Popular Facebook Live Bedtime Stories : The Sunflower

Friends, I share with you here, my popular FACEBOOK LIVE Bedtime Story, The Sunflower, taken from my new book 'Soul Seeds, Planting Heartfelt Stories'. You can find out more about my books and purchase them from HERE.

If you like my blog, why not add me as a chum on facebook . It is always lovely to see you.

6 Baubles for Christmas

A set of six baubles, fit to put a smile on any baby's face, so he gave the shop keeper a three-penny pence piece and put them under his arm. 
       'Keep the change,' he chirped and carefully carried the cheerful glass ornaments to his van. Steady, so as they wouldn't rattle and break, he wrapped them in his jacket and took them home.

She had never had a Christmas before, nor would she remember this, her first one, but for sure she would remember his love for eternity. 

Now the age he was, she unwrapped the old faded tissue paper, holding the two surviving baubles in her hand, placing them ceremonially upon her fireplace.  

Though he was long passed away, she knew that his love would keep her strong through many Christmases and beyond.

Sending you Yuletide Blessings for you and Heartfelt thanks to all those that have ever loved you.

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 ... 

Lazarus Carpenter at Quiet Space Studio

It is so lovely to welcome storytellers, poets, authors and writers from all over the country to come and share their work at Quiet Space Studio. 

Every month I have a Resident Author in so much as they are resident on the Quiet Space Website and their work is promoted within the studio.

This month it has been a joy to promote the work of Lazarus Carpenter. Although he is best known for his award winning songwriting and festival events, he is in fact a prolific writer.

In my last blog about him he gave a deep insight into his first book the Ballad of Penygraig and in this interview, he tells us about his new trilogy, The Prophecy. 

It is sounds absolutely intriguing based on part legend, part history and a good part of Lazarus' never ending creative mind, he explores ... well ... I won't give too much away ... have a listen and hear it from the man himself ... 

When everything falls into place

Since setting my intention to keep sheep so that I can love them & chant healing mantra to them in return for them gifting me their fleeces to spin beautiful Circle of Friendship Bracelets, everything has been falling right into place.

I am having a lovely time at Quiet Space Studio Carding the wool, Drop Spinning and making bracelets. I keep asking myself, can life really be this simple and the answer is ... YES.

Then my Speech Therapist called me up to check how I was doing. She is so lovely. I was really struggling with speech for quite some time and I realise, now that I have a hearing aid, that my hearing loss had a great deal to do with why I kept losing my voice. Doubtless I have been raising my voice since I couldn't hear it in my head.

Anyway, I told her all about the Tinnitus Mentor Pack I am making with a focus on Holistic Arts and how I have become passionate about sheep.

I explained to her how I have decided to keep 3 Llanwenog sheep so that I can love them and chant to them and know that my bracelets have come from a place of total love.

Llanwenog sheep originate in Llanllwni which is just down the road from Quiet Space Studio. They are placid easy going sheep, just perfect for me and my bracelets.

Well, I could not believe it when my Speech Therapist replied that she actually keeps a flock of Llanwenog sheep. What are the chances of that? And what's more, she very kindly invited me to come over to meet her flock.

Even more exciting, she provides fleece for the spinning group at National Wool Museum of Wales, where they have planted a natural dye garden. 

My Speech Therapist has very kindly said that I can buy one of her Llanwenog fleeces so it looks like my bath will be filled with wool again soon. 

Seriously though, what on earth were the chances of my speech therapist ringing to check on me and as part of the call, I end up arranging to visit a flock of Llanwenog Sheep, a natural dye garden at the National Woollen Museum and owning a fleece. 

It is my feeling that there is a plan for us all & if we stop trying to work out what it is, it simply comes.

From Flock to Friendship

 

It feels both very beautiful and deeply poignant to put all of my love into making Friendship Bracelets. What started as a tactile therapy for my tinnitus, has become a deep rooted healing of self within the cultural context of where I live in West Wales. I have fallen in love with wool.

My wonderful Circle of Friends have been helping me to re-build my life by sharing their woolly skills and knowledge .

Bev, my neighbour and friend, gifted me a fleece from her flock which, to Jeff's horror, I then washed in the bath. I trimmed it all up myself in our shed, infusing the wool with a wild concoction of essential oils.

My friend Caroline visited me at Quiet Space Studio and taught me to drop spin, followed by my dear friend Susan, who taught me to twin ply on a spinning wheel.

The deeper I have become lost in the process of putting love into my little bracelets, the more my soul has become found.

And then a woman called into Quiet Space Studio to chat to me about spinning and she told me how she kept her own flock so that she knew where her wool was coming from. How utterly wonderful. It was as if Mother Earth herself had sent this angel with a message. 

'Jeff ... ' I said tentatively that evening, 'I have a burning desire.'

'Oh no, now what,' he teased.

'I have a burning desire to keep sheep.'

And so the seed is planted. I have set an intention that I will have 3 sheep. I have no idea how to take care of them nor where I will keep them. I do not need to know. All I need to do is trust that the Universe has a plan and these desires have come from me letting go of knowing why.

The Discourse of Transformation

And so it begins ... today I had my first meeting with Jenni and Ali, a wonderful couple living at Gorslwyd Farm on the Coast near Aberporth, which if you haven't been, you really should, especially Mwnt, but that's another story for another time.

This was our first meeting regarding their new venture. They currently run Gorslwyd Farm as 'Holiday Homes with a Difference' and alongside this have started offering more and more spiritually connected retreats. It is this power that they are now stepping into fully.

Their new direction is based on the key aspects of transformation.We hear this word applied frequently in holistic circles and so the 3 of us really dug beneath the cultural discourse of healing, into what the authentic truth is for Jenni and Ali in terms of their definitions, as well as their living experience of transformation itself. 

Indeed, change is a pathway that they tread almost constantly together as Yin and Yang. Jenni's strong spiritual connections and Ali's groundedness, combining to compliment each other, although for me, their journey is something more than the sum of their 2 hearts ... something additional, that I can't quite put my finger on. To be with Jenni when she is expressing her belief, is almost to witness the receiving of a download from somewhere beyond this realm.

What I love about design briefings like this one is my ability to bring my extensive skills as an ethnographic poet into the business context. It enables me to holistically capture not just the words, thoughts and sentiments of the other but a poetic from the perspective of their heart.

In business, every now and again you come across another like soul and have a deep meeting of minds but today feels like a meeting of kindreds.

I am home now thinking about it and I literally have a glow about me. Do you remember the Ready Brek advert with the child who glowed with orange? (see above)  Well, that is how I feel.

Funny thing is, if I had not lost my hearing and developed tinnitus and  hyperacusis, likely I would not be able to take this work with Jenni and Ali ... I would have been busy elsewhere chasing what I thought the Universe wanted of me rather than being still and having faith that all is well. Food for thought, indeed.

Om Kali Sand Art at Quiet Space Studio

I am so happy to present to you my very first installation at Quiet Space Studio, LLandysul. A Collaboration between myself and my dear friend, Sean Corcoran from The Art Hand in Bunmahon, Nr Waterford, Ireland, on the beautiful Copper Coast.

When I was a Resident Sound Healer in an Artist's Retreat in Lower Normandy, I recorded my work on an old hand held, sharing it with facebook friends online. 

Sean heard my track Om Kali and asked me if he could respond to the work in Sand Art as a collaboration. 

When I got back to Wales, I went to my Sound Recording Studio and recorded a full version for him, with Jeff Beer, who very kindly joined the collaboration by engineering the piece.

In response to the Meditative Music I had composed, Sean took to The Copper Coast & created the most incredible piece of Sand Art in response.

And today I launched the work at my Quiet Space Studio for Carnival Day in LLandysul.

I quietly played the Meditation Tracks from my album Apples in the Rain and The Mantra Experiments in the back ground. It is the first time I have listened to my own work since my hearing loss. Having my hearing aids meant that I could actually hear it without is distorting. It was very moving. I also put oceanic oils in my cold air diffuser to take folk to the beach through aroma.

I exhibited with the work, my growing collection of Talking Sticks made from driftwood. I have been making these in response to a new poetry book I am working on entitled 'The Beauty of Decay' which I think sits well with the transient nature of Sand Art.

I am so touched that all  the aspects of our collaboration had such a tremendous response from the public. Certainly smell seemed to have an equally as strong impact as the visual, 3D and Sound art. 

Sean is sending me the film so that I can show it with the work in Quiet Space Gallery. If you would like to call in and see the piece, please let me know you're coming.

Meanwhile ... here is the Youtube version.

               

100,000 BLOG-TASTIC VIEWS

WOWZERS! 100,000 views. Thank you so much for joining me on the ups and downs of my Journey Through the Creative Mind. 

It blows me away that here I am in my little cottage in West Wales, connecting with folk all over the world. You mean the world to me and I love sharing with you in this way. 

I get excited about looking at my statistics and seeing which countries have been reading which blog posts, countries I have never been to, some I have never even heard of!

You have become part of my heart circle. When I am up to my creative shenanigans, I think ... OOoo I'll tell people about that on my blog. I take photo's with you in mind and I care about you.

So, I'll raise a glass here and think of you and hope that wherever you are, you'll do the same for me. 

Heart Yoga Studio

Well, my friends, I can whole heartedly recommend

Solitude, Stillness & Self 

as a complete tonic to the everyday 

stresses and strains of life!

So here's what you need to make it so ...

Oh & interspersed with wonderful day dream naps 

... so blankets will come in handy too

And off course, you need a great space to 'be'

I was very lucky indeed to be offered this space, Yoga Heart Studio in Mynydd Y Garreg, Carmarthenshire

 Owned by a beautiful soul,  Debbie Brooks

And in this space, all my questions dissipated

And I was left with this feeling ...

Good times are here

Love is the answer

I am enough

 I deserve to be loved in the ways I need

I made a collection of recordings while I was at Heart Yoga Studio which will be available to share soon. 

Visionary Arts: Making it so!

 What an incredible day!!

It's very hard for me to put into words the coming together of a collection of ideas

without getting emotional!

 

 

 

Contemporary Dance Troop with Arts Care Gofal Celf LegaC, Rob Latham and Bob Edwards, Sam Collins, Jacqueline Emslie, Rachel Hargrave and the Cardigan Drummers, myself and Amanda Painting made our way down to the secret cove to film the opening film scape for The Dragon Tree.

 

Thanks everyone: YOU ROCK!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When Mandy and I went down in July to scope the route down, the sun was shining and we didn't have any drums! We got half way down and it looked easy enough! But today in October with all the gear I have to be honest there was a moment when I thought, 'Oh my giddiest of aunts!'

 

 

 

But I knew it would be worth all the hard work to get down to the beautiful cove in Llangrannog.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It became something of a team building experience with people helping each other to make the descent. Certainly the most physical of all my shoots so far!

 

 

 

 

 

While the drummers played, LegaC warmed up on the beach.

 

Let the dance begin ...

 

 

 

 

Bob Edwards and Rob Latham both represented different incarnations of the main character Dafydd as he lay shipwrecked and confused seeing his whole life before his eyes. Dancing around him with waves ... mermaids making a decision whether or not to save him ...

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Mother of all the Mermaids, Guinivere dances with the shipwrecked fisherman in making her final decision

 

 

And then the trek all the way back to Mandy's beautiful Farmhouse, Morfa Isaf

 

 

 

 

 

 

Up & up & up ....

 

 

 

Great BIG team building hugs

when we got to the top!

 

 
And then down to some serious packed lunching!

BIG thanks to Joy, one of the mums who came to support the dancers today, to Laura Jenkins, Dance Development Manager for Arts Care Gofal Celf and to Zosia Jo, Dance Tutor at Arts Care Gofal Celf.

Massive thanks to all the dancers, drummers and actors!! And of course to Mandy Painting.

But ... BIGGEST thanks to the SUNSHINE for showing her beautiful face ... and to the West Wales Coast line for being a constant heartbeat.

... and to The Arts Council of Wales for my Individual Mainline Grant :)

IF YOU FANCY STAYING AT MORFA ISAF OR FILMING THERE, THEN PLEASE FEEL FREE TO CONTACT MANDY PAINTING:

http://www.morfaisaf.co.uk/