Home Main Blog

Friday 24th July 2009

Health Affirming Herbs and Plants - Goldenrod

Goldenrod or solidago virgaurea is one of the most important plants I collect at this time of year when it is in full bloom. It has a powerful diuretic action said to cleanse the kidneys and bladder from infections and stones. I prefer to practice good health and avoid disease rather than just keeping a store cupboard of herbs for combating problems when they arise therefore my morning pot of tea is made from rooibos, a little angelica, nettles and goldenrod. I find it works in a similar way to how the sauna strengthens the efficacy of the elimination system by enhancing the flow. The sauna promotes sweating and increases blood flow thereby creating a push (blood pumping) and pull (sweating) force kickstarting the elimination system or ramping it up a gear! When I drink my tea every morning the diuretic action of the goldenrod pushes out water and I complete the cycle by drinking lots of fresh spring water from my well. The water system through my kidneys is enhanced and stimulated by the astringent action of the goldenrod, my kidneys are cleansed and because of their cleansed state they can do their job more efficiently and therefore my whole body can eliminate more, thereby I am not walking around with toxins inside my body and the whole of my energy can be channelled towards life creation and passion rather than constantly firefighting health problems. The name solidago means to make whole or strengthen.

It is equally important to keep a good input of fresh water otherwise the flow would only be outwards and that would soon lead to dire ill health and also to eat a good natural diet rich in alkaline vegetables to replace lost ions. If you have already succumbed to ill health such as flu then goldenrod is invaluable in restoring efficient kidney function and aiding recovery. Efficient kidney function is vital to full health. Goldenrod is carminative meaning it induces expulsion of gas from the stomach and intestines, so don't worry if it makes you fart because it is merely removing wind that was already there! Goldenrod is also known as wound wort being especially useful for treating ulcers. I collect the whole plant when it is in bloom as the flowers are most potent. The plants are tied together in bundles and hung up to dry. When the plants have dried I put the leaves and flowers into glass jars for storage and use the dried stalks to make skin washes in the sauna as the astringent action gives an overall toning to my skin. Tea or infusions are made by seeping the dried flowers or leaves in hot water for 5-10 minutes. Goldenrod makes a wonderfully aromatic tea with a pleasant taste. If the tea doesn't taste too pleasant don't use so much or simply add it to your own favourite brew.

Wednesday 22nd July 2009

With the new moon phase arriving this morning I find this a time for reflecting on the blooming abundance around me. The fruits of my early springtime labours are showing in the new burgeoning vegetable beds and the surrounding forest and natural scapes are equally filled with a teeming procession of life such that I have never witnessed before. maybe it was always there but now my growing conscious awareness has brought it all into my world.

This was my first year creating a new garden environment based on energetic techniques and the principal of Oneness. Right from the images created during the winter and early spring I've stepped back to take in the bigger picture and remain aware and open to the natural flow of life. I've never known so many bees, hoverflies, an entire colony of Arran Brown butterflies delightfully engaging me every time I walk along my road and a carpet of young toads and frogs keeping my leafy greens free from invaders! If all the bees are disappearing from the world then they are living in my forest! I've allowed the natural plants and herbs to be present amongst my own beds to maintain a successfully balanced and harmonious space.

There have been other aspects of the garden which weren't quite so successful but have still given me a valuable insight into the workings of my limited mind and natural cycles. There is no such thing as a right or wrong experience because they all remain experiences and show me something thus enabling me to expand and grow my conscious awareness.

I notice the forest too is abundant, with goldenrod (a valuable herbal tea), blueberries (first good harvest in years), wild strawberries (a taste which proves conscious creation to my mind!), chanterelles and even some cloudberries to my delight!

It is good practice to notice the fruits of our own creation as it promotes awareness of our power allowing us to know ourselves more and recognise Who We Really Are. Ultimately life, the self healing journey of us all doesn't really involve healing because we already are powerful beings of light and all we really need to do is remember that and act as if.

I give space to a lot of the work of Avaaz.org on these pages as I believe strongly in the ethos of change through the powerful but gentle voice of Man. In line with looking at my garden of creation here are the fruits of other labours....

Dear friends,

Here's a quick report back on recent campaigning at Avaaz. Our community has grown like wildfire and is becoming really extraordinary -- the pace and impact of our advocacy is intense. In just the last 8 weeks, we've run 9 major national and global campaigns on issues ranging from climate change to Iran to Guantanamo. Much more remains to be done on all these issues -- but together we're contributing in powerful ways. Here are some highlights from the last 8 weeks:

Brazilian rainforest - Brazilian Avaaz members made 14000 phone calls and sent 30,000 online messages to President Lula's office in two days(!) and in the 11th hour successfully reversed a law that would hand over much of the Amazon rainforest to agrobusiness for exploitation - this was a major victory on climate change since the Amazon consumes enormous amounts of the greenhouse gasses that are warming the earth.

G8 Summit - last week 130,000 Avaaz members signed a petition in 48 hours calling for the G8 industrial countries to limit global warming to 2 degrees celsius - focusing on shaming 3 countries who were blocking progress. The petition was delivered at the summit to UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, along with giant personalized postcards.

Outside the summit, Avaaz members stripped down to green underwear in a humorous theatrical delivery of the campaign's message that generated substantial media coverage. As Avaaz and partners built pressure in Italy and around the world, the blocking countries relented, and the G8 leaders agreed to the 2 degree goal! However, they failed to agree on specific actions to make the goal a reality -- our challenge now is to make sure leaders live up to their rhetorical commitments with a binding global treaty at the UN summit in Copenhagen this December.

Iran Protests - our community rapidly responded to the election crisis in Iran with an opinion poll to gauge the views of ordinary Iranians, a petition to world leaders to withhold recognition of the new President until the crackdown on protests ceased, and a fundraiser to support technology that would allow Iranians to freely access the internet. The rapidly deteriorating security situation has made it difficult to conduct the poll (final word on that coming this week), but the technology fundraiser has raised over a hundred thousand dollars to support the best tools for Iranians to access the internet and communicate freely. The situation in Iran remains uncertain, and we will continue to both support freedom of expression and oppose those who would exploit this crisis to justify military action against Iran.

Japan climate targets - In Japan, we raised the alarm as the Prime Minister Taro Aso was about to choose a damagingly weak climate targets. Funded by small online donations, Avaaz ran a national opinion poll that showed that 63% of Japanese people wanted strong targets, publicized it in the press, in a full page ad in the country's largest business newspaper, and one in the Aso's favourite comic book. Internationally, Avaaz ran a front page ad in the Financial Times, and Avaaz members demonstrated and met with Japanese climate negotiators at summits in Paris and Bonn.

At last, the Prime Minister announced a target stronger than polluting industries had urged -- but far from strong enough to stop catastrophic climate change. So we redoubled the pressure with a widely-covered international press conference dubbing the Japanese leader "George W. Aso" -- comparing him to Bush for holding back progress on climate change.

Free Burma's political prisoners - Over 400,000 of us signed a major petition to UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon asking him to make the release of Nobel prize winning political prisoner Aung San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners his top priority. The petition was delivered in an extended meeting with Moon's office and in a press conference at the UN in New York. The UN chief issued a strong statement backing the release of Suu Kyi and traveled to Burma to attempt to meet with her, but was rebuffed by Burma's military junta. International pressure did cause the junta to delay a new show trial to extend Aung San Suu Kyi's prison sentence, but it will take much more pressure to secure her release.

United States and Torture - A global fundraiser and petition on stopping torture and closing Guantanamo prison allowed Avaaz to secure a giant, 9 story billboard just blocks from the White House in the heart of Washington DC to deliver our message -- but at the last minute the company selling the ad space refused, despite members of the US congress offering to help unveil the billboard in a press conference. Avaaz has now secured an alternative option for delivering our edgy message that will have Washington DC buzzing with our call for justice.

UN Climate Summit - At a major summit on climate change in Bonn, Avaaz recruited among members in Germany to help our partners organize a massive 500 person aerial photo spelling out 'Yes You Can' as a message to leaders discussing climate targets. It helped raise the profile and urgency of these faltering but urgent talks. Avaaz also sent a 16-person lobbying/activist team to the summit negotiations and members in 10 key countries joined "negotiator tracking teams" that are following and responding to urgent needs to press individual country negotiators at these summits.

Peru - Avaaz arranged with local indigenous and top political allies to deliver a global petition against new laws that would cause massive devastation to the Peruvian rainforest and its people, taking out an ad in the national newspaper. The ad and campaign generated much attention, and the domestic and international pressure worked, for now -- the Peruvian congress has revoked the controversial laws!

Israel - As Prime Minister Netanyahu prepared to make a speech responding to Obama's historic Cairo address and demand that Israel stop illegal settlements of Palestinian land, Avaaz took out a front page ad in a major newspaper - Haaretz - delivering a joint petition from global and Israeli Avaaz members edgily asking Netanyahu to 'be more like Obama' and stop the settlements. Netanyahu has so far refused, but we're helping to build an unprecedented wave of Israeli and global pressure and attention on this issue.

The petitions, fundraisers, rallies, and lobbying campaigns our community is doing are having an incredible impact. Avaaz has grown by 50,000 people a week and is now almost 3.6 million engaged citizens in every country of the world -- and we're truly global - operating in 14 languages our community has 25,000 members in Singapore, 35,000 in South Africa, 130,000 in Italy, 50,000 in Mexico... There hasn't really been a community like ours before, able to rapidly and effectively mobilize people power all over the world to the greatest needs and concerns of all human beings -- it's a reason for hope.

It's also an exciting journey -- looking forward to taking on the next 8 weeks, and 8 months, and 8 years together!

With hope,
Ricken, Alice, Pascal, Ben, Veronique, Paul, Graziela, Brett, Raluca, Luis, Raj, Milena, Paula, Iain, Taren, Margaret and the whole Avaaz team.

PS - To see some of the highlights of Avaaz campaigning in 2007 and 2008 and leave a comment, click here:
https://secure.avaaz.org/en/report_back_2/

And to check out other recent Avaaz campaigning highlights like our climate victory in Germany, our messages to Obama wall in DC, the delivery of our Swine Flu petition to the WHO, our Green Recovery march at G20 Summit in London, or our support to Tibetan organizations to break the blackout on their communications -- visit the Avaaz blog: http://www.avaaz.org/blog/en/.

ABOUT AVAAZ Avaaz.org is an independent, not-for-profit global campaigning organization that works to ensure that the views and values of the world's people inform global decision-making. (Avaaz means "voice" in many languages.) Avaaz receives no money from governments or corporations, and is staffed by a global team based in Ottawa, London, Rio de Janeiro, New York, Buenos Aires, and Geneva.

Thursday 9th July 2009

The current chaotic weather patterns are a neat reminder for us all of the havoc created when the natural balance of life is ignored just as my strange back pains all those years ago alerted me to my health problems. The discovery of oil and its derivatives came outside the current memory of most of us and therefore we probably believe life can be sustained with our current behaviour because we've never been caused to really think about it. We've gotten so used to just taking things from the Earth that we are able to cut down all the trees without thought or fear of the consequences but there will be an effect to our cause whether we know it or not.

If anyone is interested in the science behind the bigger picture of earth energies and cycles I recommend "Living Energies" by Callum Coates explaining the brilliant work of Viktor Schauberger which also includes some very real, efficient, natural, sustainable ways of harnessing energy enough for the whole world. What is more it has been published to stop any energy company taking the patent and hiding the plans to safe guard their huge profits at the cost of all our lives.

Before I knew about my cancer I was convinced of my own health and balance, to me the odd cigarette or the tonnes of sugar were counterbalanced by my cycling, aerobics and salads....I was wrong about that plus I hadn't even considered the effects of my mind on my overall health. I had unconsciously tucked away every uncomfortable emotion or thought form creating a swirling seething mass of malcontent and poison that was always destined to explode or bubble over at some point or at the very least contaminate everything.

This is exactly the same subconscious denial we are all employing with our treatment of the Earth as we extract what we need with no thought to tomorrow and the effects of our actions. Planet Earth is a living organism and as we continue to strip and pollute we are killing our host (just like cancer). Our current treatment of the Earth is as ridiculous as eating our own feet when we are hungry instead of gathering berries.

When I began turning my life around after recognising my own responsibility for creating my cancer I didn't know all the answers about whole balanced health but I did know if I set my intention to achieve wholeness and natural balance I placed myself in the right space (thoughts, forms and energy) to make informed choices.

If we (Man) intend to create a natural garden of Eden right here, if we intend to live heaven on Earth, if we intend to make Mother Earth the new Jerusalem we might begin by making our feelings know to the powerful governments of the world who are not seeing the bigger picture for some reason. We could begin by signing a petition to show our intention to the Russian, Japanese and Canadian governments trying to block a commitment to cap warming below 2 degrees.....

The world has just months left to agree on a binding global climate treaty -- humanity's best shot at preventing catastrophic global warming of more than 2 degrees celsius.

This week at the Italian-hosted G8 summit, Canada, Japan, and Russia are trying to veto the 2-degree limit -- and an immediate global outcry is needed to rescue it.

Click below to sign the worldwide petition -- an Avaaz team in Italy will deliver it directly to world leaders and through spectacular stunts on Thursday, bringing global media attention to shame the climate-wreckers and press them to back down. We urgently need at least 100,000 signatures -- click to sign:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/tcktcktck

Scientists say that if global warming rises past two degrees centigrade, the world's climate systems are very likely to spin out of control -- with searing droughts, sudden floods, and rising seas that spread poverty and force hundreds of millions to relocate.

In fact, such climate effects have already begun -- but we may be able to avert the worst, if urgent UN negotiations succeed this year in reaching a binding treaty. The UN talks, culminating in Copenhagen just six months from now, could launch a historic shift towards a clean-energy, green-recovery future that leaves the climate safe for future generations. But a few nations -- now led by Canada, Russia, and Japan -- have blocked-up the climate talks, endangering the treaty and our future.

The G8 leaders -- joined by eleven other heads of government at a parallel "Major Economies" meeting next door -- represent more than 80% of climate emissions. And this is the leaders' last in-person negotiation before the make-or-break Copenhagen summit.

We know last-moment pressure can change their policies: Avaaz members and other citizen groups flipped Canada's and Japan's position in the closing hours of the Bali UN climate summit in 2007, and campaigners won promises to double aid to Africa at the Gleneagles G8 meeting in 2005. (Of course, Italy's Berlusconi and others have betrayed those promises -- a reminder that we must insist on a legally binding treaty on climate.) Canada's Harper, Japan's Aso, and other leaders could face elections in coming weeks and months -- they can't afford global embarrassment at this summit. Sign the petition, send it to friends, and help rescue the climate target now:

From time to time in history, the forces align that make possible a fundamental shift in the conduct of human affairs. This year could be such a time. If we seize this moment -- if we choose, this year, to remake our economies and rebuild our relationship to the fragile ecosystems that sustain us -- we will leave our grandchildren a legacy etched in the burgeoning of glaciers and the currents of the sea.

Humanity's choice will be the sum of the decisions made by each of us, in our private lives and in our political actions. Together, let's choose the future.

With hope,

Ben, Taren, Iain, Alice W, Luis, Ricken, Pascal, Paula, Graziela, Paul, Brett, Milena, Margaret, Alice, Raluca, Raj, and the whole Avaaz team.

Tuesday 30th June 2009

Bringing things out into the light is a wonderful way of breathing new fresh air and life into old stagnant ways plus exposing ridiculous ideals which have become common place because nobody has thought to question them what with them previously being kept in the dark.

It's also a wonderfully peaceful way to bring about change and healing. My cancer thrived in the dark stagnant places within my body and by clearing my energy fields including physical, emotional, mental and spiritual I brought about amazing changes requiring little effort.

By creating a global intention of shining light we don't allow dark places to exist or thrive. In the UK the exposure of 'expenses' to the light has certainly led to change and an examination of true intention.

There is an opportunity for us to contribute towards more light being spread in other parts of the world too. For example in Iran freedom of information exchange via the Internet allowed the world to know what is really happening and stops certain acts being buried by darkness. If you would like to contribute towards helping those lines of information stay open then please go to Avaaz.org and help to dissolve the blackout.

The brutal crackdown on Iran’s streets is succeeding. Lethal shooting, beatings and mass arrests have driven millions off the streets, and a communications blackout is preventing them from communicating with each other and the world.

Ruling clerics are in crisis talks -- many are criticising the crackdown and calling for reform.

We urgently need to help Iranians get back on the internet to have their voices heard in Iran and the world. Secure and anonymous "proxy services" are helping people to bypass regime controls and get online -- but they're overloaded and running out of funds.3 A small donation of just $25 can provide bandwidth for hundreds of secure emails - if we raise $200,000 in the next 72 hours, we can help break the blackout:

Proxy services provide people with a single link at which they can freely access the internet. The link is changed every time the regime blocks access to it. With $200,000, we can scale up the proxy services massively -- providing more servers, bandwidth and advanced technical support.

The next two weeks are crucial. As Iran’s secret policemen cast their net far and wide, secure channels of communication are also critical to avoiding the crackdown. Scores have been killed and hundreds of human rights advocates, journalists, bloggers and peaceful protesters imprisoned. Although many more remain free, without safe ways to communicate they will face terrible risks.

After the crackdowns in Tibet and Burma, Avaaz members donated in our thousands to preserve the people’s basic human right to free communication and information. Overcoming censorship to make contact with each other and the world is crucial at these moments. Sharing information about the protests still flaring up around the provinces of Iran from Kurdish areas to the holy city of Qom, or uploading YouTube videos and first-hand reports of bravery and brutality to Iran’s million-plus weblogs and networks like Twitter, could make a huge difference. If the regime believe they can silence such reports, the crackdown will only worsen.

Legitimacy matters in Iran. From inspirational videos of million-strong marches to shocking evidence of militia violence, the truth will come out only if Iranians can communicate freely with each other. The clerical councils engaged in closed-door crisis talks are paying great attention to the voices being raised in their society. Let’s make sure Iran’s voices are not silenced – help break the blackout before it’s too late:

Wednesday 24th June 2009

Exposure and Evolution

One of the products or effects of the world wide belief in 'lack' and 'insufficiency' is the notion that some of us are more deserving of care and attention than others. When stated quite so blatantly we would probably disagree with such an uncivilised view but our actions bear out quite another scenario.

In the area of health with seemingly limited resources available folk quite often raise their voices to demand their 'fair share' of the available cash at the expense of others and we hear many arguments about who is the more deserving. The most common argument put forward is that smokers or obese people shouldn't get so much help as they helped to create their health problems. This view is looking at Man as a purely physical creature and ignoring or denying our emotional and mental aspects…never mind our spiritual roots!

Yet both a smoker and a heart disease patient have a distorted flow of energy resulting in ill health. In the animal kingdom diseased animals are left to die but we as humans have made a choice to evolve from this and to actively care for our sick. In living memory and maybe still today in the world lepers and those with AIDS are shunned and cast out to die whilst others in our civilised world believe that to be barbaric and consider themselves to be above such behaviour. In a higher evolved civilisation to shun and cast out those who are considered to have actively encouraged their own diseased state, such as smokers, drinkers and overeaters is also seen as barbaric and the sign of an immature society.

There is no judgement in being an immature society; it's just like noticing and understanding childish behaviour. Unless we show or seek another way of viewing life we don't learn and evolve.

If we smoke our body doesn't like it and if we were aware of our physical body we would notice the effects and stop but mostly we don't notice or sometimes we notice and continue anyway because the thing driving us to indulge in this unnatural behaviour has a stronger impulse within us. It is the voice we are listening to more intently because we believe it to be the more important voice. For example it is the voice telling us we will stay slimmer if we smoke, or we will look cooler and be more acceptable to society as we see it. It's easy for this voice to be the loudest because when we take a look around our society with its billboards and TV programmes it is a constant message being fed to us and we are happy to feed on it.

Age old decisions and habits created by Man which bring us the physical diseases of our modern age have long since been forgotten thereby allowing the complete disconnect between cause and effect. In fact the causes have been so long buried and forgotten we now mistakenly see effect as the cause and perpetuate the entire life depleting cycle. For example in modern medicine the treatment of symptoms rather than root cause is common place in the Western world. I had cancer which was cut out and my body bombarded with poison to kill off the remainder of the cancer cells and this was considered a way to heal me. By becoming more aware (a higher level of consciousness) and noticing cancer as the effect of toxins I have worked my way back to health by eliminating the origins of my toxins, physical, emotional, mental and spiritual. The very idea of eliminating poisons and toxins by pouring on stronger toxins is ludicrous but that is the basis of chemotherapy!

Any life depleting behaviour comes from a distortion of the natural well being flow of energy therefore a return to life enhancing behaviour puts us right back into the natural flow of well being just as placing ourselves into the natural flow of well being will create life enhancing behaviours. Condemning anyone for not being in the well being flow is ludicrous and doesn't help any one of us.

I always wonder in the fight for who gets what health care why do folk condemn politicians and doctors or hospital managers for their decisions but why does nobody ever stand up and ask why as a civilised society do we allow the production and research of medicines and health to be a commercial venture answering to shareholders demands?

If as a world we wish to evolve our civilisation why do we persist in spending so much money on warfare and defence. If our neighbours had as healthy a life as our own surely they wouldn't need to invade our land.

I'll not go right the way down that route as too many folk are really threatened by the idea of sharing. The illusionary threat of lack of abundance is another distortion of the universal flow of well being. From my own experiences with my cancer I have found that the way to eliminate these distortions and dispel illusions is to allow them to be seen and heard because the monster whispering in the darkness holds us in fear and freezes us on the spot but when we actively invite the monster in to chat with it and discover what it really is we quickly spot it is an impostor based in illusion. The Wizard of Oz was very frightening to everyone but once the curtain was pulled back the fear was revealed as illusionary.

Maybe it is time to pull back the curtain and see who or what is creating the illusion of 'insufficiency' and why. The illusion is being created for a reason and that reason is also life depleting therefore remember to view it as just another distortion of the universal flow of well being energy.

All ill health stems from a distortion of the natural order at some point. The health of the planet, the trees, the bees and the people are all intertwined and have a natural order, not like a set A.B, C linear progression but as a complex and diverse interaction.

This natural order is easy to follow if we take the time and effort to notice cause and effect. If I eat a certain plant and it causes me to vomit I don't eat it any more unless I intend to vomit perhaps because I have mistakenly eaten something poisonous. If I cut down all the trees in the world causing soil erosion and oxygen starvation I would stop doing that unless I intended to kill myself and take everything else down with me.

Many lifetimes ago I was on a ship in stormy seas and we were in trouble but we could have rowed ourselves to safety if we'd worked together and concentrated on where we wanted to go and the belief we wanted to live, however, my crew were all so struck by an overwhelming fear of dying they stood dumbstruck doing nothing to avert the disaster and ultimately became a self fulfilling prophecy taking me down with them.

Sometimes I can still feel how angry and frustrated I was with them all and I observe how I hate them all for their ridiculous behaviour which resulted in us all dying. Then other times I am compassionate because I do understand completely how we can all be struck and frozen with terror when faced with seemingly inevitable doom but we mustn't forget human beings are an amazingly powerful energetic force of nature and when two or more are gathered together with a like mind the synergy is awesome.

Rather than standing dumb struck looking at the vast tidal wave of filth and pollution threatening to overwhelm and kill us all we could concentrate on pulling together with a common image of where we wish to go. Imagery is very important for creating and there is all too much negative imagery in this world already but very little common positive imagery because we immediately get bogged down into cultural differences but these differences are miniscule when we view Man as the powerful spiritual being we all really are. The colour of our skin, the differing Mother tongue or geographical locations are all as irrelevant as our blood groups or the size of our feet when we view Man from our highest level of existence.

A positive vision of where we are going shows Man creating and living in a civilisation which accepts all as a wonderfully natural diversity of life no different to individual snowflakes. A civilisation which is aware of the difference between life enhancing and life depleting behaviour at all levels and positively encourages all behaviour to be seen and heard thereby allowing it to be recognised for what it is. When we recognise and understand we have great power to change.

For example, there is a flurry of child abuse books on the UK market and hurrah for that because we are as a society allowing these children (now adults but still wounded children) to tell their story without judgement. It seems ludicrous we would ever judge these children but from their stories it is obvious we do because society likes to tuck away the things which make us uncomfortable and pretend they are not happening but if we continue to pretend life depleting behaviour isn't happening we can't ever hope to change the situation and create the civilisation we hope to have.

The more uncomfortable we feel about a certain subject the greater good comes from exposing it warts and all. If we are uncomfortable about reading an abused child's account of life we are even more uncomfortable about seeing the abuser's role as just another distortion of the universal well being flow of energy. It is this discomfort which makes us throw these people into prison, lock them away and shun them…which takes me right back to the immature civilisations which shun their sick.

If somebody is sick and we believe the sickness can be spread we isolate the person and help them back to full health. This holds true for all life depleting energy forms from bubonic plague to child abuse. If we all worked on allowing our discomfort of that notion to be present so that we could examine its origins the consciousness of the world would take a giant step forward as many dysfunctional and life depleting practices and behaviours we hold as 'normal' would be exposed for the ridiculous notions they are much like chemotherapy for toxic bodies.

I could no more return to health by denying and shunning my cancer than the world can regain full health by denying and shunning abusers.

Imagine a future world where we are all comfortable with being uncomfortable because by being comfortable with being uncomfortable we actually eliminate discomfort! When everything is allowed to be exposed and noticed (i.e. we have full conscious awareness) we have no reason to be uncomfortable and when we have no reason to be uncomfortable nothing is hidden away. When nothing is hidden away we all know exactly what we are doing and why. When we all know exactly what we are doing and why it is easy to change course if we choose and stay with the life enhancing flow.

If it had been a clear choice to my crew about a life and death decision they would have chosen an action aligned with their intention but as it was they were so clouded by fear they forgot they had choices and forgot their own power. Fear lives and grows by creating images of Man as weak and powerless beings subject to random whims of nature, in effect a self perpetuating cycle. If I believe I am weak and powerless I will not try to change anything and thus I am effectively weak and powerless.

How about putting all our energies into a common view of Man as a powerful being creating this very world with our thoughts…..which is in fact what we are doing with all our limited and negative ones!

Even if I don't really believe right now I am capable of walking a path without falling flat on my face because everyone tells me that is how it is, the only way to realistically discover the truth is to start walking down the path.

Those who sit at home and say they can't have sealed their fate but we can all change our life immediately by changing our mind. Even though we may spend our entire lives or evolution living against the natural flow of well being the moment we let go of life depleting thoughts we are swept up in the natural flow…..yes it does make you cough and splutter for a while and scare the living daylights out of you but you will always surface.

I was found floating face down in my lake as a three year old but I was fine when they pulled me out and I certainly went under a few times once I started to dissect my cancer and let loose the floods of emotion and mental torment but with my eye always staying on where this perceived drowning was taking me and my firm belief in the natural flow of well being I give myself no cause to not take the plunge.

All the pain and suffering of the world via recession, pandemics, global warming, deforestation, soil erosion, oxygen depletion, water pollution etc. becomes a cause for celebration when it is the natural effect of our intention to create a bright future.

Neda may be physically dead but how many thousands of lives has she saved and turned to a bright future? She truly is an angel.

Wednesday 10th June 2009

It doesn't take a genius to work out that as we breathe in oxygen and breathe out carbon dioxide we need plants to survive as they take in CO2 and create oxygen. Trees in particular are exceptionally important for our survival. We may not be able to notice the disappearing oxygen because we are effectively at the bottom of a bucket, the bucket being the atmosphere but we will notice the oxygen leaving the bucket when the last drops go.....

This is not a time to sit idly at home watching X Factor and hoping someone else will sort out the terrible effects of global warming (all the space left by the oxygen is filling up with CO2 instead). If we are serious about saving the very living organism we are sat upon then we need to make our feelings clear. Don't assume your government wouldn't do anything as ridiculously stupid as support measures which will effectively kill us all because they already are! We may have voted in idiots but we don't have to silently sit by whilst they do nothing. If the world speaks as one voice then the world has to sit up and listen. Be the voice.

From Avaaz.org: The Peruvian government has pushed through legislation that could allow extractive and large-scale farming companies to rapidly destroy their Amazon rainforest.

Indigenous peoples have peacefully protested for two months demanding their lawful say in decrees that will contribute to the devastation of the Amazon's ecology and peoples, and be disastrous for the global climate. But last weekend President Garcia responded: sending in special forces to suppress protests in violent clashes, and labelling the protesters as terrorists.

These indigenous groups are on the frontline of the struggle to protect our earth -- Let's stand with them and call on President Alan Garcia (who is widely known to be sensitive to his international reputation) to immediately stop the violence and open up dialogue. Click below to sign the urgent global petition and a prominent and well-respected Latin-American politician will deliver it to the government on our behalf.

http://www.avaaz.org/en/peru_stop_violence

More than 70 per cent of the Peruvian Amazon is now up for grabs. Giant oil and gas companies, like the Anglo-French Perenco and the North Americans ConocoPhillips and Talisman Energy, have already pledged multi-billionaire investments in the region. These extractive industries have a very poor record of bringing benefits to local people and preserving the environment in developing countries - which is why indigenous groups are asking for internationally-recognized rights to consultation on the new laws.

For decades the world and indigenous peoples have watched as extractive industries devastated the rainforest that is home to some and a vital treasure to us all (some climate scientists call the Amazon the "lungs of the planet" - breathing in the carbon emissions that cause global warming and producing oxygen).

The protests in Peru are the biggest yet and the most desperate, we can't afford to let them fail. Sign the petition, and encourage your friends and family to join us, so we can help bring justice to the indigenous peoples of Peru and prevent further acts of violence from all parties.

There was a short article about my decision to come here in the Finnish newspaper Etelä Suomen sanomat on Saturday which is also available to read online (Finnish only)

I will be giving a talk about reiki and energy healing at Ultra magazine's spring open day on Thursday 21st May. For more details see here (Finnish only)

Lady's Mantle

This beautiful graceful plant is fairly inconspicuous because the flowers are as green as the rest of the plant but it's shape and form are uniquely feminine giving us an indication of its most useful properties. Lady's mantle really is a wonderful plant for the ladies easing both menstrual and menopausal problems including lumpy breasts but especially excessive menstruation due to its styptic properties. It is a wonderful wound healer very effectively drying them out. The young leaves can be added to salads but I usually use the whole plant dried and infused as tea. Remember to collect the plant before or when it is in bloom because the curative power returns to the roots after flowering. The whole upper plant is gathered and dried for use out of season. An infusion also stops diarrhoea

It's astringent and strengthening effect gives tone and elasticity to spongy flabby tissue (add to bathwater). It's especially good for skin care either taken internally as an infusion or externally as a wash The dew collecting in the leaves has magical properties forming an ingredient of many mystical brew....

Spring salad

This is a wonderful time of the year for adding raw young leaves and shoots to a salad bowl giving your body an amazing boost of nutrients, minerals and vitamins. Contained in young plants is all the awesome power and strength needed to grow into full bloom and when we ingest that power intentionally we are literally soaking ourselves in the well being flow of the Universal energy. Now you won't find that on the shelves in Tescos.... All the plants below are added together with a little lettuce and some fresh chives from the garden to produce a fresh power packed meal helping to eliminate toxins and boost the immune system. Nobody likes ground elder (below right) because it takes over your garden and is really hard to get rid of but you can get your own back by eating the young leaves as they diuretic and sedative being especially good for gout and achy joints, in fact ground elder is also known as goutweed. The leaves are abundant in iron and vitamin C 200mg/100g, almost twice the amount of brussel sprouts! Dandelion leaves also contain a lot of vitamin C 115mg/100g (the equivalent of sprouts) and are also diuretic and a tonic...hence the bitter taste. I always use them in place of rocket.

The young shoots of the willow herb (above left) are abundant in Vitamin C and have a demulcent (soothing inflammation), astringent and tonic effect. They can be boiled and apparently taste like asparagus but I just add them raw to salads. The picture shows the young willow herb shoots before chopping and in the background the ground elder leaves and dandelions. A salad doesn't come fresher than this!

One of the best things about eating these plants as they come into the garden and forest is I know I am in tune with natural cycles therefore eating them strengthens my connection to the natural flow of life.

Wednesday 6th May 2009

This spring I am listing all the wild plants I use for both nutritional and medicinal purposes as I begin to use them. The idea is to inspire other folk to find a good reference book, put on a pair of boots and go check out their local neighbourhood to find their own remedies.

Coltsfoot (tussilago farfara)

The bright yellow flowers of coltsfoot are the first flower to come through the dead grass and leaves after the long winter snow has melted. The flowers arrive before the leaves and welcome in the newly arriving spring energy. It is no coincidence that Mother Nature provides these wonderful flowers as soon as the winter subsides because they are the best medicine for clearing out all the rubbish, catarrh and phlegm from our chests. Both the leaves which come along later or the flowers can be dried and used to make an infusion which can be used to ease bronchial congestion. I usually add some extra blackcurrant juice when I give it to my daughter.

The name tussilago literally means cough dispeller!

Years ago the dried leaves were smoked to relieve asthma but I haven't tried that myself!

This year I am making a cough syrup from coltsfoot flowers and honey. I create an infusion from the dried flowers (drying them helps to break down the cell wall and releasse more of the active contents), then heat it gently to reduce it by half without allowing it to simmer and then mixing it with fresh honey. This can be bottled and keeps very well in a cool place. A tincture of coltfoot is also very effective. Collect fresh flowers and cover them in a glass jar with your chosen medium, alcohol, vinegar or glycerine and store in a dark place for at least 6 weeks. The plants pieces must be completely covered by the liquid to ensure it doesn't rot. The mixture can be kept for longer as many Chinese medicines are or decanted and filtered. All potions are kept in dark glass away from sunlight to preserve the active ingredients.

I use my own coltsfoot flower essence created from fresh untouched flowers to bring light to situations just like the Coltfoot flowers are the first brightness of spring emerging from the brown landscape. As the coltfoot flowers clears away the physical rubbish from my chest after the long winter so too the essence clears all the old rubbish of darkness and clinging mucus from my mind.

Wednesday 22nd April 2009

If you would like an inspiring photograph carrying the message: You are a gift and when you give of that gift and share yourself you light up the world Give no energy to doubt. To hide any piece of you is a tragedy for us all. If you ever notice yourself questioning or ignoring inspiration please read this and remind yourself of Who You Really Are.

Then go to Inspiring photos. There is enough darkness being spread, send these out and spread some light instead!

Monday 6th April 2009

I'm still up to my eyeballs in snow and walking across my lake every morning despite the large number of returning birds coming to make nests and raise their new families. There have been a few attempts by the weather to melt the everything but mostly we've just had more snow!

As usual at this time of year the forest gravel roads are in an awful state and my car is permanently brown with mud. Where the snow has melted everything looks brown and dull. This is what I call chaos. Just like when we are growing and evolving there are times when the old structures are breaking down and we have a period where there is nothing except broken down stuff and chaos surrounding us. It's easy to lose your nerve at this point but just as the spring time new growth is implicit in these muddy times so too our own personal new growth and new beginnings are implicit from the chaos.

Enjoy the chaos because it is a time to celebrate. You are clearing the ground to make room for the new even greater version of Who You Are. In Finland we have been celebrating the new spring energy by growing new grass on our windowsills and decorating budding willow twigs with brightly coloured tissue paper and feathers to represent the flowers that are coming. It may still be white outside but winter is over and an opportunity to create a new world is upon us. My conscious creation of a new type of garden has begun with all the seeds I am growing indoors.

Notice the chaos in our financial world too and rejoice that an opportunity for the creation of a wonderful new world is upon us. Now is the time for us to consciously decide where we want to go and where we will put our mind energy. Where we put our mind is where our energy goes and our energy creates. What world would you create now?

Tuesday March 24th 2009

Even though as always at this time of year there is still snow everywhere and everything is frozen, we still think of March as being a spring month. The days are much longer (the equinox was Friday), the sun shine feels different and the general energy is one of spring time. Many times I sit out on my garden swing basking in the sunshine, looking up at incredible bright blue skies with occasional fluffy white clouds set starkly against the dark green tops of the spruce trees, the birds all singing their new spring time songs and I totally forget where I am....my mind is always confused when I glance back down and the world is a dazzling white! Who put all that there! On Sunday I cut a hole through the ice...no mean feat as it was at least half a metre thick, so that I could take a dip in the icy lake during my sauna. I put the metal ladder back in place at the end of the pier...into said hole.

The ladder is taken away each winter to prevent the thick ice from bending and mangling it. However, by the time I had my sauna the night temperature had dropped to -6 and I found my hand started to stick to the metal rungs so I gave the dip a miss! I can't and never want to imagine being wet, naked and stuck to a metal ladder on a Sunday evening trying to call for help.

I'm keeping the hole open for future use with my axe...much easier than using an ice saw but I do get a lot wetter plus I look very strange with my eye protectors on. I've had ice chips fly into my eyes before and they are dangerous. I've even sliced my hand on ice before.

I've spotted tracks in my garden belonging to a lynx getting increasingly closer to the house which is very exciting! The last tracks are only 20m from my front door. On a sadder note I have decided that this will be the last time I tell about the animals which visit around here because of people who want to hunt and kill everything. It seems that the wolves have gone, some shot (illegally) and the rest have left for safer places (if there are any left in the world!) but worst of all was my friend the beaver being hunted and killed.

It seems that some Men (in the general sense of mankind) have some reason to want to destroy other beings on the most flimsiest reason (is there ever a good reason? ). Man chooses to live outside of the principal that We Are All One. Perpetuating the idea of us as separate beings by every action Man takes we build a world of separation and isolation.....we create a world of pain and suffering....some would call it hell.

Killing a few animals around here pales into insignificance when we look at our actions in cutting forests all over the world. The very places which provide us with our oxygen! This illusion we all subscribe to that we are outside the natural order and natural cycles is at best ridiculous and at worst lethal.

If we don't stand up and actively (consciously) change the beliefs our society is underpinned by, the principal of separation, we will all bear the consequences. Of course if you truly believe yourself to be separate keep going with that and see how it works for you.

Tuesday 10th March 2009

Last week I entered a few details, such as my name and email address, pressed a button and I became a Reverend! I can't say that it felt like a reverential moment but it did start me wondering about the idea of symbolism and where is the line drawn signifying that we have taken it too far? The web site quite rightly stated that it wasn't the entering of my details which made me a Reverend but my intentions. My particular intention was to follow the flow of ideas and explore what had lead me to that site. Firstly, it brought up so many questions about marriage (being able to perform a wedding ceremony being the main reason most folk go down that route), laws and society...way too many to list here, I won't bore you with them! What makes Man believe that certain powers can only be bestowed on certain people whilst the rest of us have to go to these special people for comfort, wisdom and blessings? We are all equal in our potential abilities whilst at the same time we are individual and embody a passion for particular aspects. This is where the line is drawn. I may seek a teacher of healing to show me what they know when I am discovering a new aspect of me, yet as I grow the energy of healing grows within me to the pattern of me and I form my own unique ideas and manifestations in a way which makes sense to me. Almost like a giant jigsaw, my pieces are shaped differently and therefore fit together in a unique way but still form the same picture when completed...that picture being the whole of creation.

Ultimately to really know a subject you have to be a subject. If I observe a tree from all the possible perspectives that I know, up, down, above, below, taste it, smell it, touch it, listen to it and watch it over time then I have gathered a great deal of knowledge....more than most other Men but to really know a tree I must be a tree.

Maybe that is why we have these Reverends conducting wedding ceremonies for us because they are knowledgeable about Union having studied the Union of Man and God (Universe, All That Is).

That idea suits the purpose of marriage and seems like a fairly logical notion until we cross the line and start believing that it is only through such church folk that we can experience the Union of All That Is. That is when we begin to limit who we are and instead create an unhealthy illusion about the church.

You can hold anything and everything outside of yourself to be symbolic of something but without the inner truth or experience that symbol is empty and useless.

There are symbols used in Reiki and there are some folk who think that they can read them from a book and have access to the power of the symbol. Unfortunately the power lies in the intention of the user. In reality everyone has the same power within them whether they have attended a Reiki attunement or not but the person attending an attunement has given a powerful affirmation to themselves of their belief in their own inner power...and thus they have it.

Those who seek this power from a scribbled symbol in a book believe that they can find power that way, they believe all power lies outside of the self. So they continue to seek and acquire objects of power outside of the self such as stones, CD's, books, courses, cars, jobs, images, self images, the list is endless but the underlying truth doesn't change. Power lies within each of us and we can collect stuff without until we are totally exhausted and suffocating under the piles of acquisitions but we will still not be using our power.

Worse than that because folk continually seek obsessively outside they will never find their power which literally is under their nose.

Reminding ourselves constantly to the source of our power is vital because it is so easy to get caught up in the collective consciousness of seeking power through a puffed up ego. The ego is not the 'bad' guy, it is just limited in its perspective and thus can never know the whole truth of reality.

If I'm brutally honest with myself that was the aspect of me that led me onto the site to become a Reverend. It is very easy to become complacent after we have spotted our ego at work believing that we now have a handle on it but it doesn't go away all the time we are living in this world and is a master of slipping back in through the back door!

Know yourself and recognise yourself in everything you do.

N.B.: I wrote this from the perspective of someone who's intention is to experience themselves as more than their ego but I recognise that we all have a choice in our experiences and some others will have different intentions...so as with all other things, don't believe a word I say but figure it out for yourself as you probably have different pieces to your jigsaw!

Sunday 1st March 2009

When I first thought about moving here all those years ago I had assumed that it would involve sacrifices and compromises like having to give up a local fish and chip shop but gaining a forest and lake full of abundant and organic food!

In the main however,things were not a sacrifice to give up but actually became a gift as they lifted me above the manic ideals of a materialistic world which had only served to strengthened the illusion that there was something we needed to do or possess or be in order to find inner peace.

One of my larger erroneous assumptions was that of the long, dark, cold and bleak winters which I would have to endure in order to have the wonderful springs, summers and autumns....boy was I ever wrong about that!

For starters, the darkness wasn't so long after all and with the covering of snow and so many bright sunny days I felt that the winters here were lighter than damp British ones. My house was built by Finns and therefore it doesn't require a constant fire or huge heating bills to remain cosy...in fact over the past 6 winters because I collect and chop most of my wood myself my heating bill has been about €600 (factoring in petrol for my car and chainsaw) for the whole time, yes really €100 per year.

From my photo galleries it is obvious that I have found great joy in discovering the beauty of winter too, where the landscape changes daily creating fascinating new delights for me to enthuse over.

The greatest gift in terms of pulling me out of the old ways is the thick blanket of snow which covers all my work in progress, all of those jobs that I'm doing where I think that I'll just do another bit of that and then I'll rest. It's so easy to get caught up in this idea that we should always be doing something, despite the fact that we are human beings and not human doings!

The natural cycle of seasons takes no notice of the illusions of my human mind and winter with its solidity and insulation rolls on in each year forcing me to drop all the things I was doing and to sit in silent contemplation, taking stock of where I am and allowing time for the deep integration of all the changes I have been through since the new growth of the spring, the blossoming of summer and the letting go of the autumn.

This time of stillness is an important part of any natural cycle and it is one which is most often overlooked. Even in our healing journeys we can sometimes be too eager after a big clearance to jump straight into clearing the next energy blockage because we notice how much lighter we are feeling and of course we want more!

That was a trap I fell into a few years back because I was so intent on cleansing myself that I ended up distorting my intention....as I was constantly focusing on clearing away stuff I was subscribing to the illusion that I wasn't good enough the way I was, which in effect put me right back to where I had started! Doh!

Stillness and just sitting in the moment increases our awareness and with increased awareness some of the rubbish we wanted to clear away ceases to exist as it melts away with the disappearing illusion of our limited self.

We don't have to wait for the winter either as there are other cycles within our day or month or week where stillness is not only appropriate but life enhancing.

Of course, as with all things here, don't take my word for it but see for yourself.

Friday 27th February 2009

We often hear references to this word spirituality like it is something we do on a certain day such as Sunday, or maybe we attend that course on a Tuesday night…these are our spiritual times. Other folk try a few books and courses but decide that this spirituality isn't for me. But spirituality isn't really something 'out there' which we can pick and choose any more than we can pick and choose if we have a heart pumping our blood round our physical body. We are spiritual beings; there is more to us than the physical body and the mind which runs so much of our life in this incarnation. Ignoring the spiritual aspect of our essence is as life depleting as ignoring our physical heart aspect. We can ignore the health of our heart all we like….and many of us do! But the life depleting effects of that neglect and ill treatment will still manifest. I often say that we may stick our heads in the sand but we are still responsible for the stuff coming out of our arse!

So do we all need to go off on spiritual courses? No! Because we are essentially spiritual beings already, we don't need a good class or a great book to convert us into anything, we already are that which we are.

Spiritual good health and wellbeing comes from recognising our spirituality and being aware of its existence in everything that we do.

For example when I am sorting out my rubbish my physical aspect is satisfied with picking up rubbish as I see it and placing it into a receptacle so that I don't fall over it.

From the mental aspect I find it pleasing to have a tidy home and when I sort my rubbish into the various types I feel satisfied that I am a good citizen and have done my bit with recycling by taking everything into town to the recycling bins.

My spiritual aspect encompasses a world view noticing and being aware of precisely the effect each individual type of rubbish will have throughout the planet (ultimately the universe). My responsibility doesn't end when the rubbish leaves my sight or thoughts because it doesn't suddenly just vanish out of existence just because I have conveniently placed it out of sight and mind. The effects of my rubbish are still there, some of them changing form quite rapidly and others more slowly, some serving a useful purpose and some not.

Just because we don't see something doesn't mean that it doesn't have an effect on us, radiation and love are two prime examples of that and the same holds true for the spiritual aspects of the human energy field.

On a purely physical level if my big toe is infected it affects the whole of my physical being because I am thrown out of balance but if I am otherwise healthy my natural defence systems will deal with the infection. Imagine if my big toe with its limited perspective picked up the infection and threw it into my little toe thinking that it had done its job and everything was now fine because it wasn't aware that all toes are part of the same system, the same being…imagine how ridiculous that might look to someone who was more aware and could see the obvious connection between the big and little toe.

Some folk shy away from their greater awareness because they don't like the responsibility it brings to them and some folk just have no idea of how powerful they are. Regardless of our individual take on the matter all humans are part of the whole and in our greatest spiritual capacity we are the whole. Whether we know it or not when we deliberately hurt another we have deliberately hurt ourselves which is quite the opposite of love whichever way you look at it.

Of course we all have free will, so if you actively chosen to spend your life punching yourself in the face and covering yourself in garbage then please continue and I'm sorry to have distracted you.

As an extra incentive to explore your greater nature…..it is your spiritual levels which manifest into the physical and not the other way round. Our aura doesn't shine out from our physical body, our aura manifests down through the levels creating more dense matter through each subsequent layer until the physical manifestation of the human body. The kinks and distortions of the physical body are directly attributable to the kinks and distortions of all the previous layers of the human energy field.

Now are you interested in knowing more about your spiritual self?

Wednesday 25th February 2009

The basic and simple truth of who we are naturally underpins all healing sessions and therefore when I write a follow up letter to my guests the simple truths are the same for everyone and with that in mind I would like to share this particular communication as an open letter. The details of the healing and the 'story' behind it are not relevant. Dear S, Remember that if you are providing your children with the best food and nutrition through your fear that something bad will happen to them if you don't then really you are feeding them with fear. I once treated a young man who followed a diet of raw, organic food and was slowly being crippled by his muscles seizing up. Why? Because he was eating the raw organic diet through fear of what would happen to him if he didn't…therefore every mouthful he took was a new piece of fear, fear was his staple diet regardless of the physical attributes of the food he ingested. This holds true for everything we do, it is the underlying energy that makes our actions life enhancing or life depleting.

Your children are sensitive energetic beings (just like yourself!) and they are infused with the atmosphere surrounding them. If the atmosphere around them is based on constant fear of stopping something bad happening to them they will grow up with belief systems reflecting that reality…the world is dangerous will become their core programme.

The way to change their belief is for you to change your belief and thereby change your environment. .

The way to change your belief is to first see and accept your belief for what it is right now, which is what we did in our session. Once you have uncovered it and understood it on all levels (this is why the re-experiencing of it is important because the memory is activated on all levels of your energy field) then you are in a position to change your mind about it. The beliefs we hold from our childhood or past lives may no longer be valid or appropriate for who we are right now and so we exercise our free will to change them. It is as simple as that. But you cannot change something if you don't know it exists in the first place. Notice if you try to change beliefs by force because the energy behind changing something forcefully is a fear based energy……and you don't want to be immersing yourself in fear. Or do you? Free will, choice and all that!

Allow the way you are to be present without thought of changing it. If we begin to judge it as a 'good' choice or a 'bad' choice we are back to judging ourselves and when we are judging ourselves we are coming from a place of 'I am not good enough right now'. Again it is your choice to live from that belief system but from our conversations that was not your purpose or intention.

So, we remain consciously aware of the erroneous belief we hold (with no judgement) and at the same time we examine what is our purpose or intention right now, where are we going and what are our dreams and desires. Your purpose is to create a life enhancing environment for your children to grow up (as per our conversations) and you are now aware that your own energetic field (environment) is an important aspect of the equation…and more importantly, your energy vibration is something you are uniquely responsible for and therefore you are beautifully placed to create your own heaven on earth in which to nurture your children. Dare to believe.

Remembering also that your children are powerful light beings in their own right and have their own journey to experience. Who is to say that the Good Samaritan wasn't an interfering person trying to sate their own ego!!

Remember that what you have been doing was driven by a guilt ridden ego mind trying to rectify a 'wrong' from previous lives, trying to heal a wound but the wound was an illusion created by the mind in the first place. There is no 'wrong' when you are expanded to take in the whole, the 'wrong' only exists as one aspect of the dualistic state of the ego mind.

When you are coming from your place of guilt then you are not unconditionally loving your children, you are in fact using them to heal the wound that your ego mind believes to be real.

It is only when you can let go of the guilt either by seeing it as the self destructive force that it is or by seeing how it actually takes you further away from your intention to create a life enhancing environment for your children or by seeing that everything is perfect just as it is and there the idea that there is something to fix is an illusion of the limited mind and when you expand your conscious awareness the illusion disappears….then you are in the flow, then your actions are life enhancing or natural, then you are coming from essence, then you are being who you really are….a powerful energetic being of light….and from that place you do create a wonderfully life enhancing environment, you are shining your light!

At that point you will have no need to protect anyone because there is nothing to protect them from…..in fact at that point is there no 'them' for we are all one. Whether you actively spend all your time in this expanded state doesn't matter, the reality and the truth of it will still remain. I may not always be actively aware of my vertebrae but they are always there doing their thing anyway! The same thing holds true for the whole of creation. Imagine if an individual cell in your body thought that it was all that was….in other words developed an ego mind, then it would fear death and would go to extraordinary lengths to stop the natural cycle of life and death, inventing all sorts of scenarios to explain what was happening and why it had to fight the natural cycle instead of dying off naturally and being processed by the body into a new form. Imagine the same scenario with a caterpillar turning into a butterfly. Imagine summer fighting against autumn coming because it feared it would be the end of all things in existence. From an expanded state of awareness the illusions of the ego mind are equally ridiculous and unnatural.

Inner Child

Your inner child is still desperately fighting and manipulating to get 'unconditional love' from her parents, she is still desperately seeking approval for who she is by hiding away all the 'bad' things she does and trying so hard to do all the 'good' things that get approval even if she doesn't like doing them…..and quite frankly she is exhausted but bless her she is too frightened and panicked to see that she is fighting an illusion. She still believes that her very existence depends on her getting it right! That is why it brings up existential terror when challenged.

This is where you step up as adult S and the next time you notice her kicking up about something (remember that you will notice because you are practicing expanding your awareness so you can observe it happening without the whole of you being immersed in the drama and therefore believing it to be real) you scoop her up in your arms (use a pillow or teddy or just your imagination, whatever works best for you) and hold her in love, the unconditional love that you hold your own children in. It doesn't matter if the monsters she fears don't really exist, you know that but she doesn't and therefore her fear is real to her so hold her and allow her to express that fear in whatever way she does.

Take your stick to the cushion and beat it, write out all the foul diatribe which pours from her mouth, scream that primal note which captures the essence of her fear and frustration…whatever outlet is used let it be allowed however it is. Obviously doing this in the biscuit aisle in Sainsburys is not great and will probably add more issues to your current pile, also screaming and abusing another person will also create more problems so if you are in an inappropriate place or time when your inner child comes screaming to the surface of your conscious awareness then notice the moment, notice the feelings, let your child know that she has been seen and set your intention to revisit the experience at a more appropriate time. Time is an arbitrary measurement which we use in our lives but it isn't important for healing, it is your intention which is important, so you set your intention to heal. Every time you allow your inner child to express that which was previously not allowed to be expressed you release old stuck energy and therefore the natural flow of energy within you is enhanced, allowing you to feel and become aware of more stuck areas and so on and so on. You become more in alignment with the natural flow of the universe. You felt afraid that there was so much stuck energy and old wounds in you that this process would continue forever. Let yourself be aware of that fear and allow it to be there, don't pretend to yourself that it isn't a concern (because it appears that way to all of us at first) but at the same time allow yourself to trust in the natural flow of cycles.

Trust, that even if you cannot see right now how this situation will unravel itself you have an inner trust (knowing) that it will. We already have a mindless trust that our cells will regenerate, that the autumn follows the summer and the winter follows the autumn and the spring will re-emerge with new growth…..we don't need to 'do' anything to make it happen. The same applies to this situation, everything will naturally re-balance when we let go and allow it to happen.

There is an old saying…let go and let God. Maybe you don't like the word God to be used here but you can substitute it for whatever you would use for the oneness of all creation. It doesn't matter which word you use, words are just symbols, the meaning they have depends on your intentions and the meaning you give them.

At some point in the future when you have been through this process with your inner child enough times you notice a pattern emerging, you have re-parented yourself with an unconditional parent….the adult you. The adult you loves your inner child no matter what arises and in this way the fragmented parts of your soul come together, the adult self and the inner child are reunited and you have learnt to love yourself because you are constantly practising it with your inner child. Now you have stepped into a life enhancing cycle and one day you will consciously see the whole cycle as you are part of it and the whole of it at the same time.

Even on days when you realise that you stepped out of the life enhancing cycle and stepped back into the fear based one…the moment you notice what you are doing you choose again where to step. If you are compassionate with yourself about slipping back into the old patterns, if you forgive yourself and hold no guilt then immediately you have stepped back into the life enhancing cycle of unconditional love.

When you are conscious of this cycle you are ready to live life as it comes regardless of the form it takes. You will have no need to try and control energy waves sorting them into 'good' and 'bad' so that you only experience the 'good' skipping through the daisies stuff. Now sadness, grief and anger will pass through you as energy waves which you experience with no attachment because they no longer define who you are. The experience remains just an experience which you have experienced, nothing more and nothing less. Now you see that if all experiences are just that….experiences….then even if you are experiencing a complete lack of faith in any of this then it doesn't matter because what you are experiencing is just an experience…enjoy it and let it go so that the next wave of experience can flow through you. J

Keep stepping back to embrace the whole of you…if your mind is unforgiving then step back and be ok that your mind is unforgiving…forgive yourself for being unforgiving…and if you can't forgive yourself for being unforgiving then be ok with that and forgive yourself for being unforgiving about being unforgiving etc etc. However big your mind can expand you are always bigger than that because you are more than your mind and therefore you can always embrace it.

You are a powerful creative being, your thoughts create your reality and if you hold onto an experience and make it more than it really is then you really will make it more than it really is…..thusly your distorted world was created in the first place.

Tuesday 27th January 2009

According to my calendar today is Vainojen Uhrien Muistopäivä which is a remembrance day for the victims of persecution. I don't know if it particularly relates to what we know as the Holocaust but I don't feel the need to differentiate between any victims of persecution.

It was whilst I was looking up the date that I came across some information about the persecution of Finns by the Swedes. It seemed unreal to me that thoughts of genocide could have existed in these parts and was horrified to read about the Swedish National Institution for Racial Hygiene which existed until 1976 (yes that is 1976). Little wonder that my rock star friend tells me that Stockholm is the world capital for white supremist rock.

Of course it's not all Swedes that think like that and not all who think like that are Swedes....the British Empire was no tea party. With so much racial and cultural fear and prejudice in our world I suppose it wasn't a coincidence that I received in my mail box a request from Avaaz.org to write to the BBC asking them to air the charitable appeal for humanitarian aid to hundreds of thousands of civilians in Gaza. For some reason the BBC think that showing it will make them seem to be taking sides...seems to me that by not showing they are equally seen to take sides, the side of insanity and violence.

Whilst I understand the fascination with preserving some of our genetic traits...could we imagine killing off our children that were born without the hair colour we want to keep? After pondering that for a while I realised that there is quite a sizeable group that would answer yes to that question...although the selection process would happen before the foetus got to look like a child...perhaps..... Similarly, many problems in my holistic healing practice come down to an unbalanced identification with the physical self. We are all so much more than our physical body...we are so much more than our body and mind and yet so many people can't recognise that. Imagine the energetic body of somebody who believes that their perfect existence relies on everyone being a blue eyed blonde. Imagine the energetic body (or spirit or soul) of someone who believes that their perfect existence (their kingdom of heaven) relies on everyone being a certain religion...that everyone must view God in the same way or it spoils....what? What does it spoil?

We are much more than we know...by being open to our greatness and being happy and peaceful about exploring our power we can finally step out of this notion that we (our soul) is contained completely and uniquely within this box we call a body and is controlled purely by our mind which sits in our brain somewhere. If that were true I could maybe understand why we might fight over a small piece of land so that we can stick our box on it and claim it as ours.

The thought forms of all those people believing in their limited existence is creating their world and thereby confirming and validating their beliefs back to them. I've seen that cycle time again on the smaller scale of holistic healing with individuals and it doesn't usually end until the suffering caused by the vicious cycle they are stuck in becomes so excruciatingly painful that it eventually becomes bigger than the existential fear of annihilation that caused them to fight and defend in the first place. In other words most folk have to hit absolute rock bottom before they gather the strength, courage or motivation to change their behaviour. Sad but true.

Sometimes it happens that the suffering has gone on for so long that folk eventually run out of others to blame for their troubles, their logic falls apart and they are released from the illusion, they finally take responsibility for what they have created and begin to untangle all the defences and distortions. It takes a long time to work back through our redundant beliefs and hidden defensive structures but time doesn't really matter. The fact that we begin to realise that we are more than a body and mind immediately frees us from the vicious cycle mentioned above.

One less person contributing to the 'limited' version of the world becomes a person contributing to a greater vision, whether actively pursuing it or not and that as we would say in my accounting days is a double whammy!

Maybe you can come up a million great reasons to hate your neighbour but do you really know why you think you do?

Monday 26th January 2009

Yesterday I had a lovely walk across the lake and up onto the Linnavuori (site of Iron Age Fortress). I had brought my mats and blankets with me enabling me to sit a while amongst the rocks and snow whilst gazing out across the snow covered tops of the surrounding forest. Sitting amongst pine trees really does help to restore a healthy flow of energy and being held in their aura makes one feel so safe that many of the ridiculous niggles of daily life just fall away. I often like to go up there on a Sunday almost like going to church.

I found a protected spot out of the cold breeze and lit my 3 candles. These remind me of the unity of the 3, the Holy Trinity as some would call it, the Holy Father (Heavens), the Holy Mother (Earth) and the Holy Child (you and me). One of my favourite meditations is the beginning piece of Drunvalo Melchizedek's 'Living In The Heart' meditation which takes you to your favourite place in nature where you connect with the Holy Mother and then the Holy Father and as you let those connections run through you, as you feel the experience and know yourself to be the Holy Child then you are experiencing the Holy Trinity here on Earth....it's really powerfully beautiful. Being a Sunday there was no noise and the heavy snowfall provided such an insulating cover that the peace was very strong and thick all around me especially on the sheltered side of the fortress. It is within peace such as this that you can really feel the vibration of the earth energy around you and you can hear the song of the earth in your ears!

Now I know that some folk would just call that tinnitus and of course that is their right to paint their world as they see it. I thought about how different our experiences of life are depending on how we view what is happening and the personal meaning we attach to it. I can see how it looks strange to some folk that I might believe something totally different to the popular consensus of how things really are and they might think that I do so in order to escape from the horrible truth of reality...and they may be right.

The thing with tinnitus is that when I used to get ringing in my ears I started to place my hand over it and give myself some Reiki and it would immediately go. It felt to me that the muscles relaxed immediately and any tension that was setting up the ringing melted away. I know the sound of tinnitus because I suffered from it after rock concerts and an aspirin overdose when I was a teenager.

There are other sounds which we receive in our ears which somebody once said were messages from the angels. It makes sense to me after working with energy at different frequencies and of course I was very tickled by the idea. So now if my ears sing I laugh and say 'hello'.

That's my belief as opposed to the more mainstream one that I have tinnitus and there is no real cure and I just have to live with it....that kind of belief would make me frustrated and miserable which would make me more tense, which would make me more tired and frustrated and miserable which would most likely increase my tinnitus etc.

Life is all about cycles, if you are in one which isn't working for you (I leave open the possibility that some folk like to be tense and miserable) then step out of it because the thing about cycles is that you keep on going round the same thing, it's not going to get better tomorrow and it probably won't go away on its own.

Friday 23rd January 2009

One of my favourite movies is called Pay It Forward, which begins with a school social studies project for making the world a better place. One young student comes up with the idea of doing 3 big favours or tasks for other folk, then instead of returning the favour to him those 3 people pay the favour forwards to 3 other people who in turn pay it forward, so as you can see it becomes very big quite quickly. The idea being that the favours are something big, something that requires to be quite brave or have a lot of faith.

It resonates perfectly with the idea that we are all one....something that we may not all agree on because we are all looking at the world from different perspectives but it is something that I see clearly on a certain level. I also strongly believe that it is one thing to have ideas and principals but quite another strength of energy to live your life by those principals. Too often folk go along and collect their Reiki certificate after their short course, nodding sagely at the wisdom of the Reiki precepts and believe that real change has taken place...of course real change begins with changing our minds about how we see life but if the change stays only in our minds and goes no further then what have we really achieved?

Anyhow, with these thoughts in mind I am applying my principals and offering a free week of healing to somebody that feels they would benefit from it. I am offering my time and my place to someone who otherwise could not afford it. I can't pay for transport unfortunately but I can offer accommodation and my expertise for one week.

In line with my favourite movie I will offer 3 places this year. If you know of anyone then please pass these details to them as I wish to hear directly from the person involved, or you feel yourself that you would like to come write an email to me (healing.retreat@gmail.com) giving details about what you are looking for from your time here. You don't necessarily have to want any time spent with me doing healing work either, sometimes just the peace and holding of Mairela is enough. I will follow my guidance on who is invited to come. All correspondence are confidential.

Thursday 15th January 2009

I had a day trip to Tallinn last week, which is basically the Finnish equivalent of a day trip to Calais. Tallinn, the capital of Estonia is 55 miles away from Helsinki across the Gulf of Finland. I had, in my head, imagined us cruising through frozen seas, breaking the ice as we sailed...but in reality it was windy and cold out there, which I guess is normal for January with some very impressive swell. I don't travel so well on boats, particularly since my chemotherapy (I don't really know why) and so I remembered to take some organic ginger to help with nausea and also my newly acquired acupressure wrist bands which work by constantly keep pressure on the acupoint on the wrist which alleviates the symptoms of motion sickness...or so the package told me. I also decided to employ the positive thinking approach, so once we had left behind the sightseeing of the Helsinki sea fortresses and headed out to open sea I bought myself some lunch. Some very tasty traditional Finnish stuffed cabbage rolls with mashed potato and red berry sauce...which is one of my favourite dishes, so I couldn't resist. Pushing aside all thoughts of what it may look like on the way back out again I tucked in. After eating my lunch I was doing really well watching the huge sea rising and crashing out the window, with spray occasionally obliterating the window although we were on the 7th deck.

There were plates crashing to the floor in the canteen and tray trolleys shooting back and forth with a life of their own, which made me wonder if this particular weather was a bit unusual (lucky me for being there that day!). Then, right in front of me this guy puked, he looked really surprised at the pile on the floor in front of him and the stuff dripping from his mouth and hands...and that's when I decided to go sit outside.

Strangely enough I was the only one sat up on the 9th deck underneath the plastic roofing which protected you from some of the waves provided you sat on the left hand side. I remained there for the rest of the journey, despite the cold contemplating how expensive it would be to get the helicopter back again. We'd only booked a short day trip so there would only be a few hours before it was time to come back again, plus I wasn't sure how it works keeping your eyes on the horizon when everything is dark!

The old city of Tallinn is beautiful, there was a Christmas market and a fantastic Mediaeval place to eat and shop where the food really was old traditional fare. No chips, no burgers, no rice and no carbonated drinks!! I loved it. I shall go back again.

Considering the size of the sea and my travel sickness in boats I think that I can recommend the acupressure wrist bands to anyone interested in motion sickness relief without poisoning their bodies with tablets and such like. I'd picked mine up at an airport, they weren't very expensive and they are totally reusable. You can of course also apply pressure yourself to the point three finger widths down from the joint on the inside of the wrist (known as the Nei Kuan point) but holding it would be dull,uncomfortable and impractical, especially for a 2 hour boat journey!

That wasn't the only alternative medicine that I've been trying out in the past week. On Sunday night my sinuses erupted! I'd had a cold coming and thought it might be a flu virus as my teeth were aching so I gave my head a good steam in the sauna to clear my sinuses. This usually works with the stuffiness you get from travelling but it didn't seem to help this time so I spent an uncomfortable night on Sunday with the right hand side of my head feeling like it would explode. I now realise why my teeth hurt when I get flu...I haven't had flu, my sinuses have been doing whatever sinuses do! I looked up the information and found that my sinuses were also responsible for my eyeball aching and for my inability to think clearly...trying to do Killer Sudoku puzzles that day was a nightmare!

The strange thing was that I didn't have an infection, there was just clear liquid coming out my right nostril and yet my head felt like it was suffocating. About 3am Monday morning I decided to take the holistic look at myself and decided that this was my mind exploding with all of the thinking rubbish that goes on inside it. Yes after sitting and thinking for a while I decided that I thought too much! Actually I didn't need to think about it at all, it's something that I recognise every day of my life. It's easy for me to spot the times when thinking is dominating the scene because a total association with the thinking mind brings in the world of pain and suffering, the world of the ego. There is nothing 'wrong' with thinking or the ego, it's only when they become all that there is, that we start (or continue) to suffer.

I was a bit confused that there was no infection but I found a natural treatment in my Dr Vogel book for sinus problems. Finely chop an onion, wrap it in gauze and wrap it on the side of the neck matching the sinus...this I did on Sunday night and by Monday the problem had gone...to the left hand side! So Monday I chopped another onion and applied it to the left side and by Tuesday I was right as rain with taste buds and smelling capacity back to normal.

When my body reacts in this way (defensively) at certain times in life I view it as a blessing.....my head was clearly eliminating something and I trust it to do its job. Using a natural treatment enhances the body systems, it works along side the natural defensive mechanisms I have and therefore I don't need to worry about side effects (other than I probably smelt oniony...not that I could tell!), I don't need to worry about overdosing, I don't need to worry about suppressing my symptoms and driving whatever it was that my body was trying to eliminate further into my body.

I think (here I go again!) that it was the beginning of a new time for me and my body was releasing old obsolete energy in the form of mucus. I've found that in the past few months I've spent increasingly more time connected with the forest and my surroundings, I've noticed and been aware of so much more of the Earth energies around me. I walk in the forest every day and I see the small changes occurring during the day, or from day to day and month to month and season to season but I'm not just watching them anymore, now I can feel them and experience them personally on new levels. Even as I am within them I observe them.

The funny thing is that I have now become so used to experiencing these Earth energy shifts that I've started to talk about them as 'normal'. Sunday night my sinuses started and I went through the whole process with them until Tuesday during which time ALL of the snow melted outside...it was just as if spring has arrived all in one day on Monday whilst I was sleeping (very important part of allowing your body to heal itself). Some big energy has pulled us through to a new place even though to the physical eye and the mind all things look the same as ever. When a friend had a wobbly fit at yoga I just casually mentioned that the Earth was doing some weird energy stuff right now and not to worry about it and of course she shuffled off away from the insane person talking about Earth energies and other weird stuff.

So now it seems that I have almost completed the phase to being 'out of my mind'. Funny how the Western world generally views being out of the mind with fear and derision (based on fear) and yet when we spend all of our time in the mind it drives us insane with all the pain and suffering. Funny old world.

Sunday 4th January 2009

The past few days around Mairela have seen a visit from The Lady of The Cold...as I now like to think of her (thanks to the Moomins!). As with all fine ladies she has many different aspects to her...with one touch she can create such incredible beauty for as far as the eye can see and yet with her touch she can also kill.

She changes the world around here so much that it alters my perspective.....oh yes, frost is a mind altering substance! No longer can I touch the water bucket with wet gloves and still expect to be able to put it down again! The Lady of The Cold loves to make metal things sticky. I had made a hole in the ice to collect water for my sauna...a long job requiring an ice auger (like a very large corkscrew) and an ice saw (like a big swordfish with a long handle!). I decided against reattaching the ladder so that I could dip into the hole during my sauna as my particular ladder is made from metal and I really wouldn't fancy being stuck to it whilst naked and wet in temperatures of -14. I had engaged in creating some naked snow angels during last week's sauna but now the snow felt too crusty and icy to be rolling in after The Lady's visit, so I contented myself with good old fashioned throwing scoops of cold water over myself.....I honestly only do it because it is so good for you and my skin is the nicest it has ever been in my life! As it was by the time I took my sauna the ice hole was frozen solid again anyway! One of the water buckets in the sauna had frozen up too but I tipped it out, stuck it upside down on the path outside the house with some candles inside it and it makes a very beautiful light.

It really does baffle the brain when anything you leave lying around with even a hint of moisture in it will become solid fairly rapidly....I pick up the dogs lead and it looks as if I'm holding a stick! I stoop to pick up a piece of firewood and it's so firmly attached to the ground you'd think it had been superglued, you can tug and tug at it to your heart's content and it won't shift....funny thing is that if you tap it sharply with anything it detaches immediately. It's a whole new world of exploration! I could look at some of my old plants in a new light too....instead of thinking of them as dead they suddenly become so very beautiful again in a completely new way...all my plant pots have wonderful new displays in them. Hand in hand with The Lady of The Cold come such clear skies that you might believe she has touched them too, such is the never ending cacophony of sparkling and twinkling set into the blackness. It's strange how skies such as these always seem to have such a depth of silence that rings very loudly inside you.....I realise that probably won't make sense unless you have ever stood in such silence and been deafened by it. Nature is very simple at this time of year.

Thursday 1st January 2009

As it was the first day of the new year I made a new gallery for all of my favourite photographs of 2008. You can take a look at them in Gallery 2008

Wednesday 31st December 2008

As the sun begins to set on this New Year's Eve I am surrounded by a beautiful soft pink light. The snow is being lit and caressed by the retreating sun and it reminds me of the same soft pink energy which surrounds us all, this energy is celestial love. We are all touched by it whether we know it or not, we are all held by it whether we feel it or not and we are all equally worthy of it whether we recognise that or not. I like to think that the orb in the picture is my angel come to say hello again. Today is a day when we remember our past year and put together our own ideas, dreams and desires for the coming year. There is no particular significance to this day as regards the natural cycle of life, it is merely an arbitrary cut off point that we humans have attached to a certain day.

This doesn't mean that there isn't a powerful surge of energy occurring today.....when so many powerful beings join together in a similar cause then the energy which is created carries a huge strength. The energy of celebration and new beginnings is a wonderful swirl to be swept up in.....but beware other pockets of energy that you may find yourself participating in.....choose your company carefully!

Most events can be seen in different lights, focus on the positive and you have a life affirming surge of energy, the choice is always yours. That is the thing about new beginnings, you don't actually have to wait for a new year to come along because each and every moment is a new beginning offering you the opportunity to change your mind about who you are and how your world is created.

We have all gotten used to the idea that our thoughts create our own reality...so used to it in fact that it is in danger of becoming just another saying that we quote at folk when we are trying to look smart....remember the words and apply them to yourself in each and every moment of your life to recreate the best of you...or of course you can choose not to.

Happy Ever After to all.

Sunday 21st December 2008 Solstice

This afternoon marked the time of the return to light, the winter solstice is the day which marks the shortest day meaning that from now on the days (daylight) become longer....the light is increasing. The past few weeks have been the energetic equivalent to the 'darkest before dawn' time...I've certainly seen some intense and deep cleansing and healing cycles. As we move closer to the peak of the bigger cycle arriving in 2012 the energy shifts have become more pronounced...even for those who do not seek them! We are all one and the movement of energy affects us all in myriad different ways.

There are many who do not understand what is happening to them which can result in an increase of pain in the form of anger and frustration. Such is the way of the journey that we cannot always see the why of what is happening to us because we are not in a position to do so....in fact it doesn't always serve us to know why anyway.

I'm in the lucky position of having been through some 'bad' times before in my life which I now see as the greatest gifts I could ever have received, awakening me from my slumber and giving me the incentive to seek my true self. Which is why I now don't spend my energies trying to figure out or fight with shifting energy....that is what we call going with the flow....don't fight it, just remain aware and centred, enjoy the ride if you can and keep yourself open to the whole experience...in that way you learn more and as you learn more you grow or evolve. All good stuff!

Just as it is implicit in the seasons that we will return to a time of increasing light....and then decreasing light...and then increasing etc. so too when we enter a time of personal darkness it is implicit that we will return again to the light, have no fear of that. I find that when I am going through times of darkness I can still be at peace because I know that there is learning for me in what comes my way....it is not some arbitrary 'bad luck' coming my way as some might believe. I admire the strength of those folk who keep going when they believe that they are party to some ill luck which has just been sent to them and there is nothing 'good' in it for them, that there is no rhyme or reason for it, other than some idea that God wants them to suffer or that life just sucks and they are plain unlucky....I couldn't keep going day after day if I thought that were true!

My Solstice wishes are for everyone stuck in that place where they feel they have no control over their lives, as the light increases I hope that it allows them to see that there are more choices, there is an alternative world to believe in and experience...in fact there are many worlds...and in fact I hope that we all have even more choices opened up for us to see as the light increases for all of us. Everything is always there...all we have to do is see it...seems simple enough...the biggest truths usually are very simple.

Wednesday 3rd December 2008

I've been having trouble with my drains! It all started with me noticing the shower water cascading through the ceiling because it couldn't drain away quickly enough and eventually ended with me making a discovery about ground water levels.....they are extremely high! My grey water systems relies on natural drainage and filtering through sand and gravel beds which is brilliant. The water flows out into a tank with outlet pipes travelling along gravel beds. These pipes are punctuated with holes allowing the water to drain gently and naturally away. A lovely theory except that the ground is now so saturated with water that there really is nowhere for the water to drain into! It seems that I must put in a longer and bigger system next spring and in the meanwhile not use the washing machine at the same time as the shower. Of course I like to use my sauna more than the shower so it's not such a big deal.....and I could also do my washing with the hot water from the sauna but lets not get too hasty here after all the rinsing water from the lake would still have lumps of ice in it.

I used that system when we first arrived here and there was no plumbing in the house, it was very exciting for a while but the novelty wore off!

Anyway, it got me round to thinking about the ground water. Of course I had noticed that it had been much higher than normal as the lake has been covering part of the garden for a few months now and the forest springs have been very active whereas I would normally only see them during the springtime when the snow melts.

It may just be a normal event in the natural longterm cycles around these parts...after all I've only lived here for 5 years so I can't comment except to note that my grandparents would normally have built their garden to be above water during all parts of all cycles....

I'm starting to see that the ground water levels are reaching saturation point in many places. All of the big floods in the UK in recent years are not due to bigger rain clouds. For a time I lived in a small Welsh village and I saw that all of the farmers fields right up to the most remote hill now had drainage installed meaning that his livestock weren't standing in water but also meaning that rainwater would enter into the rivers much quicker than nature had intended and thereby causing flooding potential. Now I believe that this is only a part of the reason of widespread flooding and that just like my drainage water the rainwater in the UK cannot drain away naturally because of the high ground water levels in the UK.

So why have the ground water levels risen so much? Of course we all had a bit of a wet summer, the UK more so than here but I am wondering if we are beginning to see the effects of melting ice caps. After all the icecaps and glaciers have been melting away now for some time, we've all been discussing global warming for decades...where has all that water gone to?

Living in the North lands I appreciate, albeit on a much smaller scale, the affects of melting ice on the local environment. Large pools of water sit around for weeks which can erode the land beneath them depending on the traffic they withstand....nothing breaks up the earth more powerfully than water in whatever form it takes be it ice, liquid or steam.

Seems to me that the natural harmony of the earth has been knocked sideways and the effects of it are staring me right in the face....although I appreciate that folk in big cities may not have noticed...or haven't they? High winds, earth tremors and unbreathable air all affect cities.

Water is a much better conductor of heat than air...ably demonstrated by the sauna and the relative warmth factors of a Finnish winter's day at -15 degrees with dry air and a cold English damp winter's day at 3 degrees! With all this extra water around we are seeing much more polarised temperatures, cold summers and warm winters are much more the norm these days than of old. Last winter as we waiting patiently for some cold snowy weather to arrive in Finland there were freezing temperatures in Greece which is where a lot of British pensioners go for a warmer winter! Seems to me that the only way to know what the weather will be these days is to look out of the window! The meeting of hot and cold air currents produces strong winds and I think we are seeing those increasingly too. I've certainly noticed them more in Finland.

Viewing the earth as a living entity (which I do) I look upon all of this as a normal reaction...just the kind of reaction that people encounter with their own health. We pollute ourselves with rubbish and fall out of our natural rhythms and cycles but pay it all no attention until things start to really break down, until our disease is pushed so acutely into our awareness that we can no longer deny its existence...and ultimately if we wish to do something positive about it we can no longer deny our responsibility for it too.

This first step of actually acknowledging what is happening and taking responsibility for it is a very important step and therefore I accept all of these natural 'disasters' that occur because it is only when Man reaches rock bottom and feels that nothing can get worse that Man finally lets go trying to control and allows the natural flow to do what it does best. This is the point where we stop thinking that we know best and we start to tune into nature and follow the natural wellbeing flow of everything in existence, this is the point where we take responsibility for our actions.

It was the same for me, I did nothing about my health because I didn't know I needed to, right up until I found out how sick I was. If at any time during my life I had gotten in tune with my body and soul then I would have seen the damage I was inflicting and could have turned it around then but I didn't because being in tune with my body and soul was never muted to me as an option, it just didn't exist in my world. The same applies to many folk around the globe...in fact the vast majority of folk!

If we have no idea of the impact of our actions on our own immediate mind, soul and body then we don't really stand a chance of connecting to the greater mind of the entire planet. I always note with sadness that the most dropped litter comes from beer cans, cigarette packages and sweet wrappers.....folk who have no idea of the damage they are inflicting on their internal environment almost certainly cannot conceive of the effects on the bigger picture.

I believe that we will all fall further into the disarray as the planet's health suffers more and more from our pollution and desecration until we reach the point where we can no longer deny the truth of our responsibility for this mess. Then by having taken responsibility for the mess we will have also placed ourselves in control of sorting it out.....just like I did with my cancer, I couldn't have restored my natural healthy balance if I hadn't taken full responsibility for getting myself into such a diseased state in the first place.

The way back to health has many aspects including taking responsibility, awareness, good habits and cleansing...and these aspects will remain the same if we wish to save this planet from dying. And don't get me wrong, if I die or this planet dies then we will not cease to exist but we won't have our physical presence as we do now and we will be able to look back and see every stupid, arrogant choice we made which brought our own desrtuction.....do we really need to go that far before we see what we are doing by our own hand? Is tyhe destruction of the earth and all of us what we really want?

One simple truth which hit me was that the warming effect is being produced by carbon dioxide and it is the plants which turn CO2 into oxygen (producing food for us as a by product...what an amazing system, I wonder who created that!) which will also produce clearer air for us to breathe.....so why do we continue to cut down our huge forests? Why do we continue to pave over our cities and countryside? When I grew up in London there were trees growing in every street...where have they all gone and why have they all gone? Plant and grow more trees.

There are many places across the globe where trees are being cut down to make arable land and there are many places where former arable land is no longer viable because of erosion because all the trees were cut down!! When are we going to put two and two together, cause and effect? If we looked up from the millstone of money power and celebrity culture ( to name just two ) for just one moment and took a really good look at what is going on around us we would stop this madness immediately but nobody seems to want to look up......the pursuit of happiness and success through fame and fortune would appear to have a very strong hold on the masses....I wonder who is running that particular hypnotic spell...I wonder who is benefiting from keeping that particular illusion alive...

Good news is that there are more and more folk pulling themselves out of that particular pit of despair before they get totally sucked under and have now started to make creation the focus of their lives as opposed to destruction.

One of the most important aspects of climbing out of all that rubbish is to learn to think for yourself (something which I note has fallen off the national curriculum), get in tune with how you are and how you function at the highest and every level because if you have to rely on somebody else to tell you what is right for you....how will you ever know what to do when there are 10,000 people shouting for you to follow their way and they are all different!?

Would you follow the daily living advice of an eskimo or an african bushman if you lived on a Welsh smallholding? Would you follow the health advice of someone who drives to work in a Rolls Royce, is constantly under stress, doesn't eat natural home grown food and is subjected to pressure by large corporations interested in the pursuit of money and power? It seems that we do....

Start thinking, start surmising, exploring and wondering.....one of the greatest aspects of wondering is that you will find wonder. But of course, don't take my word for it, take the time to work this out for yourself....

Tuesday 25th November 2008

I've been entertained over the past week by a new visitor to my home which I have captured on video, please welcome Tufty the Red Squirrel. The background scenery has changed a little in the past few days as we are now in our third day of snow and all around looks beautiful and pure white.

Thursday 13th November 2008

I was writing to the prime minister this morning about helping out in Congo where the government is treating the people very badly, to put it mildly. Then I sat and tapped into the reasoning behind the Congolese government's move for me to gain understanding of why they would be acting in such a way. I find it difficult at face value to understand why any person could act in such a way towards a fellow man but then I remember that we have all acted negatively at some point in our lives hurting either our fellow man or ourselves. The energy blockages and wounds of whole nations and cultures are subject to the same thoughts and patterns of each individual and therefore the healing patterns are also the same.

Also holding whole nations to shame for their actions doesn't encourage them or even give them room to step into the light. Being ashamed of something is NOT the same as realising your responsibility for creating a situation and having the impulse to change it for a more life enhancing way of being.

The energy which drives violence is FEAR. Fear is at the root of all negativity but to bring understanding and healing to a situation we need to understand what folk are afraid of exactly. The pertinent question regarding Congo is what is the government afraid of? In other words why are they doing what they are doing? What perceived benefit does it give them?

Seems to me that they are trying to keep control...and I recognise that fear myself. Why do they wish to keep control? Because then they can stay safe. Why do they believe that control brings safety? Because they are protecting themselves from being invaded, from being overtaken and their sense of identity being eradicated. Also there is the world-wide belief that we are not always provided for and therefore we must hang onto what we have and never let anyone else take it away.

Their memories of past times would serve them well with such ideas. How many African nations have been taken over by white folk who strip them of their natural resources and enslave the population.

If it were a young child who had been treated in such a way we would very clearly understand why he grew up to act violently when he feared being invaded or losing control over his life. Just as in a personal healing we are not blaming the parents as this was the world model that was handed down to them by their ancestors going right back down the ancestral line. Finding someone to blame does help anyone (the banned 'b' and 'f' words in my household are 'blame' and 'fault').

In a healing situation this is where we step up and reparent ourselves when we are ready to let go of the old beliefs. When we are finally aware enough or conscious enough to realise that hoarding anything creates a fear of lack within us and will never bring us the safety that we crave, then we can begin to embrace a new concept of focusing on abundance, knowing that we will always be provided for and being willing to spread what we have equally amongst us. We share our abundance only when we have released the fear that there is not enough.

This fear is what keeps us putting fences around our states and nations, proclaiming this piece as ours and fighting with anyone who tries to take it from us. We fear losing our identity and culture but nobody can take those away from us because they live in our hearts. Drawing a line in the dirt where no man with differing beliefs must cross over for fear of losing your own beliefs once again only creates and perpetuates the idea that we can lose who we are. We cannot lose who we are.....but we can give it away and if we continue to give ourselves over to fear then we lose our power to it.

When the whole world can stand up and say that we have no need to be right in our beliefs, cultures, lifestyles and religions but we can live side by side each acting in the way which serves us best then we will have peace on earth..

You may argue that the Congo government is acting in their best interests but if you follow the logical pattern then that argument falls away. Remember that where you put your thoughts to is what grows....if you continually focus on being invaded and having to protect yourself then you are continually living in fear which you are feeding with every action that you take...and that which you feed grows. As your fear grows so too does your army and border strengthening until you have completely cut yourself off from the outside world...everything is pinned down in your world, nothing moves without your control...and that includes all the wonderful aspects of your life too.

This is what happens to us as individuals when we give into fear, we stick ourselves into a cage for our own protection and consequently we lose all of our freedom. Is that likely to be what the Congolese government really wishes for? To stifle themselves as people and a country until they suffocate under their own protection? I doubt it.

I can't go back and change the acts of yesteryear any more than my ancestors can. The moment is right now. Every time I become aware that I am giving my energy and my power to this idea of non-abundance or being invaded in any way I change my thoughts to those of abundance and self. When I truly know myself to be the powerful being that I am (just like all of us) then I cannot have any space for fear. Who started this notion that Man was weak anyway?

Nations cannot go back and change their history but we can all acknowledge that history and learn the true lessons of what it is showing us. We don't even need to get into the details of who did what to who and when because the learning here is clear. Seizing anything because of a fear of lack creates such a powerful negative wave of energy which rolls on through the years creating a fear tsunami which will ultimately destroy the entire planet.

Each individual and each nation, culture, religion, is responsible for stepping out of that cycle....if we wish to change it and I believe that we do. Some body (individual body or body of folk) needs to step up and be the example that shines out to the younger (less developed and less aware) folk/nation to give them an alternative model to the self destructive one that we are sold on right now.

And at some point around the world we human beings need to start questioning who or what it was that started us with the erroneous idea of lack or non-abundance in the first place...expose those who perpetuate this myth and ask them why they would seek to do that.

The fundamentalists who seek to bring down Western capitalism think that they have found the perpetrator of this myth but seems to me that they have merely found a large body of folk who are biological robot slaves to the notion. I believe there is a need to dig deeper and expose more.

But please don't just believe anything that I have to say, think for yourself and see what makes sense to you with your field of awareness and understanding. Of course it helps enormously to live out in the depths of a forest and be away from the constant barrage of influence which feeds its slaves of this notion of lack...after all it is impossible to peruse the wholeness of a box when you are shut up inside it.

Come join me in the forest and think for a while.

If you are interested in writing to your own PM about helping out in Congo please go to Avaaz.org

Monday 3rd November 2008

We had our first very frosty and sunny morning this winter on Sunday which transformed the whole landscape into a twinkling paradise encouraging me to dust off my camera. I've been engrossed recently with thoughts and images of the piece of paradise on earth which I am creating here at Mairela retreat. I spied these delicate strands of some forest plant stretched out over the brown grass complete with small globules of icy water which captured the sunlight in a magnificent spectacle of colour and light. By the time I had gone home and fetched my camera the sun was disappearing behind the giant spruce trees and I had to stand on a pile of mossy rocks holding up a strand to show some of the beauty. I couldn't see it at the time but it is amazing how there is a perfect image of the forest upside down contained within each droplet. So in this instance I was able to see more but of course I couldn't capture the whole spectacle of the sunlight playing off the droplets as they hung so perfectly over the brown dried grass with the bright blue sky above me and the sunlight charging the atmosphere as birds fluttered around the trees and the spruce trees waved their branches up and down at me in response to my gaze. Nothing except being there can 'know' that moment and nothing can really capture it. We try a lot, us humans, to capture stuff from nature. Around this time of year the shops start to fill with artificial decorations that emulate the splendour of nature in winter, some of them are very pretty but compared to the wholeness of the natural experience they are pretty limited imitations. This computer which I am writing on is an imitation of my mind...and cannot match it for depth. I'm sure that one day someone will invent some machine to perform healings of the mind, body and soul...in fact there are already a few machines out there on the market for analysing your chakras, or your aura, or pumping up your chi. Again man making an artificial machine to do a job (inadequately) which we could already do for ourselves. We seem to be obsessed with capturing moments, attaching ourselves to them as if we fear them getting away and never coming back.

Will I ever see the same frost formation and sunlight experience? No I won't but I will see other beautiful acts of creation in each and every waking moment if I just allow myself to be aware of them. I allow myself to be aware of them by being soft and open...but not spending all my days obsessing about capturing the beauty for fear of losing it. I could spend each day capturing every moment on film and stuffing my fridge full of wonderful frosty plants but I really think I'd be missing the point.

If God were a bloke up in the sky he'd be slapping his hand to his forehead, shaking his head, sighing and thinking 'I give up'....but luckily for us God wasn't made in the likeness of man, apparently it was the other way round and so creation keeps on doing what it does best...it creates.

Man on the other hand seems to have totally forgotten that we are a part of creation....in fact we are creators ourselves with the power of our thoughts! Yet somewhere down the line we have gotten into the idea that we are not so great, that we need to invent these machines to look after us so we can have a fulfilled life...and then we spend almost our entire life in the world created by the machines. We work to pay for machines, we work to pay for having them repaired, we work to pay for the fuel for them and a big enough house to fit them all into. As we create artificial this and plastic that it affects our health, making us weaker and more diseased....which then perpetuates the ridiculous notion that we need more machines to do stuff for us because we believe that we are so weak.

I recently went ruthlessly through my wardrobe throwing out anything that wasn't a natural fibre...and I noticed the allure of some of those artificially made clothes and how they matched the patterns of my limited ego mind. There was a certain dress I didn't want to part with because I felt like a certain somebody in it but it was totally manmade fibre...but I really didn't want to part with it because of how it made me feel......see that? How it made me feel.....it was creating an artificial image within me that my ego just lapped up. I could just hear it within me how people would think of me when I wore that particular dress...they would know something about me from me wearing it. That kind of thinking, that idea that I am reliant and get some kind of ego boost from what others think of me is at the root of all disease.

I would only create myself as an artificial being in order to serve the notion that I will then be admired or liked by others and then I will be a worthwhile person. Baloney! Once I saw it clearly from that perspective the dress was in the rubbish quick as a flash!

If we could all see or be aware of the difference in the integrity of our energy fields around natural substances as opposed to unnatural ones then we would all question why on earth we are so busy creating the artificial world that we have around us right now. Think about it.

Saturday 25th October 2008

I was talking recently about the right side, the justice system, the structured side of society which has the sets of rules which say we can do this but we can't do that. I noticed how there is no room within overblown structures for the feminine nurturing side to give us a balance. Much as in the same way as our ideas of science, if we can't see it then it doesn't exist, our courts will only rule on things they believe to exist and can see with their eyes. Of course in some ways this is good, in a world where falsehoods abound the need for evidence gives us some protection against lies…although of course what seems like evidence can also be a pot of deceit too. But that is a rabbit hole we won't go down today. There is a huge difference between how we (justice system) treat physical abuse and mental abuse. When someone is physically abused we can see the marks, there is something that exists in our world but when someone has been mentally abused what is there for us to see? I have a recent experience of this difference. I have been stalked and harassed by someone for the past 4 years and finally this week we ended up in court. We were not in court as you might think because I was asking for some kind of restraining order but because I was being charged with kicking him and throwing stones at his car (2 separate incidents).

I'm writing about this experience because it highlights a lot about society today. To me, my solicitor and the judge it seemed insane that this man could have continued with his actions over all these years and then come complaining to the court that one day I kicked him or that on another day I threw stones at his car in an attempt to get him to leave me alone. But to the man in question it appeared perfectly logical…I had committed a physical crime and that was all he could see. This is a man very deep in his own exclusive world.

Based on the ways and ideas of our society I am the one who is guilty…and I am not complaining about that, the decision doesn't change who I am. Of course in my world I would rather not get so exasperated and anxious that I would kick someone which is why I apologised to the man that very same evening of the incident.

My point is that folk around the world may look at what has happened here and say that this is crazy thinking, after all if you kept poking a wolf with a stick and then complained when it eventually bit you everyone would consider you an idiot. But in reality the thinking, visions and ideas in our culture support this outlook with our blinkered version of the world on the materialistic plane.

I had asked for help from the courts and the police over the years but without physical evidence of mental abuse I wasn't really listened to. Just a few weeks ago police in the west interviewed a man who showed signs of mental imbalance but he had done no physical harm to anyone or anything therefore they let him go…..within 24 hours he had killed 11 people at his school. Now he has done something physical and so now our society can do something about it…..

I am not making a point about blaming anyone, there is no one to blame but We are All responsible because we all allow this world and the insane principals that it is based on to perpetuate. For millennia our way of thinking hasn't brought us the secure, loving society that I presume we all would like and yet nobody ever talks about that or wonders why. Nobody ever examines where we are being led or even if that is where we wish to go!

If you are sitting smugly on your chair reading this and nodding your head sagely about how the courts are mad then take a look at your own thinking too. How many people consume rubbish day in and day out then one day cry in shock that they have a diseased body? How many folk smoke? How many drink alcohol excessively? How many of us live miserable lives doing work we don't care for and then cry in shock when our body is unhealthy? I could go on for pages with examples but we all know what I am talking about. We lead unnatural lives, doing unnatural things, consuming and wearing unnatural products, in unnatural places and eventually end up diseased and unnatural…and we unable even for one moment to stop and wonder why we do that.

We are all no different to a guy who torments someone for 4 years and then is shocked and dismayed when he gets kicked. He can't or won't see the connection; he can't or won't take responsibility for his own actions. We as people refuse to take responsibility for the state of our world…either we really don't care or we are very stupid or we are in some hypnotic state of sleep. I prefer the latter explanation as I have seen the very core of Man and it is total love and extremely intelligent.

Something is putting us to sleep, something induces us to eat rubbish which clouds our true essence and we spend our whole lives supporting the very system that drags us further down into the darkness of hell…as far away from our true pristine origins as possible.

Now why would somebody/something want to do that? What is there to gain from the insipid enforced slavery of the human race? Why are we letting it happen?

We are Man, we are awesome powerful light beings capable of creating with our very thoughts and clearly this threatens someone or something. Don't fight the something, find your real creative power inside and use it to create the world that you really want.

It can be difficult to take ourselves away from all of the forces of our society which drip feeds us with rubbish to stop our clear thoughts, stopping us from realising who we really are but there is a way to be free from them long enough to reconnect and that is to head into nature.

Three days is the standard time for any energetic change to occur, after a healing it takes 3 days for the energetic body to integrate the changes, Christ rose again after 3 days and if you spend 3 days in nature especially ingesting just the natural food around you then you will find the true you.

Reconnect yourself with your natural self then take a look back down the path you have been walking…is that what you really want?

As always it is your choice, you make it both by doing nothing or by acting.

Monday 20th October 2008

At this time of year I spend a lot of time outside in the forest collecting berries and mushrooms. Spending time in nature like this is a great meditation as gathering berries in particular can either be dull as ditch water or a Zen type experience...luckily I have started to appreciate it for its latter qualities and therefore collected about 20 litres of lingonberries this year as opposed to my previous 2 or 3!

Quite often my thoughts turn to language. Since coming to live in Finland and learning the language..or at least trying to...I have been fascinated by the way language is structured. This has given me a new insight into the way that we think and the way that we automatically program our children to think, just by speaking the way that we do.

In Finland we don't say 'I am cold' or 'I am hungry', we say that 'I have cold' or 'I have hunger'. At first that seemed a little strange but then I realised that this was a much truer way of expressing what is just an experience we are currently experiencing...as opposed to stating that my entire being is this thing known as cold. Just semantics maybe, but it got me thinking about what we say and why.

I've also been curious about the word 'right' which has quite a few meanings including the opposite of left, the opposite of wrong, moral, legal, proper and fitting etc.. Despite the Finnish language being totally alien in comparison to English the same basis is used around the word right or oikea as it is in Finnish.

Is there some universal energy form that dictates that justice and correctness are associated with the right hand side of our bodies...or vice versa?

During a particularly long berry picking session I started to think about 'right' in terms of the different energies of our bodies. We talk about the right hand side being the masculine side, in other words the energetic qualities that we think of as masculine are held predominantly in the right side. This is where we have correctness, formality, logic and reason, this is the place of structure. The feminine side or the left side has the energetic qualities of intuition, softness and nurture.

The healthiest state of being is a natural balance between the two energies, neither aspect being 'better' than the other just different and suiting a particular purpose.

It is no surprise from this perspective to see how the 'right' side would become the basis of a system of rules setting out structures for our society and thus my question was answered.

When our energies get out of balance we slip into an unhealthy state, many folk seeking healings are very rigid through muscle tension and inflexible posturing. This is the direct result of too much masculine energy, too much rigidity of thought. It is great to start out with a guideline to your intentions but when we get caught up in a bullet point list of what we need to do and when, in order to be happy and fulfilled we have turned up the volume on the masculine energy way too high. We've drowned out the nurturing, intuitive voice of our feminine energy and thrown ourselves off balance.

It's easy to spot the rigidity slipping into our speech, if we care to take a look. 'I have to get this done', 'I should be this' or 'I shouldn't be that', 'I need more time'. It is very difficult at this point to convince yourself that what you actually could do with is to sit outside on the grass in the sunshine and just switch off for a while. Difficult because you are almost completely immersed in the right side energy.

Another right side aspect is physical strength. I found when I first came to Finland that I did so much work outside that my muscles grew very strong but my overall fitness didn't improve and then I realised that just having bigger muscles without any flexibility was actually unhealthy.....I wasn't balancing my energies. The masculine energy of the big pine trees gives them great strength but if they didn't flex and bend in the wind then that strength would be useless and in fact would lead to their demise as they would snap.

Seems to me that society could do with a little flexibility within the legal (right) system too or we'll end up just snapping and breaking. Governments that try to rule by making thousands upon thousands of laws covering every aspect of life cannot be sustained. They turn their citizens into biological robots, totally disconnected from their innate creative power...now why would you want to go and do a thing like that?

Fear. We all feel afraid at times, it is a natural part of life but I think we can all recognise that taking away the power of others will never really solve the problem of our fears...in fact I think it makes us more fearful because it perpetuates the myth that we have something to fear from others.

I have taught myself and my daughter to grow a loving, warm, secure place that we can go to when we feel fear. It's difficult to start this when you are in the middle of a fear attack so it is something I recommend as a normal daily event. Call it meditation or inner reflection or creative thinking but when you have firmly established an inner place of peace and calm that you can go to immediately whenever you choose then you have given yourself a great gift of nurture.

Balance life.

Friday 11th October 2008

There was a wonderfully catastrophic failure of my host server last weekend which took a while to sort out and caused a fair amount of difficulties for everyone. This was quite in tune with the rest of the world where it seems that there are many big structures crashing down which can lead folk into a space of fear and anxiety as our old familiar way of life would appear to be disintegrating before our very eyes.

This is actually a time for rejoicing (in my humble opinion!) because we cannot move forward, we cannot grow and evolve all the time we are so firmly attached to the way things were. Any structure without integrity will eventually fail and it doesn't serve us in any way to try and prop it up.....let it go and allow something better to grow in its place. We can then use the energy we free up towards creating what we would really like, create your dreams of heaven right here on Earth.

As the energy of the world's new higher consciousness grows there will naturally be more old structures coming down. This is not some final dooms day thing as some would have us believe but the natural progression of our (Man's) growth and evolution.

The energy of the old world created the structures of the old world, literally the way that us humans think creates our world and as we start to change our thinking then the structure of our world begins to change too. Our thinking has changed because having realised our power folk started to look around and wonder...is this the world that I wanted to design? Is this really how I intended it to turn out?

This is very much like when I discovered my cancer, when something gets into such an awful diseased state that you can't possibly ignore it or deny the reality of the situation any more then you are forced in black and white decision, the make or break decision...do you step up and take responsibility for your diseased body and your diseased world, thereby giving you the power to change it and become healthy again as I have done...which also involves taking full responsibility for all the acts that got you into the diseased state in the first place. No hiding place for shame and guilt anymore!

Or do you choose to remain seated and believe in a world where you are an insignificant being who has no creative power and is a mere puppet subjected to the forces of some unseen master that can do to you as it will and you must also hide anything about you which you don't believe matches this image of sainthood and perfection which has been passed down from Father to Son and Mother to Daughter since the first moment we climbed out of the primordial gloop. Good luck with one! Personally I've just torn up that contract and it's the best decision I ever made.

Because of recognising and taking responsibility for my own awesome creative power I turned my health around and that in itself has given me a tiny insight into the depth of our power as human beings. We can all turn the world around and make it what we choose it to be but it has to be an active and positive choice.

There is no need to fear the changes coming, even if the pace is a little fast at times, just hold onto your hats, jump into the flow and let it take you to the most wonderful place that you could never have dreamt would have existed before...and when you get there you'll wonder why you ever worried about anything before!

Our bodies can also go through releases and breakdowns like this especially during times of great energy changes, don't panic! If your body is tired just let it rest, if it is chucking out mucus, sweat, diarrhoea, spots, eczema or any kind of discharge that is the physical component of old energy being released and expelled. It's old stuff that doesn't serve you and you are expelling it so that your body is a cleaner purer temple for the new energy. just keep drinking lots of pure fresh water and it will all flush through.

I always rejoice if I get a cough or spots because I know that I am cleansing some part of me! J

Wednesday 24th September 2008

I had planned to write something about the powerful surge of energy that centred around the autumn equinox on Monday. I had a powerful experience myself and I also know many folk were flung headfirst into situations where they had very distinct and diametrically opposing choices, a real truth or dare time...and then I heard about another school shooting here in Finland.

I ask myself how is it possible that somebody can be in so much pain that they could do something like that? How is it possible that we don't see this pain in folk around us...or do we? Having learnt a lesson from last year's school shooting the police had acted on all the warning signs and took the guy in but as he hadn't committed a crime they couldn't keep him there...and this is where there is the gaping hole in our support structures of society. It seems that we are only interested in seeing the black and white or the right or wrong of any situation...and when I say 'we' I am talking about society or all of us human beings (same thing). We are all responsible for this happening.

If we insist on a society based on ticks in boxes then that is what we will get...a society of round people desperately trying to fit into square boxes....a society full of very frustrated people...and what do we do with our frustrated people? Nothing.... we let them work it out for themselves. We'll help them out when they've finally driven themselves insane and are now either physically or mentally ill or we'll lock them up or fine them if they finally crack and lash out...but stepping in and getting involved before disaster strikes? Seems we don't want to get involved in that because it's not our business, what can we possibly do, it's not our problem etc.

The pain of a human soul is the same in everybody regardless of how they react but society judges the outcomes differently. If we become so stressed and unhappy that we get cancer then society will look after us and say, oh poor you. If we become mentally ill then society isn't quite so happy to be around you but generally speaking will get you some medical treatment or put you away somewhere safe (safe for whom, I'm not quite sure). But if you lash out and hurt somebody then society judges you as 'bad' or 'evil' and condemns you. Condemnation never helped anyone.

We discussed this event at my new Finnish language and culture class last night as the teacher wished to hear the thoughts of foreigners as to why Finland has this problem. It seems that as a culture Finland doesn't like to talk, we don't share problems here, we don't even admit that we have any...we just buckle down and get on with our lives with our famous Finnish sisu (guts, stamina, courage) but when did such a great gift as sisu get skewed into something so damaging as isolation and loneliness?

Of course the same thing happens right across the world, the wonderful energy of each individual nation's Pride gets distorted over the mists of time into a false pride, a pride that chains folk to a false image and cuts them off from the benevolent and powerful life force of the universe. It's the same kind of false (and forced) pride that creates racism at national levels as opposed to the Pride which we have as countrymen. This false pride renders us unable to ask for help because that is considered weak.

What about all those wonderful people who stand up at AA meetings and admit to having a problem...is that weak? The person who can stand up and say that I made a mistake, when chances are that society in general will denounce them for it....is that a weak person?

To admit that you have made a mistake, an error of judgement or that you are in great pain and feel unable to cope with life right now is wonderfully powerful medicine for the soul because it lifts you right out of trying to be a certain something, a perfect saintly image which has no resemblance to the real you or any real person for that matter! It takes you beautifully into a space of surrender and release which is the path to everlasting peace (or heaven as it is sometimes referred to).

Strangely enough that's exactly what I did on Monday and the peace that it brought me is indescribable, everything else just lifted away, just melted as if it had never existed. There is always a higher power at work with everything that we do and when we let go of all our attachments to being a certain way then we are stepping aside and letting this higher power do its thing.

Can we begin to use that power to help fill the gap of need. Can we use the experience from the school shooting to change our collective minds about what is pride and how we use it.

This kind of change comes at an individual level, dare to reach out to someone, dare to let someone reach out to you...yes that is scary isn't it...but only if you believe that you are responsible for fixing them...and you're not, none of us are responsible for fixing anybody except ourselves...and even then it's not about fixing because when we know ourselves as oneness, when we know who we truly are then there will be nothing to fix!

Come to know yourself for who you are and then you will know peace. Hold a loving and safe space for others to be who they are and they can come to know peace too.

My thoughts, prayers and love are with everybody at this time.

Friday 19th September 2008

As I was looking up something in my herbal bible the book fell open on a page listing Prunella vulgaris, more commonly known as Self-Heal which drew me to reading the description. I found that it was one of those super plants that ye olde herbalists held in high esteem...in fact another of its names is All-Heal or Heart of the Earth. I immediately hoped that I could find this plant as the details informed me that it was located over the whole of Europe. After finding a picture of it I recognised it straight away and as I stepped out of my front door there was one last bloom smiling at me less than 2 metres from my front door. Isn't Mother Nature wonderful. I know many folk will recognise it as a 'weed' but now you know different.

There are always plants growing around us giving exactly what we need...all we have to do is to open our eyes up and see what is there. In fact if a new plant has suddenly started to grow around your home then check out its healing properties because chances are that it grew there exactly for that purpose!

I've just finished reading a beautiful book called Anastasia which is the first book in a series known as the Ringing Cedars. She is a beautiful pure light being who lives in the Russian taiga (forest) and she advises that before we plant seeds we should hold them in our mouth for 5 minutes so that the seed can absorb all of our personal information so that it knows how to grow in the way which suits us best, for our higher purpose.

This doesn't surprise me since reading about herbal lore from around the world many different countries use different herbs for common ailments and I've even heard told that if you can't find a specific herb then just use any medicinal plant that you can. Sound advice I would say.

In fact just eating regular amounts of natural plants on a daily basis keeps your health in balance....from which point you need never concern yourself with ailments and symptoms again!

The incident with the book falling open at a particular page is also worthy of note because it isn't just the world of nature and plants which is constantly communicating with us and sending us gifts. There are many messages and tools around us which we can use for our highest good but quite often we miss them because we are so caught up in the whirlwind of daily stuff we believe to be more important....like does my bum look big in this, I wonder if I'll find a parking space, what will the motorway be like, shopping list, find the keys...etc..

Image a world where there are plants and situations all around you, all the time, that are designed to give you the greatest gifts that are beyond your imagination, that will take you to a place of the highest health on all levels physical, emotional, mental and spiritual. Imagine it and believe it because it is already there.

If you want to see this world of gifts then hush your mind and give yourself the opportunity to notice it. Quiet time in the mind brings increased awareness of our environment both inner and outer thus allowing us to notice more. Contrary to popular belief you can still have a quiet mind whilst dressing, driving, shopping, working or in any pursuit.....including thinking!

Awareness is the key to self healing and that is the focus in my next retreat coming up in a few weeks time. There are still places available. It's interesting that I have just discovered a plant called Self-Heal in the weeks leading up to the self healing workshops.....interesting but not surprising.

Wednesday 17th September 2008

I collected some Hypericum perforatum this morning along my forest walk as I often add it to my morning breakfast blend. It is more commonly known as St John's Wort and most folk associate it with depression but in Finland as a wild plant it is also known as a wound healer.

Several times over the summer whilst using and studying the plant I have come to remember how the two conditions go hand in hand anyway! Any wound that we have on our physical level has a corresponding energy block (wounding) on the emotional and mental levels too...not to mention all the others!

Although we may not be aware of the emotional aspect of a certain wound, it is still present, so when we take a remedy for healing wounds then it will act on all of the wounding right the way through our energy field. That's what I've been using the plant for.

I haven't had any physical wounds but because I have been doing some intensive healing for myself I have been taking St John's Wort to heal the wounds in much the same way as I would infuse with celestial energy after releasing old stagnant energy.

It is our woundings that cause us pain and suffering whether they are conscious or sub conscious. We don't like to feel that pain and so we defend against it as if it came from outside of ourselves. The ultimate defence that we bring in to stop ourselves from feeling those wounds is depression...we have finally depressed every thought and feeling within our body in order that we might avoid the pain we feel from our wounds.....and then as our body tries to bring us back to health as it always will we begin to feel those wounds again and so we trot off to the doctors and get some pills to zombify ourselves into a peaceful state.

Of course in that state not only can we not feel our pain and suffering but we don't feel anything much else either. It is a fact of healing that to release all our accumulated rubbish we let it rise to the surface, we let it go to the light and of course the closer it is to the surface then the more aware we are of it...and the more aware we are of it then the more we can feel it.

The fear of feeling pain actually grows to be much bigger than the original wound and that is why we fight for so long to avoid facing our pain but when we do, when we begin to understand why it is there and how it is all based on erroneous beliefs that are no longer appropriate to our lives then we can free ourselves.

It really is as simple as that...but it is hard to do!

However, we are all worth it.

Thursday 11th September 2008

The new future retreat and workshop dates are now available. Looking at Inner Peace and finding your Life Purpose they give each guests the keys to open their own healing abilities, thereby enabling folk to incorporate overall balance into their everyday lives.

Wednesday 10th September 2008

I've been doing a lot of physical cleansing this week as part of the letting go energy of autumn but with a different slant on the releasing energy from previous years. It's the same old letting go of old stuff but now with the realisation that I don't have to push it out or I don't have to make a fight out of it, there doesn't have to be any drama involved!

Instead there is just recognition that a certain part of life has changed and some things are no longer part of who you are or what you do. You don't have to throw them out as if they threatened you in any way.

Down at the sauna the other day I removed from my wash cupboard all the old shampoo bottles that contained sodium laureth sulfate because I no longer use any with those harsh chemicals in them as they damage my hair and the environment (my choice and my belief...I'm not asking anyone else to sign up to that). The old shampoos are just shampoo, still the same as they were before...they still clean your hair and have no mind of their own to worry about my opinion of them!

The difference is that I have changed my mind about what is appropriate for me and my purpose and now I choose to use different shampoos that are kinder to my health and the health of the environment. There really doesn't need to be a fight about it and this attitude is what I am mirroring with my detox reactions...cleansing is just a soft lifting away of redundant energy like putting my old shampoo bottles into a bag and taking them to be recycled. Maybe someone who uses that kind of shampoo may see them and take them home or maybe they will be recycled in some other way.

Energy forms released to the universe are free to take any new form (cosmic recycling)...they are just energy and the only meaning they have is the one we choose to give them....that is how it's possible for us to view the same thing in different ways. One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter. One man's saviour is a threat to another.

We are all in different places using different energy forms whether they be physical, emotional or mental thought forms. I don't need the other 6.7 billion folk on the planet to endorse my choices, I don't need for them to follow my choices either. My choices are right for me because they fit who I am, they suit my purpose. Other folk will have different choices because they are different people.

We are all one but we are not the same. A birch tree is a birch tree but no two are exactly the same.

Because I have this peace about who I am (for certain aspects) I don't need to forcibly expel my redundant energy forms, I can just be soft and let them lift away. This is a small difference when viewed from outside of me but a very important difference nonetheless.

Forcing energy from me puts me in a place of judging it...deeming it to be 'wrong' for me somehow. Judgement and unconditional love cannot exist in the same space at the same time...and I am choosing in what space I wish to be right now.

Overall I am looking at myself in a very general way, seeing changes occurring over the last few years, letting old patterns and habits which no longer serve me just lift away. However, I am also aware that we are constantly redefining ourselves moment to moment especially when we allow ourselves to be totally surrendered and in the flow of the universal energy, when we offer no resistance to experiencing what comes.

At the point of total surrender it isn't even a conscious decision to let the energy go....imagine if we tried to do that with our thinking mind! Instead we allow it to happen moment to moment by not actually holding anything. There is nothing in our cupboards! At this point we have fully surrendered and we fully trust in the well being flow of the universe. We don't need to keep hold of anything because we know (that deep peaceful knowing) it will be there for us exactly when we need it....if we allow it to be and we allow ourselves to see it (but that's another story!).

Sure, it's very hard to let go when we have been taught since we were born that we need to save for a rainy day, to plan ahead etc. When was the last time Europeans were nomadic people wandering from food source to food source just taking what they needed when they needed it and trusting that it would always be there? It's no coincidence that the nomadic tribes of the world are more in tune with the universe.

I'm not suggesting that we all empty our cupboard and hit the road (unless it feels very right to you!) because forcing yourself into something that scares you and stresses you is a very long way from surrendering and trusting. Forcing yourself into being someone who you think you are 'supposed to be' is a very harsh rigid energy, the kind of manic ego mind energy that brought us into so much pain, suffering and slavery in the first place.

Being alright with how I am right here and now is my softness. It's the same softness that allows energy forms that no longer serve me to just lift off and wash away in the ever present well being flow of the universe.

As to the vulnerability that being soft and open brings...are there still parts of me I hide? You bet there are! I can see some of them very clearly right now as I write this and although I am ok enough in myself to acknowledge that I have them I can also see clearly the guilt and shame that is holding them in place...that place being neatly hidden behind a large rock in the dark where you can't see them!

Logically, with all the teachings and healings that I have given and received I know that I can release them and I will not suffer as I believe I will (the huge existential fear that takes over). But, so far this 'knowing' is only an intellectual knowing and as such it only goes so far as the 3rd level of my energy field, the mental level. Although of course that is a good start! The fear of my shadow aspects exist on a greater part of my being than the knowing of unconditional love for them does...at the moment!

I have admitted to myself that my shadow is still there and I have admitted to the world that it is still there. Just let me check.....yep the world is still revolving and the sky hasn't fallen down on my head, phew! This is another huge healing for me, my fear is of being judged even for just admitting to having a shadow ( a dark side as it were!) is now on its way to the great cosmic recycling unit.

Do I want to admit what it is that lurks in there haunting me? No...well not yet anyway...and maybe never...and the good thing is that I can be soft with myself about that. Right now I am ok with myself for not being ok with being myself ( you can't beat a good paradox!) To truly be myself I would reveal the whole of me to the light, I would have the whole of me open where everyone can see it.....and I'm not ready to do that fully yet.....but I'm alright with that.

It's another step on my journey. I will have gained nothing by forcing myself to reveal my darkest secrets before I feel strong enough in myself and ready to do so. This is where the subtle differences of intention really come into play. This is not really about being public with my shadow, except that it is my fear of rejection by others that holds this part of me in the shadow. This part of me isn't able to step into the light and be bathed in love and acceptance by myself because it doesn't trust that is what will happen, it relies on approval from outside itself to define it and therefore can only see from past times that it will be judged harshly.

I will bring it into the fold of my arms one day but there is no rush...at least now I am not rejecting it anymore so it is free to come into love whenever it feels ready and able. There is no arbitrary target date that it needs to step out by because truly I can love myself totally as I am.

That is unconditional love...even as I can see that part of me hiding behind a rock, too ashamed to come out of the shadows...I can still view her with such compassion because I feel her fear of judgement, I feel her terror of rejection and I can't help but hold her in safe loving thoughts, even as she feels unworthy of my love and cannot accept it as real.

This is where I am right now and that is ok with me.

Tuesday 9th September 2008

The word 'healer' actually gives a false idea about what is really going on here, the most common alternative to this is 'facilitator' as that gives a better understanding of what really happens but it doesn't really sound so inviting! So I stick with the word healer as that is the one that folk are used to and then I stress to folk that I don't do some cute party trick with my magic wand (yes I do have one!) which will suddenly release them from all the effects of their previous existence.

Each of us is responsible for our own healing, in fact there really is nobody else that can do it for us. My job here is to allow others to be themselves and provide a safe loving environment where guests can feel that love and safety. The only way it is possible for me to allow others to be themselves is for me to embody that energy myself. It's of no use to anyone for me to live here trying to be some idealised 'perfect' person who is all things to all people. My job is to be me, warts and all, thus giving permission to others that they can also be themselves, that there is no judgement on them for that.

When I am conducting a healing session I am still just being me but I do consciously hold a particular aspect of me that serves the best for all involved in a healing session. This is where my skill lies, being able to hold myself in my higher self, putting my own ego and mind to one side whilst I allow the universal energy to flow through me so that I am a clear vessel for that energy and I can receive guidance without it being distorted by my own energy blocks.

Everything around here is part of the system of healing, the endless forests filled with the hugely grounding energy of the pine trees and the healing energy of the birch trees all combine to give such a vast holding energy that guests don't even need to be told that it is a safe place, the place speaks for itself.

Think about it....do you really need the other 6.7 billion others to act in a certain way just to make you happy? It's little wonder that you feel tired if that is what you've been trying to do....good luck with that! (I spent a good few decades doing it myself!)

Why do we not want to take responsibility for our own reality? There are many reasons of course, the most simplest being laziness! It seems like hard work to be responsible for making your world how you would prefer it to be doesn't it? And yet that is what we are doing anyway! Everything that is in your world was created by your thoughts at some level.

Don't you feel in the slightest bit curious about why you would have created the reality that you have? Explore it and find out what you were thinking and assuming (your belief system) to make your world the way it is....and then if it wasn't what you had intended you are free to change it.

The other thing that makes it easier to take responsibility is to recognise that there is no right or wrong way for your world to be, there really is nobody judging you about what you have created...it's all just about the wonderful experience of creating.

Yes you may have criteria which you wish to achieve and that is what shapes your intention and your actions but the question that you ask yourself isn't about right or wrong but whether your thoughts and actions or way of being suits your purpose.

So you see it is very easy for me to sit without judgement of others who come here because I see their actions in the same way that I might look upon a child making shapes out of bricks.....it's just exploration, it's just about finding out what works for certain scenarios and what doesn't....that gives us experience and that brings us understanding which then deepens as our experience grows.

It's beautiful to watch.

As my own awareness of this natural flow of life expands and deepens so too has my understanding. The more I see of the bigger picture and the bigger truth the easier it is for me to step out of taking it all so personally and getting caught up in the drama. That doesn't mean that I don't sometimes experience anger or resentment or sadness...those are all part of my experiences and I welcome them as part of the natural flow of all life but I don't collapse totally into them. There is the part of me that watchs them even as I am experiencing them and in that way they don't become my entirety, they are not who I am and they don't define me. In this way I can have total peace even as I am experiencing great turmoil.

I can't help thinking that if everyone knew that they could do that then they would be doing it too. So I'm here to tell you that you can do it. If I can do it then so can you! J

Friday 5th September 2008

There is a very common misconception that ideas such as allowing your feelings to be voiced and not keeping emotions and thoughts stuck and suppressed in your energy field is in fact like issuing a mandate that it is ok to go around and tell everyone to their face exactly what you think of them! I can't imagine that assisting the healing of the planet in the short term though!

When we allow the anger/hatred/spite/venom etc. which we have previously stifled, to be voiced and released we are doing so with the intention of healing....and with all types of healing modalities the intention is the most important aspect. It is our intention that gives our acts their meaning. However, this meaning is personal to us, we cannot dictate how others will receive our energy in whatever form it takes....that must remain their own responsibility and their own choice.

If I were tuning in to and experiencing some deep rooted anger for example directed at my brother I wouldn't seek him out personally because in that physical form he also has the limitations of the ego mind and he also has his own wounds and pain. If I were to release mine by throwing them all at him I would merely be changing the form of my energy blocks into guilt and creating a whole lot of intentional hurt for him. That, clearly, is not the aim!

We can only decide for ourselves when we are ready and willing to release old energy blocks. When I do that kind of release work here at the retreat the release is always directed at an inanimate object such as a cushion or an old tree stump or written out into a book or on the computer depending on which particular form the energy release comes in...sometimes just plain old fashioned shouting, screaming and swearing is all that is required!

The key thing is that the healee has been able to give themselves permission and has been able to love themselves enough to voice what was previously so disapproved of and labelled as 'wrong'. The process is not about perpetuating the cycle of hurt by passing it on again but instead we come to a place where we are able to rise above the hurt and anger, to understand its roots and from that place of understanding we have compassion at the very least for ourselves. From compassion always comes unconditional love......the releasing energy may take the form of us wanting to really hurt our brother and now (because we are surrounded by love and come from a place of love) we need not be afraid to feel those feelings. Once we have relived the experience totally and remembered the childhood memory that triggered such angry feelings we remember the fear we had about expressing our feelings of anger because of the disapproval it would have incurred. We understand why we felt such rage and why we choose to suppress it...and now we are bigger and we know more we need not be afraid of the feelings.

These days if/when my daughter shouts at me how much she hates me I welcome her expression of anger because I know (a deep peaceful knowing) that it is just an experience she is having and it is just an experience that I am having. It doesn't define either her or me. Because I know that it doesn't define me in any way I have no need of any reaction to it. In fact after exploring my cancer and seeing how it was the festering unexpressed emotions of my childhood that became my tumours I am always very glad (eventually!) to see that my daughter feels safe enough to express herself.....even when I'm not so thrilled with the content!

Of course not everyone is in that place of being so secure in themselves...and indeed I'm certainly not there all the time! Certain words or facial expressions can really press our buttons and when we feel such deep emotions shooting to the surface and we recognise them, then we have received a great gift!

I call it a gift because we now have a conscious awareness of a deeply buried energy block and instead of just thumping the person in front of us and blaming them for everything we have the choice to take ourselves to a safe place and explore the arising feelings.....to find out where they really come from. Sometimes we may have to wait a while to do so but that it ok. Again it is our intention which defines our actions. We can consciously put the feelings to one side until we are in an appropriate place to explore them (the middle of Sainsburys is rarely a good place!) as opposed to our old habit of suppressing the feelings and keeping them under the surface of our consciousness where we pretend they don't exist and hope that they will go away!

They don't go away. I had ignored mine for so many years, creating more and more new defences to stop me from acknowledging the growing feeling, that I had grown further and further away from my own light. My essence was buried under layer upon layer of stagnant energy. In fact now when I look back I'm amazed that I only had 7 tumours! Our bodies really are amazing acts of creation, continuing to serve us despite all the rubbish we feed into them!

So yes, express yourself with the intention of healing which is to say love yourself unconditionally...no judgements. Be aware of what your intentions are and be honest with yourself......you can't pretend to have good intentions just to be lazy...believe me I've tried and it doesn't work!

Tuesday 2nd September 2008

Autumn is well and truly on its way now with many of the birch trees displaying an abundance of yellow leaves which shine magnificently in the early morning light. This morning the temperature was barely above freezing and along my forest walk I found many frost covered bushes and frozen grass heralding the onward march into the winter months.

The energy of autumn carries a distinct aspect of letting go, allowing ourselves to break down and let old structures collapse...a very natural thing to do when you look out the window at the scenery outside. It is when we allow the old to collapse and decompose that we provide ourselves with fertilizer for the new growth that will come next spring.

Of course we all have cycles within cycles but when we are completely in tune with the natural flow too we find ourselves being carried on a tide of letting go at this time of year and a tide of new beginnings and amazing spurts of growth during the spring time. Neither is it a coincidence that we slow down and rest during the winter months, allowing our energies to become a little slower and thus allowing integration to occur.

Integration is an important aspect of any healing or growth cycle and is one that is most often overlooked as it doesn't have the impact of emerging growth or the high energy of the summer or the intensity of the autumnal release.

Last autumn I went through what I thought was depression but in fact with hindsight and experience I know to be the pain and suffering that the Buddhists allude to in regard to having attachments to outcomes. What I felt last year was the letting go of many of my attachments and structures....and it was only so painful because I didn't want to let them go at the time because I thought I knew better.

Already this year I can see some big opportunities for letting go on my horizon and I have already been through a whole raft of emotions in regard to them. I've done a cycle of deep fear and have already seen the impact of that fear on my physical health but that feeling of being overwhelmed by stress compelled me to trust in my friends and family rather than bottling up my fears and going it alone. Consequently, I have never felt so enriched, loved and held as I do now. I can see many of my old habits of seclusion crashing down around me as their time to rot and transmute has come.

The feeling of peace and oneness that I am blessed with right now is just awesome and I have the threat of future suffering to thank for it. If I had never been forced into such an overwhelming position of fear, stress and worry then I would never have reached out and found that I was so supported and so loved. I thank my oppressor for the experience he is helping to provide me with and I ask my angels to continue to help and support me in seeing it in this light.

Many times over the years I have felt myself being 'forced' into these letting go places and each time I have seen how I always re-emerge from them into a place of enormous inner peace. Such inner peace that I could never have foreseen it to have existed myself. Therefore, now I'm finally able to recognise from this side of the event that it is ok to let go and fall into what looks like very bad times because it is leading me to a golden meadow. I know that from this end of the tunnel it looks dark and bleak but I can trust that I will re-emerge back into the light...it is the same as allowing the winter to come because the spring will implicitly follow, there is nothing that we have to do, the spring and the light will return....and of course the return of the light will bring about new growth.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death......

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.....

Imagine if you knew somebody who was scared of autumn and winter coming because they didn't think they would ever see warm and sunny days coming ever again...that is exactly what we are doing when we see and feel hard times coming, we desperately hang onto our safe, warm, comfortable structures because we fear that we will never experience them ever again and yet the cycles of nature are all the same, they are just cycles!

There is no beginning and there is no end, life is not about trying to reach a certain place or trying to stay in a certain place, it's about living the experiences as we pass through them. Sit back and enjoy the ride!

Thursday 21st August 2008

Sometimes we don't appreciate the power of our one small voice in this big old busy world of ours but of course when voices start to get added together they become loud and strong. I wanted to copy here a letter from avaaz.org showing the results of their campaigns which help to give a voice to folk around the world in need of help by providing a place for those of us who wish to make a different world to gather our voices together.

When a few drops of water come together they can sustain a small eco system and if you add some more drops then it can transform into a river which will cut its way through and shape the landscape, then with even more drops an ocean is created which supports everythng within it...so too can be the growth of our individual voices if we care enough to use them.

It doesn't take long to click on a link to add my voice to others who wish to see some positive change in the world. If we want our world to be different then we all have to make the effort for the difference to happen.

Dear friends,

In just over 18 months, the Avaaz community has grown to almost 3.4 million people from every country of the world, an average growth of over 40,000 people per week! Working in 13 languages, Avaaz members have taken nearly 8 million actions, donated over 2.5 million Euro ($3.5 million), and told over 30 million friends about Avaaz campaigns. A wonderful new source of global community and democracy is being created, and we've started to win real victories to close the gap between the world we have and the world we want -- on human rights, environmental protection, poverty, global justice and more.

Huge thanks and congratulations to everyone who has signed a petition, sent a message, donated, attended a rally, lobbied leaders, told friends, given advice or otherwise been a part of this effort. Scroll down this email to see some of the latest campaign highlights and achievements over the last 3 months, and click the link below to see a report back on all our achievements since launch and leave a comment:

https://secure.avaaz.org/en/report_back_2

Campaign Update -- May-July 2008
Over the last 3 months, Avaaz members have helped to win the first global treaty banning cluster bombs, successfully campaigned for a ceasefire to ease the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, prevented G8 summit leaders from spinning their failure to act on climate change, run a major global ad campaign in Chinese communities promoting a constructive dialogue with China over Tibet and other issues, and personally rankled the President of Sudan (indicted for genocide by the International Criminal Court) with a campaign to help bring him to trial.

Below is a quick summary of campaigning developments on Israel and Palestine, the food crisis, Zimbabwe, climate change, China, Tibet, and the Olympics, Darfur, cluster bombs, and more. On all of these issues, much more remains to be done -- but we have all contributed in important ways. What we've done so far is just the beginning.

China, Tibet, and the Olympics
More than 175,000 Avaaz members have joined a global handshake chain -- launched by the Dalai Lama, carried through London by a 2000-person chain of Avaaz members to the Chinese Embassy, and then racing around the world online. A positive symbol of constructive dialogue, the handshake is arriving in China this week.

To amplify the handshake's message, Avaaz members have funded ads in Chinese publications from Hong Kong to California, launched a Mandarin-language Avaaz sister site in China, hired "mobile and walking billboards" in New York's and London's Chinatowns -- among a host of other tactics. You can still join the global handshake here before it lands in Beijing at this link.

Zimbabwe
More than 400,000 Avaaz members, including tens of thousands in Africa, have taken action to support democracy and human rights in Zimbabwe. This past weekend, South African trade unionists marched to a regional summit in Johannesburg with Zimbabwean refugees and civil society groups carrying a sea of red cards for Mugabe -- and holding banners representing the more than 75,000 virtual red cards sent by Avaaz members last week. Avaaz members have contacted governments around the world, urging non-recognition of Mugabe's regime; funded ad campaigns globally and throughout Southern Africa; and even flown a 280-sq-meter banner over the United Nations to press South Africa's Mbeki to push harder in his role as mediator between Mugabe and the opposition MDC. The summit is over, but our campaign for the end of the Mugabe era is not.

Israel and Palestine
215,000 Avaaz members, including citizens of both Israel and Palestine, have driven Avaaz campaigning for real peace talks, a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel, and an end to the blockade of Gaza. A major print-and-online advertising campaign for the ceasefire reached more than 1 million Israelis this June, thanks to donations from Avaaz members. Within a week, a truce was signed -- encouraging the Avaaz community to play an ongoing role, large and small, in helping to resolve this conflict.

G8 and climate change
More than 250,000 Avaaz members urged the G8 leaders to adopt firm targets to cut climate emissions by the year 2020, signing a petition that was hand-delivered to G8 chair Japan's prime minister. During the summit negotiations, however, the US, Canada, and Japan refused 2020 targets -- so Avaaz called them out in a satirical full-page, full-color ad in the global Financial Times drawing on the Japanese "Hello Kitty" cartoon. The ad, funded with small donations from 2,000 Avaaz members, sparked coverage in media outlets from the New York Times to the Nikkei Business Daily. Coverage of reactions from Avaaz and other groups ensured that Canada's Stephen Harper and other leaders couldn't spin their way out of accountability for blocking progress on this urgent issue -- and with climate change a key issue in coming elections, hopes for change (and our campaigning plans) are growing.

Food crisis
Responding to a video appeal for international support from the Foreign Minister of Sierra Leone, 342,197 Avaaz members signed petitions urging governments to take action on the food crisis. In May, Avaaz staff hand-delivered their message to UN chief Ban Ki-Moon at an emergency food summit in Rome. Moon, in turn, used the petition with the press and global leaders to build his urgent case for action on food prices and practices. As the food crisis deepens, we are redoubling our efforts to meet this huge threat to the livelihoods of millions.

Darfur
To counter Sudanese president Omar Al-Bashir's claim that the International Criminal Court is a "Western Crusade," Avaaz launched a major Arabic-media ad campaign. More than 4500 Avaaz members from 80 countries donated to run the ads throughout the region, which challenged the "crusade" charge by showing that Bush and Bashir are both strong opponents of the court. Arabic media reports that Bashir personally invited one newspaper editor who refused to run the ad to visit Sudan and accept his thanks. Our campaigning will continue until the Sudanese people can achieve a long sought peace with justice.

Other highlights
When a 120-country summit to ban cluster bombs was at risk of failure, more than 160,000 Avaaz members emailed world leaders to urge a strong treaty free of loopholes and delays. The campaign made waves with negotiators inside the conference and headlines in Finland and the International Herald Tribune -- and a firm treaty was agreed in the final days.
Avaaz members raised over $2 million in aid after the Burma cyclone, channeled directly to those at greatest need through monks and aid workers inside the country. A full report back on this campaign is available on the Avaaz website.
When the UN launched a closed process to choose its new top Human Rights official, human rights experts worried that a weak candidate would be chosen. In response, Avaaz placed a mock job advertisement in The Economist that generated a full story in the New York Times, Reuters and several other press outlets, and a strong response from UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon. The ad, and a companion blog, helped bring a highly unusual level of democratic scrutiny to a top UN appointment.
It can seem as though every week brings a new crisis or international emergency. As human beings, we have a responsibility to our brothers and sisters, no matter where they are in the world. But it is inspiring to know that none of us is alone -- that there are millions around the world sharing our concerns and joining with us to take action when it matters most.

Avaaz is based on a simple idea: that global public opinion should shape global decision-making. When we take action, we may not win every battle -- but together, over time, we can change the field on which the battles are fought. We are already making a difference, and our voices are growing stronger. This is only the beginning.

With much respect and gratitude for this wonderful community of people,

Ricken, Ben, Graziela, Brett, Paul, Pascal, Veronique, Iain, Milena -- and the whole Avaaz team

--------

ABOUT AVAAZ
Avaaz.org is an independent, not-for-profit global campaigning organization that works to ensure that the views and values of the world's people inform global decision-making. (Avaaz means "voice" in many languages.) Avaaz receives no money from governments or corporations, and is staffed by a global team based in London, Rio de Janeiro, New York, Paris, Washington DC, and Geneva.

Don't forget to check out our Facebook and Myspace and Bebo pages!

To contact Avaaz, please do not reply to this email. Instead, write to info@avaaz.org. You can also send postal mail to our New York office: 857 Broadway, 3rd floor, New York, NY 10003 U.S.A.

Sunday 17th August 2008

Just to let you all know that I have created some videos of the beautiful surroundings of Mairela Retreat and have posted them on the Internet for all to enjoy. The links for them all are on my new videos page. Enjoy and please pass on the link to all your friends! Sometimes just watching pictures of nature can be very relaxing.

Wednesday 13th August 2008

Anyone from London who is interested in energy healing...which encompasses so much more than just hands on healing, but doesn't want to come out to Finland should check out http://theloopenergyhealing.wordpress.com/ This is the new site for a friend of mine, Susanne, who has amazing ESP skills and the biggest heart stuffed full of love and compassion...what more do you need from a healer? J

Susanne, is also starting to go into central London businesses to offer free short healing sessions to employees in exchange for the opportunity to promote herself and energy healing in general. If you see an opportunity for Susanne to offer this to your business please drop her an email and have a chat.

Tuesday 12th August 2008

Whilst out walking with my daughter this morning she commented on the grooves left in the gravel forest road by the torrents of water from our recent thunderstorms. She was fascinated that they resembled lightning with the patterns that they'd left. I asked her what the two events had in common that might cause the similar patterns and she answered that they both take the easiest route. Exactly, they both follow the path of least resistance! Smart kid...takes after her mother you know J

I then commented that that is how all of life works. When we are in tune with nature we need only follow the path of least resistance and that no real effort is required but as we have grown away from our natural ways we have lost that feeling or that knowing.

My daughter commented that surely most folk did take the easiest route and I can see why she would surmise that from looking around at the world.

When we are thinking with our limited mind, when we only look as far as our immediate horizons and imagine them to be all that there is to us and the universe then it can be very easy to assume that we are 'going with the flow'. However, being in the flow inside a cardboard box isn't the same as allowing yourself to be guided and influenced by the earth, moon, stars...the universe et al.

I know that I have chosen to do nothing when faced with difficulties, not making so much effort in relationships, not striving for more education, not going for that new job....and mostly for the reason that I wasn't sure if I could do it and I would have rather done nothing than risk failing spectacularly at something.

That kind of doing the easy thing isn't really following the path of least resistance because if we could or would tune into the fear that we are feeling, the fear of failure, the fear of not being perfect (shock, horror) then we would very easily become aware that there is in fact a huge resistance going on inside of us. The fear of failure has seized up everything and we are sat on our life path like a bunny stunned in the headlights...and that is not going with the flow, that is not following the path of least resistance.

It is quite easy to get back in to the flow....all you have to do is let go, all you do is stop making up rules and conditions and preferences for how we want each experience to pan out. There is no rule or judgement that states that you have to follow the path of least resistance....we all have free will and choice but there are those of us who realise that it takes considerable energy to wade upstream in comparison to letting go and floating downstream.

There has been a lot of talk about the so called 'credit crunch', people are tightening their belts and reviewing their spending and this is all just part of the natural flow of the universe. En mass we are being given the opportunity to reassess what are the important aspects of our life, the areas of our lives that we wish to pour our energies into. After all money is just another form of our energy that we use in our modern world.

We are all different and unique therefore we will all come to make different choices about where we put our energies. Some folk give more to charity these days because they now have an experience of how fear of lack can eat away at you and with this new felt empathy they reach out to help others less fortunate then all of us in the western world. The same fear of lack creates a huge resistance in others and they stop giving their money to charities because they are so afraid for themselves. Some folk cut back their food bill and start to buy cheap food whilst others who place a greater emphasis on health continue to feed themselves and their family with good quality organic produce.

I'm a very blessed person because I have been down the route of dis-ease and I know with the very essence of my being that the healthy balance of my entire body (the human energy field) is the basis for everything. All things are relative and with a healthy HEF (body) there is nothing more for me to consider.

There is nothing more for me to do except to be myself, however that is. Following my path of least resistance and thereby following the most natural path of being I don't inhibit myself with thoughts of how I should look, or how I should behave (that alarms some folk but be ok with your alarm or anger at such a statement from me).

Just be ok with yourself, no matter how that self is right now. It was around this time of year about one year ago that my guides sent me a message to soften my self bullying habit to help me release from the chains of trying to achieve perfection and sainthood in order to feel a worthy person.

'That's just the way I am and that is ok'

If it strikes a cord with you then please feel free to use it.

Friday 8th August 2008

An auspicious day, the 8.8.08 and I don't believe that it stopped raining for one minute! I had to feel very sorry for all those folk I knew that had been planning their weddings for this date for many years. I guess the universe was having a good clear out!

The vegetable garden looks a bit flattened now, the tent resembles a swimming pool and the hay will take a fair amount of drying from now on but at least the water reservoirs are filled up.

The figure 8 resembles the spiral of universal energy, the continuous loop of our existence with no beginning and no ending. We are energetic beings, so much more than just our flesh and blood, we were never born and we never die. Sure we change form but our essence remains, a unique blend of energies that we recognise as who we are if we take the time to 'see' it.

Everything changes form, there are cycles within cycles, life and death cycle, day and night, cosmic cycles, the seasons, weather patterns and moon cycles to name just a few. In fact the only consistent that we have is change!

That is why it is unhealthy to have a stagnant life although I recognise that we can easily get scared and wish for a quiet life out of fear. Sometimes folk get confused and equate spiritual peace with emptying their lives of everything that causes ripples on their otherwise serene exterior. I've been a long way down that route in my life and it creates the greatest stress and tension right the way from the physical muscle holding and tension that eventually took me towards fibromyalgia right up to the distortion of my celestial energy being used as an escape route from this seemingly cruel and often illogical world. (I could escape into a fantasy world via my third eye at will)

Trying to avoid life so that we remain serene and peaceful is the spiritual equivalent to valium, the old fashioned saying of 'being in the flow' really is a bigger truth. I live my life in the flow these days, I feel what comes through me and allow myself to experience it fully whether the energy flowing through me is sadness or anger or depression or joy. I realise after all these years that sad stuff happens and it is ok to be sad, I feel strong enough in myself to know that being sad, no matter how powerful the feelings are, will never cause me to die or melt into a puddle of insane gloop as has been my fear.

I even know now that I can allow myself to get depressed sometimes with the way of the world because I am larger and lighter than that in reality and if I don't limit myself in any way (by deciding how I SHOULD be feeling) then the feeling will pass through me as a wave of energy, maybe lasting a day, maybe a month, it doesn't matter because I know it is a wave and I know that it will pass and I know that I will be enriched by the experience of having allowed myself to experience it. My capacity as a healer is most definitely enriched by having a large breadth of experience.

I would rather die a thousand mini deaths each day, feeling every particle of sadness or anger or whatever, than become a deadened zombie pretending and faking through my life . I've been far enough down that route in my life to know what I choose to do now and why.....that is the joy of experience.....and that is the joy and perfection of the full cycle, because I have experienced the experience of the deadened zombie trying to be that which I thought that others thought that I should be, I know experientially which I choose now because I know experientially where it took me......and it wasn't to happiness or peace!

Without that experience I wouldn't know....I may be able to surmise but that's just an intellectual exercise resulting in changes on the mental level only, full body experiences bring full body knowing which is etched into my cellular memory.

You see it doesn't matter at which point you are on the spiral. Like me 20 years ago you may be heading down the deadened stage, trying to contain all the thoughts and emotions that have been blocked and hidden in the desperate attempts to be a perfect something, or maybe you are like me 10 years ago when your body can no longer contain all the festering toxicity and full blown dis-ease is eating you up. Ultimately the truth of what we are doing can no longer be ignored and we realise that we have been destroying ourselves when we thought that we were in fact making ourselves into this wonderful person!

Truth be told we never stopped being that wonderful being of light, it just kinda got buried under all the crap we mistakenly accumulated in our quest for perfection and happiness, so the next part of that particular cycle is throwing off the useless junk and keeping only that which serves us in being who we want to be.

Remember that you can always choose to be a pain filled miserable person too...there is no judgement in any of it. There are no 'good' or 'bad' places to be on a spiral, there are directions...one requires lots of effort and creates holdings and tension...and the other goes with the flow and therefore requires nothing more than just letting go.

Ah, the simple truth of letting go....it is always so simple and never so easy!

Namaste

Tuesday 5th August 2008

A lot of folk don't realise that when they are in times of stress and trouble that they can call on the help of the angels...of course there are folk who think that there are no such thing as angels but that doesn't matter because the angels are celestial beings don't have any ego and therefore are not reliant on folk believing in them. Angels will help you no matter who or what you are, all you have to do is ask and then be open to their assistance.

It's all too easy for us to decide exactly how we want the help to arrive and by doing so we close ourselves off to the angelic assistance that comes our way. Many times when I have felt that I would be overwhelmed by so much in my life and I have remembered to ask the angels for help, rather than coming and sorting out all my problems or making the hours longer for me to fit all my 'important' stuff into they lift me up above it all back into my sacred space of peace and the problems just fall away.

When we get caught up in the manic headless chicken dance of 'there isn't enough time' or 'I must do more' we are totally unable to just stop and be peaceful because we feel as if our very life depends on getting all our 'important' things done. It can take the enormous love and strength of the angelic realm to lift us out from this web of stress that we have spun ourselves into...it also requires some recognition on our part of the unhealthy position that we have gotten ourselves into....otherwise how would we even know to ask for help!

We always have a choice about what we do and that is why we must ask for the help of the angels, they won't force their will onto us....and in fact they don't have any will because in the angelic realm or when we look with our angelic eyes we see through all the rubbish straight through to the perfection....there is nothing to fix. That is how the angels work, they don't fix stuff because it doesn't really need fixing, they just lift us up above the clouds so that we can see the bigger picture and we are back into the light again.

So the next time you get yourself into a jam and feel overwhelmed by it all but don't feel that you can ask for help or don't even know where to begin to ask for help, just ask the angels. You don't need to ask them out loud, you don't need to believe in the heavenly host, you don't need to know how they appear to you, all you need to do is sit quietly so that you will notice them. Because they can see the bigger picture they know more of what is best for you, they can see further than us and they will not take you anywhere that you cannot cope with.

On those days when life seems to have handed you too much to deal with, send it up into the hands of the angels and feel the weight that is lifted from you.

Trust the angels for they love you all ways.

Monday 4th August 2008

It's been a while since I wrote on here, mostly I've been off enjoying myself or working through some of the work that needs doing around the place. I finally got around to replacing my boat pier as the previous temporary one had sunk below the water level at the lake end! The project didn't go quite as planned....now there's a surprise! but I do now have a drier version for getting into and out of the boat. After spending a few weeks launching from the shore I appreciate how much easier it is now. I even slung together a smaller version to go over the other side of the lake to make it easier to get in and out when I'm over there to visit the Linnavuori or picking berries.

Talking of berries, the raspberries are ripening up and taste delicious so my morning walks are taking a long time as I stop to pick and eat them all as I go. The lingonberries won't be ready to pick for a few weeks yet but I did find my first chanterelles this morning, yay! I'll take a trip out to my secret location later and see if I can find a few more to make some tasty chanterelle sauce with.

We took a trip down the road to watch the WRC rally on Saturday. The route had been changed this year and so we didn't go to our normal place, although the route was going past it but just in the opposite direction. We chose a viewing place where we didn't have to get up so early and trek through so much forest! Instead we sat on a specially cleared oat field quite near the stage starting point with a good view of a bend, a dip and another bend. I hadn't appreciated just how much faster this road would be compared to the 'jumps' road we normally went to, so when Loeb came round the corner and flashed past me I was dumbstruck for ages, I just couldn't conceive of the speed that they were doing especially when you consider that they are travelling on gravel roads! All of the practising that Loeb did around the forests a few weeks ago certainly paid off and he won the Finnish rally.

It was a shame to hear that there won't be a Finnish rally next year as the locations are now going to be changed each year, seems a bit of a strange decision to me considering the drivers consistently vote the Finnish leg as the best rally of them all. As the rally magazine wrote, it doesn't really encourage folk to invest in the rally either and all the long term knowledge that creates a safe sport for everyone gets lost. Still, that's progress!

Saturday 19th July 2008

Today is my name day, so happy name day to all the Saras or Saaras or Sarahs out there. The Hebrew definition of the name is princess and the Sanskrit is essence, so both are very beautiful thoughts to be holding about ourselves today.

I started my day with thinking of all the beautiful things that would come to me and being grateful for them. Sometimes when I sink into bed at night I hold my hand on my heart and think back to all the wonderful things that happened to me that day, I really feel the energy of softness, warmth and love soaking me in a bed bath of well being, just as the universe intends and I give thanks for what I have received. Some days, like today, I start the day off with the memories of things yet to come in the new dawning day, I feel into my heart and allow myself to soak in an energy of gratitude knowing that I will always be brought gifts by my angels and guides.

My morning walk brought me a gorgeous smell as yesterday evening's heavy shower had soaked the birch trees and allowed the aroma of the leaves to permeate the whole atmosphere. Whatever I imagine as the goodness coming to me, if I leave my mind open to receive anything I am always surprised by the magnitude of the gifts that I am surrounded by.

Thank you.

Thursday 17th July 2008

I sent a donation this morning to Avaaz.org This organisation is internationally promoting the plight of those without voices and increasing international awareness of various causes across the globe that would be assisted by the voice of the world standing together and insisting on their voice being heard concerning pressing issues in the world, thus creating the world in which we want to live.

So often the apathy of the masses when faced with a difficult situation across the globe is the main stumbling block inhibiting change. Sometimes we think of the UN or the International Criminal Court as being ineffective and so we sink back into our armchairs glad to be released our responsibilities towards our fellow humans...we can bring to mind all the good excuses that we would help if we could but what can we do as one person, that if the UN were more effective then that would be great etc etc.

This is exactly the same kind of reasoning that we use with our spiritual and physical welfare. We avoid taking responsibility until such time as we are faced with the awfulness of our situation and we can deny the truth of our co-creation no longer, after which, we actively embrace our responsibilities and set about changing our choices to ones that serve our purpose in creating the world we wish to live in. We can either choose to have no responsibility for our body, our life, our world and our universe, taking each event as a chance occurrence whereby we may be struck down someday or maybe not, it's just pot luck! Or we can choose to recognise how we are each responsible for our body, our life, our world and our universe and when we see that it doesn't look or feel how we would like it to then we know that we can change it because we know that we created the way it is now, mostly likely erroneously with mistaken beliefs about what we would gain from our actions.

We may not get it right the first time we try something, the UN may not be as effective as we would like in world situations, there may be world leaders from powerful nations that don't wish to recognise the ICC but those can be reasons to drive us onwards, these can be our inspiration to continue with our actions so that we grow in experience and find out what we can do when joined as one voice. When as babies we start to walk we don't ever get it right first time, we fall down, we wobble and all the parts of our body are uncoordinated until we continue focusing on what we are aiming to achieve, we keep on practicing and learning by experience until the parts of our body start to act together in balance and harmony. Then we can walk and from there we can learn to run and jump and skip.

Imagine if as babies we had all just sank back into the floor and each part of our body thought that there was no point in trying anymore because it was only one small piece......

Sunday 13th July 2008

My experiences in nature have taken on another dimension now with the arrival of the forest or wild strawberry and its beautiful sweet fruit! Wild strawberries have such a taste that you can't help but think that there must be some higher intelligence creating all of this universe just for our pleasure! There I am every morning eating the sweetest tasting fruit as I wander through the forest, it seems in that moment that life couldn't get any better.

I can see from the raspberry bushes from which I pluck the new leaf growth for my morning superfood blend that there will be plenty of wild raspberries coming soon too....another great favourite of mine but I also note with a little sadness that there will be no blueberries again this year as they have been the victim of the cold weather. Ironic that parts of the winter were too warm for snow and then parts of the spring were too cold for blueberry blooms! In general I have noticed an abundance of blooms this year but that may in part be due to my growing awareness of the abundance around me as I start to recognise individual plants and explore their culinary and medicinal uses.

I'm particularly overjoyed to discover that the weed which plaques my vegetable patch is chickweed and it is a remarkable plant, so I've now stopped fighting with it and have been gathering it to include in my morning mixture and my salads. It is extremely high in vitamin C...another irony that I tried to weed it out to make room for my lettuce when in fact it has a higher nutritional value than the lettuce! Chickweed is also high in mucilage which is why it is good for soothing mucous membranes making it invaluable for coughs, asthma and arthritis. It is also great for cooling and can be applied directly to sites of inflammation. Another little known use for it is for childhood convulsions...apparantly a few infusions of chickweed and the convulsions will disappear and may never return again. As if all that weren't enough it also provides niacin, vitamins B2, B1 & A, magnesium, iron, calcium, potassium, zinc, phosphorus, manganese, sodium, selenium, and silicon.

The whole chickweed experience provides a timely lesson for me in the treasures that we can sometimes miss in our lives when we label stuff in a certain way and have a rigid belief about what things are and how they fit into the world. We learn so much more about this world when we haven't already made our minds up about how things are.

Wednesday 9th July 2008

I watched a program last night about planet earth and how the environment is changing so rapidly these days, which is something that I have experienced first hand living here in Finland for the past 5 years. There have been so many incidents recently where I have noticed how we (humans) react to some of the changing conditions and it really gives an insight into the way that our minds work. I was reading about an experiment where bees are fitted with microchips in a bid to understand the decline in the world population, as if there is going to be a one time magical answer when to my mind all you need do is to look around at the pesticides and chemicals that we spray over our plants, the acres and acres of monoculture that rip the idea of balance to pieces and the relentless destruction of natural ecosystems without any thought as to their place in the grand scheme of things. We don't need a microchip on a bee to see the damage we are causing...or do we?

Nature and life are all about balance, it's all about cause and effect. Nature works in cycles, some big and some small and it's the same cycle that happens at the smaller level with us as individuals which is reflected in the work that I do here via holistic healing holidays. As individuals we spend many years pursuing a course of action in the mistaken belief that it will bring us a certain something (the something at this level is unique to each person but ultimately is wholeness) and it is only when we learn to step back and see a wider perspective, when we take in more of what is around us that we can begin to see what is really happening. It is when we step back that we see how we are really a part of the whole and that our actions have a further effect than we had realised...this is both a cause for concern and celebration...it all depends on what you are doing with your power. When we step back we see more clearly how our former actions could never bring us that which we desired and in fact took us further from our true self.

I am aware that at the ultimate level of the universe that what is happening on planet earth is just another natural cycle of life. When the tree falls down in the forest it doesn't weep for its death because it doesn't have that thinking mind, it is pure essence and it merely passes to another form as it rots into the soil and eventually becomes a part of the new tree that grows there. Maybe that tree will not re-emerge for another million years because someone came along and stuck a concrete house on the cleared space but there is no concept of time to a tree. If our physical bodies die on this planet we do not cease to exist, our spirit remains in a different form, so in that way we do not have anything to fear from the impending doom of the human race as it flaunts even the most basic rule of a parasite and finally leaches all the goodness from its host and kills the host, thus killing itself. Tapeworms have got that sussed but it seems that humans don't.

The reason that humans don't see or acknowledge what is happening is that we are so disconnected from nature, we live our lives as if there is nature and there are we. This is what I was talking about before, we haven't stepped back yet, we haven't widened our perspective or our awareness enough to see that we are an intricate part of the whole. My liver may go off and live as if it were separate from me but if it doesn't function naturally (in tune with the system) then it will kill me and thereby kill itself. We humans are acting as if we are not a part of a system, we are acting like a liver that takes all the blood supply for itself and grows all out of proportion to the other body parts.....and that is what we call cancer.

There are now many people on this planet who are stepping back and seeing their place as part of the whole, there are people who are changing the way that they live and work and eat and eliminate. There are people trying to protect the natural ecosystems of the world, trying to educate the ignorant and there are many folk living in harmony with their surroundings. It is not all doom and gloom, any cancer can be healed with the right nutrition, the right mind and an unpolluted environment.

When I am using the word 'right' I am talking about something that is right because it serves the purpose I have or the purpose of the system and not in the sense that there is a right way or a wrong way and there is somebody somewhere who can decide that for us.

Do we all know where our food comes from? Do we all really know what it cost to bring it to us? I'm talking about cost in terms of pollution and decimation of the worlds resources, or oppression of fellow humans. Was the price we paid for this produce really worth it?

I know how easy it is to slip into the mindset that as individuals we can't do anything to change any of this but in fact it is only as individuals that we can change this. Step back and see your place in this system and decide how you want your system to look and then start right now to act with that intention in every action that you take.

Nobody is going to tell you what choice to make but at least make sure that your actions reflect the choice that you have made and make sure that you have all the information possible to make that choice.

Remembering that your governments are there to represent your views....check to see if that is what they are really doing, after all that is what they are paid huge amounts of money for! What is your country contributing to the G8 summit? Below is a message from Avaaz.org which you may find interesting....

Dear friends,

Canada, Japan, and the USA are blocking talks at the G8 on targets to cut climate change by 2020. Join the call for action:

Our message will be delivered in a full-page Financial Times ad on Tuesday, using the Japanese "Hello Kitty" cartoon to shame Harper, Bush, and Fukuda:

The vast majority of the world's people want urgent, bold action on climate change -- but here at the G8 summit, three politicians stand in the way. Canada's Harper, Japan's Fukuda, and the United States' Bush are refusing to discuss climate targets for the year 2020.

Scientists agree that the next 12 years will make or break our response to the climate crisis. But if the facts haven't grabbed these leaders' attention, something else might: humour.

Avaaz has arranged a full-page satirical advert for Tuesday's (yesterday) global Financial Times newspaper, shaming Harper, Fukuda, and Bush for their climate irresponsibility. The paper will be delivered to the hotel rooms of every G8 delegate. Together, we can make it costly and embarrassing enough that these leaders will think twice before squandering another opportunity for climate progress.

Why this last-moment push? Our strategy is based on two important stories--Australia and Bali.[2]

At the UN climate negotiations in Bali, Harper, Fukuda, and Bush were trying to block any reference to climate targets for the year 2020 -- just as they are now at the G8. But a global uproar turned the tide. Negotiators from the global South rose, one after the next, to demand that the spoilers step aside. Citizen groups in every nation raised their voices -- including 320,000 Avaaz members in the final 72 hours. And a satirical full-page Avaaz ad in the Jakarta Post (a remake of the Titanic movie poster featuring Harper, Bush, and Fukuda) made headlines worldwide. A major Japanese paper later reported that this ad was waved at a top-level Japanese cabinet meeting -- leading to a step forward in Fukuda's climate policy.[3]

The second story, of Australia, shows what happens when humour combines with mass political power.

In Australia, former Prime Minister John Howard was as bad on climate as Harper, Fukuda, and Bush are now. Last fall, he chaired a summit global summit, APEC, where he tried to paint himself as a world leader on climate change. But Avaaz and other groups pushed back -- with stunts, marches, and a terrific parody television spot from our friends at GetUp, exposing Howard's charade and demanding real targets for climate emissions cuts. Climate change emerged as the defining issue of the election -- and when Howard lost, the first action of the new government was to ratify the Kyoto Protocol.

Harper faces a difficult election this fall, and climate change is emerging as a key issue. In the US, the campaign to succeed Bush could hinge on climate policy. And Fukuda's political opponents are challenging him sharply on how to confront the climate crisis.

In short, Our global efforts now can send political shock waves through all three countries. It's up to us to raise a cry once again. Sign, donate, and spread the word:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/g8_2020_targets/5.php?cl=106088207

We can't always be certain of the results of our actions. But in the face of the climate crisis, it's worth trying everything we can. We make green decisions in our private lives. And when the big public decisions are made, if enough of us stand together -- this time, next time, and every time -- then, one way or another, our message will be heard. Our leaders will change ... or we'll change our leaders.

With hope and determination,

Ben, Iain, Alice, Ricken, Paul, Graziela, Pascal, Veronique, Mark, and Milena -- the Avaaz.org team

PS: The climate change ad is one of four full-page ads we're running in the global Financial Times this week, all designed to multiply the impact of member-driven Avaaz campaigns. Look for them in the paper, or find them at http://www.avaaz.org/ads.

PPS: Here are the sources for this alert.

[1] Global and Mail: "Climate-change goals fall short at G8"
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080707.G807/TPStory/

and AFP: "Climate deadlock seen at G8 despite 'constructive' Bush."
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jP0zW0kW5h1m3Yl7omV7sk34R6hA

[2] See the ads and learn more about the Bali and Australia stories at http://www.avaaz.org/climate-victories.

[3] Fukuda announced that Japan would adopt mid-term targets for 2020. That was a major step forward -- except that Fukuda now refuses to include these targets in the G8 negotiations. Moreover, though Fukuda has promised 2020 targets, he hasn't actually set them. See: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jun/09/japan.climatechange

---------

ABOUT AVAAZ
Avaaz.org is an independent, not-for-profit global campaigning organization that works to ensure that the views and values of the world's people inform global decision-making. (Avaaz means "voice" in many languages.) Avaaz receives no money from governments or corporations, and is staffed by a global team based in London, Rio de Janeiro, New York, Paris, Washington DC, and Geneva.

Friday 4th July 2008

There are so many beautiful sights in nature and even though I take the same walking route most mornings I always notice something different each day...without even really looking so hard. I've noticed over the past week how the wild geraniums are coming to the end of their flowering (purple flowers in picture) and the red clover flowers are taking their place along side the wild daisy flowers. I particularly love all the different kinds of grasses which are opening up right now as they are at just the right height for running my hands through them as I walk along the path. Not only does it remind me of doing that as a child but it brings a tactile aspect to the whole sensescape of sound, sight and smell. This morning the grasses provided a fantastic light show for me as the early morning sun shone through the remaining dew drops that hung on the seed heads swaying in the breeze. Awesome! There is just so much to see if you take the time to notice it and once you get into the habit of noticing all the beauty around you it just grows.....both the habit and the beauty you see. This isn't just limited to the physical world either, the more time you spend noticing beautiful emotions and thought forms both within and without you the more they will grow too.

It seems that the baby swallows are leaving their nest today (photo right)....it has been very crowded of late (photo left was taken last Friday) and now I am privileged to watch them as I gaze out of the window. I can't help feeling a little envious of their new discoveries, as they will fly for the first time today and discover a whole new world out there. Maybe I'll join them in my own way, I can make this the day that I take off and soar leaving all my baggage behind and be free in the flow of Mother nature. Yippee!!

Wednesday 2nd July 2008

Today I finally had my last amalgam filling removed! it's taken over a year for them all to be safely done because I had so many and I wanted to make sure my body could cope with any stray mercury. I've been dosing myself with vitamin C, selenium and charcoal each time I visit the dentist and I haven't had a bad reaction. My sister also provided me with a homeopathic remedy which removes any mercury residue from the body and I shall be taking that for the next week too.

The dentist that started my treatment has since left and I had to persuade the latest one a little more to remove my last black filling. I was told that latest research shows that there is more mercury entering our systems from the fish we eat than from our amalgam fillings. Personally, as I eat local fish I don't think that is true but even if it were I would say that was more a reason to stop eating fish than for me to keep my amalgam fillings.

Funnily enough I stopped on the way home and bought some fish for my dinner. My daughter's classmate's parents run the local fishing business so I know where my fish came from and when. They come out of the same lake that provides all the drinking water for the people of Helsinki and they are always caught just the day before they are sold.

Tuesday 1st July 2008

As we've had so much rain and sunshine this past month not only have my plants (and weeds) grown well and I have a full well of spring water but it has also been perfect weather for the mosquitos. I probably shouldn't complain as we've had a good long run of summers without being bothered by them but I'm going to complain anyway because when they keep buzzing round your face it can drive you mad! At least June is over now and that is the worst month and I had escaped relatively unscathed until Sunday night....

I had some friends visiting for a birthday and they wanted to celebrate by cooking a fish outside on the fire...and they invited me to dinner. Now normally I wouldn't sit outside in the evening when the mossies are so bad but it was her birthday and I had accepted the dinner invite....

So, for the occasion we cracked open some wine and damson gin...I don't normally drink so I don't have much in stock! I do remember thinking how great it was that as the evening wore on into the still bright night that the flying and biting brigade eased off a bit...and it wasn't until the next day that I realised they hadn't actually gone anywhere, it was just me getting slowly anaesthetised by the alcohol and ceasing to notice them. My legs had taken a direct hit and were a joyous jumble of lumps and bumps and itchy bits!

It kinda put me in mind of how we slowly dampen our consciousness as we go through life or how we slowly poison our physical body with toxins and as each new layer goes on we don't really notice it because of all the previous layers that clouded our awareness....but just as with my mosquito bites just because I couldn't feel them happening didn't change the fact that they were!

When I had my chemotherapy all those years ago I was really ill from it, as are most people but I was excessively ill. I noticed that folk who drank lots of alcohol or coffee or who smoked didn't suffer so badly as me and it was explained to me that because my body was healthier I could feel the poison (chemo) more than the others who drank a lot. It seemed unfair to me at first that I had a healthier diet and yet suffered more but over the years I've come to see that I didn't really suffer any more than anyone having the same dosage of chemo but that I was more in tune with my body and therefore I felt it more.

A double edged sword maybe but I know which way I would prefer to be. My clearer body awareness brings me so much more insight into what is really happening within me and therefore more awareness of that which is happening without of me. This way I can more easily see that which serves me in my life and that which doesn't.

This way I can be more authentic, more real. And that's important for me because I've spent many years of my life trying so hard to be something, trying to be a perfect saint in fact, and all for the limited reasoning that I needed to do that in order to be loved and yet.....truth be told all my tension and worry trying to be so perfect took me further away from the truth of me. But in divine perfection the frustration of seeing that my sainthood never brought me peace I finally gave it all up and thus found my peace. It really is through the valley of the shadow of death that you will find heaven.

So take note next time you find yourself armed with a list of all the things that you 'should' or 'shouldn't be...what are you trying to prove and why?

And take note next time you're drinking outside and the mosquitos seem to have gone away....