines or outside the lines. She creates her own raw and messy masterpieces then burns them to nothingness. She does not collect things. She has no desire to carry excess baggage with her because all she cares about is the experience of the experience.

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Staying close to the mystery and less planning

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Staying close to the mystery and less planning

“Run from what's comfortable. Forget safety. Live where you fear to live. Destroy your reputation. Be notorious. I have tried prudent planning long enough. From now on I'll be mad.”—Rumi

It is the eve of the last day of the year and the eve of the eve of the first day of the New Year. In these peaceful days between the celebration of Christmas and new beginnings, many people in my circles are reflecting on the year that has almost completed, and dreaming and planning the year that is about to begin.

I notice some people have given themselves a hard time for all that they set out to achieve in the last year but didn’t. For all the “good” and “positive” ways they wanted to be in the world but weren’t. 

If this is you, I want you to know that you are loved beyond what you have done or haven't done. There is nothing you can do or not do that earns or loses you unconditional love.

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Homecoming

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Homecoming

So many times over the last few weeks I have sat down to write about what has happened since I left London to drift. Each time I felt like I was in the word version of a snow dome: words and sentences danced around my head but didn't come together to form what I wanted to say.

Sometimes life is messy and chaotic and it doesn't seem to make any sense and we don't have to make sense of it although we may try. So here I am, again, trying.

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Be like driftwood

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Be like driftwood

So when your original plan fails, what do you do next? Do you come up with plan B?

Maybe. 

Or maybe you recognise that it was your human planning and deadline setting and trying to make things happen that resulted in what you experienced in the first place.

Maybe your plan really was as David Whyte says, "...too small for you to live."

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The best worst days of my life

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The best worst days of my life

“Life always waits for some crisis to occur before revealing itself at its most brilliant.”—Paul Coelho

The eternal optimist, I kept on hoping and believing that my body would heal so I could walk from Rome to Jerusalem.

When I started to accept that even if my body did miraculously recover in the next few weeks that the distance and duration of the walk might turn out to be too much I started flirting with the idea that walking the Camino Frances to Santiago de Compostela could be a possibility instead because the total duration and distances between towns is shorter.

Yes, I was still thinking about walking somewhere even as my body was screaming out “no friggin’ way” and cramping down to protect itself— even on the days I could barely walk 40 minutes without having to sit down because of the spasms and pain. 

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Will I walk? Hope, miracles and uncertainty

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Will I walk? Hope, miracles and uncertainty

I arrived in London four weeks ago today. I never thought I would travel halfway around the world to spend weeks sitting in my friend Viv's living room but that is how I have spent most days since my back seized.

Pain and illness are often our body crying out for us to look at what is happening in our lives. Too often we ignore it and get on with life and its busyness.

In Australia, I grew up with the Codral Cold n Flu ad telling me to "Soldier on with Codral, soldier on, soldier on."  

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