New Life

I am in awe of life right now....
My heart is so open and absolutely bursting with love....


Here's why..........

Nesting before the Spring

I think most of you know I'm having our second baby very soon. It's a really wonderful time to be expecting the birth of our own child with the season of spring dawning just around the corner. And along with the gorgeous array of birds in our neck of the woods, we too are nesting!! Big time!

Nothing better than a new bubba to inspire some good old hard work and some pretty little projects too. I can't believe the energy I have mustered (in spirts) to finally get to those grubby fingerprints and smears on walls! Yes i've been cleaning the walls and skirting and windows and screens and washing and re-washing.... and on it goes.

And did you know this stuff is contagious??? Well my wonderful hubby has also been chirning out the projects and we're really starting to see some big changes around here. A new play room, a freshly painted guest room, new window dressings, even a new fence! Stuff we've been meaning to get to for so long has simply been done! It's great! I'm one happy Mamma!

Although I think after a month or two of this and I'm really running out of steam now. My little one and I were out in the garden today and I felt like I was trying to pull up the giant turnip as I attempted to stand up after some planting. Honest to goodness I feel like I'm carrying one of those really huge watermelons around with me everywhere. Having said that, it really doesn't take much to turn to the promise of Spring in our freshened up little garden and remind myself of the fruits of our labour soon to blossom! Can't wait!

And here is a photo of the first little gift for our bubba.... thanks again to the Silkwood craft group for the kit for this gorgeous spring mother bird with baby.

Homemade gifts

I just love making and giving these little Steiner inspired gifts to my little one's friends. There's a special joy in learning how from clever creative people (thank you Nikki, Mia, Dionne and team at Heart & Hands Craft Group at Silkwood).... and then getting creative at home and producing gifts for the special little people in our daughter's life. Not to mention how lovely it is to see the smiles on their faces when they know you've given something greater than another 'something' to play with. I really do think that despite the huge commercial pressures of media inspired "stuff" out there in consumer land, that children do sense the love in a homemade gift.

Singing Circle

This Friday night I am taking my tunes to a lovely new venue at Biggera Waters on the Gold Coast called Spiritual Soul.

It will be an evening of purely original live music, listening, joining in, sitting, being.... interspersed with moments of silence and awash with bliss. We open with meditation and allow the sound to overtake our bodies, hearts and minds in a beautiful uplifting vibration of oneness and peace!

If you'd like to be a part of our opening night.

Plans and schedules

Today I received a very well intentioned email from my sister about all the upcoming events our "big" family has on the agenda.... all the way into October!

I'm sorry, but I am so disgruntled I had to write a post in protest!

What is it with PLANS?!!

When I was a school teacher the one single thing I really didn't like was being pushed around by the BELL! My day was fragmented and boxed up into gridlines on a page telling me what I had to do and where I had to be at every moment.

When I became a mum, I threw all this out the window and seized my new life of spontaneous present moment living and demand feeding with both ...hands... and well...all of myself really.

I have to admit, I do look back on those early couple of years and wonder if more routine wasn't called for, particularly with regards to my little one's eating, waking and sleeping rhythm.

But rhythm is a separate issue entirely to filling one's calendar. Are you surrounded by people who fill their days, weeks and months? I can't keep up.

I know it's nice to have things to look forward to and to know when big events are coming up, but GEE, I like my spontaneity.... I love blank spaces on my calendar, just LOVE them!

In fact, I have a blank space on my calendar for this afternoon (until pick-up time), so I'm off to do whatever I fancy! Might go rest in the hammock and listen.

Ahhhhhhhhh!

Essence

Last night we held another of our sacred women's circles.

It was a chance for us to explore a lovely story by Jane Ray called The Apple Pip Princess (Orchard Books). It is a story about three princesses in their pursuit to become the next monarch of an ailing kingdom by doing something special to please their father, the old king. One princess chooses to build a grand tower, from which she can almost reach the moon.... the second tries to better her sister's efforts by building a more beautiful tower from all the shining metal in the kingdom. The third princess, Serenity in all her feelings of inadequacy plants a tiny apple pip. Using contents from a magical box which she inherited from her queen mother, she day by day, took a special essence or elemental, earthy ingredient to add to her budding garden. In her quest to plant, dig and nourish the barren land, she is joined by all the folk from their tumbledown cottages and by the end of the seventh day, her father chooses her to rule the kingdom, for her tiny buds had magically been transformed into a blossoming sanctuary filled with trees and birdsong for the whole kingdom to share in and enjoy.

After our story we tuned in to ourselves and moved and stretched in some gentle yoga. With our focus on the life energy coursing through our bodies, we were able to visualise through meditation, an essence which fills and nourishes ourselves personally. For one it was the lightness of a feather, for another, the calm energy of the forest, another participant chose the nightingale's song, another the sunlit ocean with wind in her sails, and another, pink love-filled light.

Later we had an opportunity to talk about our chosen essence while we sculpted some clay into a vessel..... It was enlightening to explore through conversation with eachother, what was unfolding for us in the clay and in our attunement to ourselves and to eachother. This is what companioning through creative arts therapy is all about. It is the chance to grow our ability to be present in a way which we don't always ask of ourselves...... to learn more about ourselves..... through our creative expression and through the responses and experiences we share with eachother.

I'd like to share with you the song which came to me for this circle which we sang at our circle's closing last night.... enjoy.

Essence

There's a place inside my heart

Where glows a sacred light

Through my lens of love

It grows and fills my sight

Here understanding blossoms

Wisdom pools and overflows

My knowingness is openness

My struggle fades and goes

Essence of my nurture

My prayer is to be steeped

Infuse me with all that I need

To walk the path of Peace.

By Melissa Joss 9/1/10

Networks of grace

Recently I received an email through a subscription that I must have signed up for at some point from a man called Andrew Harvey. He has written a book called The Hope A Guide To Sacred Activism (Hay House). It was a book that I felt compelled to buy and read, but didn't.... cos I was in the middle of another email subscription lead .... but that's another post.

Anyway, this email has sent me on a journey over the internet researching into Harvey and I found his recent talk in Copenhagen. His passion and emergency in his speech is overwhelming. Click here to view the speech.

Here are two excerpts from his book which were cited at P2P Foundation

This work is positively INSPIRING!!!!!!!

I know that so many of you out there are conscious beings, with a heart felt concern about the shape our planet is in... and our future....

But what are we really all doing about it? In our own way, perhaps we are all trying to do little bits.... raising our children to be stewards of the earth, to care for each other, making homemade goodies, recycling, reusing, watching our consumption and keeping our footprint a little lighter each day.... the list goes on. But are we really doing as much as we can? Is there stuff we can do together that would make a significantly greater difference than trying to do lots of little bits on our own?

Harvey's vision for success for our future, is activated at the grass roots level.... in small community groups who support eachother in our conscious efforts. I do feel since moving here on the coast that the amazing people in our community are doing this already in so many ways. Maybe though it's time to shift up a gear and grow our sacred activism....so that we may live towards a better world for us all. Maybe 2010 is our year to initiate a more fully conscious, creative network of grace!

Like to join me? If you do, please email me! or leave a comment here and I'll get back to you.

melissa(at)myshatherapy(dot)com