Balance

Saturday Cuppa: My cup is steaming with hot water and a simple slice of lemon. Cleansing, quenching, and strangely, very addictive. Try it!


Earlier this week, I awoke to the sound of people running through my garden. The sun hadn’t yet risen, but the speed and intent of the ‘intruders’ was clear.

Ok, I knew they weren’t intruders. My girls had awoken to discover the first snow of the season and weren’t wasting a second waiting for something as obvious as daylight or to awaken their parents. Their delight and joy led them to follow their hearts; they needed to be IN the experience of snow, rather than just observing it.

How often do we go through our own lives simply observing, rather than experiencing?

My ‘little’ Eliza is nine years old tomorrow. The memory of her arrival on Planet Earth is as clear as ever.

She took her first steps in Dubai airport, en route from Australia to the UK. The chorus of support from the air hostesses was such a joy and will remain with me always.

There’s nothing quite like having children for us adults to believe in the illusion of time! One minute they’re dependent, squirmy infants at your breast; in the next blink of an eye they’re plotting their university education. How does that happen?

Her older sister Bethany has spent the best part of this week snugged up on the sofa making Eliza’s birthday present. Literally DAYS have gone into a book which Bethany’s written and illustrated, Beatrix Potter style.

It is at times like these I’ve come to really value the benefits of home education. Bethany has been able to immerse herself fully until her project was completed. She set the curriculum, the structure; provided the discipline and gave it her all.

Looking at the curriculum at our local secondary school, they have less than 50 minutes a week dedicated to the only art lesson. And this from a school with a major reputation for supporting The Arts? I think I’ve missed something. Music, too, gets just 50 minutes a week.

Where, as adults, do we give our time to? Like the kids running in snow before they’ve dressed or eaten breakfast, our passions in life are those activities which make our heart sing. These are the balance points which turn our arms into wings, and help us fly through life.

I find it incredibly sad to come across adults on the conveyor belt of this thing called life who ‘believe’ they have no passions or interests; who believe they’re not here for a reason. Every last person walking this Earth is here for a reason.

Sometimes we’ve had our joy dampened as kids and we take that suppression into adulthood. But you know, it never leaves us and can be resurrected at any time. A very rough way of helping to find joy and balance is to draw a circle with hour sections of each day. Fill them in with your day to day activities and colour in those parts of the day which you enjoy, that nurture your heart, mind and soul, with bright sunshine yellow.

If your day isn’t filled with sunshine, don’t ask someone else to change it. Breathe it into your mind, then out into your life and watch the difference! Often, too often, we go through life robotically doing the things others expect of us. Others can be dependents, bosses, ghosts from the past…

It might be that you have to start with little chunks. Get up an hour earlier to make space even if, like me, you’d rather stay in a warm bed! The benefits are worth it and you just never know, it could be habit forming within a week.

Do you remember that song, Ain’t no sunshine when she’s gone?
Make it personal. Bring sunshine into your life and that YOU will be bringing sunshine to all around you…

To all the big girls in my life having birthdays at the mo ~ Nikki Z., Victoria B., Lisa J., Shazzie H., Jacqueline E., Anna D-H…

be bright, be brilliant and HAVE FUN.