The Clearing Space

Moving Day... We've shifted... please follow the link

The Clearing Space has Moved.

This address will no longer be updated - please, please, please follow the link below!!

Here's the story...

I've been restless...

It happens fairly often you know... I have this yearning for something new, fresh, exciting (in my business, that is... not my life in general :)

AND I listened to those wiser than me that told me I should have my blog at my own domain... thanks Leah and Andy.

So, at the risk of confusing you, my dear reader - I have moved. 

You can find me, happily writing away, over THERE now... www.theclearingspace.com.au

PLEASE - if you've subscribed to my feed, linked in your blogroll, or otherwise bookmarked to visit regularly - can you remember to change your feed/bookmark/link to the new address??  I would really, really appreciate that.  Thanks.

So come on over, and see what I have been doing (with a huge lot of help from Leah - isn't her design just beautiful??) for the last few weeks, while all was quiet here.

www.theclearingspace.com.au

Happy Mothers Day, Mum

Happy Mothers Day to all the beautiful women who are mothers, or who play a mothering role in the life of someone special.

To all mothers -
    your giving is boundless
    your laughter is infectious
    your hugs infuse warmth in our very soul
    your care nourishes us
    your love makes us believe anything is possible...

To my mother, and my mother-in-law - two of the most special ladies on this earth - thank you from the bottom of my heart for all you are, now and forever... I love you.

Praying for Rain - National Rain Day May 8th

Calling all Australians! Let's stand up and take action for rain...

I recently reviewed a book on Joyful, Jubilant Learning called Do Less, Achieve More by Chin-Ning Chu, and one of the things that struck me was her use of the parable of the rainmaker, who entered a tent and attuned himself to nature for days on end in order to bring rain to a drought-stricken town.

And now, here in our terribly drought-stricken country, someone is taking a stand and calling us all to stand together at 11am on May 8th to attract rain to our beautiful, dry land.

National Rain Day, spearheaded by John MacCallum, is calling all Australians to stand barefoot on the earth and go through a visualisation to attract rain. Full details, including the visualisation in either text or MP3 can be found at www.nationalrainday.com.

“The process is a prayer of attracting rain through raising collective consciousness, as opposed to attracting the lack of rain by acknowledging it.  This is a powerful tool that everyone can use to create positive change. Many successful sportspeople and ancient races use visualisation.”

Mr McCallum said National Rain Day was there to create rain but rain may not come on the day. “It’s all in the intention” he said. “We want this country to return to a harmonious natural balance. If we do not attract more rainfall, it will affect the quality and quantity of the food we eat.”

I know what I will be doing 11am on Tuesday - will you join me?

Everyone can make a difference

This one needs no introduction - The Make a Difference Movie.

Even if you've heard the story before, the movie will make it come to life... grab a box of tissues though!

(You knew I could not leave it at that, didnt you?:)

This story helps each one of us - no matter who we are, not matter what we do, no matter how rich or poor - realise that by changing our focus we CAN make a difference in the lives of others.

We can perform miracles every day - take the time to notice the heart in others...

Confidence in a box - sharing the joy around

Life has sped up so much lately - lots of fingers in lots of pies, lots of lists and things I'd just love to do if only I could find the time.

Of course, the home renovations add significantly to my busyness - probably more than I ever realised they would, having never renovated a house I was living in before. I renovated a rental property with a baby on my hip, but then it was about selling it, not living in it - big difference!

Some meaningful things have been slipping through cracks... like the beautiful post by Chris Owen - Take A Bite: Confidence in a Box.

So today I am taking 5 minutes to share this with you.  Chris writes beautifully about the nebulous nature of confidence, and how sharing a little confidence, acceptance and unconditional love is so very important. In Chris' usual style:

If someone YOU know struggles with low self-esteem, then they are also likely to be struggling with loving themselves.  As a result, finding confidence in their decisions and even in someone else's compliments to them is a struggle!

They need your unconditional love.  You may not understand HOW they could lack this important element.  They may not be aware enough to explain it to your satisfaction.  So just "build a bridge and get over it".  You, the stronger one, not the one struggling, just need to get used to the fact that you don't need to know/understand.   

What is critical for you to offer is acceptance.  Unconditional love is a love that doesn't need to understand, doesn't love despite something (excluding/conditional on certain aspects), but loves WITH all the flaws, foibles, unpleasant parts etc.

Endless unconditional love goes a LONG way to building confidence.   See what a massive gift you could be offering someone you love!

Anne Maybus started it all at The Tall Poppy , and it looks like the beautiful blue confidence-in-a-box box is starting to get around!

Many women suffer from low self-esteem. I know when I went from being an  independant, high-income, in-control-of-my-life executive to a Mum for the first time, my confidence was so low you needed a magnifying glass to find it! And I find a lot of women have a similar experience at some stage of their lives.. confidence is a fragile thing - easily damaged, and it's a hard road for many of us to restore that confidence in ourselves.

We know we should be more confident. But just knowing about it doesn't make it so.

Having dear friends who we trust tell us how great we are is a good boost to our confidence... and so I love these meme Anne started, and Chris shared with me.  I'd love to share this beautiful blue box with so many women in my life right now - I'm having a hard time chosing!!

Lisa - my dear sister - this one's for you! I know you're lurking out there, reading... now maybe I can encourage you to leave a comment, dear one. You are a priceless treasure, my soul in another body - you deserve the world!

Maryanne - a kindred spirit I have never met - a brilliant writer & a gorgeous caring Mum (sorry, MOM) - here's to you, my friend!

Marj - the lady who teaches me all the time about customer service, going the extra mile and that it's the little things that count. You run a wonderful business in Slim Ink, Marj, and I am so pleased you're joining us regularly in Sanctuary now.

Chris - right back at you, my dear... to a fantastic writer, the best sounding board I could hope for, a warm, giving and generous person who lifts me up higher than I could go alone.

YOU!! To you, beautiful soul, cherished friend, happy woman - I give you this beautiful blue box as a token of my confidence and awe... thank you!

You are capable of true greatness - living large and joyfully

Syncronicity is one of those things you don't go looking for - it sneaks up in front of you and then, bam!, it hits you right between the eyes.

There has been a lot of syncronicity in my life lately. I don't really know what to put it down to except a 'quickening'... that point at which things start to domino of their own accord.

I guess Debra - my Feng Shui friend - would tell me that I've been clearing out a lot of stagnant stuff in my life and my home, and the chi is starting to flow... and yes, I believe that is a part of it. We've been renovating the kitchen and laundry (still not finished..) and so that has meant a heck of a clear out - when you drag absolutely everything out of your kitchen cupboards (and those deep, dark recesses of the laundry) you only want to put back those things you use and love. Nothing more. NO junk! Since we moved here 13 years ago, some of those cupboards havent really seen a good clearout. And so there must have been a heck of a lot of stagnant chi in there, cluttering up the space and clogging my life.

And so, on many levels, the overwhelm and sheer exhaustion I have been feeling a lot lately since the renovations started (vacuuming and mopping and wiping down surfaces of plaster dust for the upteenth time can really start to get you down) has been worth it. I know there is more to come... but I now know that the space and energy and flow this will generate will be worth the pain.

One of the syncronicities recently, as I took a break from clearing out the junk in my youngest son's room (boy, was THAT overdue!) happened as I checked email.

I found a friendly email from Rosa letting me know she'd tagged me, to write about my goals and Live Large! (the goals you just gotta get so you can truly say you have lived your wildest dreams). And then I received an email from Carrie Hart in Daily Quado - You Are Capable of True Greatness that started:

You are capable of true greatness.  This is not a question, a wish or a hope.  This is a simple fact.  You are capable of true greatness.

 

True greatness is not something you hold up to a standard you or society have set and ask over and over, "Is this it?"  True greatness is a flame inside, a truth that is you.  And as you go through life, this truth can become buried.  You may need to unravel the consequences of some past actions to clear a space for it.  Or you may need to balance the time and effort required to carry your burdens with the time and effort required to excavate your shining wonder.

 

But it is there.  It is real.  It is true and it shines.

And so, I accept the challenge Rosa. I am stepping up to the plate, fully aware of the synchronicities abounding in my life as I clear space for more and better to come.

And to the rest of my dear friends - a little announcement. Following on from my participation in the March Love Affair with Books over at Joyful, Jubilant Learning - I have accepted the generous invitation of the founding writers there to become a more permanent contributor.

In honour of this amazing invitation to join a very inspirational community of bloggers (thank you so much for the invitation guys, I was thoroughly honoured and thrilled to be asked, and even more honoured to accept!) you can find my first official post as a regular contributor over there today, as I accept Rosa's tag and write about my goals for living large and with intention.

It's Carnival time again at Working Solo

The Carnival of Entrepreneurs is being hosted by Leah Maclean over at Working Solo this week. There are some very interesting looking entries in the carnival this week - a couple of which I immediately earmarked to read as soon as I get a chance... things being a "little" chaotic around here at the moment it may take a while to get to all that interests me :)

These carnivals are a great way to find new writers and blogs and I love exploring the links... of course this can lead to many lost hours in front of the computer, with way too many tabs open in Firefox and new feeds in my reader.

An example (multiply this by the number of posts in the carnival and you start to get the picture!):

In this carnival, Leah says she particularly liked tips #1, #2 and #3 from 18 Stupid Mistakes Bloggers Make in their First Year by Christine Kane. Couldn't resist - could I? I just had to see what those three tips were, and then read the entire post (which is great - really inspirational! Thanks Christine!) In that post, Christine points us to a lot of other blog posts, including 10 Reasons to Write and Publish Everyday by Liz Strauss. Now, Liz's Successful Blog I have been reading a fair bit lately, since I discovered her a month or two ago (yeah, yeah, I know, I was a biiiit slow). But the post that Christine linked to was from December, and I had never seen it.

[Liz - I particularly like reasons #1 & #7, and soooo agree with #9 ;-]

Can you see how I get lost in this maze? That right click to open in new tab in Firefox is Deadly to my time!

Yesterday I was chatting with my friend Chris, and she wanted to show me something on the internet - I needed to open a new window. I told her I had 'quite a few' tabs already open in Firefox... then I counted them... 29!!! Did you know you could fit THAT many open tabs across the top of a laptop page???

Oh, yes before I forget - Leah kindly included one of my posts in the Getting Still series in the carnival - Getting Still #3 Stilling Your Thoughts. Thanks Leah!

Go! Enjoy the carnival - just don't blame me if you don't make it home in time for tea...

Writing my own definition for Success

One cannot do right in one area of life whilst he is occupied in doing wrong in another; Life is one indivisible whole. - Gandhi

I have been so full of fear about what success might do to my life and my family that I have been holding back. Afraid to go for it. Afraid to jump off the cliff in case I didn't like what success brought.

I just didn't know it.

It came to me in a powerful realisation early this week, when my monkey mind was going a hundred miles an hour down the path of change, and imagining terrible scenarios of me not being able to cope. All of a sudden, with a lurch of the heart and a filling of the eyes, I realised I was scared of success.

But that awareness was the key. Once I admitted (or discovered) that I was fearful of being successful, I realised, with a soaring heart and more tears, that I am free to write my own definition of success.

Success is different for every person. I have the ability, and the right, to define my success, my way.

I'm doing just that this week. I'm writing it down, and I also plan to prepare a dream board, and possibly even a music 'soundtrack' of what my success will look, sound and feel like.

Instead of being fearful about what 'success' (someone else's version) may do to my family and my relationships - I'm rewriting the rule book and living life my way. This is going to get interesting!

What about you?

Getting Still #4 - The learning in change, the change in learning

The illiterate of the 21st Century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.

-Alvin Toffler

Some of us are old masters (or mistresses) of change and reinvention. We're changing all the time. And we welcome the process (well, most of the time) and the outcome.

Others of us totally resist change. We don't like our lives to be challenged or our boat to be rocked. Kids can be like this. My eight year old told me recently that he NEVER wants to live anywhere but in this house. Ever.

[Totally scary moment for mother, until I realised that this was just a security thing with him. I recalled his older brother at 5 wanting to go back to 'our house' now, a month after we moved into this one.]

But as we grow to adulthood, we realise that change happens.  Sometimes more often than we'd like - sometimes not often enough.

Whether stability or instability is your normal state (whether you learn your lessons by sticking with your choices) - as we go through life and learn, unlearn, relearn and learn yet again... we cannot help but grow, and our lives need to keep pace with who we are.

Only sometimes, we're so busy in the learning and living department - we don't have time to see that
we have outgrown our current life.  It is only by getting still, by taking some time (we have to take a little bit of time - this cannot be done in a moment) to get still and quiet.

It's only when we're still and quiet that we can hear what our heart and soul need.

It may take a few hours or it may take months for the sediment that is muddying the waters of your life to settle so that you can see clearly what it is you need to do.

We just need to trust that the water WILL clear if we get calm and leave it as long as it takes to settle.

For it is only in this place of calm clarity that we can really see the true situation. Without that, we are knee-jerking. And for the big stuff, this isn't such a good way to make a decision to change.

There are some people that change their lives so often, they leave the rest of us in a whirl. They make major changes in their lives like the rest of us wash our clothes. I get exhausted just hearing about their plans.

The more I think about that, the more I realise that it isn't their plans and changes that exhaust me. It's the constant change for the sake of change - and the lack of stickability. It's not working, so we'll try something new. It's throwing out yesterdays great idea for a 'new, improved' idea today. It's always seeking the quick fix, the one thing that will solve all their problems.

Ripe targets for snake-oil salesmen.

These are the people that don't learn from the changes they make. And don't change according to those lessons.

The quote by Alvin Tofler at the beginning of my post reminds me that to learn the lessons life sends us (or we create by our decisions) is the greatest learning of all.

We are the only one responsible for our life and our choices, and how we learn and grow and relearn, are ultimately what makes our life and our happiness.

The Clearing Space Challenge

Is there a sense of disquiet in your life? A sense that all isn't as good as it should be, but you're really at a loss to work out exactly what that may be?

Try getting calm, quiet, peaceful... take a break, take care of yourself... watch the waves or watch the ceiling.

How can you get clear on your learning and the changes you need to make before they are forced upon you?

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Related Posts:

Reinventing and remodelling our lives - carving a new life out of the busyness

Top reasons to not live your life at 100mph - Getting Still #1

Getting Still #2 - Addicted to adrenaline

Getting Still #3 - Stilling your thoughts

Sanctuary - March edition

The School Bus and an iPod - brain optional

It is NOT cool to read on the bus to school.

Apparently. It's for the unwashed-uncool.

So, no way do either of my teens want to be classed in THAT category!

But Gorgeous Girl has come up with an inventive solution to that issue of making the time to study. Especially science where she's currently doing geology and battling igneous versus metamorphic and all those other wonderful names...

Recently, as they seem to do in year 9, Gorgeous Girl's year took the test that told them what kind of learner they are - kinesthetic, visual or auditory. She was basically straight across the line the same with all three, which to her means she needs all three to really get the learning to stick.

[Captain Scarlett learned he was kinesthetic and then visual, with low auditory back in year 9 - so this solution wouldn't work with him.]

Gorgeous Girl was discussing with me how best to study all about rocks so that she could remember it all. And was talking about the auditory part of the learning equation. I suggested she sing the names of the rocks to herself (don't ask for a demo, it was definitely a once off - just ask her!)... after throwing around other totally silly ideas, she said she would record herself talking through her notes(NO singing!) , then she could listen to that on the bus each morning without being called names. 

Ipods rule, apparently.

The rub? Her iPod is dead (long live the iPod battery... not) and she would need the recording voice attachment. Apparently.

I'm all for creative learning - but why does it always have to leave a gaping hole in my wallet?