Sunday 28 April 2013

what d'ya fancy doing today?

Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?” 
― Mary OliverNew and Selected Poems


This question has lodged it's vibration in my mind, making me halt and think about the unnecessary clutter that litters my mind.
It opens so many doors for daydreaming.

I literally get quite high with imagining that I can board a plane to exotic paradises, feel the wind pull at my hair, adrenaline surging through my body as I sail the high seas, hang out, dream, bask in the sun, be with my children wholeheartedly 100% without my mind wanderin' over to more mundane places. To jump in the car, plane, spaceship and see far-flung friends and family, to paint, write, sing and dance. To eat well, laugh a lot, to be free and live on a 'what d'ya fancy doing today basis'.

To be the first in the queue.

And I look at all this and know how possible it all is.

It's nothing I haven't done before.

I'm learning to calm my destructive mind that I 'should' be working, looking after others, writing letters home, making oodles of money.
When the world keeps spinning and I can't jump off, when dreams are slipping and I need to hold them up, I think of this verse and know it's alright.

To live in the higher vibration of joyfulness and love enables all this to come to me and more. It sets dreams in motion, excitement and lightness of being in place and calms the ego into submission.

To just be and see what unfolds, to follow the path of freedom in which ever form that takes.
Today it's writing, yesterday; playing with children in muddy waters and stormy seas. It may be work; a lunch break filled with endless possibilities pulsating joy through the blood. Flicking through You tube posts, hearing a joke, watching a puppy play, a child smile, an elder give a nugget of wisdom from the past.

"I want to think again of dangerous and noble things. I want to be light and frolicsome. I want to be improbable and beautiful and afraid of nothing as though I had wings.” 
― Mary Oliver

To live as if I had no worries, financial freedom and joy at my fingertips creates pockets of bliss, freeing my mind from restrictions, shoulds and must do's.

I will write this verse out and put it up in unlikely places of my home, prompting instantaneous daydreaming and in the twinkling of an eye my visions will be my reality.



Thursday 11 April 2013

life's a pleasure




Travelling along like the speed of light still clothed in summer, we've been knocked flat on our backs as the leisurely days of autumn lay crumpled at our feet. The aroma of wood smoke, cut grass and over ripe grapes withering on the vine under the kitchen window, rescue our senses and alert our minds to slow down, let it all go and start packing up for hibernation. 
Cold mornings making me reach for lighting the fire, sharing the family bed for an extra half an hour, snuggling deep down and loving, laughing and laying in. Our days are becoming shorter, the sun shining intensely on us, the Bays placid waters breathing life slowly in and exhaling out. 
And aint that what life's all about?
Life's simple pleasures. Practising mindfulness, living simply, seasonally, sensationally. 
Equals happy.
And that's what we're all striving for right? To be happy. To be loved. To be well. To live out our life. 
To be.
So, amid all the noise, confusion, have to's and must to's, we need to remind each other that to slow down, to give each other simple pleasures, to find what it is that makes us tick tock 'round that clock, is what it's all about. Without looking around us, without looking within us and without taking the time seeing someone else's greatest pleasures, then we can not fully be happy, radiant and joy-full.
My wandering meditation on my bike yesterday, cycling amongst ancient ratas, being whalloped by the early mornings rays, was listing my simple pleasures.

A lot of them were prompted by my steady ascent up through native bush, body working hard, mind needing to be stifled with sweet murmerings. I list them below for you. 
I wonder how many of my pleasures ignite the fire within you ...

1/ listening to sweet bird song, chattering in the trees
2/ feeling the warmth of the sun caress your skin
3/ watching the sky paint it's beauty in the sunrise
4/ contemplating clouds drifting overhead, morphing into different shapes
5/ immersing yourself in child's play
6/ being slammed by a breath-taking view
7/ enjoying a cool breeze tease your hair
8/ listening to the waves lap onto the shore
9/ playing hide 'n' seek
10/ listening to your favourite piece of uplifting music
11/ dancing
12/ kissing
13/ laughing 'til you nearly wet your pants and you have tears rolling down your cheeks
14/ making someone smile
15/ spending time with your bestest buddies
16/ cuddling
18/ eating the bestest raw chocolate in the world
19/ reading a handwritten letter
20/ snuggling up in your favourite chair with a really good book
21/ going to the cinema with your friends
22/ picking up the phone and hearing your loved ones from overseas
23/ helping someone in need
24/ sleeping in fresh sheets that have blown dry on the line
25/ sitting amongst trees
26/ being quiet near running water
27/ getting soaked to the skin, then coming home, getting dry and snuggling into your favourite sloppy clothes
28/ watching a funny film
30/ finding the bargain of the century
31/ smelling puppy breath
32/ singing out loud
33/ looking up at the stars at night
34/ hugging your children
35/ hanging out around the fire
36/ popping bubble wrap
37/ guzzling sun warmed fruit straight from the tree
38/ the smell of the sea
39/ having a good catch up with an old friend
40/ going to sleep while the rain falls heavily outside
41/ planning an adventure
42/ realising dreams
43/ reading an old journal, letters, cards
44/ knowing that your actions have made someones lives happier
45/ when you're given some unexpected windfall
46/ doing nothing and just being
47/ when someone you adore thinks you're the bees knees
48/ knowing who you are
49/ planting a tree
50/ eating from your garden, orchard, windowsill

Now, instead of chasing  my tail and focusing on what I haven't accomplished, whenever I get my knickers in a twist about something, I shall take a few moments out of my day and find a simple pleasure.

Unwrap it, smell it, take it in.

 Then, I will be loving my life more, living my days happily and feeling sensationally well!