MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE

I know this is going to sound strange, especially as we kick off to the start of a powerful and promising New Year, but here’s the thing… 

I was sitting on my patio this morning, enjoying my paw-paw and seed breakfast, listening to the beautiful birds singing, and enjoying some silent time. I reflected on my gratitude for the birds, for the delicious, tasty fruit I was savouring, for the amazing life I have been gifted with, my health, my beautiful family, my wonderful husband, Chris and all his effort and hard work that afford me moments like these to appreciate my life. I reflected on how beautiful the silence was and how calm it made me feel. In the morning quiet everything was perfect. And then I remembered back to a bottle of wine that my niece, Hollee and I shared in 2010.

And as the memory of that year played out I was reminded of the stress I had allowed myself to become victim to. I had been fighting life rather than accepting and going with the flow. I remembered how Chris had advised me to slow down to prevent burn out. And I remember how impatient I was and unwilling to admit to him that he was right.

A week later I was enjoying some special time with Hollee over a bottle of red wine when she retorted: “Hey, look Nix. It says here on the bottle:

 

‘Slow down. It’s about time.’”

 

I remembered my astonishment at the way Spirit works and how He/She gently keeps sending the same message until we are ready to hear it.

To make my memory fonder I went into my bar and reached for the bottle which I have saved all these years. I turned the bottle in my hands and savoured all the messages Hollee and I wrote four and a half years ago.

Only today did I notice the little tortoise on the logo, for the very first time. It reminded me of the children’s’ story about the tortoise and the hare. And other words of wisdom flooded to me such as “less haste, more speed”. And I think that the penny has finally dropped. I am really hearing and getting the meaning of this message, which is long overdue. 

So, as I sit in the starting blocks of the year ahead, I have made a cognitive connect with the tortoise. 

I have every conviction that I will run the race, but that I will do it slow, savouring all of life’s magical moments and that I will achieve everything that I am meant to and more.

Sweet soul, if you have had a tortoise awakening too, I invite you to pace yourself for the year ahead, to take it slow and choose a pace that you can sustain for the full duration of 2015.

Here’s to all of us crossing the finishing line this year with surplus energy.

Have a beautiful week!

Love

Nicolette