Loving Life This February

Dear Friend

Loving Life This February
I’m being reminded this February that the reflective retreat of winter is an invitation to deepen our connection to what and who we love in life.  Hidden treasures lie within the stony pathways and knotty stories along our way.

Loving Stories
Every great love starts with a great story…. Nicholas Sparkls, The Notebook
The stories of our lives and loves can become the clay for our creativity.  We can reclaim and recapitulate even the most traumatic of tales through creative mediums, transforming and redeeming our experiences. The latest exhibition at descARTes Gallery at Matthews Yard - The Story of Faces is a truly inspirational example, as paedophile ring survivor Nicky Nickolls ‘paints her journey with the full force of her heart and desires.’   Another artist Hale Man is inviting Croydon to rise up this Chinese New Year through her powerful phoenix artwork.   I’m looking forward to singing at the Phoenix Parade which will bring diverse sectors of the community together in an integrated arts celebration.

Loving Singing
Good fortune attend each merry man's friend
That doth but the best that he may
Forgetting old wrongs, with carols and songs
To drive the cold winter away - Trad.carol
Folk of olden times certainly knew what they were up to with their wassails and carols - it’s a very effective way to transform ‘old wrongs’ and send the winter blues packing.  So I found this weekend at the community wassail in Addiscombe Railway Park (photos below by Ally McKinlay) where we blessed the orchard and each other with songs, sounds and speeches.   Singing kindles fires of fun and friendliness - regardless of whether you are chanting with a load of footie fans, rocking out with your favourite choir or simply your hairbrush.

Loving Learning I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it. - Picasso Learning limbers up our mind and makes space for us to fall in love with life again.  When we allow ourselves to be inspired by new ideas, we refresh our thinking and release old ideas that are past their sell by date.  We cultivate beginner’s mind, creating space and receptivity to expand beyond our conceived limitations. Loving Self Dare to love yourself as if you were a rainbow with gold at both ends.- Aberjhani One of my ongoing challenges in my relationship with myself is to be on my own side, which is easier when things are plain sailing.  But when winter storms hit, self accusation, guilt and anxiety can whip up havoc between me, myself and I.  At those times, we need circuit-breakers - the tools, practices and friends who help us break the negative self-talk and return to ourselves. Learning to alchemise the precious gold within our challenges, eccentricities, sensitivities and vulnerabilities is a life-long adventure. Loving The Unknown When a great ship is in harbor and moored, it is safe, there can be no doubt. But that is not what great ships are built for -  Clarissa Pinkola-Estes, We Were Made for these times In her reassuring letter to a young activist, Clarissa Pinkola-Estes reminds us that we are not here to try to fix all the challenges of the world.  Instead our task is continually ‘stretching out to mend the part of the world that is within our reach’ - even in the face of wintery gales and storms.  Whenever we reach out for something new we grow - and that growth ripples out into our world.  Just the tiniest step towards the new, the unknown can open up a whole realm of love and connection. Wishing you deep and delightful discoveries this February

What Kind of World do We Want to Create in 2016?

What Kind of World do We Want to Create in 2016?
Dear Fiona

I’m writing in the strangely warmest winter I’ve ever known - one where daffodils are budding in December and many parts of the country are underwater.  Despite the protests by many of us, the UK government bombed Syria.  Yet I still believe we have a choice and a chance to create our world.  As the Dalai Lama says - “most of these problems are essentially our own creation, therefore logically we also have the ability to minimise these problems, or in some cases overcome these problems.”  
I know that we each all bring something incredibly different and are all an essential part of creating our world, so here's some of my intentions for 2016.

Peace
Peace starts with each of us - The Dalai Lama
My working year closed with the event, A Gift of Peace - which was a profound celebration and enquiry into how we can create peace. Words of wisdom resounded in the beautiful space of St Ethelburga’s Centre for Reconciliation and Peace - from the powerful statements of the Dalai Lama, captured in the film Road to Peace to the insights shared by our panel and audience members.  There was space for us to own that we are all approaching peace from different viewpoints and to reflect on how peace can start with each of us.  It was a great honour to open the event in song, as it is my deep conviction that singing together is a great medium of peace-making - allowing us each to express our uniqueness, whilst harmonising with others.  Singing has been used in peaceful non-violent revolution and I would like to see singing open every political meeting. How I can use song as a medium of peacemaking will be part of my ongoing enquiry this year.

Beauty
Beauty is a necessity, not a luxury.  Beauty moves us, awakens us, provokes us, bringing freshness and newness to hearts that have too easily grown old and stale. - Charles Kamut
So far my two year old nephew has not known the beauty of freshly fallen snow. I want to preserve, celebrate and contribute to the beauty of this amazing planet and the many other creatures with which we cohabit.  The beauty of Charlotte Church singing This Bitter Earth outside Shell was an extraordinary moment in a campaign which resulted in the prevention of drilling in the Artic.  When we are uplifted by beauty, we are often moved to take action - for me, the powerful beauty of singing continually motivates me to fundraise and lift my voice for causes which are important to me.

Sustainable Richness
Relish everything that's inside of you, the imperfections, the darkness, the richness and light and everything. And that makes for a full life. - Anthony Hopkins
Richness in the West has come to mean the increasing accumulation of goods at the expense of others and our environment.  We ignore the riches of planet and people when we overwork for profit, losing connection with the true treasures of our relationships and the resources which sustain us.  We betray the richness of our learning when we label failures, darkness and endings as disasters.  I’m continually learning to remember and say thank you for my true riches, to return to what is really important, to stand tall for my values and to harvest the juice from the wholeness of life.

Love
Love is All You Need - The Beatles
Love is the glue that holds us altogether.   We may not always like or agree with each other, but we can still love each other.  We may not know what tomorrow brings but we can still love this moment enough to create something beautiful right here, right now.

Wishing you a peaceful, beautiful, rich and loving start to 2016