Harold - bliss

daily smiles dished out by the team who created Harold's Planet.
Swerling & Lazar

small-pleasures
m

happiness is...

having my friends close to me
dishing up butternut soup to Marlene & Johnny Theron
drinking red wine in winter
and reading up on Stockholm ( Maggie; you SO rock ! )
xx

m

quotes that make me giggle ♥ ♥ ♥

( credits ) aawwwh i found this on: The Notebook Doodles- blog. loveliest font!
read more here.
have a wander'ful day
m

person of the week: Doctor Noel Jean-Marais Creil

This magnificent man has three doctorate- degrees. (music, theology, literature)

This amazingly talented man can bring the church organ to life.

Thanks for a magnificent bouquet of music last night.

He can coax the gentlest melody and the holiest of reverence from the cold & lovely pipes.

He can salute the angels with the fullness of his righteous music in D flat major.

and as always... the greatness of grand music stir me to ponder poetry and to reflection on love.

healing

he wraps her in Gorecki

feeds her poetry

seduces her with the beauty

of his mind and heart...

and answers all her questions

maria

poem for the cynics

Bring to you

I carry forth a glimmer of love
small and fragile and pearl
and I wonder
what
you'll make of it
if you'll even look
or if you'll toss it away...
holding it
nervously
as if
I'm entering
out-of-my-depth
territory
foreign
chilling
but your soft eyes
soothe me
and welcome me
and I had
nothing
to fear

m

1 mistake

to make even 1 decision out of fear
is wrong
and devastating
and terrible
but

to be understood
is to be loved
and to belong
forever
m

H2O for elephants

oooh it is heart-breakingly beautiful.

Let me say this again: if you are female and have a heartbeat:
go and watch "Water for Elephants"



and try to listen to this (trailer song by "Barcelona") and not let your heart break little by little....

g'night all
m

... . . . and it was put back together again

when Humpty was put back together again
when Cinderella found the prince
when bonuses get dished out
Gwen Bell's tweets: In possession of a 1way ticket to the heart of the matter.
a good nights' sleep

m

in the spirit of love and poetry and Sunday

wow, I'm reading some really mind blowing stuff today... via twitter ... via blogs ... via the fantastic (and scary) world of electronic wisdom swerving around this green blob of a planet.

Enjoy this poem by Lisa Citore. I found it on a stunning blog: Magdalene Women.
See how prettily these artworks from IS Photography (talented photographer who lives in Montreal) fits in with the ambiance and message of the poem.

If you want to change the world… love a woman-really love her.

Find the one who calls to your soul, who doesn’t make sense.
Throw away your check list and put your ear to her heart and listen.
Hear the names, the prayers, the songs of every living thing-
every winged one, every furry and scaled one,
every underground and underwater one, every green and flowering one,
every not yet born and dying one…
Hear their melancholy praises back to the One who gave them life.
If you haven’t heard your own name yet, you haven’t listened long enough.
If your eyes aren’t filled with tears, if you aren’t bowing at her feet,
you haven’t ever grieved having almost lost her.

If you want to change the world… love a woman-one woman
beyond yourself, beyond desire and reason,
beyond your male preferences for youth, beauty and variety
and all your superficial concepts of freedom.
We have given ourselves so many choices
we have forgotten that true liberation
comes from standing in the middle of the soul’s fire
and burning through our resistance to Love.
There is only one Goddess.
Look into Her eyes and see-really see
if she is the one to bring the axe to your head.
If not, walk away. Right now.
Don’t waste time “trying.”
Know that your decision has nothing to do with her
because ultimately it’s not with who,
but when we choose to surrender.

If you want to change the world… love a woman.
Love her for life-beyond your fear of death,
beyond your fear of being manipulated
by the Mother inside your head.
Don’t tell her you’re willing to die for her.
Say you’re willing to LIVE with her,
plant trees with her and watch them grow.
Be her hero by telling her how beautiful she is in her vulnerable majesty,
by helping her to remember every day that she IS Goddess
through your adoration and devotion.

If you want to change the world… love a woman
in all her faces, through all her seasons
and she will heal you of your schizophrenia-
your double-mindedness and half-heartedness
which keeps your Spirit and body separate-
which keeps you alone and always looking outside your Self
for something to make your life worth living.
There will always be another woman.
Soon the new shiny one will become the old dull one
and you’ll grow restless again, trading in women like cars,
trading in the Goddess for the latest object of your desire.
Man doesn’t need any more choices.
What man needs is Woman, the Way of the Feminine,
of Patience and Compassion, non-seeking, non-doing,
of breathing in one place and sinking deep intertwining roots
strong enough to hold the Earth together
while she shakes off the cement and steel from her skin.

If you want to change the world… love a woman, just one woman .
Love and protect her as if she is the last holy vessel.
Love her through her fear of abandonment
which she has been holding for all of humanity.
No, the wound is not hers to heal alone.
No, she is not weak in her codependence.

If you want to change the world… love a woman
all the way through
until she believes you,
until her instincts, her visions, her voice, her art, her passion,
her wildness have returned to her-
until she is a force of love more powerful
than all the political media demons who seek to devalue and destroy her.

If you want to change the world,
lay down your causes, your guns and protest signs.
Lay down your inner war, your righteous anger
and love a woman…
beyond all of your striving for greatness,
beyond your tenacious quest for enlightenment.
The holy grail stands before you
if you would only take her in your arms
and let go of searching for something beyond this intimacy.

What if peace is a dream which can only be re-membered
through the heart of Woman?
What if a man’s love for Woman, the Way of the Feminine
is the key to opening Her heart?

If you want to change the world…love a woman
to the depths of your shadow,
to the highest reaches of your Being,
back to the Garden where you first met her,
to the gateway of the rainbow realm
where you walk through together as Light as One,
to the point of no return,
to the ends and the beginning of a new Earth.

LOve Love LoVe LovE L0Ve.

A beautiful poem for you on the respectful quietness of this Sunday-morning

and a pretty pic by OR Photography (from Ohio) see more here.

I am not yours, not lost in you,
Not lost, although I long to be
Lost as a candle lit at noon,
Lost as a snowflake in the sea.

You love me, and I find you still
A spirit beautiful and bright,
Yet I am I, who long to be
Lost as a light is lost in light.

Oh plunge me deep in love, put out
My senses, leave me deaf and blind,
Swept by the tempest of your love,
A taper in a rushing wind.

by Sarah Teasdale

My favourtie line: "lost as a candle lit at noon."

sometimes the mind of a woman finds me wandering around mental maizes and I am often bafflingly surprised by the twists & turns I find.

Go Sarah! (this remarkable woman was born in 1884 and passed away in 1933)

Read this beautiful write-up of her by the "Poetry Foundation"

Critics found much of Teasdale's poetry to be unsophisticated

but full of musical language and evocative emotion.

A New York Times Book Review contributor, writing about the 1917 edition of Love Songs, asserted that "Miss Teasdale is first, last, and always a singer."

Reviewing the 1915 volume Rivers to the Sea, another New York Times Book Review contributor deemed the book "a little volume of joyous and unstudied song."

m

Vrygewige Vrydag

I found this cute print on Etsy.
this is my Friday wish for you !
m

what are you reading at the moment?

I'm always asking this question: what are you reading at the moment?
I think it is more important than any other question.
I like to ask it in interviews ( just to see the reaction and then I always wonder if they're lying when they say something like: "The Mind of the Fox" by Clem Sunter and Chantelle Illbury)


anyway- I'm reading a book which I bought in Standard 9 ( yes, when we were still referring to school-grades as "standards" )
The book was a little out of my mental reach at the time, but the cover drew me.
(two pears, don't ask, I'll try to get a picture of it/ upload a photo of it later)

It is by Poly Young- Eisendrath and it is called:
Women and Desire.

Going beyond wanting to be wanted.
Going to healthy loving & being loved (the sweet interdependence and wholeness we were made for)


I'm dying to write pages and pages of the wisdom and insight I've gained in the last week, but it is late and the eyes tired.

So for now:
think about what you are reading and why and what it is adding to your life.

woensdag se weeskind

Wees - Woensdag.

wel , nadat die huurder vir die soveelste keer kla oor die pype wat "rattle" in die dak waneer die toilet gespoel word; en die werklike grootmens wêreld van rekeninge en verantwoordelikhede jou vreugde wees laat...

Dan is dit tyd vir 'n wens.
'n Wens wat Woensdag-wesies sal wegwens



so: ek wens vir jou goeie nagrus;
'n mooi boek;
'n smaaklike aand-ete;
'n glimlag en 'n drukkie.
En laat jou teleurstellings en mislukkings en vrese wees wat dit is...
groei geleenthede en karakter-bou- oefeninge en moenie wroeg daaroor nie

Liefde, m

hits to the core...

This week, I've been hit in the stomach.
I wasn't looking and it came out of the blue.
And after I've caught my breath:
this beautiful blog-post from Kind over Matter really appealed to me.
Read the full story here.

A friend is one to whom you can pour out the contents of your heart, chaff and grain alike. Knowing that the gentlest of hands will take and sift it, keep what is worth keeping and
with a breath of kindness,
blow the rest away.
—
Unknown

"The passion we want to practice is unbiased compassion;
towards not only people close to us, but also, our enemies."
The Dalai Lama

Compassion is selfish--at least, a rudimentary understanding and practice of compassion in our everyday lives is selfish, according to the Dalai Lama.
In a recent discussion, the Dalai Lama introduces the idea that compassion, as we usually practice it, is self-interested because we express love, gratitude, and affection for people in our lives that show us the same positive emotions.

In other words,

• I'm nice to my roommates because we are friends;

• we do activities together all the time;

• we share the same friends;

• and I naturally want to to maintain a good atmosphere in our living situation.

• I'm respectful and loving to my parents because they raised me well and have given me their all.

• I act nicely to someone at the drive-through window or at a local store when they are nice to me, because, well why wouldn't I?

Now, it's not that reciprocating these feelings of respect, love and compassion to friends and family members is bad in any way--hardly.

However, when we call the reciprocation of affection and love only for those in our lives who show us the same feelings and care, we're nurturing a very self-interested sense of compassion.

Unbiased Compassion?

yes, that is the way to go.

Show kindness to all... Those who treat you with kindness and understanding and those who don't.

cheers all, from 1 kind soul to the next

Marta Gomez is person of the week

It was touch-and-go for person of the week....

Some strong candidates:

• Chris (husband) for supporting me through the roughest of weeks and not complaining when I work until 1am and not serve/ notice dinner requirements.
• Mom ( for being so strong on the eve of her hip-replacement operatioan ) and being so diligent in saving lives... my dad had to tear her away from work today so that she could pack and be admitted to the hospital.
• Maryvonne for continuing her "fertilizer & sunshine" role on the little crooked tree-stump which resembles my mind

But then.. by chance and through some (unfortunate?) events, I landed up in Philadelphia with Ronel.... we saw AfriSpaans.


My new Spanish words:

feminino ;

Ojalá hubieras conocido al cantante después del concierto


so; salute to Marta... pregnant and beautiful and elegant.

cheers, all
M

wow

this is so wow

do you know what it means?
Nothing happens by chance

taken from the blog: girly tattoos, check more here

inspired by ink
m

fluffy cool cherry red fleece-top thingy for 13 year olds.

I was trying on clothes in the children's wear department today, when it struck me (upon choosing a Winters' garment for ages 13- 14) that I am an adult.

I am in the wrong section.

There is something like right and wrong in the grown-up world.
When you 're little, it doesn't matter that you colour a tree in shades of purple, or that you play tennis and your friend netball, or that you sing in the chior and your neigbour got chosen for the woodwork exhibition...
Or that you like butterflies and your friend likes sticky toffee pudding...
there is no right and wrong, it just is.


When did this adult-shift happen?
What does it mean to be considered an adult?

I vote; I pay property tax; I contribute to a medical aid so that people 20 years my senior can claim from it and one day I might make full use of it to replace some crucial inside-part of me..
Is that it?

What does it mean to be an adult?

I buy my own groceries, pay my own electricity, service my own car, read my own books... so is it about ownership?
I think not.

I prepare for performance-appraisals at work, I attend meetings and give opinions... so is it about output / delivery / articulation?

I think not.

I love I cry and I yearn and I want to be wanted.
So: is it about feeling? Or depth or complexity of feeling?




well, stay tuned while I figure this out.
oh, and I wouldn't hold my breath if I were you.
m

Newlands Forest

spent the morning in Newlands Forest... Thanks sisters, you two are the best.

you are my tall tree
you are my root and my view
and my grand green reed
you are my cry and my creed
you are habitat and home

to me

tear down- Thursday

This was a tear down Thursday Tear down all thoughts you previously had about yourself and create new ones Tear your hair out Tear away from the inferno Tear down boundaries Tear up old beliefs about your reality . . . . . and create/dream up a fresh one Tear up bad behaviour Tear down the house ! and fill up your heart. To all of you who mean so much to me, you fill up my heart. x

half way there

half way
half baked
half done
half happy
half sad

Maryvonne Palanduz is person of the week

Thanks Ronel for pointing out that nobody received a person - of the -week award in 3 weeks.
Work swallowed me whole and spat me out like a sour grape... not even good enough to be trudged on for some pinot noir...
so here I lie in Wolseley in the special sunny autumn.
I am recuperating.



The obvious person to be awarded is a truly remarkable woman.
clever
super savvy
smart
elegant, and intellectually opinionated
funky (dress-sense)
cool as ice








open minded
fiery-red head
fair
and lots of heart!
well done Maryvonne for being a sterling example, fantastic inspiration and just a beautiful woman ( and mom )

m

2 poems

explored unwillingly:
depths of exhaustion
Where it is so dark, it's almost light
eyelids flutter like a prima ballerina
and take flight
Not sure if you've seen your loved ones
yesterday or last week
not sure of the decay
of emotion
ballerina piroutte around
data-analysis
brushing teeth
getting dressed
boardroom
last car in the parking lot
autopilot
kitchen dark
what happened to summer?
what happened to my friends?
my fitness?
I recall heat, feeling
and hunger
distant
snowflake -bow
curtain call
fall





m




exhaustion graduation
tears slowly rolling down
cheeks
too tired
to run
coldness
comes
slowly
slyly
something died
a hope
a dream
a connection