MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Well what a wonderful Christmas this has been. First an early morning telephone conversation with my brother Ross in Australia where they have been enduring a heat wave, quite a contrast to our recent cold weather.

Then strangely, for the first time in years and due to the fact it has been a hard few months my parents surprised me with presents from Father Christmas, go figure, lucky me.

My parents went off to Victor Hugo's for breakfast leaving me to do my morning Yoga practice in peace, lovely, although of course there was the usual interruption by Alfie the cat who likes to lie on my mat halfway through my practice so I have to move around him, not ideal!

After my practice Charles skyped me from Thailand, lucky thing, another lovely conversation with someone spending Christmas Day in the sunshine - thanks sweetheart, some of the best presents in life are free.

Then Dad came down to Vazon with me as I went for a swim in the sea, a very quick swim in the sea, like really quick, just enough to dive in, get my hair wet, do a couple of token strokes and then straight out...it was cold...only bonus was I got to go straight in the hot tub back at home with a cup of tea, which was wonderful - there is nothing quite like lying there in hot water staring at the clouds moving overhead and birds flying past, and what incredible clouds today, we have been blessed.

Lunch was fabulous, courtesy of my Mum, and we were lucky to see an incredible rainbow from the table, Christmas wishes, there are so many, but I did make one.



Present time, I was spoilt again, this is what happens when your brother lives over the other side of the world and does not partake in the present giving. I am finally moving into a house rental next week so I got lots of lovely things to make the place cosy and serene. Thankfully Mum and Dad liked their gifts too.

Sami called from Canada (lovely to speak) and then we managed a walk around the block and down to the coast, great to get some fresh air and what wonderful sunset, lovely orange and pink tinged skies, again lucky us, pleased to be living on Guernsey on days like this.

We popped into Clairebear to exchange presents, so funny looking at old photos of us as children together, nothing changes, we now have matching slippers, think that is rather cool in a fairy like way.

So now just to catch up with friends this evening in person and by email and indulge in a spot of Gavin and Stacey, great stuff, what a wonderful day, blessed, happy and easy going, lucky me, thank you, gracious, Namaste!!

Merry Christmas to everyone, I hope you are all having a great day.

A LITTLE BIT OF EVERYTHING - LAKSHMI SHINING

At the end of a Yoga class a few days ago I wished everyone a Merry Christmas and one of the students asked if I am a Buddihst and thus would I be celebrating Christmas. It made me stop and think about how easily we are put into boxes, our whole life from the minute we are born, how we like to classfy people, each other, and even now, practisicing and teaching Yoga, trying to move beyond boundaries, here we are, boxed by others - not necessarily in an intentional or judging way, just that we like to classify people, try to make sense of them somehow.

Of course many Yoga practitioners follow a Buddhist philosophy to life while others adopt Hinduism and others adopt nothing at all. I am a little bit of everything, my whole life I have been a little bit of everything, neither this nor that, difficult to box, in fact I have spent my whole life trying to live outside the box and that can be challenging, especially living in Guernsey where conforming is the norm.

That is the reason it was so nice to meet up with my one of my best friend's, Hayley, and her friend Caroline on Christmas Eve for a living outside the box kind of afternoon/evening, great chatter, lovely laughter so that we were all shining brightly together. With that in mind and embracing my Nepali-influenced-Hindu side, may Lakshmi continue to shine brightly on both of you - thank you for being such wonderful friends. xxx

For those who don't already know, Goddess Lakshmi is the household Goddess of most Hindu families and a favourite of women. Goddess Lakshmi means Good Luck to Hindus. The word 'Lakshmi' is derived from the Sanskrit word "Laksya", meaning 'aim' or 'goal', and she is the goddess of wealth and prosperity, both material and spiritual.

Worship of a mother goddess has been a part of Indian tradition since its earliest times. Lakshmi is one of the mother goddesses and is addressed as "mata" (mother) instead of just "devi" (goddess).

As a female counterpart of Lord Vishnu, Mata Lakshmi is also called 'Shri', the female energy of the Supreme Being. She is the goddess of prosperity, wealth, purity, generosity, and the embodiment of beauty, grace and charm.

The importance attached to the presence of Lakshmi in every household makes her an essentially domestic deity. Householders worship Lakshmi for the well being and prosperity of the family. Businessmen and women also regard her equally and offer her daily prayers.

To demonstrate the 'little bit of everything' approach, here is some wisdom from HIS HOLINESS THE DALAI LAMA, the spiritual leader of Tibet:-

The Purpose of Life

"Whether we are rich or poor, educated or uneducated, whatever our nationality, colour, social status or ideology may be, the purpose of our lives is to he happy".

Teach by example

"Before teaching others, before changing others, we ourselves must change. We must be honest, sincere, kind hearted"

The commonality of religion

"Every religion of the world has similar ideals of love, the same goal of benefiting humanity through spiritual practice, and the same effect of making its followers into better human beings...Each, in its own way, teaches a path leading to a spiritual state that is peaceful, disciplined, ethical and wise".

May Goddess Lakshmi shine on everyone with beauty, abundance, grace and wealth.

Namaste

xx

WINTER SOLSTICE 2009

I am very excited as it is the winter solstice today marking the shortest day and longest night of the year, hoorah, which means we will now start to gain light (albeit perhaps only a minute or 2 each day) up until the summer solstice on 21 June, even more hoorah.

The winter solstice – also called the Celtic Festival of Yule – is one of the most evocative and significant festivals for us Pagans and Wiccans. On this day Wiccans and Pagans traditionally choose what to take with them into the New Year and what to leave behind.

An ancient belief is that the wheel of the year stops briefly at this time – it was a taboo to turn a wheel or even a butter churn on the shortest day. This time of stillness was a precious opportunity to consider the year gone by from a point of stillness and, equally calmly, a chance to look forward to the increasingly active months to come.

Traditionally Pagans and Wiccans spend the days leading up to, and following on from, the winter solstice in grateful reflection on life, enjoying plenty and laughter with friends and family, as far removed as possible from the strains and stresses of everyday life – sounds good huh!

The ancient Celtic term for this day is Alban Arthuan and it was recognised as the festival of peace to celebrate the coming of light. As Christmas honours the birth of Christ, the winter solstice celebrates the rebirth of the Sun God, son of the Goddess. In ancient times, people were more intimately connected with the cycles of nature – the worship of the sun is understandable in view of our reliance on its warmth for food and life itself.

Mistletoe used to be a part of the winter solstice celebrations – sacred to the Druids it would be cut using a golden sickle in a ceremony shortly after the winter solstice and divided up and dispersed to the people who would hang it over their doors for protection – mistletoe is associated with peace and goodwill.

The tradition of the Yule log also began with the Druids – the log was lit to banish evil spirits, defeat darkness and bring good luck for the coming year. Yule logs would smoulder for 12 days before another ceremony to put them out – a part of the log would be kept to be strapped to the plough the next spring to bless the land, and another piece would be taken to light the next year’s Yule log.

Sprigs of holly and ivy were traditionally brought into the home to celebrate the winter solstice – they are both evergreen plants, symbolising the eternal nature of the sun, which never dies, but merely sleeps during the winter months.

Needless to say I made a visit to the fairy ring at Pleinmont today to give thanks to the sun, enjoy quiet reflection and make a wish (of course) for the coming months ahead. All rather exciting when you think about it, that the light has returned, an opportunity for rebirth, and now a few days of further reflection before Hayley, Caroline and I partake in our annual burning bowl ceremony to let go of those aspects of life we no longer want to carry around with us into the New Year, and to encourage the new instead.

So happy winter solstice to everyone, enjoy. And if you look closely at the photo below you can see something etheral going on - although my cousin would argue it is just a lense thing on the camera!

xx

JUST STOP

It has been an interesting weekend, the Christmas spirit is certainly upon us and thoughts turn towards the new year, big changes in the horoscopes too, lots of endings and new beginnings creating uncertainty and restlessness. Still a perfect time to let go of the old and embrace the new, however much we struggle with the concept of change, I guess it is part of being human after all.

I found this lovely poem by Baba Afdal Kashani, which sums it up nicely.

"Don't regret the past;
release your worries
about the future.

Don't think about yourself -
and stop trying not to!

Now's the time
to leave the shore -
the Ocean of Unity
is calling...

don't listen...
don't see...

don't say...
don't think...

don't be...

JUST STOP."

So here goes to stopping...

xx

RAINBOW-TASTIC

Well it has not been the most pleasant of days weather wise, cold, rain, heavy clouds, the usual British winter thing, but I am so pleased I made the effort to get out of the house and go down to the beach as I was fortunate to see an incredible rainbow brightening the otherwise dark skies.

Rainbows are simply incredible, I will never forget driving back to Byron Bay in Australia with my friend Hayley and my brother's step-daughter Adena after we had visited the monthly Channon market back in May and being treated to the most incredible rainbow we have all ever seen, it literally lit up the sky so that we were "oohing and aahing" in awe at this spectacular light show of nature, which just appeared to the side of us - it was an effort to keep my eyes on the road!

And then again when Charles was driving the two of us to London from my caravan in Devon back in July and we saw a total of 3 rainbows on that one journey, adding to the general spontaneity and magic of that day, and then again when I was staying with him while doing the David Swenson course so that we now believe there must be some connection between us and rainbows...or it could just be complete coincidence, if there is indeed such a thing.

Regardless of life circumstances, I can't help but smile when I see a rainbow, they are just so bright and colourful, the full range of the light spectrum and indeed the chakras up there on display, like we need more of a message to demonstrate the power of balanced chakras so that we too can shine the colours of a rainbow. My Dad thinks I am mad of course, spending too much time living in a fairy world, but I say bring it on, for something to be so bright, colourful, natural, free and beautiful has to be nothing short of one of the greatest gifts of the universe...that and creation of course.

And actually this reminds me of something, strangely the night my Gran passed away. Although she taught me many lessons in her life, my Gran, Doreen, taught me her greatest lesson in her passing. A couple of hours before she took her final breath I checked her chakras with my crystal pendulum and I was amazed to find that they were all completely balanced. This is not something I come across very often when I work with people on an energetic level and I was strangely surprised.

Of course now it makes perfect sense to me and I took great comfort in the fact that in her moment of passing my Gran had managed to establish complete balance throughout her energetic body, which surely meant that she was balanced in all other bodies too. Peace perhaps. And I suspect that if I had been able to see her aura at that time, it would have been glowing the bright colours of the chakras, like a rainbow too - the sign of an angel perhaps.

So enjoy the rainbows, may they bring as much peace, comfort and joy into your life as they do to mine.

THE TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS OF BETSY

The saga of the little blue car continues, the gentleman who drove out straight in front of me one wet afternoon hours before the Bright Ideas final s that I slowly slid into the side of him and caused my car to be declared a write off (can you believe, it has not had a crash for 15 years and then within 4 months of me owning it, it is a write off, honestly, what next) has still not admitted liability, so I am having to liaise with the insurance company to set the record straight. Why people think they can get away with being dishonest about an event is quite beyond me, especially with karma and all that!

So of course my car is not looking her best at the moment, bought from a debatable character in Devon who had about 100 cars in all manner of states littering his garden, I must admit we have not had the smoothest of relationships, not always keen to start on first ignition, and not always the smoothest of rides, backfiring (or something like that) from time to time and the petrol light flashing within days of me filling up with petrol so that I am never quite sure exactly when I am at the bottom of the tank has done nothing to help matters. And then of course the crash, at a very low speed may I add, which has cracked the front bumper and done something strange to the back seat, well none of this has helped my stress levels of late.

In fact the ongoing drama of Betsy (as I fondly named her when we first met and I was non the wiser) has been a source of much amusement to my friends and family who are too embarrassed to sit in the car with me, indeed my brother actually burst into laughter when he first saw her sitting on our driveway, and when I was away in London recently my parents actually moved her and parked her in the back driveway so that she was out of sight of the neighbours - honestly, what has happened to the world today so that we feel such a sense of vanity about the car we drive, a car is a car surely?!!!

Anyhow the saga continues so that my friend Vicki has said that she will shortly call bulk refuge to come and collect it for me! You see I am not only having problems with the insurance but I have also had problems registering it over here, not that I will bore you with the details but not helped by the fact the guy from whom I bought the car never completed the registration process properly and the car being declared a write off means that the registration certificate I need cannot be given to me without an MOT, which means that when it all got too much recently and I offered it to a lady in the UK for free (a long story, she saw it parked in the village of Chagford in the summer and asked me to let her know if I ever sold it as she has one of her own and you can no longer get parts), she turned down the offer not relishing a role in the drama that is the blue car called Betsy.

So I am still stuck with the car, waiting patiently to get the insurance and registration issues resolved before the end of the year otherwise I will have to drag my mountain bike from the garage and work out a way to cycle with 7 Yoga mats on my back and a plethora of props to add to the load until I am able to buy a second hand car from a friend who is going travelling at the end of January - and fingers crossed no new car dramas in 2010.

On a positive note however I have learned an awful lot through this entire experience, not least to trust my intuition and embrace the concept of least effort (i.e. when things become hard work, do you really need them in your life?) but also that other drivers in Guernsey seem far more courteous to those driving UK reg cars than local drivers, never have I been flashed and waved through so many filters than I have driving Betsy, I wonder if people are scared I will just drive straight through if they don't give me the option to filter first. I have found it rather amusing, certainly encourages me to smile and enjoy the driving experience over here!

ASHTANGA-D UP!

Well I survived the 40 hour Ashtanga teacher training course in London, not an ideal location for such an intense course in terms of energy, so manic, I am rather weary tonight!

While the course may have been rather hardcore, I am incredibly grateful to have had the opportunity to learn how to teach the primary series with adjustments from David Swenson, he is indeed a wise man. I was especially inspired by hearing him talk about his life journey yesterday, about how he discovered Yoga and the way it has shaped his life, there are parallels as I am sure there are for others, and always fascinating to hear an other's story.

Plus of course he said something about fish and water and the bigger picture in words that actually resonated for me, so if nothing else I am wholeheartedly thankful for this wisdom, image and renewed awareness.

I look forward to teaching an Ashtanga course with Vicki (who is passionate about Ashtanga) in the New Year...not long to go now...and continuing to put into practice what I have learned.

So anyhow, David, thank you, truly, I am taller and brighter than I was at the beginning of the training. Tasmai Shree Gurave Namah .

MID-WEEK TIBETAN BUDDHISM

Wow, 5 days into the intensive and I know I am not alone in feeling it - body a touch on the achy side, shoulders in particular (although that could be lugging heavy bags through London), and an overwhelming sense of tiredness at the amount of information we are absorbing each day.

The course has been great in terms of learning additional adjustment skills to the poses in the Ashtanga primary series, but I have to admit, while I will forever be indebted to the teachings and teachers of Ashtanga for initially enticing me into Yoga, I am struggling with its current intensity. Still I am sure I will soon come through the other side and will incorporate various aspects of the sequence into my daily practice again.

As abreak from the asana aspect of this week, Charles invited me to his weekly meditation class in Richmond which is led by this wonderful lady from Hong Kong who is a Tibetan Buddhist. It was all about anger and attachment, very fascinating. She made the point that we always ask other people if a partner makes us happy, but we rarely ask if we make the other person happy...and that really, happiness must come from within anyway (obviously) and so we shouldn't necessarily be looking to another to make us happy, only to increase (perhaps) our degree of happiness...

It was fascinating stuff and so in contrast to my Ashtanga experience that day, reminding me of Nepal and the emphasis of living with clear intention from the heart and compassion and patience. Furthermore I was reminded of the joy of meditating to make the mind stronger and help to transform our experience of the world as a consequence, of loving and trying to make others happy, from a place of unconditional love without expectation of return. Oh and being mindful in action and thought.

Hmm. So all in all a lovely reminder of knowing when to let go, non-action, of living in the here and now and just being present (as we are, human beings that is, opposed to doings).

Namaste

x