Wishcrafting - Focus

Wishcrafting with Jamie Ridler today, asks 'What do you wish to focus on'?

Well, I managed to come up with a right old list! My creative & spiritual life, My children, My Romance, finishing my house, my wishbig workshops, personal growth....

Then I stopped to really think, in the light of so many possibilities.

And it hit me with some force.  What I really wish to focus on is the present moment.  The thing in front of me, right at this moment.  To move with grace from one thing to the next, and back again if necessary.  So frequently I feel fragmented, trying to multitask and not truly working on enjoying the treasure of the here and now.

Yes, I wish to focus on NOW.

oh bluebells I love you

What a wonderful Easter bankholiday weekend we have had.  The weather has been unseasonably warm and joyful.  So we took a delightful walk in the fragrant woods with Grandparents as the heat went out of the day.  Some small easter eggs hidden and lost when Grandpa forgot where the last one went.  Luckily those who were partial to chocolate got some.

What would a walk in the woods be without a flask & some biccys?
Thank you weather for smiling on us all.

Sunset adventures

Spring is feeling very much like summer here, this Easter holiday.  So to wring the juice out of these wonderful days (you learn to make the most of good weather here in the UK) we have been having a few sunset adventures after supper.  As the kids have no school, we can afford later bedtimes & enjoy the closing of the day.  I do so love the evenings when everything gets still, as if the world is breathing out.

Just love this place, Norman church ruins set in Ancient Earthworks.

Getting ready for the marshmallows...

Firestriker demonstrations

because running around circular ancient earthworks among the cowslips is just FUN!

Hope you are all enjoying your Easter. x

The Bake Off...

Our community cafe put on The Great Bake Off this week.  I am an unenthusiastic baker at the moment.  An unenthusiastic chef too come to that.  So I didn't enter, but Tintin decided he would.  After an initial bust of enthusiasm and cookbook reading, Bini too decided against it.  Tintin remained steadfast in his quest for meringues.

He opted for the swirly meringues in his book.  Involving chocolate.  Sadly the stirring was rather enthusiastic, so not so much swirly as pale brown.  After a promising start, they cooked up into a continuous flat sheet of beige meringue wafer.  There were two lonely ones still with some swirl & structural integrity. 

This sorry pair made it to the Bake Off.  A suprisingly well attended affair, judged by a local celebrity.  Tintin was most disgruntled when he didn't win.  Luckily there were cadburys' creme eggs for all the childrens entries.  Which made everything all right.  And we got to buy some of the cakes for afternoon tea.

Wishcraft Wednesday: Reading.

Joining back in with Jamie Ridler Studio's wishcrafting: Jamie asks

What do you wish to read?

Well, I have several books that look at me with sorrowful eyes at being left festering on the shelf, whilst some doe-eyed seducers smile at me from my Amazon wishlist. 

But right now, right now, what I really want to do is climb up into the loft and unearth my old diaries.  I want to re-read my past, my old self.  I hope to laugh, cry (& cringe with embarrasment), whilst finding nuggets of my authentic self & abandoned dreams that might enjoy rekindling. 

I have a few other things that need to get done first.  Its kinda dusty up there in the loft...

"If you want to hitch your wagon to a star, enlist the help of a driver, a wheelwright and an astronomer"  Victoria Moran

The quote above is from a lovely thumb-eared book I have, called A Charmed Life.  Its one of those lovely little books I can't even remember how it came into my life.  It sits next to the bath, & I randomly open it to a pithy essay which often offers wisdom, relevant to my life at the time.

I have been cogitating about how and when I ask for help.  How I feel about needing support Especially after reading the organic sister's thought provoking blog.  I have succumbed to the societal belief asking for help as sign of weakness.  That I should be super woman. 
I fell prey to this especially badly after my second birth.  In my attempt to be earthmama superwoman I became very ill with post natal exhaustion and depression.  It took a long time to rebuild myself back to strength.  I gave myself a hard time for not wearing my baby as much as I felt I should be.  In this case the internet made me feel inadequate, as I thought other people seemed to be managing attachment parenting better than I was, on bulletin boards and the like.  It took me some time to realise that I was not other people, and that my second child was very heavy.  At 8 months he weighed what my daughter had at 18 months! 
I had to ask for help.  From my GP, my mother, my mother-in-law, my husband.  I got it and made it through without having to go onto anti-depressants which I really didn't want to take as I was nursing.  My GP got me a counsellor very quickly, which was amazing.  In asking for help, I had to admit my failures as superwoman, supermum.  Thankgoodness!  I really didn't need that one to live up to! And like with my miscarriage, suddenly I found out that so many people I knew had suffered too. 

Which makes me wonder, why do we pretend to have it all sorted?  I know I am guilty of trying to look like I know my top from my bottom.  Sometimes I do know.  Which makes it harder to admit when I don't.  And why, knowing what I now know, I still look from the outside at someone's life and think they have it all sewn up.  That its just me that's floundering around like a upturned ladybird.  So silly!

There is so much help available to achieve my dreams, all I need to do is ask nicely!

All gone!

This weekend, my dear sweet seven year old boy and beloved husband, went for the boy's first proper haircut.  Yes, dear friends, all those lovely curls.
From this

To this...

Oh my, I hardly recognise him.  He is however, rather proud of himself & enjoyed the whole initiation experience with his Daddy.  In the bath to wash his hair before leaving, he looked very pensive & a bit aprehensive.  Quote heard just before he left.  'Daddy, y'know that buzzy thing that she takes your hair off with at the back, Does it hurt?'

The new haircut entailed further Father/Son bonding.  The ritual of The Hair Gel.

Camps over!

My ecourse has come to an end and I feel bereft!  Well, the campfire part of it has finished but luckily I can still do the workshops at  my leisure throughout April.  Hurrah.

One I have completed is the Intuitive Vision Cards, with Jamie Ridler.

After a guided visualisation to choose my themes, I got to pulling out images for my chosen words.

Love, Creativity, Womanhood.

I loved doing a meditation before starting on my collaging.  There have been a few in the workshops on this course & I am loving the way they inform my artwork.  How I feel deeper connected to my soul before I spill out my creative juices onto the page.

No prizes for guessing this one is Creativity!

Womanhood

And of course love

These cards have been activated with wishes on the back & are sitting on my altar.  Hopefully drawing all their yummy goodness my way...