The Real Reason Why Trees Let Go in Autumn?

I saw this post today on a friend's facebook page and it is right, off course, trees are about to teach us a lesson in letting go, but the real lesson is in WHY they let go of their leaves, not simply that they do.

That's the thing with Mother Nature. She has so many lessons to share with us, if we understand from the viewpoint of nature itself, rather than our definition of it. 

I used to feel quite sad at seeing the trees stood naked and bare without leaves, until I found out that the reason why the trees purposefully drop their leaves in the Autumn, is to preserve their energy and water supplies for the inner core, to keep strong through the tough winter months ahead. The energy that it took to hold onto their leaves, is released, the leaves drop, they are no longer needed and that energy is now re-focused into the core of the tree trunk, holding her fast.

So, the lesson is that sometimes we need to let go of all the things we no longer need, that no longer serve us, however radical that may sound because  by re-channelling that energy, we can build a stronger core to hold us strong. 

What are the leaves that you will be letting go?

The Giving Tree : A Story in Draft

Hello friends, what a wonderful thing facebook live is :) This morning, a story winged its way into my heart. All day it was waving its face in mine until at 8pm tonight, when I typed it up and decided to do a facebook live reading of it straight from the printer, in draft, to get feedback before editing. And now, by the wonders of modern technology, I am able to share it here with you, too. Hope you like it. Have a great weekend, folks.

Fallen Tree: How stories save me

When we are little, we love listening to stories, especially before bedtime. They are loving and comforting, so why not have bedtime stories now, even though we're grown up? That's why 2 weeks ago I started sharing the stories from my new book Soul Seeds: Planting Heartfelt Stories on Facebook Live. 

I am delighted to have had so many people join me. It's really helping me to feel connected, even though I can't go out like I used to. How wonderful to have a platform from which to share my work, literally, from my bedroom and to help folk feel relaxed and calm before bedtime.

I absolutely LOVE writing stories, especially when they have an inspirational message within them. Most of my stories are based on my own healing journey. I write them to lift my spirit, to help me face my day, which can be a challenge with constant tinnitus.

Like last night, I laid awake for hours again because my tinnitus was literally as loud as 2 conflicting ambulance sirens, reverberating around my head, so eventually, I got up and started making little story pockets to cheer myself up. The tactile nature of the felt and the concentration needed, takes my mind away from the tinnitus. I enjoy making them so much, that having the ambulances in my head, doesn't seem quite so bad. So, although writing stories and publishing books is my career, hand-making books and story pockets is my therapy, it saves me.

The 4 Fallen Tree Story Pockets from today are now finished and ready to go to new homes. They are just £5 each to cover my material costs (plus p&p) so that my creative therapy is self funded. Each pocket includes the story printed on recycled paper, a mini talking stick made from the very bones of Fallen Tree (as stated in the story) with a little acorn or pine cone charm and then on the outside, there is a tree of life charm.

My story pockets really would make beautifully quirky Christmas gifts (Yes, I know it's early, sorry).

If you would like to buy them, please drop me a line on facebook. I'd love to hear from you and it really will give me so much joy to wrap them up and post them to you. Thanks for your  loving support.

My first time: FB LIVE

Tonight, was my first ever FACEBOOK LIVE. It's part of my new plan to build a platform from which to share my work as a poet, writer and songstress. Having hyperacusis means that performance is pretty much out of the question, at least for now, until I can devise new ways of making it so. 

To be honest, if I look back over the last year, who would have thought that I could have come this far in terms of carving a whole new life around my hearing needs, so ...  'Never say never' (as my Nan would say)

Here's the first facebook live, this one was on my new SOUL INK writer's page and to be honest, not many people jumped in ... 

Feeling more confident with the technology (in that I actually worked out how to turn it on!) I then I went over to my main facebook page and did a second LIVE SOUL INK recording. 

Here it is (below) ... as you can see, many more people responded because my main page comes up in their feed, whereas my new Writer's Page is a Business Page, so it doesn't seem to. It's all a learning process ... which is fabulous.

I got quite emotional at times because friends that I have not seen for ages, were responding live, and in real time, it felt very magical indeed. Like a proper connection.

So, despite feeling sick with nerves before doing it, I am so pleased to have begun this facebook LIVE journey. That I can speak to you from the bed where I wrote my book 'SOUL INK for the Morning' and do readings personally for you, in a real time response, is beyond words really, it's an emotion I haven't felt for a very long time, if ever.

And when something feels this right, well, you just have to keep going with it.

                                     

New Film Collaboration

I am always excited about my work but tomorrow I will be especially excited because Film Maker Bill Taylor-Beales is coming over to see me so that we can have a chat about collaborating in making some videos for my new Creative & Mindful Business Venture. I have been working tirelessly on the project for over a year, devising an inspirational online resource to help others and am so close to being ready to open the doors.

Bill & I have already made one very exciting piece for my website, held under wraps until the launch later this year. We have been working remotely by telephone and email which has motivated us to meet up tomorrow and talk possibilities.

Meanwhile ... why not pop over to my Bandcamp and check out my back catalogue Celebrating 40 years as a songwriter.

Nurturing the Soul : A Gentle Guide

Tonight, I made a little Vlog about my very exciting new Collection of Holistic & Creative Resources, designed to nurture the soul, particularly if you have been facing adversity. 

The Collection is based on my own healing practice from the last two years since becoming deaf and living with tinnitus and hyperacusis. 

On this final stretch, before launching later this year, I will be making little vlogs to keep you up to date with progress.

Alway love, dear ones.

Reinvention: Stepping into the Sunlight

For the last 14 months, I have been coming to terms with hearing loss, tinnitus and hyperacusis.

My intention for 2018, to open up my heart in deep gratitude & acceptance, includes the acknowledgement that my relationship to live music and performance, which has been my lifelong passion and career, has to now change.  I believed that this meant that I would exclude performance from my life but now, I realise that if I am open to finding a new way, then that is precisely what will present itself. 

In many ways, it is a wonderful opportunity to completely reinvent, rebirth and make a new. How utterly exciting. I might be deaf, but I hear the call of my soul now more clearly than ever before in my entire life.

I am finding myself in the gloriously seductive, creatively obsessed and precisely focused state of creating a distilled and pure pathway, leading directly to the next phase of my life. 

Focusing my soul-fired desires into creating a strong, yet flexible  framework that enables me to continue to heal myself through my passions, whilst helping those that are reaching out from the dark place that I was in, so that we can step together into the sunlight ... 

As One Door Closes

Six months ago, I made the brave decision to confront my hyperacusis. Since suffering sudden hearing loss and tinnitus, the onset of hyperacusis made me almost house bound. Hyperacusis is a sound distortion caused in the dissonance between my tinnitus tones as they clash. Once triggered, even my own voice becomes distorted in my head. 

To avoid becoming isolated by the condition, we converted an old shop in the village into my studio and during that 6 months, I learnt how to manage my hyperacusis rather than hide from it. 

I'm so glad I took this step. Last term, I went back into schools as an adviser for the Young Promoters Project, Night Out, The Arts Council of Wales and found that with my new hearing aids and some sign language, I was flying high in class, once again. I could feel my old mojo coming back.

And now I have been offered a contract for the coming term with the Creative Lead Schools Project, The Arts Council of Wales, working with a small group of children who have special needs. There will be myself, a film maker and a theatre maker working collaboratively to devise a piece with the children which will be performed & filmed at a local theatre. 

With this new found confidence and return to self, I made another brave decision and that is, to let the shop go and re-base my studio at home.

For now, I have re-camped in the spare bedrooms and look forward to moving into my woman shed by the Spring, it's a bit chilly out there just now. 

One of the most important aspects in coming to terms with deafness has been a pair of magnificent hearing aids from the wonderful, NHS. My hearing aids have literally given me my life back. Massive thank you to Aneurin Bevan, the Minister for Health that introduced the NHS and to the Welsh Labour Party that he was part of, for backing him. We are so very blessed in the UK to have a National Health Service. 

The other equally important thing has been to open up and allow transitional energies to flow through me, trusting my heart to make the right choices. I hope my journey inspires you to do the same.

Live Your Gift

  

If there is something you love to do, something that eases your troubled mind, that brings peace to your heart and yet sets your soul alight, then grab hold of it, give all of yourself to it. Jump right into your desires for these are your gifts, given to you by that which gives light to all. 

Trust yourself, rather than question why you desire to do something.  Does the daisy doubt that she should turn her golden face to the sun?

For me, it is the writing of short stories and poems set with an intention to help others feel better, to inspire folk to look at the world in new ways and then, to make beautiful books that are kept forever as a reminder of how much we are loved. 

What is it for you? What is the gift that you have so lovingly been blessed with?

If you like my blog and would like to find out more about me, why not pop over to my website by clicking the link below ... 

Letting your work go

Oh my giddy aunts, I have just emailed my new book off to the editor. It's a very strange feeling letting my work go. Perhaps because this book is an anthology of all the private stories and poems that have lifted and carried me through, written since my hearing loss,  I feel oddly nervous yet excited; exposed, vulnerable and yet a little proud that I actually managed to send it off. Time now to sit back, kick off my slippers and celebrate with a bar of chocolate ... 

Step into Your Power

I just wanted to share with you that I have spent the whole day working on an Anthology of my Inspirational Stories and Poems. It is a wonderful thing to bring together the threads of the last 14 months since my hearing loss and weave a tapestry of stories to inspire healing for others. 

You know, we are all healers, every one of us. When we fall and graze our knee, it heals. We take it for granted but when you think it through, goodness me. Our cells are renewing every minute. 

We are miracles. Everywhere you look, humans are healing each other and creatures too. In hospitals, surgeries, holisitc treatment centres, vets ... and also in our small exchanges of love. 

Let's step into our power as the incredible beings that we are. Breathe in our magnificence and breath out joy for others.

If you'd like to know more about my work, feel free to  pop over to my website. I am in the process of completely overhauling it but the Home page and the About Page are just about ready. There is a new story on the Home Page with a little film I made yesterday ...