Bon voyage

And there he goes, spreading his wings, about to fly away. Go in peace my beautiful friend. For life is but the blink of an eye. But eternity lasts forever. For you see, the soul is an energy. It transforms, changes shape and structure and moves from one dimension to the next. 
So the next time you have to say goodbye to one you love, do it with courage, do it with a smile. Transfer your strength to their soul, to their being. For their souls needs your unconditional love and understanding more than their body needs your tears. 
The end of a life doesn't mean the end of the journey. It just means you've graduated before the rest of your class, ready to move on to the next experience, to a new learning. With the knowledge that the essence of your loved ones will greet you in the next stage of your journey, that in fact you were never separated at all, but just taken time out from the fun and games to get some learning here on earth. And before you know it, in the blink of an eye, you're home. Surrounded by love. Soaking in the love. Emitting the love. Being love. 
Bon voyage you beautiful man. Spread your wings and fly home

The Freedom To Choose

I’ve been so far away from my blog the last six months. It’s almost as though I took a backseat to life. I allowed its events and opportunities to whisk me away. Sometimes I got caught up in its drama, other times I tried to control it. And through it all, I learned a valuable lesson. That life, with all it’s ups and downs, good and bad, positives and negatives, is to be lived.

There will be days when fate takes over the reigns from your hands, and all you can do is try to understand why your soul created that experience for you. What is it that you need to learn from it? And that’s when the magic can begin. Once you know, once you understand, the reigns are back in your perfectly manicured or weather-beaten hands. You then have absolute power. Do you choose to accept what was just handed out to you, and live out every minute of that lesson, just to get to its end? Or do you choose to understand the learning of the event, without going through the physical realities it projects onto you?

Life, my love, is a choice. Every moment of every day, we’re choosing. You’re choosing to read this right now. Five minutes ago, you chose something totally different. Tomorrow you’ll chose anew again. You choose what time you want to set your alarm for; you choose whether or not you feel like stretching your arms; you choose when you want to meet someone you love; you choose to go in to work each day; you choose to breathe; you choose to love; you choose to live. And all these choices are so very easy and so seemingly unobvious, that we often forget that every single thing we’ve ever done in our lives has been a choice we’ve made to do those things. We’ve always had the power to choose. We always will. Even those who give up, have chosen to give up. Those who succeed have chosen that path. Those who laugh, have chosen to laugh at that moment, instead of cry. We make choices all the time, about things we don’t even realise the importance of. And those choices are so easy to make, so second nature to us, that we forget that life would have beenn so different had we chosen otherwise; had we opened a door instead of closing it, had we decided to sleep in, instead of wake up, had we decided to say yes instead of no.
And just as these everyday choices are so easy to make, why not the other choices we run away from? A choice is still a choice. The subject of the choice is irrelevant, because the concept of choosing is what you’re dealing with. So if it’s that easy to choose between wearing black or white, reading or sleeping, broccoli or bean sprouts, then why isn’t it just as easy to choose between staying or leaving, loving or hurting, feeling joy or sorrow…
And think of the power you would regain because YOU, and YOU alone, made every single one of those choices. Consciously. Not unknowingly, not because there was no other option (because there always is. Not because it just felt like the right thing. But because beautiful, amazing, wonderful, gorgeous, amazing YOU, chose to do so.

Now revel in the power of the choices you made that brought you to this point, that gave you your power back, that are making you smile right now.
Lucky lucky you. If you had any idea that the angels rejoice and cheer every time you choose for yourself, you’d be a conscious choice-making machine. As if you aren’t already!
Just remember no choice you ever make will be the wrong one. It will always be one that leads you to where you need to be at this moment in time and space.

Time

Time: That fabulous little illusion that drives us crazy – unless we learn to manoeuvre its lack to our advantage.
Confused? Bear with me.
All the theories of time being linear, going through black holes, jumping hoops, not existing in space yet seeming so real on earth... They're all well and good in theory. Practically, it can be confusing, at best.
So let's make this real easy.
Think back to your favourite holiday. Recall your favourite day of that holiday.  Can you imagine how you managed to squeeze so much into just one day? You had time for a big breakfast, time to shower, travel, change buses and trains, get lost, find your way, take a million photographs, shop, laugh, rest, go site-seeing... and all this before lunch!
So what did you just do there?
You stretched the day to allow you to get all you wanted, done.
Now think back to the last big fight you had with your partner – or your ex even . Remember how they slammed the door behind them on their way out? Remember waiting restlessly for them to call or turn up? Remember looking at your watch every two minutes, surprised that time refused to pass?
Remember how that panic-struck hour felt like eternity?
Of course you do.
Congratulations. You've just unravelled the mystery of time.

Time may seem to be the controlling factor, but in effect, its really easy to manipulate.
You can sit and stare in someone's eyes and live eternity in an hour, or make yourself sick to the stomach and stretch an hour into eternity.

At the end of the day, time is invisible. It's just energy. As are the molecules and atoms that make up your body. So if you and time have originated from the same source of energy, who's to say you don't have the power to manipulate, mould and bend it as you wish?

And you wonder why some people continue looking so young at 60?

What if?

Did I have to go through so much hurt before I could finally ask the questions: Who am I? Why am I here? Or did I have to go through the hurt because I asked those questions?
Does knowledge lead to loneliness or does loneliness lead to knowledge?
Did Siddhartha emerge as the Buddha because he chose the silent path to enlightenment? Or did walking down that lonely road create a Buddha?

In layman's terms, it's the chicken and the egg situation repeating itself time and time again, life after life, century after century.
And let's just face it. If in the past three billion years we haven't been able to figure it out, do you really think the answer's about to emerge anytime soon?
What if we just live it, instead of question it?
Why meddle around incessantly. when it's so much easier to just let it be? All these billions of years, millions of lives, thousands of incarnations, and we still haven't learnt to let go and let be.

Do you need to know how saffron is grown, to relish its flavour?
Do you need to know how a star got there, to enjoy its beauty?
Or what made the sun shine, to soak in its warmth?

So here's the thing. I'm trying it. Maybe you could too?
Just maybe, for the tiniest of seconds at first, while we find our feet, we forget about the why's, the when's and the how's.
Just for now. Just for a wee bit. Leave the how's to whatever lies out there.
What if, just for now, we chose to enjoy the end result, instead of wondering how we got here.
What if we could return a stranger's smile without questioning his motive? What if we took his smile for what it is:  a beautiful smile from a beautiful person. What if we allowed that beautiful person to love us, without wondering why he does? What if we returned that love, without the fear of hurt? What if we lived in the moment, in all its purity and beauty?
And just if, what if, living in this moment felt so liberating that it became a way of life?

Tomorrow doesn't yet exist. Yesterday may never even have been. Today's all there is. This moment, right now, is all we've really got.
And would it really be that scary to enjoy a stranger's smile? To walk down that road, even if on your own, because the journey there is worth it? To receive knowledge and wisdom, regardless of your deeds? To stop judging and start allowing.

So take off those blinkers. They went out of fashion so very long ago. See it for what it is.
Breathe. Relax. Laugh. Love.
That's all you need to do. That's all you've ever needed to do.
And don't you see? It really is that simple, after all.

Letting Go

When someone leaves your life, there’s a huge void created.
That void’s always a learning. It only means you’re clearing up the clutter, making more space to recreate from a much higher perspective.
People sometimes leave your life because you stopped vibrating on the same level. They go because they have their karma to fulfill and you have karma to fulfill, and when that karma’s done, one of two things can happen. They could move on and go far away from your world and you'll both be very happy. Or they'll come bouncing back in, even better for you than they ever were before.
And all that depends on one thing and one thing only: your ability to love and respect yourself. It will mirror in the person you create in your life.
For me, for now, this I know: The more I can love me, the more someone's going to love me someday.
And how grand will that be, hey?

Filling the gaps

Isn’t it amazing how some people seem to fit right in? Like an old glove you’ve rediscovered, a favourite pair of jeans, your childhood blankie, mum’s arms, familiar whispers, an old soul come back.
Some people spend their entire life trying so very hard to mesh their lives with yours and it remains a struggle. Others don’t have to try at all. They fit perfectly well into the gap you created for them, a gap you instinctively knew the measurements of, a gap they slid into so easily that they’re already embedded there before you even realise that they got in.
Why? Because they were meant to. Because for every tear you shed, the universe swaps it for twice as many smiles. For every time you have your heart broken, the universe sends you someone new, someone who resonates on your vibration, who emits the same frequency as you. Someone who, naturally, will fill all your gaps, as you will theirs. Until forever. Or one of you changes their vibration. Then the cycle begins again.

Signboards along the way

Soul mate. That important person you keep bumping into time and again, life after life.

I met one 3 months ago. In Egypt. Something pulled me to Egypt. It was sudden and out of nowhere. Something pulled him back to Egypt, after 6 years of being away. And suddenly, there we were, on a train in the middle of nowhere. Me having come from the furtherest corner of the East and him from the furtherest corner of the West. And we collided on a train that ran along the Nile.

Four days later, that train really did collide. But that’s another story.

I felt like I knew him forever. I know he felt the same. But we came from two different worlds, had two entirely different lives, were two very different people, and after two days, we’d be leaving each other to go back to our own little universe.

At another point in my life I bumped into another one. He was my Frenchman from Nepal. And he came hurling into my life headfirst. I knew that I knew him. He knew he’d always known me. Our meeting was brief. Enchanting. Magical. Powerful. His eyes felt like home. I knew he was yet another reminder that I was walking down the path I had once chosen for myself.

The universe had given me another sign. Another signal to say I’m going where I have to.

For when you start walking down the path you once preordained for yourself, the universe will put up signboards along the way to show you you’re going in the right direction. Most often, these signs have been agreed upon many many eons ago, before we came into this body, a sign that subconsciously, our soul would recognize as a marker for walking down the right road.

One of the most undeniably prominent signs we get is the bolt of lightning thing. When you meet a someone you’ve bonded with over your lives, you soul will inevitably recognize that person and will give you a heads up with a jolt through your system when  you make contact with that other person.

I’ve met many souls I recognize from past lives. But only two of them have had the lightning bolt effect on me.

The first was X. The second is the stranger from Egypt. A stranger I met for only 2 days, a stranger I’ve known longer than I’ve been alive. And believe me, when we meet soul mates such as these, it’s never random. There’s always a reason.

X had perhaps the strongest lesson of my life to teach me. I had to learn about love, I had to learn about loss, I had to learn about dependence, and independence, I had to learn about lack and abundance, I had to learn about fidelity and infedility, jealousy and acceptance, about learning, growing, letting go… But perhaps the most important role he played in my life was of tour guide. He took me on one of the most beautiful holidays of my life and at the end of the trip, left me at my final destination: the road back to myself. If it wasn’t for X taking me to the lowest point of my life, I wouldn’t have initiated the conversation with my own soul. If he hadn’t touched my knee, I wouldn’t have learnt the lesson of unconditional love. If he hadn’t left me, I would never have learnt the lesson of pain. If 4 years down the line, he hadn’t been cheating on me, I would never have learnt the lesson of letting go.

The man from Egypt taught me an entirely different lesson. About survival, fear and friendship. We were paying back a karmic debt.

Every soulmate has their own reasons for being in your life. We often block out soulmates and their lessons because they may seem extraordinarily harsh to us. Take for example, a boss who makes it his life’s mission to complicate your working day. Naturally, he’s high on your must-avoid list of people. Ever considered though that that boss might just be your soulmate? He's being hard for a reason. He has a lesson to teach you, a lesson you once asked him to teach you. However, the rules of the game dictate we forget our pacts when we descend down here, right? So here on earth, we refuse to acknowledge the fact that someone we hate so much might just be a soulmate teaching us something important. People like the idea of romanticizing soulmates. And that’s beautiful. There’s nothing wrong in indulging in a bit of romance. Or even a whole lot of it. But let’s not allow the love to blind us to the facts. Every single person, past, present or future, in your life, making an impact of some sort, is a soulmate.
They're here because they love you. They're here because you love them. Because you allowed them to be here in your life. You don't always have to embrace them. Just honour their reasons for being there, And learn the lesson they've come to teach you.

Rock Bottom

Hitting rock bottom only means one thing: You have nowhere else to go but up.

Funny then that so many people don’t see that. Being on a low means the high you’ll reach will be so much more exhilarating than if you were to have reached it from a middle. Like a bungee jump. If you’re gonna do it anyway, would you rather jump off the midpoint and experience only half the thrill or go all the way to the top and experience the entire jump for what it really is. Your freefall would take your breath away so much more than just a jerk on an elastic cord. You would fly. Literally. Why would anyone, in their right mind, deprive themselves of that sensation just to play it safe and reach only midway?
That’s life too. That’s everything. All or Nothing. And All means so much more once you know Nothing. Even Nothing becomes beautiful in itself because it’s acceptance of the Nothing that leads to the knowledge of the All.
For everyone reading this who’s at that Nothing point in their life, rejoice, rejuvenate, celebrate. You’re one of the lucky few who gets to experience it all, in it’s its most majestic form. Thank your lucky stars, embrace the nothingness of the moment, and then start moving on up.

Beginnings, endings and lessons learnt

It is the end today. But also the beginning.
The year taught me a lot. It has been one of the most important years of my life. The lessons of this year have been invaluable.
It taught me to let go. I showed me sorrow, it showed me pain, but it also showered me with love, abundance, joy, wealth, new opportunities and old souls who would never have come into my life, had I not created the mess I did.
Yes, 2009 was a year of unexpected twists and turns. I had to clear out the old before attracting the new. I had to learn the meaning of love, so I could learn the meaning of loss. And I had to learn about loss, before learning of the beauty of love.
It’s been a year I will never forget. A year of changes and surprises. A year of love.
A year which would never have been what it was if I wasn’t blessed with the souls who make up my family. And by family, I mean my soul family… Mum Dad, Za Anu, Noor, Traill, Bianca, Allan, Gladys, Sneaks, Tia, and who knows, who else. I'm sure there are still a few out there I haven't met yet.
I’m blessed, me.

Life's cycles

Ever wonder what people from your life do when they leave your life? Do they still giggle at nothing, playfight with the air, indulge in heavy Friday morning breakfasts, relish the planning of their next holiday? Or do they just turn into someone else and start doing things you’ve never seen them do. Like bungee jump off the mountains, or meditate in the ruins of a temple in an ancient Arabian land or take a walk through some of their past lives, adopt an animal… Do they still laugh from their middle, love from their hearts, get rid of their masks and step out brand new?
Because that’s what I think they do. See, I believe in people. I know we go on. We regenerate. We change skins, we adopt new faces, new bodies, new lifetimes, new loves, new people, new lands, new beginnings. We don’t end. Like the energy we’re made of, we transform into someone else. Someone that the people from our lives don’t know once they leave our lives. We become bigger. Better. Stronger.
There’s really no point wondering what people from your life do once they’re not in your life because you’ll never know about their transformation from an ugly duckling into a swan. You’ll never see them swan-dive off a bridge, or feel their vibration when they meditate in the ruins, or witness the powerful regeneration of their soul. How would you react to them then? Like you would to a stranger?

Hello nice to meet you... You remind of someone I used to know once, but no… you couldn’t possibly be. But hey! You do big breakfasts too? Nice. Jump off of mountains into nothingness below? Yeah, I once knew someone who had a similar dream... Doubt they’d ever have your kind of courage though. So anyway, nice to meet you Stranger. I wish you well. I will remember you because I feel like I know you somehow. And yet, of course I don’t... I used to know someone who would love to meet someone like you. Someone who deep within had the desire to live your life. But not your courage... Ah well. Be safe. Fly high.
And then they’d walk away from you, shaking their head in confusion. I swear I feel like I know this person, they’d be thinking. And they couldn’t be more right. Or more wrong.

And you? Would you realise you too were meeting someone who was once in your life? Wouldn’t they have evolved since they stopped being a part of your life? Because that’s how some of life’s biggest lessons are learnt. That’s how caterpillars grow beautiful multi-hued wings that they spread and fly away with when they metamorph into butterflies.
Those who chose to leave your life only entered it for a reason in the first place. The reason being to make you love them so much that them, and only them, would be the one to teach you some of your most invaluable life lessons. Pain is your biggest teacher. Without pain you’ll never truly understand what it feels like to be painfree. You’d never appreciate happy if you didn’t know sad. You wouldn’t recognize a good soul if you haven’t met a few bad ones.
Life’s lessons are strange. But they’re there for a reason. Just as the people in your life are. Just as those who left your life are. So what do they do once they leave your life? Will they ever be recognizable to you again? Maybe not. But does it even matter? You’re not recognizable to them either. And therein lies the beauty of it all. The eternal enigma of love, life, lessons and learning.