To know is to love...

I was a late starter with the most important thing in life: Getting to know myself.

I married my school sweet-heart and when life started happening, I was lost. I realised that all those beautiful wishes and endearing comments from my youth, resulted in a suitcase packed for a stranger.

I vividly remember after I started living on my own, standing with a basket full of food and suddenly realising the food was what my partner used to enjoy. Or even worse, that I did not want to follow the career I studied for and worked at, for over a decade! Even the clothes I wore and books I read made a 360. It was if I was shedding a skin which never really fit my soul very well.

It took a while, but I get it now: To experience life and to grow results in a realisation of the whole person...the good, the bad and the ugly. Add to that the comfort of having people surround you, who have no concept of who you were when you grew up, and all of a sudden the real you shows up, little by little :) And may I add - it is not always a pretty picture!

I must say I feel more comfortable in my (slightly worn) skin today. I like that I have an opinion on a few things I have experienced, but also that I am OK with changing my mind. I love the friends and clients I choose to spend my time with. I like the lifestyle I now embrace, and most of all, I love the woman I am today and I cannot wait to look back on her life one day, to see what she became.

Ho ho ho!

Christmas is only 34 days away! This season evokes very different emotions amongst my friends and family: Some feel the pressure to spend money they do not have; some are overwhelmed by sadness for people they have lost, others feel lonely as they will not share the day with loved ones. Some actually manage to make it a very special day, avoiding the family dramas and commercial traps by just marking the day by giving thanks for blessings.

I love the message of giving, but I have a problem to make it fit in with the marketing storm which ignites around October in the shops every year - the selling of a "feeling" of happiness through buying stuff, all accompanied by Boney M in the background!

I made (another) commitment to myself: I am going to keep it real.
This includes giving more of myself this year through small tokens of love.

My list includes making:

- a garland for my door from last years collected pine kernels
- food gift baskets for friends which may include my home made Onion marmalade, Caroline's Chocolate Oats Cookies and bottles of home-made Brandy Exotica (see recipes below)
- "gift voucher" from me for a free energy healing session to selected clients
- personalised crystal bracelets for my special girl friends
- cards, gift wrapping and table decorations, rather than buying it

Stars for the walls

Tree decorations from ginger biscuits

Rain deer cup cakes :)

 

Home made gift cards

I know all of this takes time, but that will be my act of giving. I will spend a few Sunday afternoons and a couple of hours at night during the week to make these things. It will be a great time to put love into it and really get into the reason for the season :)

Ho, ho, ho - may you feel the love this Christmas!

Onion Marmalade

 

750g Sliced onions

50g Butter

½ cup Sugar

Salt & Pepper

1 cup Red wine

50ml Brandy
½ cup Balsamic vinegar
 

Melt butter and sweat onions till caramelised, adding salt and sugar after 10min. Add liquids and reduce for 20min. Seal in small bottles which have in sterilised in the microwave. Last months in the fridge.

 

 

Brandy Exotica (almost like Amarula)

 

 

1 tin of Condensed milk 

1 tin of Ideal milk

5ml strong Coffee, dissolved in 5ml of boiling water

250 ml Brandy

 

Mix all ingredients, pour into a clean bottles and place in fridge for 3 days before use.

 

 

 

 

Chocolate Oats Cookies 

 

 

 

http://carolineavnit.com/2012/11/chocolate-oat-cookies/

 

Sometimes

To my best friend....

Sometimes when I sit in my quiet space

familiar mistakes join in

I smile to find it shifted to a better place

to learn to love myself again

 Sometimes when I contemplate my past

and the familiar people ask to play their part

I invite you in first

to learn to love myself again

Sometimes when this world becomes too small

to keep a broken heart contained

you remind me of divine design

to learn to love myself again

 

 

Anne-marie

 

Nature is calling my name...

We were in Mpumalanga over the weekend, and I again realised how much I missed the Lowveld. I was born in Mussina on the border of Zimbabwe, and grew up surrounded by wildlife and boabab trees, so this was almost like going home.

We had a lovely stay at Komati Gorge Lodge. Everything is green, the animals are fat and there is a sense of contentment in the air. Although JC had to work, we had time for long walks and beautifully prepared dinners, accompanied by copious amounts of wine in front of a log fire....bliss :)

Walking towards the stables we came across some Kudu....

A river runs through Komati Gorge Lodge

Beautiful views from our cabin's veranda

 

but.....

I am so blessed to live in Cape Town, by the sea. Every morning is like opening a new book, it unfolds with a crisp smell of promise. The light is different here, the people look fitter and happy - even the dogs coming for a walk on the pier have a spring in their step. It makes me think of this stanza in Lord Byron's classic poem.

The dark, blue sea

 

There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,
There is a rapture on the lonely shore,
There is society where none intrudes,
By the deep sea, and music in its roar:
I love not man the less, but nature more,
From these our interviews, in which I steal
From all I may be, or have been before,
To mingle with the universe, and feel
What I can ne'er express, yet cannot all conceal.

Lord Byron

 

Maybe it is just about being close to nature :)

 

 

Too much blessings!

I have diligently been giving love to my porch plant, which has been taking a beating with the seasonal summer winds. Part of the "save-my-porch-plant-campaign" included laying rose quarts around the stem...spreading the love so to speak, and doing a bit of energy healing.

This was obviously very successful, as within a week I had various birds, but in particular, a pair of doves, checking out my plant.

And then it happened...nestled between the rose quarts a perfect little white egg!

 

 

 

My beloved had just retrieved a discarded nest from his lawn and after hearing about "the blessing", promptly showed up with a better option for my visitors.

 

 



 

 

Needless to say, I now have constant companions on my porch. They do not mind sharing their space with me and I even got a (half-hearted) greeting when I stepped out this morning. All I can say is be careful with your blessings :)



Wanderlust!

I woke up this morning with that niggly feeling....again! I just love to travel and it usually starts off with a mild interest in a specific destination. Left unattended, it can manifest as a full blown, impulsive, booking-of-flight-ticket-without-thinking moment.

A dear friend is currently walking the Camino, another is on her way to India for a yoga retreat, another just returned for New York...and I can go on. Everyone around me is conspiring to make me pack my bags?! I know this is not every one's pleasure, but for me there is very little that matches being in a different country - the food, the culture, the music, the feeling of stepping into another lifestyle, the way other people live and best of all, how blessed we are to live in our country and how small our issues seem from a distance. It is almost like moving house, or cleaning out your cupboard, like letting the fresh air in and energising your whole system.

So the first step is to look at flight specials. This is like a sign to me, an invitation to where I need to go next. Then, matching great deals with possible destinations on my bucket list (not a problem, there are plenty!). Next, see if my beloved can be convinced (not a problem either, he has the virus too!) and then, make sure we can squeeze the adventure in between our commitments.

Traveling...again!?

Another country, another adventure :)

This will do.....

...and sometimes, I am a Princess!

A beautiful sunset at a marina in Hvar...

An Ashram in Kochi, India...



Have map, will travel :)

Need I say more?!

...and this is only at the airport!

Planes, trains and automobiles...18hours travelling and I am ready to do it again!

There is one thing I have learned through-out my travels: Manage your expectations! We are usually sold on a picture or someone else's views, rather than experiencing the moment for ourselves, in whatever way it comes. Search engines are scouring websites, my bags have been laid out.
Here we go....