Thinking Blossoms

Warmth and growth

My writing energies of late have been on various projects, including preparing a new website where my blogging will be. I'll post here very soon to let you know what I am up to...

Meanwhile,

I loved these white tulips in a park in stockport, so precious and nourishing to the senses after such a long cold winter While I am pushing ahead with all kinds of good work things they are a reminder to me to appreciate what is here right now, life as fragile and precious as flowers.

Spring is pushing through

The hard ground is starting to let little green shoots push through from bulbs. Tree leaf buds are fattening and a few brave cherry trees are in blossom. It's a lovely time because there's still the inward quality of winter when it might be cold, bleak, dricht, dark and iced-up outside but it's a good time for getting things planned and getting things done. It's as if our personal and professional lives are like fat bulbs and buds, forming, strengthening and preparing to break out into shoots, leaves and blossoms.

Magic! What are you preparing to bring into being. Have you got the right growing conditions? What will you be up to the minute the weather warms up?

Here in the UK it's been long cold winter, not easy for many people, and I'm looking forward to what happens when spring does arrive.

Snow and taking stock

Snow snow snow and more snow. It's usual of course if you live somewhere that has generous regular annual quantities of snow, but it is UNusual here in Britain, even as far north as Edinburgh in Scotland where I live.

The first flakes arrived on my doorstep with visiting friends on the 19th December and since then it has stayed and successive layers of snow and hail have been added till in places it's over a foot deep, with no sign of melting away. You could probably slice through and see layers as in a tree trunk, showing the nameless different varieties of snow that have fallen from day to day. Large feathers floating down. Light windblown swirls, blizzards of snow moving as fast as rain. White hail like the middles of aniseed balls. Slushy stuff that hardened into sheets of ice that forced us off the pavements and into the traffic. Icicles. More snow. Snow falls one hardly notices because it just keeps arriving. in fact it's a huge wealth of snow, snowy riches and a photographer's paradise.

It has stopped us in our tracks. Over Christmas it was just part of the cultural sleep, snow that slipped off Christmas cards and into our gardens ready for making snowmen, right on cue. Over New Year it was all part of the longer and longer seasonal holiday that people take. Now it is, for most, time to go back to work but schools, airports and roads are closed. Our road is still deep in snow and ice. My car is more cake than car right now and I'll wait for the thaw to defrost it. And wait. More is forecast. I'm counting out our logs for the wood stove because there's no way for the delivery truck to get up here.

The message? For me at least it is about stopping, living really simply and resting. It's perhaps like a rest in a hammock, suspended from much of normal life.

And another message? There's a slow shock in all this. It's a completely unexpected circumstance and has ramifications. One example is that I didn't have enough logs for this long because I was expecting to be able to order more. I wonder if I should be better prepared for the unexpected? Yes, of course, but in fact it's fine.  This time seems to be more about being able to accept such a big shock, even with it's attendant complications and to get on with it. 

The wild birds swim on the part of the lake that is not frozen and are glad of food from people.

Actually, even though we may have to go without certain things, such as me with logs, and we may have to struggle in all kinds of ways, it's also a time to realise how rich one is. I have gas, electricity, warm clothing and food in the fridge and in the cupboard. It's a good time to take stock, of who one is...what one has...one's life...business.

And in this clean white landscape there are so many opportunities for something new to arrive, as on a fresh canvas.

The Must-Have Book for Wealthy Authors This Christmas

My friends and publishers, Debbie Jenkins and Joe Gregory, are doing a special Christmas launch with
over £150 of bonuses when you buy just one copy of their new book - The Wealthy Author - before Friday 18th December 2009.

http://www.publishingacademy.com/122-10-5-13.html

For just £15 (or $25) you'll get a print copy of their acclaimed book, Free access to Publishing Academy for 30 days and loads of bonus content, ebooks and resources all authors and budding authors will love.

http://www.publishingacademy.com/122-10-5-13.html

I won't say any more here, other than they've also limited this launch to the first 200 people to buy because they want to ensure all their new customers are well looked after.

If you're interested then Debbie has a personal message for you with instructions here... http://www.publishingacademy.com/122-10-5-13.html

Note: Debbie and Joe asked me personally to share this message with my contacts so, if you get a message like this more than once congratulations! You're moving in the right social circles!

Would you like publishing support from the publishers who made my book a best seller?

 If you, like me, love writing and you want to share your knowledge in books that inspire and motivate people please do have a look at  The Wealthy Author at the Publishing Academy. It's a practical, helpful down to earth book that can help you to clarify what you want to acheive - and HOW to achieve it, including choosing a publishing route. If you buy by the 18th December you'll receive a copy of my e book 'Writing for the Whole Reader' in the bundle of gifts. Enjoy the wealth of information and support! :-)

Minds Set Alight

 
Earlier today a friend texted:

'New old leaves dance in nursery rhyme circles'

 and I texted back:

'Summer sunshine condensed into crackling little tree flames that set our minds alight'

Then I was out in the dusk under trees still shining though it was hard to see twigs for wood stove kindling in the carpet of red-orange cherry leaves, enchantment indeed. Too dark for a photo. Might try tomorrow if there's a similar light-in-the-leaves-type time of day.

I got thinking about a favourite lecturer who once wrote on an essay of mine, respectfully but in no uncertain terms, 'You need to read less psychology and sociology and more good novels.' I'd been over-analysing George Elliot instead of responding to her writing. I tell you this because it's stuck with me as a reminder to be in the beauty and majesty of life more. Many a time it has helped me to shift from too clinical a way of being in life.

Yes, in business there are books to balance and structures to evolve and support. In coaching there are helpful and at times essential forms in which to work. NLP, the GROW model, Clean Facilitation and more: at times I use it all.

But it is not enough.

'Enough' includes simply being with the client for their story to evolve, making space for their best expression to arrive. Just as my friend's text inspired my response and added to the quality of my stick-gathering experience later, then this blog, I coach for my clients to live richly and magnificently, or simply and contentedly, or whatever their best words are for living in what is for them a good way to live. Today, tomorrow and as they make themselves at home in what ever they want to happen in life.

Wishing you joy in the autumn.

The label is not the butterfly

I just loved this juxtaposition of plant 'skeleton' and snail exoskeleton and now I look at the photo, taken on a delectable is-it-autumn-or-can-it-still-be-summer morning, I like the red dock seed heads just behind and all the rich greenery in contrast behind it. Nature is magic that is always renewing itself.

I didn't give a thought to what I would write about it but I knew I would write something.

I'm thinking about the two different parts to my business, the Personal and professional coaching/workshops/workshop design side and the wellness/raw and living food side and about how they aren't really different sides at all, just me having busy interesting days.

I might be coaching someone who is going through the change from employment to self employment that has been catalysed by voluntary or involuntary redundancy, teaching people recipes for vitality, helping an executive to figure out how better to manage a team, working with people who support teenage mothers or co-designing a training or workshop for a big company or a fellow coach.

Yes, it does all fit together. It's just me facilitating positive change for people who are drawn to work with me for one or more of a variety of reasons. I have specialisms and in-depth knowledge, and I have mastered the Art of Asking Questions, the coaches craft that enables me to accompany someone who is exploring their own inner nature and creating how they will live in their personal and professional life.

I claim all that for myself and I hope you do too in the sense that you too are a specialist and a generalist and have a rich store of knowledge, skill and empathy garnered throughout your life.

It may be convenient, and frequently necessary, to label precisely what one does in the world, but the label is not the butterfly.

The challenge here is to bring one's whole self to whatever part of one's life you are engaged in at a particular time. I haven't always managed that, but when I do, joyfully and easily, life is much better for me and those around me.. Marianne Williamson wrote that lovely admonishment 'Who are you not to be (brilliant, fabulous, gorgeous, talented)' to pull us up when we are not being our whole magnificent selves.

And what does that have to do with a photo of a snail stuck on a dried head of cow parsley? I started with thinking about the two different parts of my business stuck together, but it's more just the beauty of taking in the different elements of a snapshot of nature and seeing how it all fits together. Let's do that with the different aspects of ourselves

Judy on TV Wednesday 29th July :-)

I'm being interviewed by presenters Stephen Jardine and Lulu on Scottish Television, The Hour, between 5.00 and 6.00pm, I'll be talking about the benefits of raw food and giving some samples to the presenters. Then there will be something up on their website, www.stv.tv with a link to a gift e-book with the recipes. You'll also be able to reach that from www.rawinscotland.com , which is the sister blog to Thinking Blossoms 

Just thought you'd like to know :-)

Accept some things so you can get on with what has to be done now

I'm very busy at the moment with preparations for being on Scottish Television next Wednesday, 29th July, on The Hour Programme talking about the benefits of raw food (see my other blog Raw in Scotland - and Beyond ) And I'm also very busy writing a wellness book. And I have fantastic clients to coach. And I'm recording interviews as an expert on Britains Next Top Coach And I have a house to keep in order. And I have another business interest. And I have friends, family and a life. And I'm painting the conservatory. And you get the picture.

Something I haven't had much time for this year is my garden, but low and behold it has been growing all by itself. I'm glad wild gardens have better street cred these days, though not all my neighbours are so keen on the waterfalls of Ladies Mantle that froth over the dull little walls in my front garden. I love the waterfalls, as Mark Darcy said to Bridget Jones, just the way they are. Here's a peek at a corner of my front garden that greets me when I return home (Click on picture to enlarge).

Although I do want to put more time into my garden and have all sorts of visions and plans for it - including growing some veggies to eat, such as kale for the winter - I cannot do it all. Life flows along much better when I accept that and look at the beauty in the way things are anyway - and then focus on my priorities - see above ;-) 

A busy little bee

It was nice enough catching this bumble bee  enjoying what may well be the Scottish bumble bee's national dish, thistle nectar, but quite incredible watching what she was up to. She was methodically following round the beautiful purple mandala composite flower pattern, anti clockwise, drinking from each cup of nectar in turn. It took her several minutes. Then of course she buzzed off in search of more sweet weeds in my garden, which is a tasty bee-haven of pesticide-free blossoms right now.

Thank you bumble bee for an object lesson in the beauty of doing something completely and methodically before moving on to the next task.

Here she is again a little while later and it is well worth clicking on the photo to see her more clearly:

And, following her lead, I have stuck in and completed one whole writing task in one go.

The follow-on benefit is that with a sense of completion from meeting my writing deadline, and from having done things so well in the process, I have been buzzing along with the next task and the next, till now I'm even blogging about it - nourished by thistle, bee and nectar imagery, as I hope you are too.

What's the task you could do, very well, that you could complete all in one go which would get you moving busily, and happily, on to the next task and the next? It feels great.