To affirm a person is to see the good in them that they cannot see in themselves and to repeat it in spite of appearances to the contrary. Please, this is not some Pollyanna optimism that is blind to the reality of evil, but rather like a fine radar system that is tuned in to the true, the good, and the beautiful. Brennan Manning
My first writing award – I’m so excited!
The ever lovely Susanne from The Imperfect Kitchen awarded me with this lovely heart-filled award and I am entrusted to pass this blessing onto some of my favourite up-and-coming bloggers.
http://theimperfectkitchen.net/
Catherine Deveny once scolded me for introducing her as a writer and blogger, “blogging is writing” she said, “why do we feel the need to diminish it into the ramblings of amateurs, bloggers are ALL writers.”
That’s true, writers and storytellers. Every blog tells a story, a very personal one. It’s a treat to get to peer inside the minds of all these amazing writers. That’s what I found most beautiful about putting together the response for the Liebster Award.
Story is the umbilical cord that connects us to the past, present, and future. Family. Story is a relationship between the teller and the listener, a responsibility. . . Story is an affirmation of our ties to one another. Terry Tempest Williams
Having never been a big fan of the whole question and answer thing, primarily because I can never make up my mind without a huge, long exegesis, knowing that my answers change daily, and being a massive tangent follower, well it’s all just too restrictive. So I am writing using the questions Susanne asked as themes, in what is basically a lovely ‘getting-to-know-you’ exercise.
Seven Intentions was based on an idea in a book called The Wishing Year by Noelle Oxenhandler. The idea was that after turning 40 it was time for some seriously whole-hearted living. I was going to put all my dreams out there and do anything and everything to assist in their fulfilment. Four months into the blog, the results have been astounding to me.
For anyone who has read my blog this year, it will be apparent that Chakradance has been the pinnacle of my explorations in the last year. It began with me practising alongside the DVD at home, now I am training to be able to conduct classes.
My journey – or perhaps trip would be a better word as the experiences raised by the dance would make Carlos Castenada smile – into Chakadance has wakened me at the most deep and profound level. Words fail to capture the transformative nature of this dance, which has me crawling on all fours growling like a lion, having a warrior standoff with an African mask, feeling the ecstasy of Mother Earth and Father Sky having a cosmic reunion in my heart… And that’s the short list.
Currently reading Vagina: A new biography by Naomi Wolf. It’s absolutely a life changer. I want to say all women should read it, but really anyone with anything to do with women – that is, everyone – should read it. They should study it in schools. I cannot rave enough about it, or be angry enough that I wasn’t able to read this stuff at 13.
Susanne asked her bloggers to do the Myers-Briggs and the Star Trek Personality tests. Well, I loved this, there is no end to my curiosity about myself! The Myers Briggs was no surprise, although I still maintain on any given day I can swing a bit. I’m always an introvert, intuitive, feeling, perceiving, but I often hover on the boundary on thinking and judging.
My Star Trek personality is:
You are an outcast learning to cope and understand the ways of those around you. Your blunt honesty and intellectual capacity cause others to mistake you for egotistical…when really, you ARE just smarter than everyone else.
Seven’s exploration of the positive and negative sides of human individuality. The cyborg nature of the character is seen as representing a challenge to “simple conceptions of connections/disconnections between bodies.” – Wikipedia
WOW! I’m impressed. Smart, fearless, and fascinated with humanity. And she’s a foxy lady.
On any question where I’m asked to choose between things, I plead the Davidson right – as asserted by my Dad – to just say ‘yes please’ to everything!
The questions I most enjoyed thinking about – not surprisingly – were about where I’d like my life to be in the future and where I’d live for a year. I would love to live in Japan, probably Kyoto. I went there on a school trip as a ten year old girl and it captured my heart completely. I would also love to live in Ireland, my ancestral homeland.
My ideal life involves writing and travel and probably living across different places. I yearn for the simple life in a cottage in the woods by a lake, although I also love the sea, and I enjoy the arts and cultural aspect of living in a city like Melbourne, although Tokyo, Dublin, Paris, New York or London would suit me just fine too.
My passion is writing. My vision is to divide my time between writing and running retreats for writers and artists who need to fill up their mind, body, spirit. I have a dream of writing about retreats for a magazine, which would consist of me travelling to exotic locales to eat healthful food, meditate and do yoga, while pretending to work.
The current Australian government confounds me at every turn, they basically represent the antithesis of all my ethical beliefs. Humanitarianism, compassion, environmental care, welfare, education, human rights, the list goes on. The thread of hope I maintain is that this government is so awful that it is shaking – the usually apathetic – Australians into political action, which is a great thing.
I’ll be happy when Marianne Williamson becomes president of the US and Scott Ludlam is Prime Minister of Australia.
Any money I could donate right now would be to charities that provide refuge for anyone in need, whether asylum seekers, people in desperate economic need, and to assist women all over the world have safe access to their human rights, including freedom, health and education. I would also give some money to the fight to protect our organic food supply and the environment, including our precious wildlife of course. So Susanne can I have that $10 million now?
We each appear to hold within ourselves a range of divergent views as to our native qualities.. And amid such uncertainty, we typically turn to the wider world to settle the question of our significance… we seem beholden to affections of others to endure ourselves. Alain de Botton
So now I have told you a little about me, it’s time to tell you about my current favourite blogs and pass the award baton to them.
Called the Liebster Award, and created to build relationships within the blogging community, it’s all based around the number 11. To accept the award, you:
- Post the award on your blog
- Thank the blogger who presented the award to you and link back to their blog
- Share 11 things about yourself
- Answer the 11 questions given to you by the person that nominated you
- Nominate 11 bloggers who have less than 200 followers
- Create 11 questions for your nominees to answer
- Notify your nominees by posting your nomination on their blog
My 11 questions are not so much questions as a general curiosity – so I would like to know 11 random things about you, your blog, your life, your dreams, your philosophies and your passions, just to get a sense of who you are out there in blogland.
And the nominations are (drum roll please)…
http://mommymystic.wordpress.com/ Beautiful wisdom from, as the name suggests, a mummy mystic
http://tailbook.wordpress.com This blog makes me purrrr…
There’s something so very zen about this blog, I feel calm and peaceful just looking at it.
http://subversivereader.wordpress.com This blog is just divine, it’s all about the love of reading and passing into on to her gorgeous child, Squirm.
http://elemental-awakening.com/the-elemental-kingdom/pixies-children-of-the-forest/ Be transported to a faraway land of pixies and elemental beings – this blog is sublimely beautiful.
http://thesevenworlds.wordpress.com/2014/05/23/questions-on-astral-and-energy/ All things esoteric and wise, absolutely fascinating.
Self-described as ‘Spiritual ecopsychology and the arts, including bioregional awareness, animism, shamanism, & no-tech DIY fun’, there’s so much to explore here, and I love the tribal, earthy feel of this blog.
http://aspiegrrl.wordpress.com This blogs combines my favourite subject, angels with Aspergers. I used to read aspie books and blogs because my son is on the spectrum, now I just love reading them because aspie’s often have the most amazing insights into the world of sensory perception and human interaction.
http://theoakwheel.wordpress.com Any blogger who has ‘musing’ in their blurb has me instantly intrigued. It’s my favourite pastime.
http://newenglandselkie.wordpress.com/ My recent fascination with Celtic mythology has led to the discovery that Northern America and Northern Europe share many folklore traditions. Living in Maine and dreaming of Scotland. I relate: living in Melbourne and dreaming of Ireland. This is a lovely blog.
http://knowingangels.wordpress.com Angels! What’s not to love?
Feeling blessed to be a part of a blogging community, today’s affirmations are about connection, from Louise Hay:
I am connected to all of life.
I open my heart to all of the beings on the planet.
I help create a world where it is safe for all of us to love each other.
What is true of me is true of everyone. We are all learning to look within ourselves to find the wisdom to live harmoniously.
Each person is part of the harmonious whole.
Bless!
Seven intentions 