Sophia Louw- person of the week award

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Person of the week:
Sophia Louw

She receives this badge for her natural, effortless and spontaneous expression of love. ↔ Her focus on and steadfast approach to
making all lives better, healthier, richer and more comfortable.
She does this through the only medicine known to cure:
unconditional acceptance which brings freedom & Love.

well done Mom.

♥ M



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most beautiful poem in 2010-award:

breaking bread
breaking words
breaking and entering
broken words
broken boundaries

ashes of angels

nothing stronger than the written word....

but nothing as cute as little clipart and vectors...

some pretty things.

i love cute

They have hung the sky with arrows,
Targes of jubilant flame, and helms of splendor,
Knives and daggers of hissing light, and furious swords.

They have hung the lake with moth-wings,
Blurs of purple, and shaggy warmths of gold,
Lazy curious wines, and curving curds of silver.

They have hung my heart with a sunset,
Lilting flowers, and feathered cageless flames,
Death and love: ashes and of roses, ashes of angels.



ee cummings

Cheesy

Hi from a (recovering) shopaholic.

I have found the shopping/ strolling/ browsing/ buying - analogy quite illustrative.

Lately I've been thinking about things. Cheesy things.



Say for example that you are now an adult, but a young and inexperienced one at that....
and you are walking through the "grocery shop of life"
and you have your basket swinging from your one arm...


In the basket are necessities.
The toothpaste, the sunlight liquid, the yellow-washing up gloves and some bread and jam.






The fact that you're still browsing (and not yet paid and out the door) is significant.
You are aware of the other shoppers and occasionally sneak a peek at their trollies (some folks need a lot!)

There are vendor-stands too. Some have little sausages and green onions pierced by a little toothpick for you to taste.
Others have tiny chunks of cheese on a plate along with peppery crackers and a biscuit selection.







Sometimes you are in the mood to try some of these free offerings, but mostly you are just trying to find that one last item.

It is just out of reach.
core.
pleasure.
Something to brighten your day and make the whole acquiring/ navigating your way through the isles a bit more meaningful/ substantial.
Something you can take home (not just the things you MUST take home: humility, purpose, sanity, health and comfort)

Then you turn a corner and there is a selection of cheeses. You've got some cheddar in your basket, but you have never noticed the Fairview-range.
You wonder if it is new.
You wonder why you are distracted by this now? (you've got cheese for the jam-sandwich already)

Fairview Blue Rock. Great name !

You read the back of the triangle label:

First Prize at the 2010 South African National Dairy Championships

A full fat blue veined Roquefort style cheese, with a rich favour and firm yet creamy texture. A lengthy 4 to 6 month maturation ensures that the enzymes produced by the mould interact with the fats and proteins in the cheese to create the characteristic taste and flavour.


and you taste it and you are happy and you wonder what you are going to do with the cheddar now?
And so you wait in the queue to pay and you smile
because you can leave the shop satisfied.
Mission accomplished.

You can't wait to invite your loved ones over and open some wine and share in the fine and special discovery: that tingling and slightly scary feeling... of a new frontier.


The realm of pleasure.

'ching-ching ' opens and closes the cash drawer and you float out of the mall.

sensual

Perhaps not to be is to be without your being,
without your going, that cuts noon light
like a blue flower, without your passing
later through fog and stones,
without the torch you lift in your hand
that others may not see as golden,
that perhaps no one believed blossomed
the glowing origin of the rose,
without, in the end, your being, your coming
suddenly, inspiringly, to know my life,
blaze of the rose-tree, wheat of the breeze:
and it follows that I am, because you are:
it follows from ‘you are’, that I am, and we:
and, because of love, you will, I will,
We will, come to be.

Pablo Neruda

1

my words of love grow more tenuous than the
sound of lilac
my language frayed
dazed and softened I feel myself through your stub-
born struggle
you still hold me close like no-one else
you still choose my side like no-one else
against your chest I lie and I confess
you hunt my every gesture
you catch up with me everywhere
you pull me down between bush and grass
on the footpath you turn me around
so that I must look you in the eye
you kick me in the ovaries
you shake me by the skin of my neck
you hold me, prick me in the back, on the straight
and narrow

Antjie Krog

LOVE IS A HABIT

Love is a habit, like brushing your teeth or cleaning the bath.
And if love is a habit, is grieving one too? What shall I replace
the habit of loving and grieving you with?
(A habit built up slow,
like the accretions on a pearl, grey and baroque and expensive;

or the gloss on a dining table, hours of elbow grease and polish;
or skin sloughing off imperceptibly, renewed from beneath;
or the silent unfurling of a baby, cell by cell.)
(But
growth in the womb is by division, not addition; by one simple cell

splitting and replicating itself a million million times, till suddenly some know:
to shape a nose, and nose hairs, and a channel to the back of the mouth
that is slippery, and a tongue with nodules for tasting,
and teeth that are hard, but living.)
Love is a habit, and grieving one too.

But I want to hold on to the grieving as a way of holding on to you.
That first Sunday without you, the September sky was cold and empty,
despite the jasmine struggling to bloom.

I’d never lived a day without you in the world;
now the city for me was empty.
It hardly seemed possible.

Megan Hall

"In the house there was a room which could not be found, a room without a window, the fortress of their love, a room without a window where the mind and blood coalesced in a union without orgasm and rootless like those of fishes. The promiscuity of glances, of phrases, like sparks marrying in space. The collision between their resemblances, shedding the odor of tamarisk and sand, of rotted shells and dying sea-weeds, their love like the ink of squids, a banquet of poisons."

Anaïs Nin

Fabulous Friday

Fun Fantastic Friday is here

And what better way to guide / coach the day into being, than with a "fat cactus" dinner and a laugh. Thanks Inge for a good night. I receive these daily "Harold's Planet" cartoons. This one (dated 21st Oct, Inge's birthday) was very appropriate. She would love to spend her December-holiday like this: enjoy.



The upcoming week presents all sorts of opportunities for joy.

♥ Marcelle and Alain Cajeux will be welcoming a new member of the family on Monday, 25th October (Joshua Evann?)

♥ Julie Spain (now Fallon) birthday on Monday 25th October. (a good day indeed !!)

♥ Simondium Country lodge market called: Festive ideas (27th Oct - 31 st Oct)

♥ Old Mutual Pinelands 10km road race (very special since this was my first 10km race with Inge a year ago) 27th October

♥ Kamersvol geskenke craft & boutique market to be held at Lourensford Wine Estate from 27th October - 31st October (big yay)

♥ Danita and Willem's wedding 30th October at Oubaai.


Further notes to those who want to learn something about themselves / discover something about the primary person in their lives.

There is a philosophy that says:
fill the need of your partner in such a way that they feel/experience it.
Also termed: your love language.
My love language is French of course, (ha ha) but this chapter refers to the way we communicate (80% non-verbal) and how we can "land the message".


If I do/say/express X I know that he / she understands and GETS that I love them.

Interesting reading: Dr Chapman says that we all have
a primary way of expressing and interpreting love. He also discovered that, for whatever reason, people are usually drawn to those who speak a different love language than their own.
(That is just plain ASKING for trouble but hey, whats life if not challenging)

• Words of affirmation
• Quality time (undivided attention)
• Receiving gifts (not to be mistaken for materialism)
• Acts of service (easing the daily load of chores/ responsibilities)
• Physical Touch (not to be confused with chandelier-type-acrobatics)

Sticking to Harold's theme, I could't help but giggle about his dilemma below. Practical example of "acts of service" would be if Harold's little Hannah (?) would offer to go up and retrieve his wallet for him... aawwwhhh...



More on Receiving Gifts (Thanks Dr Chapman)

Don’t mistake this love language for materialism; the receiver of gifts thrives on the love, thoughtfulness, and effort behind the gift. If you speak this language, the perfect gift or gesture shows that you are known, you are cared for, and you are prized above whatever was sacrificed to bring the gift to you. A missed birthday, anniversary, or a hasty, thoughtless gift would be disastrous–so would the absence of everyday gestures.

I'm still struggling with the person -of-the-week award and will have to get back to that later. There are so many candidates this week.... geeezzzz...

cheers, off to work,

M

what is real...?

what is real... the thrill of weekend or the tired- and numbness of Monday?
which is MORE real?

Is being happy and at peace more real than being frantic and edgy? like, can you measure it and say that yes, Saturday is 2grams more real than Monday-blues?

Is "real" dependent on my mood? my diet? my (deluxe) coffee intake? Is my happy and excited mood 30 grams more real than my diligent/ I have a duty to this world- real?

Speaking of which...
look at this, no, marvel at this place: R10 for all ( or any) coffee



i love coffee - article on:
deluxe coffee works




i love this:

Judd Francis from Deluxe Coffeeworks has been involved in the specialty coffee industry for over 16 years worldwide. He is a master roaster, barista, machine technician and trainer with contacts in the upper echelons of the international specialty coffee fraternity and known in Cape Town as a man who will make your coffee problems go away. He has also been featured in the Barista Magazine (US).

South Africa is at the very beginning of the introduction to what is known as the “Third Wave’ of coffee. The market is wide open and begging for artisan roasted coffee. Coffee is the second largest traded commodity worldwide and has not been marketed correctly in South Africa, other than a handful of chain stores which still only produce consistently average coffee.

For Enquiries Contact:

Carl Wessel
+27 82 681 5740 / carl@deluxecoffeeworks.co.za

Judd Francis Nicolay
+27 72 903 0319 / judd@deluxecoffeeworks.co.za

---

Swing bye for a coffee

25 Church Street, City Center, Cape Town

ooh. . . . when can I go ?



logging off now.
M

ee cummings = Person of the week

Happiness is finding new worlds/ new ways of living and new examples of life-style and exquisite design....
The Swedes just KNOW how

Look (and savour) www.scandichotels.se

Also
check out studio Velvet: very talented design team (located in Sweden.)



oh and if you have time (make time) mochatini


I bumped into this awesome site by Monica: called Splendid Willow
(I'm sticking to the Swedish design / aesthetic and NOPE it is not boring me yet )

this is what she writes:

"Splendid Willow is my inspirational journal. This is where I collect thoughts & ideas and report on splendid design I come across all over the world. What started as an outlet for my own design wanderings has become a truly humbling experience as I meet, learn from, and become friends with so many of the fantastic people who have visited my blog."

The best thing is that Mon and I discovered the "twilight" hype and hysteria around the same time ( 2 years after the rest of the world !)

She has this jaw-dropping pic on her blog:

I hope you enjoy! and a pic inside the cullens' house:







person of the week: e e cummings

ironically (and not entirely inappropriate) words fail me....
the poet of all poets who stirs me.

Love,

talking is sharing

Talking is sharing





Sharing is healthy









Healthy is a happy and content life

أنت جميلة إلى الأبد

boundaries

by Dr Henry Cloud and Dr John Townsend

teaching me all the things which I care not to know, want not to know and pretend not to know

which I dare not implement

for fear that my tiny world might collapse and I'll spend a g e s

picking up the pieces.. . 

when I could have been having some wine & chocolate

from the book:
page 131
The law of exposure.
A boundary is a property line. It defines where you begin and end.

We have been discussing why you need such a line. One reason stands above all others: you do not exist in a vacuum. You exist in relation to God and to others.
The whole concept of boundaries has to do with the fact that we exist in relationship and hence boundaries are about love.
♥
The law of exposure says that your boundaries need to be made visible to others and communicated to them in relationship. We have many boundary problems because of relational fears. We are beset by fears of guilt, not being liked, loss of love, loss of connection, loss of approval, receiving anger, being known and so on. These are all failures in love and God's plan is that we learn how to love.

These relational problems can only be solved in relationships, for that is the context of the problems themselves and the context of spiritual existence.

Because of these fears,
we try to have secret boundaries.
We withdraw passively and quietly, instead of communicating an honest "no" to someone we love.

♥
We secretly resent instead of telling someone that we are angry about how they have hurt us. Often we will privately endure the pain of someone's irresponsibility instead of telling them how their behaviour affects us and other loved ones."


♥

x rated zen with Pooh

Simply Seductive

lovely blog !!!





"Rivers know this: there is no hurry. We shall get there some day."
- Winnie The Pooh


"You can't stay in your corner of the Forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes."
- Piglet
"If the person you are talking to doesn't appear to be listening, be patient. It may simply be that he has a small piece of fluff in his ear."
- Eeyore


"If you live to be a hundred, I want to live to be a hundred minus one day, so I never have to live without you."
- Winnie The Pooh





“If there ever comes a day when we can't be together keep me in your heart, I'll stay there forever”
- Winnie The Pooh




“It is more fun to talk with someone who doesn't use long, difficult words but rather short, easy words like "What about lunch?"”
- Winnie The Pooh












Piglet sidled up to Pooh from behind. "Pooh," he whispered.
"Yes, Piglet?"
"Nothing," said Piglet, taking Pooh's paw, "I just wanted to be sure of you."

“You can't help respecting anybody who can spell TUESDAY, even if he doesn't spell it right; but spelling isn't everything. There are days when spelling Tuesday simply doesn't count.”
- Winnie The Pooh













“I used to believe in forever, but forever is too good to be true.”
- Winnie The Pooh

"I wonder what Piglet is doing," thought Pooh.
"I wish I were there to be doing it, too."
- Winnie the Pooh





"I don't see much sense in that," said Rabbit.
"No," said Pooh humbly, "there isn't. But there was going to be when I began it. It's just that something happened to it along the way."




“The hardest part is what to leave behind, ... It's time to let go!”
- Winnie the Pooh

pooh 's wisdom

"Don't underestimate the value of Doing Nothing, of just going along, listening to all the things you can't hear, and not bothering."
- Piglet


More inspiring reads:

daydreamlily

go see:
Concretehoney

vin rouge et chocolat et vous

Bittersweet

If life was to threaten me with disaster
If I had to choose between a limb and you


I'd choose without weighing
instinct
without blinking
because like chocolate and red wine and strawberries
I can let go of every good thing, but not you

I can tear off the angel's one wing
but
acceptance and understanding
you give (which
you are)
I cannot


hauntingly
beautiful music
aching spirit of life
douce-amère