Wednesday, November 30, 2011

The BEST seat in the house!

Or...more specifically...outside of the house...


Ahhh....I love the beach!  It is 531 casual, strolling steps from our place, through the campground and across the road to the sand.  I love this time of the year with lots of fresh tropical fruits to savour, the sunshine and warmth and of course, the magnificent ocean, perfect for swimming in.  Being in the ocean is the number one place where I feel the most free and joy-full!  Where I feel the most connected to Source and Oneness and myself.  Oh yeah... ***  bliss! ***


Monday, November 21, 2011

day camp gathering...

A recent gathering for our local Natural Learners group...so beautiful, we didn't want to leave and wished we had all taken our tents there.  The kids had so much fun playing together, moving as a pack, all getting along so well as they were all there with the intention of having fun, being in the moment, living in Joy! 



AJ with some wild raspberries..



mmmm.... 



I love the colour of this...

camper & cake...

Cary and the boys outside of our camper, about to go trick-or-treating on Halloween.  The boys were very casual with their costumes this year.  It's really not a big deal here in Australia, but they still managed to get a lot of treats.  Probably because AJ had made signs saying "Halloween in (x many) days...have you got your lollies?"  ...and put them up around the campground to prepare people.  It worked!




The other side of our caravan.  I'll get some inside photos sometime too.  We still have our Merc for running around, but it won't pull the big camper.  We have a truck coming for that.



Using the solar oven to bake a cake...




Excellent!


Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Ratz!

Cary sent a bunch of stuff over in the big caravan when it came from the USA (oh, I have to get a photo of that on here).  One of the things was a new bike for Nicholas.  Nicholas had not ridden a two-wheeler by himself before.  We had a tag-along for him which is an attachment that went on the back of my bike, making it like a tandem bike, with the back end lower so that it was suitable for a child.  Nicholas loved to go for rides with that and it helped to teach him balance and road sense.  The day that the big caravan arrived, we were unpacking all of the things that had been inside of it.  Nicholas picked up his brand new bike, and just took off riding it as if he'd been riding on his own for a long time.  Wow!...I was so impressed!  He was so very confident, riding along with his little cape flying out the back. He loves to ride his bike anywhere and everywhere now! 




Our little dog, Gypsy, is very happy living with her new family on 6 acres of land about an hour away from where we are.  She has another 2 year old Jack Russell to play with all day, cows to chase, cow poop to roll in, and a family that adores her.  It was hard giving her up, but we know that she is in the kind of place that we had always imagined her in.  Just a little sad that we couldn't give that to her.

As AJ had wanted a pet rat for years, we got the boys a rat each, shortly before Gypsy left, to help with the transition.  They are such great pets!  The boys spend a lot of time playing with them, they even come to the beach with us!  The rats we have are both female and love to just hang out with the boys.  They are also very curious and like to help dig little holes into the cooler parts of the sand.




The caravan park that we are in at the moment is just a short block away from the same beach that we used to go to when we lived in a house nearby.  So beautiful!

Monday, November 14, 2011

More on relationships...

Since I last wrote about relationships, I've been exploring that topic more deeply.  I've been thinking of the idea of freedom within a relationship...not necessarily to be with other people romantically, but to be freely, deeply with myself...and to make no excuses for that.  To Love myself unconditionally, and to accept myself wholly. 
 
 
Think about it..  It takes awareness to maintain your connection to yourself.  It is easy to lose that during the busy-ness of daily life, in all of the other relationships we have - with our partners, our children, our coworkers, etc.  With the constant bombardment from the media as well, soon it can feel as though the life you are living is just on the surface.  It is so easy to forget to tune in to our true selves.  To say what you really mean, instead of what you think someone else wants to hear.
I'm talking about taking responsibility for YOU - for your feelings and your interpretation of experiences.  Not saying things like "my wife (husband) makes me feel unloved / unattractive / etc", because NO one can make you feel anything, only you can choose to feel those things.  Often those are things that you already feel about yourself that you are just projecting onto that other person in order to avoid taking responsibility for yourself.

So the first thing is to be aware - of the outside influences that distract your connection to yourself.  Of all of the little voices saying that you "should" do or say something.  Of all of the times when you do something out of conditioning rather than an actual need or desire.  Be aware and recognise when you are not really present with your feelings, with the moment.

Then take responsibility for your thoughts and actions.  Allow others to Be however they choose to be.  Stay strong in your inner connection, knowing that you are the only one who can make you feel good or not-good. 

Doing this, you can be with anyone, anywhere, and you can feel the freedom to just BE.

Wednesday, November 09, 2011

a lesson for summer...

Summer dropped a camera today...it was my first digital camera, one that I had passed on to the kids when I bought a new one two years ago.  After being dropped, the camera would let us look at the photos that were stored on it, but it would no longer take photos.

Summer was extremely upset, hard on herself and wondering why bad things happen.  I told her that "stuff happens" and "it's only bad if you call it so". 

She was feeling what she was feeling and I was just holding the space for her to do that.  It seemed important to just Be with her.

When Cary heard the story, he quietly suggested to me that we then give her the brand new underwater camera that he had brought back from the USA that we were going to give her for her birthday next month.  (My love for him expanded in that moment!) So we did!  AJ got out his guitar and played "Happy Birthday" while we all sang to her.

She was so stunned!  Her state went from very negative to very positive.  That was wonderful!  It was also wonderful to remind her that she was worthy of good things, and we do trust her with gadgets.  (Things she hadn't believed a few minutes before that.)

The biggest lesson that she got was that sometimes when "bad" things happen, it's the Universe's way of opening up a space for something even better to come into our lives.  Don't be too quick to judge.  Hold the space and allow the process to unfold.  Amazing things can ...and do...happen!

Monday, November 07, 2011

highlights

I look around facebook every few days or so.  I see the things that my friends post and sometimes I think "wow...good for them...they are doing something amazing".  But then I thought about some of the highlights of my own 46 years...

* I grew up around the Sydney beaches; going to school across the road from the beach; I've wandered around Sydney city too many times to try and count, been to Luna Park, the Opera House, crossed "the" bridge, even helped on an archaelogical dig in one of the old buildings; caught the Manly Ferry so many times; swam for hours at the beautiful beaches and...it was a great place for my childhood.  I used to feel so safe and confident getting around the place...it was "my" town...for 14 years.

* I've lived in Canberra, and have seen all of the interesting sights there, but my favourites were the colours of the trees in the Fall, and the river to swim in during the summer.

* I've climbed Australia's highest mountain.

* I've swam at the Great Barrier Reef more times than I can remember.

* I lived on a tropical island!!

* I've had several of my own businesses, doing things I really loved at the time.

* I've lived in the USA..I sat on the steps of the Lincoln memorial, gazing out at the Mall; seen the cherry blossoms and many of the other sights of DC; lived on the shores of the Chesapeake Bay; lived just outside of Las Vegas, going to The Strip and Hoover Dam countless times.

* I've loved and lost and won and grown and stretched and had amazing, wonderful, beautiful people around me.

*  The biggest highlights would have to be my husband and my three amazing children...this is the path that I am most proud of!