Happy 1st anniversary!

I want to wish Hay Quaker Blog a Very Happy 1st Anniversary with a big Thank You! :)
...for doing that thing with words that is soooo awesome...! :) The 'magic' that happens - the right words at the right time, the lifting and encouragement and hope that words can bring. Thank you, for posting things that has made me re-think and re-evaluate my own thoughts or confirm ideas that I've not yet settled into... :)

Thank you for a GREAT blog!

Love&Light,

It is OK to feel...

Fuck cancer.

Good News!

I'm not big on subscribing to magazines. I don't even get a newspaper any more - I still manage to get the news! :) I like me the odd bit of Royal gossip now and again but I'm not that keen knowing who a certain celebrity might, or might not, be sleeping with at the moment so cheezy gossip mags are quite quickly flicked through...

Most stuff deemed newsworthy, in the regular 'proprer' new now just isn't... There's too much doom and gloom, sadness, sickness, greed and agony in my opinion. Sure, we need to hear that too but not just that! There's very few sunshine stories to inspire us towards positive change, towards thinking, feeling, knowing that this place might not be The Best, but together we CAN make it/take it there! :)

I'd like to hear more of those kinds of news! News of compassion and kindness, of hope and inspiration, of light in the darkness... Things I'd not be afraid to share with my young children (who are too young to be allowed to watch the news broadcast with me) and guess what!? :) I've found it! :D In Good News Magazine, a reasonably new Swedish magazine that just happened ;) to fall into my lap last weekend on my lunch break when I was hunting for something readworthy at work. Chance? ;) I think not and as soon as I got home I ordered a subscription for myself.

The magazine is thick as a book and filled to the brim with inspiration! Joy, Light, Hope, Positive Progress, Health and Smiles. This particular no. had articles on Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontier, TED.com and hope in Afghanistan and much more!! :) My kind of magazine! :D :D :D

Yesterday I got my first very own issue of the GNM and this one is titled With The Help of Techology and I'm still ploughing my way through it! :) I want to read every single word of it! Even the ads (that are surprisingly few!) are interesting!! :D :D :D

GNM's facebook page shares positive stories/articles, most of them in English. Like them and start feeling postitive about the world we live in! :)

Love&Light,

God Is Not a Christian

As you might already know I'm a big fan of the Charter for Compassion and (unsurprisingly ;)) I also follow it on facebook. :) There I get links to lots of interesting articles and other stuff. :) Today when I came home from work I did my usual look-through of my news feed and as usual there was a link to an article, this time by Desmond Tutu - "God Is Not a Christian" . I usually feel somewhat silly re-posting re-posted posts ;) but, this I just had to pass forward!

He writes inspiringly "We must be ready to learn from one another, not claiming that we alone possess all truth and that somehow we have a corner on God.[...] We have enough that conspires to separate us; let us celebrate that which unites us, that which we share in common."
Read, read and re-post! ;)

Love&Light,

Women Food and God

Where to start...? :)

I can't stand self-help-books with advice on empowerment, affirmations all that hooplah. Blah, blah, blah, yeah-yeah I'm beautiful and special and someone... Bleh! :p

But! After seeing Geneen Roth on Oprah a while back I went...wow... That makes sense... What an absolutely brilliant, beautiful, simple and bold idea... No more diets. Eat what my body wants...when I'm hungry, with pleasure... (etc.!) I have to learn more!

I ordered the book, still quite convinced it might end up as a never-ending 'toilet read', and it was laying about the house for a bit 'til I finally put in in my bag to have something to read on the long comute to work. On the third page (I think, lil'sis had my copy) I did the first of many 'dog-ears' and after the first chapter I started digging in my bag for a pen so that I could underline the awesomeness that leaped at me from the pages! I never underline things in books I read for pleasure...that's 'honour' ;p is soley for school book...except for this book! Wow... So beautifully simple, heart wrenchingly honest and...excellent.

There's so much I want to adress about this book! :) SO much underlined and dog-eared and many many light-bulb-moments... and as I said previously it can work/help anyone with any type of obsession or addiction if you manage to translate what Geneen has to say about food to your specific 'issue'. I might return with more when my sisters (older sis is waiting for her turn too ;)) are done reading. :)

One of my many favourite parts of the book is when she talks about the eating guidelines (I cringed - I'm too much of a 'permitter' ;) to cope with 'guidelines') 'til the part where she shares about an experience when she realised her students just didn't get it and she had to re-explain them as 'If love could speak...'-guidelines (the exact wording escapes me!) and I got major goose-bumps...'cause it was soooo true...! If Love, rather than 'The Voice', spoke to me...I'd not treat myself the way I do...the way I did.

I will not lie when I say that this was/is one of those Life Changing Books. I see things clearer, about myself and about food... I have let Love speak to me.

Yeah :D I looooved this book!

7 out of 5 stars! ;)

Oprah.com has plenty of interesting stuff on this book too! I didn't think I'd write as much as I have 'cause a lot can be found there. An excerpt, videos and more...go have a look and if you have even a slight obsessive streak...read this book!

Love&Light,

Billions of people refused to give up!

I found this (in Swedish) posted on a notice board at Uni. With me being Ms.Indecisive and Ms.Doom&Gloom lately I thought I'd share it with you all to 'prove' that it's not all bad, far in fact far from it. ;)

ღ
Good news in during the last days:
* The planet continued to rotate around its axis as usual resulting in the sun rising all over the world.
* Millions of birds were singing and an infinite number of flowers bloomed.
* The Earth was blessed with 490 000 new precious babies.
* Intelligent, loving and courageous acts were performed every second on the planet.
* Millions of people refrained from saying or doing something unkind.
* Hundreds of thousands of new, really good ideas were hatched.
* Billions of people laughed, learned something new, touched another with tenderness, loved, and refused to give up.
ღ

(Source unknown. translated to English by E.)

Jason Reeves - The End

...it's not over 'til it's over...?

Siddhartha Gautama

From Paulo Coelho's blog:

"Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense." - Siddhartha Gautama (the Buddha)

Yes!! :D Your own reason and common sense! That's it! :D
Trust your own heart, your own gut feeling whether it be concerning religion or love or parenting or housekeeping...! Don't do what other's tell you to do, do what you feel is right... You need to decide what works for you...! :)

Powerful Beyond Measure

It just struck me that I've not shared my most recent favourite quote, from my new favourite insightful person, Marianne Williamson! :D I can't believe I'd forgotten, she's (this passage!) is practically the reason for this blogs existence...! :)

It's the reason for me being in a place where I feel worthy and deserving of Good Things, where I feel allowed to be me, to shine. To shine bright for me, in my heart... Not to please or impress someone else or even to rub someones nose in my fabulousity! ;) :D :)

That's the power that words have! That's the power these words gave me...!

... no I don't always feel brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous! ;) The point is that I now know my worth even when I feel low and miserable, which I most definitely do from time to time...




"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be?

You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.

It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."
- Marianne Williamson

A better world.

Here's another quote I like.

"You cannot hope to build a better world without improving the individuals. To that end, each of us must work for our own improvement and, at the same time, share a general responsibility for all humanity, our particular duty being to aid those to whom we think we can be most useful."
- Marie Curie
I believe that those most useful are our children, but the work of improvment begins within ourselves. Our children can not be expected to feel compassion and understanding for each other or the Earth if we can not...

Still on hols and getting a bit home sick... Family back home are celebrating Midsummer today! :) Happy Midsummer!