NEW BEGINNINGS. That time when the past has gone and the new hasn’t quite formed yet. The world freshly painted and the paint still wet, glistening and, with a light touch of a sponge, can be taken in slightly different directions.
The day outside on this early morning of gentle possibilities, rises up with bright sun in blue sky and a few wisps of cloud, still, transparent and hardly there at all.
When I was a kid a popular Christmas present was ‘painting by numbers’. The canvas was covered in numbers and each number had to be painted a particular colour. I have spent a lot of my life on a canvas covered in numbers but today, I see only fresh paint. And, I hear the new, in silent spaces.
My body is still and silent too. A mind open to possibility. Warm ginger tea in hand. A digestive biscuit. A golden, silent early morning unfurling all around. Inside and outside mingling, painted with the same brush. It meanders slowly this way and that, as life dances it’s way to no where in particular.
I stare at a canvas on the wall that one of my sons painted in 6th form, with deep blues that pull you in, next to a mirror reflecting the pollarded tree outside, with its tufts of leaves, gently blowing in the wind. I find myself thinking again, the times they are a changing.
Seeing the beauty
I talk a lot about the power of noticing the beauty of things. Especially when times are hard. It can mean the difference between managing stress, or not.
Exercising the positive neural networks in the brain, helps us to stay functioning from the frontal cortex, that part of the brain that is able to reflect and create. As stress levels start to rise (indicated by a brain that has lost its spaciousness, has become reactive to life – angry, anxious, depressed, negative thought patterns, obsessive), if you start to notice the beauty of things, this will help to empty the metaphorical stress bucket in your brain, and you will find it easier to navigate the stressful situations.
The hypnotherapy work I do combines this practice of exercising the positive neural networks, with light trance work – so light it is no different from the times when you relax into an activity you know well and enjoy. When you have a difficult situation to move through, if stress levels are not too high you can do this for yourself, by noticing the beauty of things, and then asking yourself, well how would it be, and spending some time imagining all the ways that it would be in your perfect scenario, feeling them. Then follow this by lying back and listening to some relaxing theta based music for 20 minutes or so. Later in the year I will be creating some recordings to help with this.
There’s a beautiful gift someone gave me that is catching my eye as I write. Full of gold lit up and glistening in the sunshine. And next to it a bowl, second hand and no value to anyone else. It has blue blotchy flower smudges all over it. They sit on a makeshift table, little expressions of beauty in my world, and I know that I am blessed. But I didn’t always know that.
I think the most precious thing we have is time. Time to see things. I remember when I was retraining during my menopause, and working three jobs, I would always take time to notice the beauty of things, it was the tonic that made everything possible.
I’d love to know what are the ordinary things that you see beauty in, perhaps you’ll post them in the comments.
Sweeping the moon away
I’ve written a few more words of my story ‘Sweeping the Moon Away’.
The man was in his back garden. It was a small garden with rickety fence on either side, and a trampoline at the end for his grandchildren to play on. The man, he liked to grow food, and the garden had so many plants starting to grow in it. On this early summers evening of lilac scented air, he came out with his watering can wearing a big-brimmed hat. A cat lay on the end wall that was crumbling into the ground, enjoying the last of the days sun, warm unfurling furry body, with paws stretched out and soft fur tail draping over the edge.
The man walked from plant to plant with his red watering can, overflowing, cascading waters, the young plants happy and nourished. A robin sat beside the man as he went about his work. Followed him wherever he went, but I don’t think the man saw the robin because he never turned to smile at it, he only looked at his watering can.
After a while, the sun had gone, all the plants were watered and the man went inside, just as the stars started to twinkle. He closed his curtains. And then, the cat jumped down from the wall and an owl began to terwit teewoo, as the first stars twinkled, and the air began to smell of damp earth. A whole new canvas started to paint itself alive. Dreams were to be had. But the man was inside behind his curtains.
Image by Myriams-foto – pixaby
Joy dots
Stars twinkling down
Cat lazing on a wall
Little robin
The smell of damp earth
Watering plants
New growth
Sunshine on my mug
mud splashed trainers in the sun
Peonies
Mediterranean blue
Recipe
Grain bowl
We had such a summers day yesterday, I made this grain bowl for a picnic lunch. It contained farro with fresh herbs, olive oil, fresh lemon and rock salt. Pan fired chicken breast cooked in a way that never goes tough. Homemade tzatziki and salad.
To pan fry chicken so that it is never tough you need to tenderise it with a little pounding – I use the bottom of a glass jar – then brown on a high heat in butter or ghee for one minute on one side, turn over and brown the other side for one minute, then turn the heat down and put a lid on leaving it to poach in the butter for ten minutes. Then take off the heat and leave to sit with the lid on for ten minutes.
Here’s the recipe for the tzatziki.
Tzatziki
INGREDIENTS
1 tub Greek biolive yogurt
1 cucumber
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 cloves garlic
Fresh lemon
Rock salt
METHOD
Line a sieve with muslin and strain the yogurt so that it is nice and thick. While the yogurt is straining peel and de-seed the cucumber then grate. Mince the garlic. If you don’t have a gadget, simple bash the cloves then press some of your rock salt into them until they are nice and smooth. Mix the first four ingredients together, then season with the lemon and more salt if needed.
Till Wednesday, warmest wishes,
Lucy x
This entire post is so nourishing and beautiful, Lucy. Like a much needed exhale. Thank you.
A few years back, when going through a very rough Winter of Divorce, I started keeping a journal of "little gifts" that I received each day. A smile or kind word from a stranger. An eagle sighting. A magical synchronicity. Ordinary, beautiful things.
That year was very dark, and each tiny gift counted. As night fell, I'd take a long walk and would keep walking until I thought of at least one thing from the day to record in my book. I didn't really "believe" in gratitude practice before that winter. Since then, I haven't missed a day.