Once in a blue moon - this Friday!

What a lovely bank holiday weekend, thankfully the sun shone on Sunday for much fun and dancing at the Vale Earth Fair.  It seems the VEF has created some good karma over the years, for it rained good and proper on Saturday and indeed some rain on Monday too.

Autumn is now in the air, there is no doubting it, I can feel the shift in the temperature and the smell of the air in the mornings, plus the nights are noticeably drawing in.  Like every change, it can be a shock to the system and I admit that i do not relish the long cold and dark winter months ahead.  Still there is something special about the transition between the seasons and the reminder that nothing stays the same and there is always beauty to be seen!

The sea is wonderfully warm at the moment.  Well relatively.  I am sure it is much warmer in Australia and the Indian Ocean, but there you go, can't win them all.  Still swimming at high tide at Petit Bot is rather special, looking up at the cliffs with all the heathers appearing and if you are really lucky the odd kestrel can be seen.

Talking of which, I went running along the cliffs the other morning, from Icart to Petit Bot and was treated to a fabulous display of 3 buzzards flying in the thermals a little ahead of me the whole way.  It was one of those moments when you feel that life has offered you a gift, all to yourself, something that probably won't ever repeat itself but will stick in your memory as being one of those memorable moments.

Memorable moments are all around us if only we stop and look and listen. That is the reason I love Yoga so much, it helps us to slow down and smell the roses, quite literally!!

Talking of smelling the roses, I feel that the full moon due this Friday - a blue moon nonetheless - is really encouraging us to slow down and retreat inside a little, ground, centre and calm for the season ahead.  These blue moons are unusual and full of energy.  So this Friday perhaps do a little burning bowl ceremony, letting go of things no longer serving you, and encouraging in the new...you'll be amazed of its power, just remember to give thanks to the Goddess of the Moon.  Oh and don't forget to cleanse your crystals - and be aware of cleansing yourself too, may be an idea to get your feet in some salted water once you have bathed in the moon's light.

Happy blue moon!!

xxxx

Allow the light to enter

Needless to say after writing my last blog entry last week, cycling through the lanes and lo and behold, there were some swallows flying across my path.  Admittedly not as many as there had been a few weeks ago; but swallows nonetheless.  It was actually quite interesting for I had just been reading a book about how the mind distorts reality and affects our moods etc.  And here was an example presented to me. 

For when it seemed that the swallows had left, all of a sudden I felt this sense of loss, a sadness then, that summer was ending.  In actual fact the swallows had not left at all.  So really my sadness and sense of loss had nothing to do with reality, but only to do with my perceived sense of reality, which was distorted, as it so often is.  Of course we only tend to see things from our own perspective and our life is a mirror of those perceptions - we feel sadness, we see sadness, we feel angry, we see anger, we feel happy, we see happiness.  And so on it goes.  The key of course, if there is such a thing, is to practice mindful kindness and compassion.  What a great world for us all to live in if we all practiced mindful kindness and compassion and all we saw was kindness and compassion!  Sounds like paradise to me.

It has been a challenging week.  In my own life change has been knocking on the door and the new moon certainly spiced that up with some powerful energy to encourage the process.  The dust has not settled yet and nor will it for a while, we still have to wane down the season, float a while on this end of summer wave of holidays and ungroundedness, the blue moon due on the 31st August to really stir things up, if they haven't already been stirred up, and then perhaps by the middle of September everything will be clearer and have come together...

In the interim, I am reminded of the love that fills life.  The love with one's partner, one's friends,  one's family and ultimately for the world as a whole.  The highs and lows, the real nitty gritty of what it means to be human, played out in the real world, through our relationships with ourselves, with each other, the whole of humanity.  John Lennon wrote the song, "All you need is love" and he was right, that is all you need.  We have, of course, lost sight of that these days. Rumi, Hazif, Sa'di, all the mystical poets knew this too.  Sa'di wrote this wonderful poem, "One body":

"All human beings
are the members
of one body -
every person is a glint,
shining from a single gem.

When the world causes pain for one member,
how could the other members
ever rest in peace?

If you lack grief
for another one's sorrow,
why call yourself
a human being".

And Rumi, in one of my favourite poems called "Trading in Love's Currency":

Reason said, "We live in a world
of six directions - and that is it!"

Love replied, "There is a path beyond,
and I have travelled it many times."

Reason saw a market and set up shop,
but love trades in another currency altogether."

Sometimes a darkness comes before the light can re-appear again, breaking away the mental patterns that create your sense of reality so that your sense of reality transforms and so your life does too, so life is lighter, brighter, filled with more love, more compassion and more kindness towards the whole of humanity.  One has to allow the process its own timing, and its own space, helped hugely with a regular Yoga practice, Reiki, homeopathy and reflexology, even massage therapy.  It is all about changing the energy.  And it is all about the heart.

So on that note, follow your heart, love yourself and do the things you love and all will be well.

xxxx

Where have the swallows gone?!

There has been something missing on my route through the St Andrew's lanes these last few days - the swallows.  Yes, it seems they have moved on.  So too the wonderful house sparrow who has been waking me each morning throughout the summer singing his morning chorus.  Change.

I can feel it in the air.  Autumn is on its way.  Endings are never easy.  In life generally.  And yet there have to be endings to create space for new beginnings.  However we do like to resist change.  Because change is new and unknown and we would often rather stay in our little comfort zone, even if it is no longer serving us, and heck, even causing us some pain, than let go and move on to new things, often better things.

Yoga can help so much to create this process and indeed to support this process.  At its core is its ability to help us to transform ourselves, bring us closer to ourselves and helping us to shed the weight of stuff (the false armour then) we have collected along the road, which no longer (and often never did) add any value to who we are.

Sadly we live in a society where we are always looking for a painless and quick fix solution to changing some element of ourselves or our lives and wondering why it never really lasts.  Lots of effort and still we have the same body, the same perspective, the same habits and behaviour patterns.  We never really get to the core of it, to the inner block of energy, to the mental construct that has shaped how we now present ourselves with our health issue, our mood swings, our anxiety, depression and constant battle with our weight (see, it is true we are battling always).

So much easier to take to your mat and practice, practice, practice.  It may take years, but transformation will come.  So that things just naturally drop off, so that you are not even aware that that issue that has been plaguing you for so long  has gone. So too that knee issue, that back issue, that inability to sleep, the anxiety, the insecurity all those energetic channels soothed and flowing again.  Ultimately we are all energy, manifestations of energy.

I can feel change in my own life, not only have the angel cards made this clear to me, but I am beginning to recognise the signs in my own behaviour patterns when change is afoot, the feeling that your heart is breaking with the loss, and yet now knowing that this is not forever, just a stage, just a day, just a moment, all things pass.  So best not to cling on, just go with the flow, take to the mat, enjoy some Reiki and let that layer drop off. 

This is really the time of abundance.  The greenhouse is packed full of tomatoes and butternut squash and lettuce and soft fruit.  Outside we have tons of french beans and peas and so much Swiss chard, why on earth did I think we needed to plant so much in the first place!!!  With much gratitude to the sun and the moon, to the rain clouds and the bees, to everything that plays a role in creating such yummy vegetables that appear on my plate each evening!!

It is time to sit and smell the roses, enjoy the garden, swimming in the sea, walking barefoot on the earth and bbqing with friends and family!

With love and gratitude.

xx

Full moon and swallows dancing

It was the full moon last Thursday and what a fine moon it was too, its usual powerful stuff, certainly kept us hanging on until the last minute, so that Friday brought with it a binding of energies and resulting conclusions and clarity.  Phew.  There will be a second full moon in August on 31 August, a blue moon no less, so hang on tight, this is going to be an interesting 4 weeks ahead.

Friday evening was the last of the Castle Cornet music evenings, which we enjoyed with friends over a civilised picnic in the fresh air.  You can't beat that bringing together and sharing of food, sitting on the earth in nature, the high tide surrounding the castle, the sun setting and the moon rising.  Once again a time to acknowledge one's blessings.  Simply the ability to sit on the earth is a blessing, so many struggle with sore hips and backs and legs.  The joy of asana, the ability to sit!

We camped in Herm on Saturday night.  Now this is special.  I don't know that you can find many camping spots which are so peaceful and offer such fabulous views - for us the northern end of Shell beach and Alderney in the distance. The swallows were out in force, swooping and dancing around the tent and across the field, I could watch them for hours, such grace in their movements.

Needless to say the weather was its usual testing self, one moment bright skies and sunshine, the next rain.  Still it is what it is and offers yet another opportunity for mindful acceptance of the present.  Herm is of course beautiful, the ideal place to get away from it all, quiet and peaceful with so many beautiful flowers and those wonderful beaches so that we swam lots of times.

It is what it is and what is, is what we make it.

With love,

xx

It is Lughnasadh today, go celebrate!

today is the festival of Lughnasadh (Celtic) or Lammas (Christian). Lammas is derived from the Old English hafmoesse, meaning "loaf-mass" and was held in celebration of the first loaves baked from the first grain harvested.  Yum!!

The first loaves were taken to the local church, where they were distributed amongst the congregation.  Observing this festival was believed to ensure an abundance of fruit and grain for the months to come.

Essentially this is the first harvest, when the first signs of the rewards of your labours should be evident.  Not only is this relevant out there in the greenhouses and veggie patches but also in your life too.  Now is the time to continue to work towards your goal, knowing it will be realised - a reflection of the fact seeds were planted many months ago in the soil and now voila we have vegetables and fruits and flowers.  It is all a matter of tendering, faith and going with the flow.

Easy to lose sight of one's goal in the midst of life's challenges. I know that only too well and it is all too easy to forget to practice as we preach!  Still the Universe has a way of bringing people into our lives, so that we say things to them that are also intended to remind us too - it is very funny listening to oneself giving advice to someone else, often that advise is exactly what we need in that moment.

What I find quite funny, now I come to think about it, is the fact that I did indeed plant many seeds back in the end of winter and early Spring and while yes, nature has been kind to ensure they have received plenty of water, on the whole I have left them to their own devices, confident that what will be will be.  And most have weathered the storms so that the sweet peas are finally in bloom and the calabrese sustained me through many a dinner, without little, or actually, no effort on my part. 

And I do wonder sometimes, in realising our dreams and goals, whether we are meant to tend only a little too...it is all too easy to try to force, to over water and over feed, and for what...just let things unravel as nature intended and in nature's own time frame - so very different to our own!!

So it is a day of celebration.  Feeling rather satisfied with my lot as I prepare a dinner with vegetables straight from the garden, peas and beans and Swiss chard and curly kale.  And then  the nectarines and greengages and plums and Mirabellse are all starting too so we will soon be swamped by soft fruit.  I just love picking.  And eating the fruit straight from the tree - all that prana.  Wonderful.

The sea is wonderful at the moment too.  We have been going every day recently.  High tide at Petit Bot only an hour ago and it was actually rather warm, and so cleansing.  I cannot stress how good it is for us to cleanse with salt water and feet into the earth if stressed or suffering with anxiety.  Even paddling will have some positive effect.  So will simply sitting or lying on the beach for twenty minutes.  It clears the aura and the head.

It is funny how Yoga transforms us.  It is not about how flexible we can be on our mat, or what poses we can hold for a minute flat, nor about the number of sun salutations we can do.  It is about how we open up to the world and people around us.  How we come to realise that we are all one.  All connected.  All playing a part in the bigger picture of life.  This summer, particularly, I am aware of it most.  The world seems more beautiful than I have ever known it to be, and I can't help wondering if that is simply because I have slowed down, because nature has slowed me down, and life is not so busy, there is more being rather than doing. 

Yoga helps us to fulfil our potential, whether that is as a Yoga teacher, or a mother, or a doctor or a gardener or a cook, or whatever it is.  It helps us find the lifestyle that resonates with our being, regardless of what the rest of the world thinks.  Not easy.  But a possibility.  It depends what we want from our life and how much courage we have to transform the darkness into light.  How wonderful if we all shone like the stars at night.

Anyhow, I give thanks today for all that we have harvested and all we will harvest, we are indeed abundantly blessed.  Full moon on the 3rd so we get to bask in that energy too.  Could be a fun few days!!

With love xxxxxx