to read

oooh I enjoyed reading this!
In over your head ( blog, which you can access here )

Julien Smith writes with wit, honesty and leaces you feeling like he was sitting chatting to you in the lounge (with a beer in his hand perhaps) nonchalant truthful raw.

i love it.

here is an excerpt:

The Joker is the personification of risk, something the average person finds thrilling. He does things that others would never dare to do, but everyone sees inside themselves. Why is that?

Modern society is stifling. The options for how to behave are limited and unfulfilling. Max Weber called it the Iron Cage because it eventually stifles and crushes anything polarizing. We have no choice but to submit in the majority of our lives.

What we start realizing if we spend enough time in cities is that this society breeds sheep. This isn’t even necessarily bad– it’s largely responsible for the stability of the age we live in. And these people can’t even be held responsible for it– the pressure of our society is so crushing that you have no choice but to submit, even at the cost of your long-term happiness.

__________________________________________________________________

how cool is Julien!
ciao ciao

appreciation

when was the last time you stood still and thought...
wow I'm not blind
wow I can feed myself and clothe myself

wow I have a job ( a place where I am able to make a meaningful contribution )

like really:
just stop (in the isle in the shop)
just stop (on the way back from a meeting)
just stop (your thoughts) as the petrol attendant fills up your car
just mentally stop for a second
and smile


much love, Maria

Langebaan weekend

L A N G E B A A N L I E F D E

I love the West Coast... it is shy and refined when you look past the "boep & bier" manne...



Pictures of my aunt & uncle's beautiful new home.
Family Fun!!

Crown birthday of the youngest: turning 24 on the 24th of Sept... and husband's 33rd celebration.

breathtaking poetry

PRAISE THEM
The birds don't alter space.
They reveal it.
The sky never fills with any
leftover flying.
They leave
nothing to trace. It is our own
astonishment collects
in chill air. Be glad.
They equal their due
moment never begging,
and enter ours
without parting day.
See how three birds in a winter tree
make the tree barer.

Two fly away, and new rooms
open in December.
Give up what you guessed
about a whirring heart, the little
beaks and claws, their constant hunger.
We're the nervous ones.
If even one of our violent number
could be gentle
long enough that one of them
found it safe inside
our finally untroubled and untroubling gaze,
who wouldn't hear
what singing completes us?

Li-young Lee

look at love
look at love how it tangles with the one fallen in love look at spirit how it fuses with earth giving it new life why are you so busy with this or that or good or bad pay attention to how things blend why talk about all the known and the unknown see how the unknown merges into the known why think separately of this life and the next when one is born from the last look at your heart and tongue one feels but deaf and dumb the other speaks in words and signs look at water and fire earth and wind enemies and friends all at once the wolf and the lamb the lion and the deer far away yet together look at the unity of this spring and winter manifested in the equinox you too must mingle my friends since the earth and the sky are mingled just for you and me be like sugarcane sweet yet silent don't get mixed up with bitter words my beloved grows right out of my own heart how much more union can there be

RUMI

beautiful words by "wise living"- Tara Mohr

This is your time.

Your time to say what you have kept silent.
Your time to ask your big questions without apology.
Your time to shine like a blazing comet,
whether they like it or not.

Your time to believe what your heart tells you:
that this world could be very different.
Your time to live by your rhythms,
and teach them to the world.

Your time nurture your village back to health.
Your time to show the world what it has been missing.
Your time to show the world the other side of itself.

-Tara

read more about her here.

lang pad
oop pad
groot pad
vêr pad
altyd pad

m

skoonpa

Dit is met diepe hartseer dat ons
afskeid neem van pa-Tonie

ons harte is oopmond-verslae
ons hande in die lug
en ons besef weer
dat ons lewenskruik
druppeltjie vir druppletjie
uitloop
lek
of ons dit nou wil weet of nie
daar is geen een wat die dood
se onwelkome roep
kan ontglip
so daar waar ons
druppels val
moet
iets groei
iets moois
iets ewigs

m

hartseer

Hartseer
jys nie meer
nie meer lag of vlees
nie meer honger of alleen
nie meer asem
nie

m

Person of the week: Chris Swanepoel ♥

person of the week:

Chris Swanepoel

Le me count the ways......  Mmm.....

encouragement (during and for my 2 interviews)

Gentle hug when I get frustrated and doubtful (refer above)

Consummate host to my friends,

while I am fluttering from table to table.

Sharing my goose-bump excitement-state about my birthday-dinner.

Naturally caring with the children ( Below is Marsan's youngest: Riaan )

All-round: 

wild at heart, but with safely keeping a soft landing for me.

Forever grateful,  M

Wild Happiness

Happiness is a warm hug & kiss on the cheek to a little person just starting out on this journey.

(picture taken on 1st of Sept: Anton's birthday) happy evening.

Marsan: you and Francois have 2 beautiful boys.

and then

happiness is:

having all the people you care about

in 1 room 

and hearing their voices twirl and dance 

together.

Magic: Saturday 3rd Sept.

My 31st birthday celebration.

 Thank you all for coming!!

I was having too much fun: I did not get to capture all the guests on camera.

My life is magic thanks to all my friends & family

mmmwha

M

Change and Transformation.

Today I learnt something new.

Change may happen to you (in other words, it may come from external and impact you)

 The facilitator presented it graphically like this:

beginning --------- implementation ---------- end 

but Transformation occurs inside of you and it looks like this:

End of a chapter / closure --------Neutral state (assembling info) ----- new beginning

I find that I move too fast between cycles and then leave my heart panting and out of breath 20km behind me, feeling lost and disjointed.

I expect it to embrace new beginnings, but I have not even given it room to find closure of that which is no longer.

it is no wonder my heart is so angry.

mon coeur trouve son rythme avec vous

aptitude

Good morning

I have taken the day off to prepare and organise my mind
for this afternoon's psychometric tests

(This forms part of the recruitment and selection process of something I am pursuing)

Fascinating material.
I do what my husband did when he had to write his wedding-speech: he googles.

I am reading through the different sections and test-fields, when it strikes me:
Luckily people need not pass an aptitude test to knock and enter through the door of life!
Few of us would be here...
I read through definitions of

• Verbal reasoning
• Numeric reasoning
• Abstract reasoning
• Spatial reasoning
• Mechanical reasoning
• Data checking
• Work sampling

Truly tickles the mind out of its (numb?) comfort zone-stuff.

I'll keep you posted on the test-scores this afternoon.

wisdom

I feel love is... knowing
I think love is... considerate
I know love is... necessary
I believe love is... all there is

m

Person of the week: Love made visible

♥

Love made visible is the unity of Rebecca and Bruce.
Check them out here.

Their photographic style is breath taking.
Stupendously talented.
This is a wedding they captured on the 1st of Aug.
It is so touching and awesome
and I want to BE the bride...
and have those moments (again, since I had them 2.5 years ago)

James and Marissa... what an unbelievably real and authentic couple...

and how is this photography !!!????
out of this world...!
If you have a wedding, a baby, a moment, a new house,
an "anything" you want to celebrate/ capture:

you'd do well to get the professionals in
(and have them capture it supremely sweetly.)
contact: Rebecca Cell: 0721701890
Email: rebecca@lovemadevisible.co.za

and to end off: Rebecca's sister: Ebony (below)

l♥ve

Love is the adventure
Life is just the terrain

Maria

spin the wheels

Spin the wheels of change
and see the sparks
the magic
the metamorphosis of your world
I'm so excited:
I went for 2 interviews.
I have been with my current employer for 6.5 years
and felt uprooted inside the company
and my leaders have been a bit schizophrenic
in their direction & style.
I decided to put some feelers out...
and low and behold
a vast and exciting world was waiting
outside my office complex.

I'll keep you posted

m

milan kundera

poetry post reading " The Unbearable lightness of being"
Milan Kundera

It has all been said
I am the anxious Tereza and the world-wise Sabina
betrayed
and also the one betraying
I am the book
and the words
and the letters
black on white
one sentence no more ink
than the next
no word heavier
or lighter
than the next
and so it is
hallo and
goodbye
Es muss sein

Maria

trust and hope and actively work towards your dream

trust
hope
keep smiling

happiness and light

♥

look at what I've found: Jen Wallace's blog.
It is called; Indie Fix

Truly- Truly do yourself a favour and click over and explore.

________________________________________________________________

♥ ♥

Another inspiration- injection: Friday-night performance of
Swan Lake
at the Cape Town Artscape theatre.



Prima ballerina (and subsequent person of the week) Daria Klimentova gave such an elegant, supremely skillful performance that she had the audience's hands burning with applause.

what a treat!

Daria was born in Prague and studied ballet there, before becoming the principal dancer of the Cape Town City Ballet in 1992. She then joined the Scottish Ballet company and in 1996 was invited to dance as senior principal for the English National Ballet Academy.

Tchaikovsky's music sweeps you away to the dreamy lake where the prince sees Odette...
You know the rest: Love triumphs.

Swan lake first appeared on stage in 1877 in Moscow.
This timeless piece is the most romantic and exquisite of ballet's offering.
The Artscape stage decor, lighting, mist,
music and ambiance made for fantastical delivery of this classic.

I was blown away.

______________________________________________________________

♥ ♥

quiet and dreamy.
like a perfect pirouette.... have a blessed week

keep warm and keep loving
m