Filling up, slowing down, emptying out.
A SLOW SUNDAY morning full of the ordinary, and a blue summer sky bringing absolute joy.
The tree out front that was pollarded last winter has grown so quickly, I didn’t expect that. First a few leaves appeared, then just before I went to Spain lots of leaves sprouted all over the coppiced crowns. When I got back, to my delight those leaves had extended onto thin branches all over the tree. A gorgeous living home to so many birds, is back. I thought it might take a couple of years. Nature is amazing.
This morning I watched lots of little birds I don’t know the names of flying in and out. The wood pigeons came yesterday and the magpie too. Last night I could hear them all as dusk arrived. I’ve been filling myself up with this, rather than the news.
Last month I took part in a digital detox organised by @Ruth Gaskovski. I really enjoyed the way I became more deeply rooted in myself, in my mind and my heart. Over the last few weeks the digital pulls and screens have started filling me up again, as I check this or that. And, I noticed that in my last two posts, the way I was writing started to change, becoming a bit mechanical, without a proper heart connection. I guess that’s what too much of the machine and screen world does, disconnects us from our hearts, ourselves, our flow, our innate wellbeing.
And so, I’m going to do another digital detox to see what happens with the way I feel when I write. The thing is when I fill myself up with distractions there’s no room for…just being me.
Joy dots
Doing nothing
Feeling silence
Sunshine on my lettuces
Emptying out
Clouds like smudges
Tree branches covered in leaves
More cool breeze
Church steeple
Church bells in Vejer de la Frontera
Old stone wall
Laughing with friends
Bouldering with my son
Chattering about anything
Ice-cream
Smell of earth after rain
Watering vegetables
Friendship
Generosity
Owls
I’d love to read your joy dots, perhaps you’ll put them in the comments.
Recipe
Here’s another cooling recipe for pitta season. It’s a sweet, cooling lassi. In Ayurveda it’s recommended to water natural yogurt down with 4 parts water. This is how you make lassi, a digestive that can be drunk after your meal. The recipe below has rose, date and cardamom in it.
Rose date & cardamon lassi
Ingredients (per serving)
1/4 cup natural biolive yogurt
3/4 cup water
1 date
A few drops of rose water
A pinch of cardamom
Method
Blend all the ingredients.
Sweeping the moon away
This little story shows how to use words to calm the brain when it is in a stressed over-thinking state. The key is to tell a story about nothing at all, so the brain can relax. No drama, no hidden excitement or plot turns. Just simple writing to sooth the soul. And when these words are spoken, they can help people fall asleep. Their brainwaves will shift from high beta (stressed) to theta (relaxed).
You can find the other parts of this story here, here, and here. I will be recording it soon. I say that a lot, because I am very slow at learning how to set up my recording equipment.
As the sun began to rise the new day painted itself alive.
By late afternoon the sun shone brightly in blue skies, and the man walked down the street. He was wearing his big hat and the cat walked along beside him, it’s tall tail in the air, twirling this way and that. Together they walked to the end of the quiet road to where the post box was, and the man put a letter into the box. Then he sat on the wall, while the cat wandered on into one of the gardens.
From no where a wind churned up the leaves on the trees, and storm clouds appeared. Before the man got off the wall huge rain drops plopped to the ground. The cat was under cover in someone’s shed, but the man was getting wet. He didn’t seem to mind, as he strolled, ever so slowly, along the pavement. He seemed to like the rain.
When the man got home, I saw him go into his back garden, rain pounding down now. I was in a tree and I waved, but he didn’t see me, his focus seemed to be on his red watering can, which he picked up and put back into his shed. As he walked to his back door he passed a huge butterfly bush, beautiful purple blooms in their prime. The wind came gushing again, but the huge blossoms stayed put.
The man opened his back door, went inside and closed it behind him, while the wind twirled the big purple blossoms around, but none fell off. The cat was still in the shed up the road, lazing on some old sacking, while I, stayed in the tree. Later the owls would wake up, and they would terwit terwoo. That’s what I was waiting for. I could smell the wet earth and hear the leaves on the tree whooshing in the wind, as the man put on his kettle, and made himself a cup of tea.
Wishing you the warmest, till Wednesday.
Lucy x