I’ve been seeing websites with gorgeous compilations and collages of photographs, and was dying to be able to do it myself. So yesterday, opening up my pics in Picasa, lo and behold, the answer was right there. Did I have some fun! I can see many an hour ahead wasted spent creating glorious collages.

What do you think of my first effort? This is the sunset I wrote about here. A stately gum or two, a barbed-wire fence, green paddocks, clouds and that sun fading in the west.  Brisbane winter in all it’s glory… still green thanks to all that recent rain.

When was the last time you simply stopped and noticed a little piece of heaven, here on earth?

Sometimes we really are too busy to notice the beauty, hear the melody or appreciate a fine turn of phrase, aren’t we?

Sometimes we’re even too busy to notice a certain look in the eyes of someone we love. A look that says I Love You.

But it’s those very things, the sunrise that takes your breath away, the beautiful strains of your favourite concerto (played loud), the words of a dear friend or the look of love in the eyes of one so dear.

I strongly believe that surrounding yourself with beauty – and taking the time to notice – enriches your life beyond measure.

The other day, on my almost-daily run between home and horse, I was struck between the eyes by the beautiful sunset to my left across the paddocks. I pulled the car over, grabbed my camera (saying a quick thank you that I had it with me), and reveled in the beauty of the sun, the trees, the paddocks and the simple beauty of the scene. The photo above is one of many… taken just as the light was fading between two big, old gums.

Does beauty enrich your life?

With an article to get up at Joyful, Jubilant Learning, I borrowed hubby’s laptop and got to it.

My contribution to the April line-up at JJL is A Time for Space:

Whether we need to clean out the fridge, our wardrobe or the entire house; whether we need to reassess relationships to sort the good from the not-so-good; whether we need to turn down the volume a little and retreat; or whether we need to open space in our diaries, cull items from our to-do lists, ditch some obligations or say ‘no’ a little more often: creating space is about making room for living our best life.

You can read the full article at JJL.

My diary has just reminded me of one further thing I’d like to mention. Whilst posting here at The Clearing Space has been sporadic of late – as The Calm Space soaks up my energy and attention – I’m forever thrilled and grateful to those who continue to read here, those who comment and those who let me know privately their reactions to my occasional postings.

Yesterday, in amongst the kerfuffle of the laptop drama, was The Clearing Space’s Fourth Birthday!

When I began writing here at the suggestion of Leah Maclean, way back in 2005, I don’t think I ever imagined a fourth birthday happening. I took it day by day. Writing here has taught me that occasionally what I need to write is what someone else needs to hear. And that is the reason I have never given it up, despite it looking a little like I was going to sometimes.

If you’re reading this, then you are someone I truly value. Thank you from the bottom of my heart – the birthday wishes are all for you.

Sit quietly doing nothing,

spring comes,

and the grass grows

by itself.

~Zen Wisdom

I’ve just settled back at my desk after mowing our lawn (with the ride-on mower – we have two acres:) and this saying sprang to mind. Even though it’s late summer our grass is lush and green and seems to grow as you watch it!

I love the smell of fresh cut grass. It’s so earthy and rich and, well, green.

The seasons roll around so serenely, don’t they? Mother Nature just keeps on doing her thing, never fretting about heat or wind or hail. Taking damage as well as lushness in her stride. Even in times of chaos her power and rawness are breathtaking.

Sometimes, in times of mental chaos – longing for stillness – I seek out Mother Nature as a balm to soothe my soul and calm my frantic thoughts.

When was the last time you sat quietly doing nothing and let Mother Nature work her magic on you?

I felt unappreciated, uptight and drained. Very drained.

But as I pulled into the riding school, there she was on her big boy – riding up a dream. I told her to keep going and parked the car so I could sit and watch without being eaten alive by mozzies.

And as I watched her, I felt this release… This time was a gift. Here I was watching my gorgeous daughter ride her magnificent horse, the almost-full moon rising behind her, the sun setting to my left.

I took a deep breath.  The tension magically bled out of me, flowing through the seat of the car and off into the ether…

Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass on a summers day listening to the murmur of water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is hardly a waste of time.

~John Lubbock

Summer, glorious summer. We complain about the heat and about the humidity. Today I found myself feeling very sorry for my southern friends who are frying in continuous days of temps over 40°c. And thank ful for the rain here that cooled things down a little, even as it sent the humidity levels soaring.

Then as I took my lunch outside on the verandah in the company of my dogs, and relished the breeze that sprang up intermittently, I realised.

Is not this the perfect time to rest? To sit very still? To be?

Is that not what summer is all about? A time to be patient. A time to keep our cool. A time to listen, think, breathe.

We try to subvert the natural order of things when we wish the season past already. For without the summer, how could we appreciate the approach of autumn?

Summer is the time when one sheds one’s tensions with one’s clothes, and the right kind of day is jewelled balm for the battered spirit. A few of those days and you can become drunk with the belief that all’s right with the world.

~Ada Louise Huxtable

Before me peaceful

Behind me peaceful

Under me peaceful

Over me peaceful

Around me peaceful

~Navajo Prayer

My summer holidays are over.

If you were wondering where I was, then worry no more. We’ve been resting, rejuvenating. Playing games and having fun. Lots of love and laughter. Lots of food and drink. Some sun (it’s been a rather wild and wet summer here). A little travel. A little packing and unpacking. Lots of books.

It was all over too quickly though. A week at the beach before school went back was not nearly enough time to restore the batteries. And sitting here at my computer today, I started to think about the fact that my holidays were over. Wail.

But, as you may guess by the title, I started to think it’s not an end, it’s the beginning of another year of our life. Once January is done, we’re back into the activities and chaos of family and school and work life.

The finish of holidays doesn’t have to be an ending. We can take the things we discovered as we relaxed, and bring them with us during the busiest of times.

What I am bringing with me into the new year

What this means for The Clearing Space

Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could; some blunders and absurdities have crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; you shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

ahhh, so wise I’m not going to add anything…

No snowflake ever falls in the wrong place

~Zen Saying

No snowflake ever falls in Brisbane, but that’s not the point.

I’m thinking about the new year. January and an impending holiday does that. I plan to do nothing. Relax. Sit. Enjoy. Unwind. Free the mind.

My inbox has been flooded this past week or two with special offers, courses, teleclasses and advice on how to make 2008 the best year ever. Complete with resolutions, goal setting and plans, plans, plans. There are people who have rewritten, reengineered and reinvented themselves and their businesses, all just in time for the new year.

And I am exhausted by it all.

What about you?

I like to horde January up, to be enjoyed… nurtured… savoured. It’s hot. The kids are on holidays. The sales are on. (hmm, just testing to see if you’re awake). I don’t get a headstart on the year. I get a relaxed start to the year.

I burrow in, clearing out the debris of the past year. Sorting and purging (all the more so this year than ever before, thanks to our renovation efforts). Clearing my mind as I clear my cupboards. Not forcing a change. Not forcing anything, really – it’s just too hot and humid.

For I know that in this way, what I most need in my life will come. Seemingly effortlessly.

The ideas for The Calm Space are all there, brimming up, threatening to overflow the bounds of my mind and my notebooks. But they will keep until I have the time and the clear space in my mind and my life to bring them forth into fruition.

I’ll know when the time is ripe for their plucking. Patience is a learned skill, helped along by the thick, wet air of a Brisbane summer.

A Clearing Space Moment

Are you feeling pressured to ‘get on with business’ or make those changes you’ve been talking about? Do you feel the need to make resolutions, just because the new year is traditionally the time to fix all that is wrong in your life?

Now isn’t necessarily the right time, just because so many people say it is. And, heck, we’ve waited this long… why do you want to put that huge burden on yourself right at the start of a new year?

Question the existence of those things done out of habit or expectation.

To make changes you need space. (Yep, we’re back to clearing space again…)

Maybe you need some time of consolidation. Of reading and relaxing. Of research or daydreaming.

Give yourself permission to take the time you need. Let the world know. Drop out. Sign off. Unsubscribe. Do whatever it takes to clear out that space for the possibilities that are lying in wait for you. We’ll still be here when you get back…

The possibilities are there. Like a snowflake, waiting to drift softly down into your hand when you stand still long enough to receive.

With my life pared back to bare bones during our renovation and narry a bauble in sight, let alone a tree or piles of beautifully wrapped gifts, I find those two questions popping into my mind.

When you take away the tree, when you take away the baking, shopping, wrapping, decorating frenzy, what is left?

A couple of years ago I sprained my ankle badly in the lead up to Christmas and thought I found out then what was important. Being laid up certainly made me aware of my priorities and to let go of the irrelevant or ‘busy’ work. But I realise now that was just a first step.

I have always been a bit of a Christmas perfectionist. Alright, alright – I can hear my family’s voices of protest already – I was a LOT of a Christmas perfectionist. I loved to have everything ‘just so’. Beautiful tree. Beautifully decorated, clean and tidy home. Delicious meal. Candles, inspirational music. Perfect gifts for everyone, wrapped within an inch of their lives. You get the picture. And it was difficult for me to let anyone else help me with the acheivement of the perfect Christmas.

And I realise now that in my quest for perfectionism I lost sight of the most important thing.

Those I love. The very people I thought I was doing it for.

Funny how we delude ourself in our quest for perfection.

This year there is no room for perfectionism. Traditions are out the window. Not just changed or renegotiated.

And I am feeling an immense sense of freedom, of liberation from expectations and requirements.

It is like the changes I see in my home. As the coats of paint go on, covering the previously bright, multi-coloured walls with a beautiful, calming, peaceful shade called Handmade Linen (don’t you love that name?) right through the house, I am feeling a new lease on life. An injection of simplicity, of calmness. A feel of opportunity and possibility. I know these changes herald a change of pace, a reinvention of my life.

And like the possibilities in my life, I am seeing possibilities in the celebration of Christmas simply this year. One of focussing on the people, and not on the trimings.

A Clearing Space Moment

In the madness that is the final couple of days before Christmas, can you stop for a minute and think about how you’d actually like Christmas to be, if there were no expectations at all.

I like to imagine a keyword, something that represents a feeling or state of mind. Something like ‘simplicity’, or ‘love’, or ‘family’, or ‘fun’…

What is your keyword for how you’d actually like to be and feel? How will those you love feel about that?