I have finally found my mantra for the year. Every year I write down a quote or something by which I aim to live. I write it in the front of my diary as a constant reminder of my intention to effect change within myself.
Now you're probably laughing because we are halfway through the year, but for me, my New Year is the day after my birthday, 17 April, so in effect I am only one month into my new year. 'May' always depicts strategising, refining old ways, discarding what hasn't served me and choosing new challenges for myself. It's a month of 'out with the old' and 'in with the new'.
I have been mulling over the balance between my physical journey and my spiritual one and wondering whether it isn't easier to cop out of all our earthly obligations and levitate off to another plain in super-spiritual mode. In spirit mode we have no earth bound duties or do we?
I don't know about you, but often I can be engaged in a light hearted conversation and I'll find myself wishing we were talking about something more meaningful, more spiritual. I very often find the daily chores of earth living tedious and repetitive with little meaning. I fantasise about being free of my earth body and all its entrapments.
Yet I am pulled in the other direction, having to shop and prepare balanced meals for my family, mother duties, wife duties, work and trying to instill good values into my two young men and glowing with pride when someone compliments me on what well mannered sons I have. Sometimes that rare praise is all it takes to bring me right back down to earth, to realise the importance of what this physical journey is all about. Life is a journey and not a guided tour.
We actually have to get stuck in waist deep and wade through the currents and whirlpools, sometimes swim across the current, other times just go with the flow. Perhaps we have to tramp hard to free ourselves of the thick mud or the sinking sand. Life is something that requires constant work, planning and strategising.
Isn't that what we chose when we decided to come back here?
Isn't it just the easy way out to try and find the escape route to spiritual pastures?
As much as I long for the freedom to just be floaty and free, I also enjoy the challenges that life places before me.
If we didn't exercise our physical bodies and challenge them with weights, we'd lose bone density. Similarly, if we don't get earthly emotional and mental challenges our spirits don't grow.
So this is how the payoff line from a popular beer commercial came to me.... KEEP IT REAL!
I giggle when I think of the geeky guy about to try on the red Speedo with his tall, dark angel standing beside him cautioning him to be real and stay in the present. I have to be honest with myself when I ask myself, "Am I real? Am I fulfilling my earthly requirements on this incredible journey or am I flitting between worlds?"
I definitely flit. When I am hankering after spirituality I am not real. I realise that when I am so spiritually connected (that I am dangling from the clouds), I am no worldly good to those around me. I do have obligations and commitments and chores which are my spiritual exercises and I need to focus on getting them right.
We do have an obligation to look after our physical bodies, care for those around us and be charitable.
These are our Spiritual exercises. After all we are Spirit beings having an Earthly experience.
So my prayer for us today is that we find meaning in our life journey. Let's not minimise any chore no matter how insignificant it may seem and
LET'S KEEP IT REAL!
from the heart
Nicolette
Monday 30 May 2011
Monday 23 May 2011
Slow Down!
I spent the day yesterday lazing and reading and slowly coming back down to earth. I don't know about you, but I very easily get lured by the distractions that life and our culture constantly offer me. I am guilty of not always staying with things, following through with them in a respectful and thorough way. Often I find myself being uncomfortable with quiet and stillness, even though I know the immense benefit and importance of being in this space.
I read a passage from my current novel, 'The Year of Pleasures' by Elizabeth Berg and it really made me take a good look at myself. So, I thought I'd share it with you...
"I was guilty as anyone else of buying books I never read, of rushing through days without ever looking up, of taking for granted things for which I should give thanks every day. Who appreciated their good health until they lost it? Who said grace? Who read to their children before bed without one eye on the clock, despairing of all they had to do before they themselves had to sleep? Who engaged cashiers in grocery stores in conversations? Everyone seemed in a blind hurry, and there was no relief in sight. Technology rushed us ever forward, and simple civility - a certain kindness and care - got sacrificed."
ME - Guilty as charged!
So how does one stop?
Sometimes when we don't get the messages that our angels are sending us in the form of advise from friends, loved ones, strangers, billboards, etc. we have to reverse our car into a pole so that we're forced to stop and assess where we're going.
So the long and the short of it is that this is what happened to me when reversing out of my client's carport this morning. And I immediately looked within for the lesson which is this:
I really don't give enough thanks and praise to my wonderful husband for all the little and big things that he does for me. I never fully settle down and engage with my sons, listening to them, without some other burgeoning agenda on my mind. When my family want massages I'm too busy or tired. I notice the moon once or twice a month. The sun rises and sets and I scarcely am in touch with its rhythm. The books are piled up on my bedside table and on my dressing table and stuffed into all my bedside draws. I gobble my food down without a thought of gratitude often in front of a blaring TV. My life is just a whirling roundabout.
So, I wondered if it was just me or if you also feel like you're going too fast.
I've decided that for this week I am going to step off the treadmill and mull over life's treasures. I am going to have gratitude for my health, my hubby, my children, my friends, all of nature. I am going to give thanks for my food and instead of attacking it like a wolf, I am going to chew it gently with intention of it nourishing my body. I am going to breathe deeply inhaling life and I'm definitely going to say no to any distractions that life dangles before me. I am going to come back to consciousness, conscious that I am. I am NOT what I DO. I just AM.
And already I breath a sigh of relief, because I feel I have arrived home.
Until next week, may you find the stillness within and meaning in the silences
in love
Nicolette
I read a passage from my current novel, 'The Year of Pleasures' by Elizabeth Berg and it really made me take a good look at myself. So, I thought I'd share it with you...
"I was guilty as anyone else of buying books I never read, of rushing through days without ever looking up, of taking for granted things for which I should give thanks every day. Who appreciated their good health until they lost it? Who said grace? Who read to their children before bed without one eye on the clock, despairing of all they had to do before they themselves had to sleep? Who engaged cashiers in grocery stores in conversations? Everyone seemed in a blind hurry, and there was no relief in sight. Technology rushed us ever forward, and simple civility - a certain kindness and care - got sacrificed."
ME - Guilty as charged!
So how does one stop?
Sometimes when we don't get the messages that our angels are sending us in the form of advise from friends, loved ones, strangers, billboards, etc. we have to reverse our car into a pole so that we're forced to stop and assess where we're going.
So the long and the short of it is that this is what happened to me when reversing out of my client's carport this morning. And I immediately looked within for the lesson which is this:
I really don't give enough thanks and praise to my wonderful husband for all the little and big things that he does for me. I never fully settle down and engage with my sons, listening to them, without some other burgeoning agenda on my mind. When my family want massages I'm too busy or tired. I notice the moon once or twice a month. The sun rises and sets and I scarcely am in touch with its rhythm. The books are piled up on my bedside table and on my dressing table and stuffed into all my bedside draws. I gobble my food down without a thought of gratitude often in front of a blaring TV. My life is just a whirling roundabout.
So, I wondered if it was just me or if you also feel like you're going too fast.
I've decided that for this week I am going to step off the treadmill and mull over life's treasures. I am going to have gratitude for my health, my hubby, my children, my friends, all of nature. I am going to give thanks for my food and instead of attacking it like a wolf, I am going to chew it gently with intention of it nourishing my body. I am going to breathe deeply inhaling life and I'm definitely going to say no to any distractions that life dangles before me. I am going to come back to consciousness, conscious that I am. I am NOT what I DO. I just AM.
And already I breath a sigh of relief, because I feel I have arrived home.
Until next week, may you find the stillness within and meaning in the silences
in love
Nicolette
Monday 16 May 2011
How's Your Vehicle Running?
Now for those of you who know me, I am passionate about this subject. I'll explain in a minute.
I love to compare our earth suits, these things we run around in 24/7, to motor vehicles. Just consider the similarities. Both require continuous maintenance to ensure good performance.They all have specific fuel requirements. They are designed with internal warning systems.
The only difference I can see is that when our motor vehicles have done a certain mileage, we trade them in. However when our earth vehicles have been through the mill, we are stuck with them 'til death do us part.
So now my questions to you are these: "How well are you taking care of your earth vehicle? Is it running on empty? When did you last check all of its levels eg. energy, minerals, sleep, vitamins, happiness, creativity, productivity? Are you treating it like a car rental?"
Remember our earth suits are on loan to us. Only problem is when they collapse on us we can't trade them in for a shiny new one. We're stuck with all the self imposed damage and repair bills.
None of us can escape this truth. If we push our bodies to their physical limits like I did with my dancing and exercise, and high protein diet, our joints will wear down, hence my hip replacement last year. If we consume excessive amounts of sugar, refined carbs and alcohol we'll suffer firstly with hypoglycemia, mood swings and irritability which will inevitably result in full blown diabetes. If we continue to ignore the irritating symptoms of food allergy as in eczema, thrush, psoriasis, asthma, hives, hay fever, gastritis, heartburn, depression, etc. we will inevitably contract one of the serious diseases like cancer, heart attack, stroke, emphysema, osteoporosis and arthritis amongst others.
So I ask one intelligent human to another, "When God gave us the most intelligent data processing systems, why do we continue to ignore them?" Why do we wake up with a caffeine or alcohol induced headache and feed it with more of the same until eventually we no longer get the headache because we are so toxic.
Why do we continue to smoke even though the health hazards are printed on every carton? Why do we continue to feed our sweet tooth cravings with sugar, a substance so poisonous to the human body its increase in our diet is directly proportionate to the increase in human cancer?
The excess consumption of animal protein in our diets leads to the leaching of calcium from our bones causing osteoporosis. The resultant high acidity levels in our bodies causes arthritis.
Cow's milk for human consumption? I don't think so! Cow's milk is for calves not humans. Did you know that cows milk has cassein in it which is found in carpenter's wood glue. This gluey, mucous forming substance is only good for blocking our sinuses, coagulating our intestines and causing a host of germs and fungi to thrive.Watch our sportsmen on the field spitting up globs of mucous. Are we surprised?
Observe the TV ads for heartburn. They promote that we continue the abuse of our physical bodies and merely take an antacid to neutralise the lethal concoctions we're brewing in our stomaches.
O.k. I think I've made my point.
Today is 'Meatless Monday'. It is the first Monday that I remembered NOT to put biltong into my sons' lunch boxes and do you know they didn't complain. My husband even reminded me this morning that we are eating vegetarian pasta tonight. Well shift is happening! and I invite each one of you to join us in this drive to cut back on our meat intake even if only for one day a week. One day may turn into two or three days before you know it. You may just start feeling amazing and love feeling that way. Try it!
And before you moan that you don't have a clue what to cook for the family. Here are some suggestions just to make life simple.
You could try a vegetable stirfry with brown and wild rice. Throw in some cashew nuts or almonds if you feel you desperately need protein, even some tofu cubes with a sprinkling of herbs and healthy garlic.
Perhaps if you consumed a heavy lunch and feel like something light choose a meal of fruit and give your stomach a hard earned rest tonight. You could also choose a variety of healthy salads to which you could add avocado, virgin olive oil, seeds and pulses such as quinoa or buckwheat. Delicious and filling! And if you're really daring add some soaked seaweed to give you all the minerals you need.
Ultimately, and only if you're really one of the brave ones, go for a green juice day. You will have to plan for this and buy yourself a juice extractor in advance. Choose from anything green: Broccoli, spinach, cabbage, celery, parsley, zucchini, ochre, aloe (from your garden) and sweeten to taste with lemon or apple. This is an awesome way to detox and prolong your life and feed your nervous system with all the B vitamins it craves.
So here's to hoping you will join us this Monday and from here on forward in going Meatless on Mondays.
By the way, How is your vehicle running?
Yours in love and health!
Nicolette
I love to compare our earth suits, these things we run around in 24/7, to motor vehicles. Just consider the similarities. Both require continuous maintenance to ensure good performance.They all have specific fuel requirements. They are designed with internal warning systems.
The only difference I can see is that when our motor vehicles have done a certain mileage, we trade them in. However when our earth vehicles have been through the mill, we are stuck with them 'til death do us part.
So now my questions to you are these: "How well are you taking care of your earth vehicle? Is it running on empty? When did you last check all of its levels eg. energy, minerals, sleep, vitamins, happiness, creativity, productivity? Are you treating it like a car rental?"
Remember our earth suits are on loan to us. Only problem is when they collapse on us we can't trade them in for a shiny new one. We're stuck with all the self imposed damage and repair bills.
None of us can escape this truth. If we push our bodies to their physical limits like I did with my dancing and exercise, and high protein diet, our joints will wear down, hence my hip replacement last year. If we consume excessive amounts of sugar, refined carbs and alcohol we'll suffer firstly with hypoglycemia, mood swings and irritability which will inevitably result in full blown diabetes. If we continue to ignore the irritating symptoms of food allergy as in eczema, thrush, psoriasis, asthma, hives, hay fever, gastritis, heartburn, depression, etc. we will inevitably contract one of the serious diseases like cancer, heart attack, stroke, emphysema, osteoporosis and arthritis amongst others.
So I ask one intelligent human to another, "When God gave us the most intelligent data processing systems, why do we continue to ignore them?" Why do we wake up with a caffeine or alcohol induced headache and feed it with more of the same until eventually we no longer get the headache because we are so toxic.
Why do we continue to smoke even though the health hazards are printed on every carton? Why do we continue to feed our sweet tooth cravings with sugar, a substance so poisonous to the human body its increase in our diet is directly proportionate to the increase in human cancer?
The excess consumption of animal protein in our diets leads to the leaching of calcium from our bones causing osteoporosis. The resultant high acidity levels in our bodies causes arthritis.
Cow's milk for human consumption? I don't think so! Cow's milk is for calves not humans. Did you know that cows milk has cassein in it which is found in carpenter's wood glue. This gluey, mucous forming substance is only good for blocking our sinuses, coagulating our intestines and causing a host of germs and fungi to thrive.Watch our sportsmen on the field spitting up globs of mucous. Are we surprised?
Observe the TV ads for heartburn. They promote that we continue the abuse of our physical bodies and merely take an antacid to neutralise the lethal concoctions we're brewing in our stomaches.
O.k. I think I've made my point.
Today is 'Meatless Monday'. It is the first Monday that I remembered NOT to put biltong into my sons' lunch boxes and do you know they didn't complain. My husband even reminded me this morning that we are eating vegetarian pasta tonight. Well shift is happening! and I invite each one of you to join us in this drive to cut back on our meat intake even if only for one day a week. One day may turn into two or three days before you know it. You may just start feeling amazing and love feeling that way. Try it!
And before you moan that you don't have a clue what to cook for the family. Here are some suggestions just to make life simple.
You could try a vegetable stirfry with brown and wild rice. Throw in some cashew nuts or almonds if you feel you desperately need protein, even some tofu cubes with a sprinkling of herbs and healthy garlic.
Perhaps if you consumed a heavy lunch and feel like something light choose a meal of fruit and give your stomach a hard earned rest tonight. You could also choose a variety of healthy salads to which you could add avocado, virgin olive oil, seeds and pulses such as quinoa or buckwheat. Delicious and filling! And if you're really daring add some soaked seaweed to give you all the minerals you need.
Ultimately, and only if you're really one of the brave ones, go for a green juice day. You will have to plan for this and buy yourself a juice extractor in advance. Choose from anything green: Broccoli, spinach, cabbage, celery, parsley, zucchini, ochre, aloe (from your garden) and sweeten to taste with lemon or apple. This is an awesome way to detox and prolong your life and feed your nervous system with all the B vitamins it craves.
So here's to hoping you will join us this Monday and from here on forward in going Meatless on Mondays.
By the way, How is your vehicle running?
Yours in love and health!
Nicolette
Monday 9 May 2011
Why do Good things Happen to me?
I was driving down the road today, when I noticed a billboard that asked: "Why do bad things happen to me?" and it got me thinking.
Why do we always ask this same old question? It's as if we expect only good things to happen to us continuously. It's a bit like walking down the aisle and saying:" I take this person to be my spouse FOR BETTER, IN HEALTH AND IN WEALTH". Actually that's pretty much what most of us hear when we say our vows. We tend to glance over THE SICKNESS, THE POORER AND THE WORSE.
How often do we turn around in surprise and say:"Why do good things happen to me?" "Wow another great thing happened to me! We just take the good stuff for granted.
But we always notice when the unpleasant things happen to us. We tend to complain and winge about stuff that is just a normal part of living.
Let's compare our lives to a deck of cards. There are 36 number cards in a pack and there are 16 picture cards (counting the aces). So technically speaking, there are twice as many low-value cards as there are high-value cards. When we are dealt a hand, is it more surprising to be dealt a hand of great cards or a very low hand?
I believe life is like the deck. We are lucky when we are dealt one great hand after another and we should be excited and grateful. But we should always be surprised, because that is not the norm. Two thirds of the cards dealt to us will have to be the lower value cards.
For us to expect only the good things to happen to us is unrealistic.
So the very next time something good happens to us, we need to declare our gratitude and appreciation and ride the crest of the wave for as long as we can, knowing full well that it will peter out and that we will have to paddle hard against the breakers to get out to the back line where we may wait a good while before we catch the next one. Think about it. The time we spend peddaling up hill is a lot longer than the amount of time it takes to free wheel down the other side. Life's like that.
So, this billboard was the messenger it was meant to be, for I suddenly awakened to the fact that lots of amazing things are happening to me, for which I am so grateful and the more I reflected upon this revelation, the happier I got.
So, as I write to you, my friends, today. I am so grateful. Grateful to all of you for the lessons you bring, the challenges and the love that we all share and glad to be able to feel the pain because it is only because of being able to feel that we can appreciate the pain-free days.
So let's take note of all the good that happens in our lives and try and complain less about the bad.
In love, awe and gratitude
Nicolette
Why do we always ask this same old question? It's as if we expect only good things to happen to us continuously. It's a bit like walking down the aisle and saying:" I take this person to be my spouse FOR BETTER, IN HEALTH AND IN WEALTH". Actually that's pretty much what most of us hear when we say our vows. We tend to glance over THE SICKNESS, THE POORER AND THE WORSE.
How often do we turn around in surprise and say:"Why do good things happen to me?" "Wow another great thing happened to me! We just take the good stuff for granted.
But we always notice when the unpleasant things happen to us. We tend to complain and winge about stuff that is just a normal part of living.
Let's compare our lives to a deck of cards. There are 36 number cards in a pack and there are 16 picture cards (counting the aces). So technically speaking, there are twice as many low-value cards as there are high-value cards. When we are dealt a hand, is it more surprising to be dealt a hand of great cards or a very low hand?
I believe life is like the deck. We are lucky when we are dealt one great hand after another and we should be excited and grateful. But we should always be surprised, because that is not the norm. Two thirds of the cards dealt to us will have to be the lower value cards.
For us to expect only the good things to happen to us is unrealistic.
So the very next time something good happens to us, we need to declare our gratitude and appreciation and ride the crest of the wave for as long as we can, knowing full well that it will peter out and that we will have to paddle hard against the breakers to get out to the back line where we may wait a good while before we catch the next one. Think about it. The time we spend peddaling up hill is a lot longer than the amount of time it takes to free wheel down the other side. Life's like that.
So, this billboard was the messenger it was meant to be, for I suddenly awakened to the fact that lots of amazing things are happening to me, for which I am so grateful and the more I reflected upon this revelation, the happier I got.
So, as I write to you, my friends, today. I am so grateful. Grateful to all of you for the lessons you bring, the challenges and the love that we all share and glad to be able to feel the pain because it is only because of being able to feel that we can appreciate the pain-free days.
So let's take note of all the good that happens in our lives and try and complain less about the bad.
In love, awe and gratitude
Nicolette
Monday 2 May 2011
My Life is for Rent
Have you ever searched for a meaning, the true meaning of your name? Well I have been searching for the meaning of my surname for a long time, being fixated on the assumption that 'Lodge' means fixed or stuck. Then along came Ron with another meaning to my name and that is a lodger, 'someone who pays to live in another person's house'. Lodge, ' provide a person with somewhere to live temporarily'.
Now, you're probably wondering where I am going with all of this?
Well, this brought the words of one of my favourite song writers to mind. Dido sings: 'My life is for rent and I don't choose to buy. I deserve nothing more than I get, 'cos nothing I have is truly mine...'
How aptly put. Nothing we have or procure in this life do we own. We may think we can amass property, fortune, possessions, friendships, physical attributes...., but do we really own them or do they own us?
Now, I often think about how land came to be possessed by mankind. Who had the audacity to stake out a bunch of God-given land and claim ownership of it for themselves? And then those same people had the cheek to demand that others pay to take ownership of it for themselves. Think about it.
I honestly believe that land was never meant to be bought or sold. We were all brought into this world and should have the right to a piece of land to inhabit. We can't own it. We should just have the free use of it until we die. We should respect it and treat it with care, looking out for any other occupants eg. insects, birds, animals that also have chosen to cohabit with us. We shouldn't poison the insects, snails, spiders etc, nor should we drive the other occupants off, forcing them to live somewhere else.
Maybe we can see a similarity between the land and our bodies and our relationships. How often do we try to control our lovers and friends. We try and take ownership of others and force them to be what we want them to be, without respect for their own choices.
What of our bodies? Don't we abuse and punish them with bad choices of nourishment, drive them on empty forgeting to nourish them with rest, good nutrition and maintenance. Aren't our bodies just on loan to us, much like a hired car? Don't we have a duty to treat them kindly and look after them carefully?
All food for thought!
Well, I have come to realise my life is for rent. Nothing I am and nothing that I have do I own. Not my body, not my property I live on, not my husband or my children, not any of my possessions, and that is quite liberating actually. Wow!
So thank you Ron for your causing me to ponder and reflect on this revelation this week.
May you all have a blessed week of treating Earth and all her inhabitants, including yourselves, kindly and with deep respect.
love
Nicolette
Now, you're probably wondering where I am going with all of this?
Well, this brought the words of one of my favourite song writers to mind. Dido sings: 'My life is for rent and I don't choose to buy. I deserve nothing more than I get, 'cos nothing I have is truly mine...'
How aptly put. Nothing we have or procure in this life do we own. We may think we can amass property, fortune, possessions, friendships, physical attributes...., but do we really own them or do they own us?
Now, I often think about how land came to be possessed by mankind. Who had the audacity to stake out a bunch of God-given land and claim ownership of it for themselves? And then those same people had the cheek to demand that others pay to take ownership of it for themselves. Think about it.
I honestly believe that land was never meant to be bought or sold. We were all brought into this world and should have the right to a piece of land to inhabit. We can't own it. We should just have the free use of it until we die. We should respect it and treat it with care, looking out for any other occupants eg. insects, birds, animals that also have chosen to cohabit with us. We shouldn't poison the insects, snails, spiders etc, nor should we drive the other occupants off, forcing them to live somewhere else.
Maybe we can see a similarity between the land and our bodies and our relationships. How often do we try to control our lovers and friends. We try and take ownership of others and force them to be what we want them to be, without respect for their own choices.
What of our bodies? Don't we abuse and punish them with bad choices of nourishment, drive them on empty forgeting to nourish them with rest, good nutrition and maintenance. Aren't our bodies just on loan to us, much like a hired car? Don't we have a duty to treat them kindly and look after them carefully?
All food for thought!
Well, I have come to realise my life is for rent. Nothing I am and nothing that I have do I own. Not my body, not my property I live on, not my husband or my children, not any of my possessions, and that is quite liberating actually. Wow!
So thank you Ron for your causing me to ponder and reflect on this revelation this week.
May you all have a blessed week of treating Earth and all her inhabitants, including yourselves, kindly and with deep respect.
love
Nicolette
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