Holistic Feathers

Memories: The quintessence of flow

Memories. My mind is chockafull of memories – some good, some bad, some hilarious, some sad but mostly full of fabulous ones.

One of the more fabulous cluster of memories which resonates strongly with me right now are about a place and person – the two inextricably linked in my mind, despite the memories being spaced a year apart.

Why choose to share this memory, above all others? Well, since attending a retreat two months ago I have been surprised at every turn with “flow”, the concept of ‘letting go and letting God’. I know this is a critical lesson that I must learn, and soon … but in European culture, to be seen to relax and stop the process of yearning for and chasing the elusive Golden Goose, is often viewed an admission of failure, of giving up. Living within a society that is rarely content with our lot, it seems nigh-on impossible to “let go and let God”, whomever your God may be.

In July 2003 we flew off to my idea of a dream holiday: 2 weeks in Egypt on a last-minute deal. Head full of Egyptian mythology, I flew off to the Sinai region with my teen son, intent on relaxing by the Gulf of Aqaba (Red Sea) and maybe finding time for a little bit of an adventure. Flying over the Sinai desert I found myself in tears, my heart singing to itself as if we were coming home …

On this two-week idyllic holiday, we not only discovered our idea of heaven in a small bedouin village and port (Nuweiba) but we braved the obligatory camel ride (terrifying and humiliating, in equal measure), a two-day tour of Cairo on a hair-raising bus trip and an impromptu visit via catamaran ferry to Aqaba, Petra and Wadi Rum in Jordan. That trip in itself is so full of memories, not least because we were left stranded at Nuweiba port on our return – at 1am – with the wrong entry visas, the customs officials determined to send us right back to Jordan! Enough about that, I think!

The overriding memory of Egypt from these two weeks of blissful adventuring was the sense of flow within every Egyptian person we had the pleasure of getting to know: the feeling that there was no need to rush, no need to push yourself, as everything would unfold with divine timing. This feeling left a lasting impact on me, opening my eyes to a different way of living … perhaps a different way of being, if only I could find the time to get into the flow!

July 2004 saw my son and I returning to the Sinai peninsula, this time with my mother in tow and staying at Taba Heights. Disappointed with the lack of the heavenly surroundings of Nuweiba and with choppy seas seeing me almost drowned on our first full day on holiday (thankfully rescued by my mother – of all people! – as she ducked under water and untangled my flippers from the coral), it was still a pleasant place to spend a week of rest and relaxation. On our second evening, my son vanished with his new friends while my mother and I set off to explore our resort. Soon enough, we stumbled across a ’square’, surrounded by a wide range of shops to suit all purse-strings and interests. As we wandered around, we were invited to part with large amounts of UK Sterling – insincere shopkeepers full of chat, reluctant to admit they had met their match with two cynical, unyielding English women!

By chance, a shop selling an exquisite range of hand-carved wooden objects and custom jewellery caught our eyes. We prepared ourselves to be met with an onslaught of over-attentive behaviour from the young shopkeeper but not at all … we felt very comfortable with him, as he kept his distance and did not over-sell. The ice was well and truly broken as soon as he asked if my eyes were my own (what he wanted to know was: did I wear coloured contact lenses, the answer being No!). After a while of browsing – and learning! – we were invited to share a glass of peppermint tea with him. Of course, dodgy tums being the rule in Egypt, we thought some peppermint tea may pre-empt any nastiness and accepted without too much hesitation, spending a lovely half hour sat in the shade while we shared tales of English versus Egyptian life and having made a new friend.

We were invited by Remon (the young shopkeeper) to come back the following evening for peppermint tea and to have ringside seats for the Egyptian dance show. Strangely enough, neither my mother gave this invitation a moments’ hesitation and graciously we accepted!

What a wonderful find, we said – a cute shop to spend our money on wonderful well-priced wood souvenirs AND a new friend, to boot!

The rest of the week passed with my mother, my son and I spending time with this humble man, sharing more stories and having lots of fun into the bargain. The more we grew to know this gentle soul, the more sure I felt that I had known him in a past life … nothing odd there, I quite often bump into people I just “know”. My son had similarly found a kindred (party) spirit and my mother and I had discovered an entertaining friend who magically kept away the creepy staff from us. Bonus! His total acceptance of life as a whole was a real eye-opener, willingly embracing and grateful for the joys that the Universe threw up to him in desolate, hard living conditions and separated from his family and friends.

The seal of friendship was bonded more tightly after my mother had a fall, damaging her foot. My mother is not at all open to being touched (its all I can do to get her on my couch for a facial!) and yet she willingly allowed Remon to apply mint oil to her foot, skillfully massaged with a natural instinct on where to place the pressure. We later found out that she’d broken a bone in her foot and yet this gentle soul’s touch and innate healing ability had enabled her to continue her holiday without too much pain or swelling. What an inspiration to me … I had already studied Egyptian healing (Reyad Sekh Em) and knew that energy healing was something I had been called to do, yet he did this healing so effortlessly, so unthinkingly, that I was gob-smacked. Who needed rituals, or a set way of doing things? All you needed to do was use your intuition, open yourself to the Divine and just get with the flow.

Darn. That word again. Flow …

It hit me … this gentle soul really did embody the principles of “let go and let God”, the quintessence of flow. Remon’s open heart and mind enabled him to live his life to his full capacity, untamed and untempered by perceptions of those surrounding him. He really did LOVE life, unconditionally. He really did appreciate all that he had and was grateful for the opportunities this life presented him … he had dreams, big dreams of opening his own shop, and was busy squirrelling away whatever he could afford from his monthly pittance of a salary.

He gave his dream and vision a voice and then let it go … rather than spending each day wishing his life away, he threw himself wholeheartedly into each new dawn and embraced the simple pleasures that came his way, in true Egyptian style, with grace, acceptance, compassion and a smile.

We all remember Remon with the greatest of affection and yes, we still hear from him occasionally. He still shines with love and gratitude, always happy to hear from old friends and likes to be kept up-to-date with the family news. For me, those sunshine-filled happy memories of Egypt and Remon are one and the same … as one country and one man, to me, starts each day with the qualities I try to adopt daily in my own life. With peace, with grace and with blessings for each moment … with an open heart, an open mind, an unerring connection to the Universe and and a desire to be all that we can while letting life unfold with its own Divine plan. The quintessence of Flow.

Nuweiba beach, Sinai, Egypt

~ as originally published on www.biscuitinthebasket.com

27th September 2009

With love to @cookiemonster82 for generously providing a platform for us to share our memories on his blog.  Please kindly visit his blog and see his tireless campaigning for Charity:Water

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“Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail”

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

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“Sometimes you have to stop thinking so much and go where your heart takes you”

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We love simple … if things are simple, then they are usually very easy to remember and, critically, to use!

The Star is a lovely way of meditation and using your own innate healing energy to help yourself, and others. From the White Eagle Foundation, the Star can be used in a variety of ways and I would like to share with you how easy it is to tap into the healing energies of the Star for yourself.

All you need to do is visit The Starlink and follow their easy instructions.

“First, just to hold the picture of the Star in your mind or heart means that at the time you do it you are radiating light, which is like love.

You can, though, also see a Star outside yourself and see another person, someone whom you know who is suffering, within it. Don’t see them as suffering, because what you are wanting to do is to help them come back to wholeness, health. So what you see in the Star is the person you have chosen, only in perfect health.

Actually, the Star itself is a symbol of perfect health, perfect being. What does that mean? Not just that someone is well, but that the causes of illness are cured as well as the illness itself.

By seeing them in the star light you are imagining them like this: well and happy. It is remarkable what this thought can do. Try it out, giving it just a little time to work.

You can also think of problems round the world in the same way. Somewhere where there is needless war, for instance, or a famine. Or you can see a favourite animal in the star. Or the rivers and rainforests of the world.

This way, you can really play your part in the world. So can your children.”

I love my little Book of Star Light which is small enough to carry with me when I go to retreats or pop into my bag when I am hoping to find some quiet-time in a busy day … I hope you find this simple exercise useful and very effective in helping to heal yourself and other people.

You can purchase your own copy for £5 plus post & packaging from White Eagle Publishing

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We have been so blessed here in sunny London this past week, with the most gorgeous autumnal weather – warmth, sunshine and perfectly-blue skies. I have been taking the chance to work outside in the garden, surrounded by chattering squirrels and bees busy catching the last of the nectar from gorgeous colourful blooms. Taking a moment to admire the view, I have just noticed that the sky is adorned with wispy clouds masquerading as feathers … ahhhh, don’t you just love Mother Nature?

As with most people, recent planetary activity (please do check out Mandi Lockley’s brilliant articles on astrological influences) has caused chaos with communication at every level. Although usually very open with my thoughts and views, I have struggled to vocalise even something as simple as my day’s events with even my nearest and dearest … my broadband connection keeps slipping, my mobile phone is hiding voicemails … you name it, its happening! Energy levels are also at a dip ~ my clients are also feeling unusually weary, noticing strange reactions to foods and products they have been using for years, and other such phenomena.

Last Saturday dawned and although the early morning skies looked a little sorrowful, my beloved and I decided to pack up the car and head off to the New Forest – time to escape busy London, go gather some fresh air and blackberries at the same time! And so we did …

I will let you into a little secret of mine. The New Forest is one of my three favourite places in the UK (Boscastle, North Cornwall and beautiful London at sunset … she looks just magickal as you walk across Waterloo Bridge or Putney Bridge). Any lingering tension evaporated as we slowly walked through picturesque Brockenhurst village, soaking up the peace and tranquillity of our surroundings.

(By the way, if I ever win the National Lottery, you will find me living down there …!)

You swop the pollution for pungent horse manure in the New Forest: the aroma can be slightly overwhelming but this is always quickly forgotten as soon as you catch sight of the beautiful wild New Forest ponies grazing through the village, sharing land with the curly-cows (as I call them) who similarly roam wild and stop the traffic at regular intervals.

With the sun shining down with delicious warm rays, we took a breather from blackberry-picking and sat down. Soon we were surrounded by New Forest ponies, eager to find out what we had in our jute bag – yes, they could smell blackberries. At one stage I had to shimmy up the slight bank we had sat ourselves on, as one New Forest pony was determined to eat a patch of grass right underneath me! They were remarkably friendly, nuzzling up to us and curious to see what else we may hidden away on us that they could eat …

Happiness levels restored to a maximum 100 out of 100, we finished blackberry-picking – admittedly, I was more intent on taking photographs and cooing over the New Forest ponies so my beloved manfully continued to pluck plump berries from very thorny hedgerows. I realised why the locals plant their precious flowers in the middle of their gardens, rather than near the (high) fences surrounding their homes – the ponies are not shy of sticking their necks through any gap they can find, as they graze for alternative natural foodstuff.

We had skillfully ended up outside the Cloud Hotel, our favourite place for cream teas. A wonderful resting place, sitting in the lounge watching the New Forest ponies grazing – and nipping each other – on the moorland directly beyond their forecourt. A wander back through the main village street saw us besieged by donkeys who have unbelievably-soft coats, curious enough to try to eat our camera!

The happiness factor continued long after our return home that evening, as I made my first-ever batch of blackberry and apple jam with fantastic results on Sunday. Oh yes, and the usual blackberry pies.

So often we get caught up in our daily life and forget just how well Nature can soothe our mind, our spirit. We have no need to drive miles into the countryside, suffering long traffic queues – we can just bundle up in layers as autumn elegantly makes her debut, step out into our garden or find a public park where we can admire the beauty surrounding us, as Mother Nature transforms herself yet again. Look up to the sky and notice how peaceful the world above is. Be at one with nature … and breathe in the wonder of her, and let her healing balm soothe all that needs to be soothed in the melee of modern-day living.  Discover your own way or harnessing Mother Nature’s gifts to rebalance and revitalise you each and every day.

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Can you believe it? We are already well over two-thirds of the way through 2009 already … just where is the time going?

Celebrating the Autumn Equinox is also a reminder that today, 23rd September, is a very important date in the diary – it marks the 100 day countdown to the end of 2009.

I receive Karen Walker’s newsletters and she put together 9 questions which really got me thinking … and so over my lunchbreak today, I will go through each question and work through them in my journal.

I’d like to share Karen’s questions with you all:

1. What specific results have you achieved so far this year?
2. Are you healthier, wealthier, and wiser?
3. Are you winning, losing or just holding ground?
4. What results are you committed to achieve by the end of the year?
5. How have you grown and what have you learned this year?
6. Is there any unfinished business that needs to be tended to in your life?
7. Are you actively pursuing what’s most important on a daily basis?
8. What habits do you need to change to ensure better results?
9. What is the key issue that inhibits your ability to perform at your best?

As Karen says, “you must live to answer and honor these questions, because when it comes to the last 100 days of the year, every day and everything you do counts.”

Every day counts … step into your full power and use the remaining 100 days of 2009 to transform your life, embracing its full potential.

With bright blessings,

Callie

You may sign up to Karen Walker’s updates at www.activateabundance.com

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