Frangipani House.: 2012

Merry Christmas 2012

View from our backyard... well sorry that my camera skills aren't a bit better, however, Merry Christmas from all at Frangipani House.

Lately I have been participating in writing haiku, journalling and writing small stones. I stumbled across the concept of writing small stones at www.writingourwayhome.com. 'A small stone is a short piece of writing that precisely captures a fully-engaged moment'. It is a way of writing about a mindful moment. Today I was watching the kangaroos at our back fence, lazily enjoying the day. Have you ever had the chance to stop and watch them? I was fasinated with how slowly and languidly they can move they seem to be really present in the moment, unlike we humans rushing from one place to the next.

She scratches her arm
so slowly
looks at it gently
then slowly
lowers herself
onto the grass
and rests
with the mob

If you would like to learn more about mindful writing or writing small stones... visit: www.writingourwayhome.com

Don't worry

There is light at the end of the tunnel

Peace is the way...

'If you want to have Peace in the World, develop Peace in your own life'. Seems so easy when you read it in a quote, but try to put that into practice when everyday life is throwing challenges your way. The neighbour who insists on slamming doors and emptying their trash bin under your bedroom window at 5am in the morning. The child that throws their ball on the tin fence for hours at a time... I'm sure that you have little irritations that will pop into your mind as you read. So what do we do to create Peace when those around you, don't seem to care all at about what you are feeling or how their actions affect you?

Talk to them? What if that still doesn't solve the situation? How do we have Peace? Move? Go for a walk? What do you do?

Life's Third Act

Jean Shinoda Bolen on religion and spirituality and the power of ordinary women coming together

Contemplating Resurrection this Easter

Let every man and woman count himself immortal. Let him catch the revelation of Jesus in his resurrection. Let him say not merely, "Christ is risen," but "I shall rise." ~Phillips Brooks

I've been reading Rich Brother, Rich Sister by Robert Kiyosaki and Emi Kiyosaki, and today I was reading about the concept of resurrection in our life. "I realised that life itself is a daily process of birth, death, resurrection, and evolution or reformation... Today I meet many people who live in fear of dying rather than with the joy of living... many live in fear of some form of crucifixion, not realising that their fear is already crucifying them...it takes faith that there is always a resurrection, an evolution, and a reformation, as long as we are open to it".

Those places where we have been crucified, they are often the places where we have learned our greatest lessons, and risen again, wiser, more capable... the message of this month is one for us to remember if we find ourselves in that place of crucifixion, that we will rise, we can transform. Some external events can have us feeling crucified, other situations arise from at our own doing. Learn the lesson and rise again. As Dolly Parton's character said so aptly in Straight Talk, 'get down off the cross honey, somebody needs the wood'.