{Soulfood Friday}

Beautiful Winter Light.

 


Below are some beautiful traditional Carols that we have been listening to over the last couple of weeks while baking florentines, eating mince pies with cups of tea and putting up decorations.









Every Friday I'll be pausing to notice something from the week that has nourished my soul. 
* 
A special, sacred-everyday moment captured on camera, or perhaps a snippet from a book, a recipe still warm from the kitchen or something whimsical that simply made me smile.
 * 
Here are a few simple things that have fed my soul this week. 

What has inspired/fed/nourished your soul this week friends? 
*
 Feel free to link up to your own soulful spaces either at the bottom of this post or in the comments.

 I will be taking a break from Soulfood Friday Posts until the second Friday of the New Year. Look forward to seeing you then :)


   

    An InLinkz Link-up

   

Epiphany

I found the above quote
on the Angel Wings and Herb Tea Facebook page.

This year I hope to 

stand more steadily,

Barefoot on bare earth.

Feel a belonging to the country of my story

my native truth

my inner being.

I don't need to assimilate

Or unlearn my mother tongue

To understand the riddles of a new country.

I can speak my own language,

Sing my own poetry

and write my own story.

Simply, authentically, quietly my own.

Because that is the gift I was given

And the only one I can return

That will be of any worth at the end of the day

I hope only to stand on my own little wild scrap of earth

without fear or dismay

and connect fully and compassionately with others as they stand on theirs.

If only I may grow: firmer, simpler, quieter, warmer.

Dag Hammarskjold

 

 

Christingle {Weekending}

 {Weekending}

• Christingle

• Nativity

• Decorations

• Paper /string

• Tinsel

• Fire Roasted Chestnuts 

Joining "Habit of Being"

Simple Christmas

We moved in on the Winter Soltice, good vibes! And got the tree up on the evening of the 24th!

Here is someone we waited a long time for. Her name is Sylvie.

At last a real fire!

5 minute Friday (Here)

No extreme editing; no worrying about perfect grammar, font, or punctuation.

Unscripted. Unedited. Real. 

Writing for 5 minutes only.

Go....

Here

Here.

We are.

I am.

Here is all I've got!

What am I to do with here?

Lot's of here's turn into a life. A "there"

"There"  seems so big and
outside of me.

"Here" seems so small and
inside me.

Almost insignificant.

Almost.

But it is the small here that make the big life. "there"

How shall I spend mine?

How do I spend mine?

Trying to keep inspired by online images and words?

Till that still, small voice says,

enough,

time to leave all this noise now, go back to those silent
Dog eared poetry and prayer books.

Music.

And then the kind of living that sieves dirt through fingers.

Real stuff.

Like cooking. There's

Preparation, heating the oven, choosing those few good, healthy ingredients.

Then there's the Mixing, Warming, Serving.

Each moment a mouthful.

Nourishing real life.

Pieces of Christmas...

"Have you ever noticed what a place of honour beauty holds in our memories - how it can generate a glowing inner happiness? I have a conviction that the experiences of beauty cultivated during our life are harvested eventually in old age as a rich and gladdening content to our memories."

~ Christine Fynes-Clinton "All Year Round ~ A Calender of Celebrations"



Maybe my favourite picture... it just captures the colour and wonder and joy...

Something about taking a long break away from routine opens the eyes, illuminates the perspective...makes you wonder why the pushing, pulling, wrangling through.

Why more?

A few simple things, food, family, music, people who care and the meaning that weaves it's golden thread through all it all turning it all into truth and lessons of love.

This is all that is needful.



The kindness of friends and family has "once again" filled our children's Christmas with the wonder of what it is to both give and receive...

And this year was the first year we could really "treat" the children with one or two gifts that I hope will give lasting a deep joy without harming the gift that is our mother earth and may be passed down from one hand to another in time to come.







Florence bringing her quiet aura to calm the waters just when necessary.



Creating the days after....



The wonder and the sacredness infused in small gestures, prayers, moments, candles lit.

Like the poet Robert Bly said a child's soul already knows all this stuff.

These soulful truths are nestled like a babe in the manger of the heart.

Only waiting to be stirred and gentle woken.

Birthed into the world.





Our first Ostheimer figurines.
One for each girl.

..And the star girl for Boo our winter baby born on the feast of Stephen 8 years ago.



My sensitive, quiet yet playful, funny, fiercely intelligent, loving, loyal, dark eyed baby bear cub Boo!



We call you Bujana Baa Lamb so Emmy made you this little lamb which you have carried everywhere with you ever since you unwrapped it!

And there it is, memories, in fragments of colour, swirled together.

White silks taking the watermarks and impressions of the days...