The Magic and the Mystery

A friend sent me this beautiful film yesterday of the Northern lights/aurora borealis seen here in the north of Norway. It's stunnng and made me feel that there is more than a little magic in the world. It also made me think, gosh 2 years now in Norway and not a even a glimpse of these famous lights, i must get a wriggle on and get up north to see them.....

It was my 33rd birthday yesterday, a day of spring sunshine, fabulous people and spoiling treats and celebrations. The day started with a delicious birthday breakfast and dancing, then adventures in the sun, including a picnic at our new house (yes we've bought a house, a house, our own house. We're totally overexcited, it's our first house and we move in on June 1st. It's such a relief after months of looking) and a raucous evening with lovely girlfriends and a delicious meal that my husband cooked for us all, the darling, he was totally amazing and i was thoroughly spoilt by everyone. Thank you for the magic!

We all need some fireworks in our lives

Happy Happy New Year everyone, may 2011 be a year filled with immense happiness, fabulous health, magic, love, light, adventure and fulfilment for you all. May it be one in which you achieve many of your dreams.

When my family were here at Christmas my sister, mum and i wrote down all of the things that we were grateful for and that had been significant for us in 2010 and then we wrote down all of things that we would like to bring forth in 2011. It was an interesting exercise because i had previously felt that i hadn't achieved anything last year, but i was wrong, there were a few very important things and events that had shaped me. For this year there weren't many things on my list, but nevertheless more things keep being added and i realise that i have many more goals than i initially thought. This year, infact in a few days, i hope to hold my new baby. This is infact one of the most significant things for me this year and there are signs that he is on his way, but who knows when he will actually make an appearance. It is a good lesson in trust and patience, but i am never good at waiting for things and i am so excited to see him for the first time and to see how i cope with labour a second time around. Luckily i have a fabulous natural birth unit lined up where i hope to have the baby. I feel completely safe there and i know that it is the right choice for us.

We had a very happy christmas with all of my family here for a week and my husbands family joining us for the 24th december when the main celebrations in Norway occur. It was wonderful to be hosting Christmas, and as it turned out New Year's Eve too, for the first time, trying our hand at the various family traditions and making up some new ones along the way. The most important thing was just being together, but it was an enormous amount of fun too and i would love to do it all again!

My sister sent me Kate Perry's Firework song when she got back to the UK, which i find really inspiring and very appropriate for the new year. It's about showing people what you are worth and that each person is uniquely amazing in their own right. I love the video and the way this is visually portrayed!

The Firework lyrics

Do you ever feel like a plastic bag

Drifting through the wind, wanting to start again?

Do you ever feel, feel so paper thin

Like a house of cards, one blow from caving in?

Do you ever feel already buried deep?

Six feet under screams but no one seems to hear a thing

Do you know that there's still a chance for you

'Cause there's a spark in you?

You just gotta ignite the light and let it shine

Just own the night like the 4th of July

'Cause baby, you're a firework

Come on, show 'em what you're worth

Make 'em go, oh

As you shoot across the sky

Baby, you're a firework

Come on, let your colors burst

Make 'em go, oh

You're gonna leave 'em falling down

You don't have to feel like a waste of space

You're original, cannot be replaced

If you only knew what the future holds

After a hurricane comes a rainbow

Maybe you're reason why all the doors are closed

So you could open one that leads you to the perfect road

Like a lightning bolt, your heart will blow

And when it's time, you'll know

You just gotta ignite the light and let it shine

Just own the night like the 4th of July

'Cause baby you're a firework

Come on, show 'em what you're worth

Make 'em go, oh

As you shoot across the sky

Baby, you're a firework

Come on, let your colors burst

Make 'em go, oh

You're gonna leave 'em falling down

Boom, boom, boom

Even brighter than the moon, moon, moon

It's always been inside of you, you, you

And now it's time to let it through

'Cause baby you're a firework

Come on, show 'em what you're worth

Make 'em go, oh

As you shoot across the sky

Baby, you're a firework

Come on, let your colors burst

Make 'em go, oh

You're gonna leave 'em falling down

Boom, boom, boom

Even brighter than the moon, moon, moon

Boom, boom, boom

Even brighter than the moon, moon, moon

Reeeeeeeeeeeeelax

Xavier Rudd

Xavier Rudd is an Australian singer, songwriter and instrumentalist. He was born in 1978 and grew up in Torquay, Victoria. He has developed a strong reputation for playing live performances at musical festivals and concerts in Australia and in North America. His following is particularly strong in Australia and in Canada, where he has recorded several albums. Many of his songs incorporate socially conscious themes, such as environmentalism and the rights of Aboriginal peoples. In addition to playing the didgeridoo in many of his songs, he has also included both Australian and Canadian Aboriginal vocals in some of his songs.

 Listen to some of his songs, such as:  Come let go ( so wonderful to completely chill out to) and Time to smile to get an idea of his style.

"Every day in life is beautiful"

" I love people, i love everyone"

Alice Herz-Sommer at 107 years old this year is the oldest Holocaust survivor in the world and although an internationally renowned pianist for more than eighty years, she has recently re-entered the public consciousness. A few years ago thanks to the biography " A Garden of Eden in Hell"  published well past her 100th birthday and this year due to a new documentary short directed by Oscar winning director Malcolm Clarke called "Dancing Under the Gallows". The documentary examines the Czech-born musician's remarkable life and shows that although her life has been defined by her survival of the holocaust it has never, to her eternal credit, dimmed her vivacity or optimism. Alice Herz Sommer plays Chopin and speaks of how music helped maintain a sense of hope and humanity in the Nazi ghetto of Theresienstadt/Terezín near Prague which was home to a remarkable array of renowned Czech musicians, composers and theatrical artists, writing and performing as they and their fellow Jewish inmates awaited an unknown fate in Auschwitz. Ahead of a London concert to commemorate their lives and work, Ed Vulliamy also talks to some of the survivors who remembered them.

Alice Hetz-Sommer was born in 1903 into a Jewish, acculturated and German-speaking family in Prague. She started playing the piano at a very young age, and at 21, made her debut as soloist with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra. In 1931 she married Leopold Sommer and their son Stephan (later to be called Raphael) was born in 1937. With the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1939 their lives changed swiftly, with humiliating restrictions being imposed on Jews day after day. And then the deportations began. First, in July 1942 her 72-year old mother was deported from her Old Age Home to Theresienstadt (and from there to the Treblinka death camp). Then a year later, in July 1943, it was the turn of Alice, Leopold and Stephan, then aged six, to be sent to Theresienstadt. The physical conditions there were grim, but a few months before the Sommers arrived, the SS had decided to turn it into a `show camp' for observers from the International Red Cross - and so the deportees were provided with musical instruments (which had been confiscated from Jews) and were allowed to arrange their own entertainment. Alice gave many recitals and Stephan, who was musically even more precocious than his mother had been at that age, was quickly roped in to rehearse and perform in Brundibar, the opera specially composed for the children in the camp.

As defeat for Germany drew nearer in the autumn of 1944, the SS, possibly fearing an uprising of the able-bodied men in Theresienstadt, decided to send them to the extermination camps. Alice's husband was among these: she never saw him again. She learnt later that he had survived the death-march from Auschwitz to Dachau - only to die there of typhus.
But Himmler still wanted to preserve Theresienstadt as a `model' camp and to produce it in his defence at the end of the war. Alice had to work an eight hour day in barracks where slates were broken up to make insulating materials, work which was particularly hard on her hands; but in the evening she would often perform in the concerts that continued to be staged. In May 1945 Theresienstadt was liberated and in mid-June Alice and Stephan were able to return to Prague and to continue their music and lives there.

(If you want to see the finished film early next year please email: dancingunderthegallows@gmail.com )

I dream in paper

 "In all the world i dream in paper"  is such a cool short stop-motion animation directed by Petra Storrs and  staring Paloma Faith.

Petra Storrs is a London based, creative set design artist whose work encompasses, set and prop design and construction, stage design, stage costume design and illustration, for various stills, events and music promo clients. Do take a look at her inspiring portfolios/videos on her website here.

Wouldn't you just love to wear this dress?

Jazz and pancakes

Perfect for a sunday morning accompanied by Jazz music

x

Taken by Trees

My sister discovered this beautiful song called "My boys" whose video and nostalgic overtones brings back delicious memories of our childhood. Memories of climbing trees, roaming the fields and woods around my parents house and the general sense of promise and freedom of those days.

The song is part of  new solo collection called Taken by Trees from the singer Victoria Bergsman and there are several gems in there including "Watch the Waves", "Anna" and "Lost and Found" . Each time i listen to them they just get better and better.

Three cheers for nostalgia!

A sunday smile

Here is a beautiful song to start your day by the group Beirut, aptly named 'A Sunday smile'.

Check out their other songs on You Tube as there are many gems.

Home is wherever there is you

This live version of this song by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros (sung by lead singers Alex and Jade) just sums up how i feel about my darling husband. He is my home wherever we may live or wherever we may end up. Apart from the lyrics i just love the energy and joy of this song.

Inspirational music

Sometimes you just need to dance things out to make sense of them. Turn the music up loud and forget everything else but the music and the emotion it brings forth. Here are a few to get you going and some to chill to too which were recommended to me recently by a friend, thank you Rachel:

" You've got the Love" Florence and the Machine

"Dancing in the Dark"  Amy McDonald

"Lights" Ellie Goulding

"Every Time you go " Ellie Goulding

"Something good can work" 2 Door Cinema Club 

"Last Request"  Paolo Nutini

Enjoy XXX

Once....is all it takes

I saw the film ONCE this evening and completely fell in love with it and the music.

One of my favourite songs from the film is "Falling Slowly"  It reminds me that that i am so lucky to have experienced great love in my life and the fact that i am with my greatest love, my darling husband is just the best thing ever. I think huge inspiration can be found within love and within a great relationship. This april my husband and i celebrated 10 years of being together and it will be 3 years this year of being married. It is a great love affair and i never want it to end. I remember the first moment when i fell in love with him, or when i realised that i had, as there were many moments where i seemed to wake to the light and warmth and love in him. He was the first man who i could be completely myself with and with whom i felt home. He was the first man who i felt truly saw me. Friends have asked when was the moment that we realised we were together, that we were a couple. Well we never talked about it, it just was, it just happened because it felt right and although there have been difficult times we have always come through it because of this deep love, connection and crucially a sense of humour. He is the best person to have a giggle with and to make me laugh at myself.......thank god! Thank you Andreas i love you with all my heart.

Perception and abundance

The following is adapted from Ptaahs Morning song:

"Love is the truth of who you really are"

There is no difference in the energy of abundance and lack. That is the grand truth. The difference is in our perception. When we are focusing on lack and need and have not, the underlying emotion is fear. A simple way to transform this and your life is to give space to that child like part of you and stop focusing on the have not. For as long as you perceive yourself in need, you are in a place of fear. Instead allow yourself to embrace all that you would have and would like to have in your life as though you already have it and give thanks for it.

This is a beautiful song of gratitude and abundance that you can sing every day, but do feel free to create your own tune or indeed your own words. You may feel uncomfortable with some or all of it simply because you might not be used to praising or thanking yourself, even if you can happily do so with others, but do stick with it if you can:

"From the god/goddess of my being

I give forth thanks

For the love that i am,

for the love in my life and the love that surrounds me,

thank you.

Thank you for the miracle of life that i am and

thank you for the miracle of life i see reflected all about me.

Thank you for this perfect body, my health and well being,

thank you.

Thank you for the abundance that i am and

thank you for the abundance i see reflected all about me.

Thank you for the riches and the richness of my life and

thank you for the river of money which flows to me and through me,

thank you.

Thank you for the excitement and adventure of the millions of wondrous possibilities,thank you.

Thank you for the wonderment and thank you for the joy.

Thank you for the beauty and harmony.

Thank you for the peace and tranquility.

Thank you for the laughter and thank you for the play.

And thank you for the privilege of serving and sharing

the gift that i am.

 

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!"

We are each one of us totally fabulous and worth every minute of gratitude and on that note i would like to thank all of you dear readers for reading my blog and for stopping by once in a while.

We are all fabulous if we could only realise it.  

Be good to yourself

These days i feel truly blessed despite the huge and often difficult shifts that i feel i am currently experiencing. I feel very looked after by spirit and by wonderful people in my life.

On this theme last week while visiting Bjørg Jeppersen the wonderful Life Alignment practitioner here in Oslo, she told me about a new health food shop in Oslo called Supernature. She said that they had a fantastic range of products and they actually dowse for products to see if they are right for you and encourage you to choose products based on your inner wisdom i.e the ones that you feel drawn to or resonate with rather than the ones you might choose for other (intellectual) reasons (Super Nature, Øvre Slottsgate 4, 0157 Oslo, just a couple of metres down from Stortinget t-bane.)

 I went to visit them yesterday as i needed to stock up on a few things and i was frankly intrigued. I met Guri who works there, who seemed like a wonderful warm angel, so knowledgeable, helpful and beaming with light and healing. It also helped that she gave me a lovely cup of tea and some raw chocolate and i was reminded of my time in India and Nepal where in each shop you went into you were greeted with Chai and a whole ritual which usually ended up with you buying something simply because you felt cared for.
They have many raw foods here as well as other health foods, skincare ranges, books and a whole host of other lovely things. But wow they do sell the most delicious smelling and feeling Organic wildcrafted skincare range called ISUN Organic . It's Oslo so it seems like crazy prices for the skin care products, but actually when you compare it to UK prices and really look at what you are getting it doesn't seem to bad.....see the powers of persuasion i used on myself.

I had been searching for another natural cosmetic range because i'd started reacting to the Dr.Hauschka mascara that i'd been using, perhaps because it was just a little too old, but hey i also wanted a change as i felt there were things that could be improved on. I generally only use mascara and a little foundation and perhaps some eye shadow too if i am going out as my skin is so sensitive and i don't like wearing much. Here they had a range of 100% natural cosmetics called Inika Cosmetics which seemed perfect and just what i had been looking for. On their home page they say that they are "One of the only makeup brands to have all products certified vegan or certified organic or both, Inika, which means “small earth” in Hindi, is also 100 per cent Halal and cruelty free and the brand is committed to environmental awareness." "Unlike some “natural” brands, Inika products are guaranteed to be completely free from harsh petrochemicals, fillers, talc, bismuth oxychloride, GM ingredients, parabens, preservatives, mineral oils, phthalates and fragrances. All products are also non-comedogenic, which means they won’t clog the pores, and are so gentle that women who have suffered allergies and sensitivities to cosmetics for years have been able to wear Inika without any reaction."

Yeah when my account has recovered i may well go back and get an Inika mascara to try....hmm and maybe a few other things.

Guri advised me and also dowsed for some products for my son, as his sleep is still very broken at night, which was really helpful. It was just a lovely experience all in all. I also loved the fact that that morning i had been listening to Deva Premals Oneness Moola mantra on You Tube which is wonderfully expansive and calming and they had it playing in the shop when i went in, i love that kind of synchronicity.

Today i have been listening to Deva Premal &Mitens concert - Lokah Samasta and Deva Premas "OM NAMO BHAGAVATE", they are so beautiful.

What they are singing in the Lokah Samasta means :

"May all beings be happy. May all my thoughts, words and actions contribute in some way to the happiness of all beings"

Update on the Inika products march 17th 2010: I naughtily went back to Supernature for their Inika Mascara today as i couldn't wait. They however were awaiting a new batch to restock, but they let me take a sample mascara home with me, in brown, not my usual colour but .....i love it, the colour, the feel of it, everything. It is light, looks fabulous and doesn't crumble onto your face witihin a few hours and is so easy to remove. I am a big fan already!

Light Up Light Up

"Light up light up as if you have a choice"

I love the chorus of this Snow Patrol song 'Run'¨from their album Final Straw.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOBs8dU4Pb8

I'll sing it one last time for you

Then we really have to go

You've been the only thing that's right

In a lifetime

And I can barely look at you

But every single time I do

I know we'll make it anywhere

Only for sure

Light up, light up

As if you have a choice

Even if you cannot hear, my voice

I'll be right beside you, dear

Louder, Louder

And we'll run for out lives

I can hardly speak or understand

Why you can't raise your voice to say

To think I might not see those eyes

Makes it so hard not to cry

And as we say our long goodbye

I nearly do

Light up, light up

As if you have a choice

Even if you cannot hear, my voice

I'll be right beside you, dear

Louder, louder

And we'll run for our lives

I can hardly speak or understand

Why you can't raise your voice to say

Slower, slower

We don't have time for that

All I want's to find an easier

To get out of our little hate

Have heart, my dear

We're bound to be afraid

Even if it's just a few days

Making up for all this mess

{Instrumental}

Light up, light up

As if you have a choice

Even if you cannot hear, my voice

I'll be right beside you, dear

Music can transform your mood or even your day.