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Claiming Compassion…For Yourself
“Everyone who is born holds dual citizenship, in the kingdom of the well and in the kingdom of the sick. Although we all prefer to use only the good passport, sooner or later each of us is obliged, at least for a spell, to identify ourselves as citizens of that other place.” ~Susan Sontag Be compassionate to your healing body, and your loving soul. To do so, to accept it, is the very essence of being human. And by allowing self- compassion, you free yourself from the inevitable exhaustion of straining to escape it. Pain ebbs and flows. Struggles arise and fall. They needn’t be set upon like they are…
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Death Driven and Relaxing Into Mortality
Death drives us. It’s inevitable. Often, it begins at that moment you realise you won’t live forever or that your time may never be enough. That whatever time you do have feels like far too little. With such a short, precious window on this beautiful Earth and (*gasp!*) having used up a big chunk of it already, being aware of your “end” is scary. After all, you have so many things to live, feel, do and dream! Acknowledging your own mortality, while gently relaxing into its reality, can be a huge, lifelong challenge. Am I aware of and driven by my own mortality? Yes. Death is a great motivator. Knowing that…
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Aspiration Is Not All There Is
Sunday 11 June Another wasted Sunday… Realise, as the long hot days freakishly repeat themselves, one after the other, that whatever I am doing I really think I ought to be doing something else…The more the sun shines the more obvious it seems that others are making fuller, better use of it elsewhere: possibly at some giant softball game to which everyone is invited except me; possibly alone with their lover in a rustic glade by waterfalls where Bambis graze, or at some large public celebratory event, probably including the Queen Mother and one or more of the football tenors, to mark the exquisite summer which I am failing to get the…
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A Wonderful Birthday Party Alternative: Afternoon Tea Party
But you have to, it’s your birthday! They cry. You might get pressure from other people, for whom birthday celebrations look a certain way, but it’s your day and you can choose what to do and how to do it. If people aren’t ok with that and you are struggling to explain, try Pitch Perfect: What’s Wrong with You? to help. Who says birthdays have to be celebrated with alcohol and accolades? Have you noticed that lots of the people who live ‘the high life’ ultimately find it unfulfilling and strip back to simple things? Perhaps your excitement is a letter from a friend, a Healing Box, or photographing a new flower. This…
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Ditching the Game of Life to Celebrate You
Why do we get upset about birthdays? Is it because we have a secret mental list of what we wanted to achieve by this age? Or what we feel we ‘should‘ have achieved? This isn’t The Game of Life, and if you are a Trail Blazer then you will have gone off track at one time or another. You may have done things you never expected and skipped the conventional achievements for something entirely different. Or maybe you feel you’ve missed out on the ‘normal’ aspects of life entirely. And since you felt like it was your right to experience those aspects, you are left feeling cheated and as if…
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