The Invitation

Enjoy this poem, it is touching and inspiring, warmest regards Paola

It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living.
I want to know what you ache for,
and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart’s longing.
It doesn’t interest me how old you are.
I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love,
for your dreams, for the adventures of being alive.
It doesn’t interest me what planets are squaring your moon.
I want to know if you have touched the centre of your sorrow,
if you have opened to life’s betrayals or
have become shriveled and closed from the fear of further pain.
I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own,
without moving to hide it, or fade it, or fix it.
I want to know if you can be with joy, mine or your own;
if you can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you
to the tips of your fingers and toes
without cautioning us to be careful,
to be realistic, or to remember the limitations of being human.
It doesn’t interest me if the story you are telling me is true.
I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself,
if you can bear the accusation of betrayal
and not betray your own soul.
I want to know if you can be faithful and therefore be trustworthy.
I want to know if you can see beauty
even when it is not pretty every day,
and if you can source your life from God’s presence.
I want to know if you can live with failure, yours and mine,
and still stand on the edge of the lake and shout
to the silver of the full moon, “YES!”.
It doesn’t interest me to know where you live
or how much money you have.
I want to know if you can get up after the night of grief and despair,
weary and bruised to the bone,
and do what needs to be done for the children.
It doesn’t interest me who you are, how you came to be here.
I want to know if you will still stand in the centre of the Fire with me
and not shrink back.
It doesn’t interest me where or what or with whom you have studied.
I want to know what sustains you from the inside
when all else falls away.
I want to know if you can be alone with yourself,
and if you truly like the company you keep in the empty moments.

Oriah Mountain Dreamer, Indian Elder.

Take It to the Next Level

How many people just stumble into business and stumble doing business, some get some success and they hope it turns out ok. They hope and just pray that customers come in.

Hoping will not get you to the next level, taking it to the next level needs to be planned and coordinated. Today I had a chat with my business partner and we are planning just that, the next level. It is easy to get overwhelmed with everything that needs doing, so we suggest:

• prioritising what is important


• chunking it down into small steps= phases


• Listing everything we want from the business


• what resources we need


• Sticking to your budget

Once you are committed to your goal, resources and opportunities will open up, I deeply believe in that, just commit to the first step.

I know it will be a successful transistion, I am not hoping, as I have certainty

Keep heading to the next level, whatever that is for you.

LOVE

Since Christmas, I have noticed love everywhere, it is in the air alright, with people kissing, holding hands, pets being pampered, children running around in their new bikes, babies being worn by their parents. Wonderful to see such love, even the music on the radio reflects this warm and fuzzy feeling.

The time to connect, love, share and being at peace..

Love in the joy of giving, doing activities together, offering food to strangers at a picnic, or even having them join your party! Love is there alright. In our gestures, the way we speak to people and the patience in our queuing for discounted specials at the sales.

It feels so warm to have love surround you, and to be the giver and the receiver. I have love everyday, it is present in everything my husband does, and I witness this love and feel the feelings of being at one with him.

Love makes the world go around, imagine if that is all it takes, I guess in my simplistic view, it does, you love you give you grow and contribute.

So let love shine in everything you do!

Celebrate Life

As I watch the Christmas carols on TV, I am smiling and knowing that people are dancing celebrating this time of the year, it is the time to let people know that you care, you appreciate them and you love them.

Have fun during this time, be silly and playful, and laugh OUT LOUD,

Share the joy of giving, your time, your energy and your contribution,

If you have snow around you, keep warm and be a child in the snow,

If you are like us in the Southern Hemisphere, enjoy the sunshine, use sunscreen and appreciate the warmer climate.

And Make 2008 YOUR BEST YEAR YET!

Relaxing

Caught myself relaxing today, and it amazes me that even without realizing it, I have been in busy, organising mode for so long, that relaxing came to me!

It was most welcomed to not look at the time, to be somewhere else, instead I took a siesta and let go of everything,

When we are busy we tend to keep going full steam ahead, we create more activity and then we just feel that our operating systems keep up with us, naturally we need balance and listening to your body helps.

Listening to what it needs is the first step, if you need to put your feet up, acknowledge that you need a break. Being there for everybody is great, however is it realistic to be functioning at that steam engine pace, all the time?

Something needs to give, and remember without your health, there is NADA! I learnt that lesson a while ago, and it is simple enough to follow:

• Get plenty of sleep



• drink enough water throughout the day



• exercise



• Eat well and in moderation



• if you want chocolate/treat, then do it, food is there to be enjoyed!



• be with people that are in alignment with you

So relaxing is a time to take a commercial break, we all need this time to just veg-out and chill!

Sunset and Sea

We had the most wonderful weekend with friends. We shared the beautiful outdoors and thoroughly enjoyed the weather, it was a perfect summer weekend, sun, warm air and most importantly wind! You see we all went sailing on Pittwater.

Enjoying the vastness, and space is truly a gift, seeing life from a different perspective and appreciating all those little details. The birds, the scenery, other boats, the horizon, the water as you go by, and naturally gauging your speed and sailing strategy. All from the comfort of the wheel house! Who needs TV?

The sunsets are more spectacular as you are free to feel the wind on your face, this combined with the sea air and sunscreen gives you a completely different feeling at you are on holidays, even for 2 days you are relaxed and totally consumed by the present moment, each unique and special as something else comes along to occupy your thoughts...

Being part of the environment in wind power is a gift, no motors running, just your sails and the momentum of you crusing by. Simplicity has a wonderful quality to it, it is being in your element and sharing it with those you love.

A gift, that is the sunset and the sea...

Connections

I had a psychic moment over the weekend, we were in busy Bangkok and I said "Imagine if we bumped into someone we knew?" Thinking nothing else of this. And sure enough that evening on the way home, in the Sky Train station, Thomas recognised a long lost friend from his youth! They had not seen each other in 14 years and came from the same district in Germany! He is living in Bangkok, it blew us away!

Connecting with people from our past serves a great purpose, we realise what has become of their life and what they have accomplished, we compare naturally and we rekindle some fond memories and talk about our common friends. Thomas and Patric did just that, they had a foundation to base their new connection, as if 14 years just flew by. It was wonderful to see and feel the energy and jump-start this friendship in a new way. I am grateful this moment occurred and they bonded like old squash buddies, they once were..

When we reconnect with our past, we learn to be grateful for the opportunities that have come our way, the people we have met and how we have changed along the way. We see ourselves in our former life when we are with them and yet have a new found perspective on things. We are happy to talk about our paths we have taken and where we are heading, it confirms to us that we have been living to our purpose and even find we have come to a similar conclusion about life!

It was a happy moment that impromptu encounter, thanks for the memories!

Constrasts

Just arrived back today from almost 3 weeks away, and one theme that played in my head quite often was the contrasts. The weather naturally, going from warm to sub-zero, to living standards, people in Germany and France live very different to the local Thai people. Even the architecture had an impact on me, seeing the old and richness of the history, like in Munich to the new amazing sky-scrappers in Bangkok. Yes our trip had it all.

Having such variety and extremes in some cases made me think about what we can put up with. The human body is resilient and adapt to change to climate, given you have the appropriate attire. I cannot think about wearing 7 layers of clothing and snow boots in Bangkok! However going for a stroll in snowy Germany, yes I did!

We can put up with so much, our environment what is going around us and sometimes not question what perhaps is around the corner. We get validation from our peers and family and thus we can put up with it. That is our environment right now.

So if you have the opportunity to travel, notice those changes and see how adaptable you are to your surroundings. Also note what you PUT UP with in your daily living...

Negative Anchoring

Funny we all have anchors in our lives when it comes to relationships, we may not know that, infact we just think it is the way we feel when we are around them. Sort of being unconscious of that, as we have always had that type of feeling being around this person. If we feel negative towards them in some way, this could be said that you have negative anchoring around them. Perhaps it is something they have said or done and we automatically react a certain way, most often we are upset to some degree.

I remember the story of the couple, who had tension in the relationship. He would come home wondering what state his wife was in, and he would gauge her look as meaning a certain thing. On most occasions she would be depressed and sad. So over time, he had anchored this into his coming home, expecting her to be sad and depressed. Not really good in a relationship!

We also feel that we need to behave a certain way with our parents, think about it if you are leaning towards the positive or the negative. Good awareness to know your mood when you see them next.

Negative anchors are not positive at all, they give us reason not to be around certain people, and we are not being truly honest with ourselves.