“We need the tonic of wildness…At the same time that we are earnest to explore and learn all things, we require that all things be mysterious and unexplorable, that land and sea be indefinitely wild, unsurveyed and unfathomed by us because unfathomable. We can never have enough of nature.”
― Henry David Thoreau, Walden: Or, Life in the Woods
My husband Paul spent most of the week finalising this video, I’m very impressed by the result :) what do you think?
We went back to Cornwall a few weeks ago… (the last time we went there was back then). It was our first holidays in a long time, and the very first ones with Nettle, who joined the family in January.
I particularly enjoyed spending time in the beautiful Cornish outdoors, walking on the cliff tops along the coastline and discovering new places, such as Kynance Cove, on the Lizard peninsula, where Paul made this video:
The soundtrack to the video is my favourite song from some old friends of mine, French post-rock band Poney Club.
This week was Thom’s Birthday Week.
We had a great party with Thom’s friends in the woods/valley near our house. It was such a beautiful day: a pack of wild children running around the woods, climbing trees (amongst other things), hiding in dens, playing in streams, eating fresh home made bread, eating chocolate cake, wearing “bounaches” just for the picture…
The Moustache Crew was here… When they wore moustaches they were called Bert, Charlie and Jack…
All the kids went back home with a seed bomb each, now they can scatter some native wild flower seeds in remembrance of this glorious afternoon we spent altogether! W. amazed me as he decided to leave his seed bomb on the Airman’s grave, as a WWII memorial offering.
The next day was Thom’s actual birthday day. It was a quiet and simple day, slowing down, opening presents throughout the day and playing with his new toys :)
Then the two following days were spent meeting up with friends and trying out the new skate park with Daddy.
Today Thom has chicken pox. I thought it would be nice to end his birthday week with a last pressie, handmade, just for him, so I made him an owl this afternoon…
It’s my very first felted animal and as I can’t follow instructions I just improvised… And she turned out ok I think.
It’s special because the owl is “his” special animal and I made it myself, using the fleece we had collected from the woods and valley near our house. We are moving in a few days, we will still be living in Ashdown Forest, but in a town. Of course the forest will still be next door and we will now be able to use our bikes to get around which I am very excited about, as I’m fed up with driving all the time. So this week was also a bit of a moving-on celebration, having friends over in “our” valley to celebrate Thom’s 6th birthday and taking a bit of this magical place with us, with this little owl…
Tomorrow I am off to my yoga teacher training for the day. No doubt another interesting journey :)
Have a lovely night,
Noemie.
As some of you, dear readers, may already know, I have spent some time over the last few years exploring the extremely profound experience one has when connecting with the heart. Heart to Heart communication can take many forms such as telepathy, animal communication but also art, poetry or music. It requires us to be open, to be still and to listen. This openness means taking the shield down and foregoing shame, shyness and any kind of worry about what other people may think. And of course, being observant. This heart-felt way of connecting with other beings requires courage and open mindedness and the willingness to listen. It’s a path for the warriors, the bold ones who are willing to embrace new ideas and ways of thinking.
Connecting with Nature with our hearts is, I believe, what would ultimately heal our society.
If only everyone were to spend 5 minutes a day just paying attention to Nature around them and allowing the healing to take place…
Just noticing what direction the wind is blowing, or the subtle transformation of the trees every day, or noticing and listening to the bird song filling the air, connecting with a dog or a cat, lying on the grass to watch the clouds passing by or admire the beautiful artwork of a spider spinning her web…
Or just walking barefoot on the earth, acknowledging the animals you meet and the natural world around you, even if it’s just a small garden or a park…
Taking the time to whisper something in the ears of the animals who live with or around you…
Just 5 minutes everyday, spent connecting with the natural world with an open heart, taking it in and letting it go through you… Try it and tell me how you feel :)
This video tells you how it works, and I hope that it will make you reflect on the power of connection through the Heart with other earthlings (plants included).
Noemie.
My recent times have been busy with home-educating my son, my yoga course, gardening, enjoying quiet family time, educating myself on the Ayurvedic system (and being amazed at how much it makes sense), and spending quality time in the woods with my canine friend Tara.
I’m feeling the need to connect with my creativity so I’ve been writing regularly, enjoying looking around me with a sense of wonder, and I even started to draw again.
I think all human beings need to find ways to express their creativity… Music and Photography used to be my ways of expressing myself back in my 20’s, and when I became a mum I started to cook a lot instead and of course I have a well-documented child, as I took quite a lot of photos of him as a baby and toddler.
Although at some point I had no camera… that was a dark era!
Portrait photography used to be my specialty, I used to enjoy taking portraits of animals a lot, and also trees, flowers, stones… I did take a lot of portraits of people too. Some of them were famous in their scene, others were famous with their Mums… it didn’t matter to me who they were. With every single being I had the honour to photograph (note I’m deliberatly not using the expression “taking” a photo…) I got to have a glimpse of their soul, and I must say that with animals that experience is often a lot more powerful than with humans, because animals just “let you in” without any attempt to shield anything.
Since being a Mum I have been constantly amazed by the sense of creativity that is innate to children. They are naturally creative as they don’t have any blockages within their creative process or great expectations for the result. Making a mess certainly doesn’t stop them getting started. Most of us adults have been conditioned when we were kids to care about how the things we make/create look like. We were compared with one another by thoughtless teachers or parents, some of us were told we were not good at arts, or that we didn’t have any talent in a particular subject whereas others may have been told they were creative geniuses and had to live up to the expectations that come with such a statement… I have met quite a few very talented artists and some of them seemed to be carrying their gift like a heavy load on their shoulders… that’s possibly why :-)
But for kids, art is just easy:
Thom and I go for long walks in the woods regularly and it amazes me to see how he comes up with Land Art projects on his own, and really enjoys immersing himself in the zone of creativity, creating a world made out of stones, earth and sticks…
He started to write on his own last year, because he was attracted by letters. So he started copying them on his own and now he writes his own name on everything and inserts random letters in his drawings as a part of the picture, because he likes the look of them.
Nothing seems to intimidate him, a few months ago we went to march to protest against the badger cull in the UK. I asked him to make his own sign and he just drew a badger, from the top of his head, just like that:
Obviously I’m aware that it doesn’t look exactly like a real badger, but I really like the fact that he didnt have anything holding him back from just doing it, even if he has never done it before!
(Re)opening the creativity channel doesnt need to be a complicated process. Even if as adults we may have forgotten the simplicity of just drawing or painting whatever comes to us. It is in fact a very liberating activity.
I find that writing a few pages first thing every morning helps. Most of the time I just start to write with no particular goal and my ideas just articulate themselves, and as I allow the pen to connect with my soul I realise in amazement that I’m releasing a few things that were stuck somewhere, in the back of my mind.
Going somewhere we have never been before can help, and also revisiting old places every once in a while to re discover them with new eyes is definitely an interesting experience too.
The practice of Yoga is a great way to release old blockages, to connect with ourselves and discover new possibilities – extending and stretching our own limitations.
Carrying a note pad and pen with you when out and about is useful as you may feel like writing something down while being in an inspiring place, such as the woods or the sea front… or in a cafe in town. One of my favourite activities back when I was travelling a lot used to be sitting down in a cafe somewhere and just writing anything that would go through my mind. Sometimes it was bits of conversations I could pick up around me, or words from a song… I have filled lots and lots of books like this. With poetry it sometimes feels that there is no thread to follow at all… but every single entry is an instant of my life. I would just spend hours writing, filling up pages and pages… and I would also sketch a lot.
Music is a great way to release blockages too. Singing makes you feel great, drumming can be very liberating and dancing is a very powerful way to release emotional build up!
The possibilities are infinite, but if you feel stuck you need to feed and nurture your creative self. That can be done through spending some time on your own in an inspiring place, to reconnect with yourself, and recharge. That can be in nature, in the woods, in a park, in the mountains, by the sea or in a museum, a cafe…
Sometimes yoga teachers advise their students to take on a creative activity to release certain blocks, so they might advise them to start playing a musical instrument, or to start singing. Creativity is a very healing process if we are open to let go of our fears/apprehensions and just go for it!
Releasing blockages through creativity is empowering and very useful when one is learning to communicate telepathically with animals or any other beings. It stretches our minds to towards infinite possibilities, giving us a sense of strength and joyfulness that elevates us to a higher state of consciousness because we are really connecting with ourselves and the world around us…
So don’t fear judgements or criticisms and enjoy every single step of your unique creative process, and remember: The journey is more important than the destination.
Namaste!
Noemie.
FocalHeart 