To all my gorgeous girlfirends....

"Why did you do all this for me?' he asked. 'I don't deserve it. I've never done anything for you.' 'You have been my friend,' replied Charlotte. 'That in itself is a tremendous thing."

Extract from Charlotte's Web, E.B. White

Flying and walking

"He who would learn to fly one day must first learn to stand and walk and run and climb and dance; one cannot fly into flying."

Friedrich Nietzsche

We push on

It has been a difficult week.

I know it has because I feel as if there is a rock sitting in the pit of my gutt, wishing it would pass, knowing it will and trying to be patient.

It has to become a stone and then a pebble and then a grain of sand, and therefore not such a load to carry.



"What lies behind you and what lies in front of you, pales in comparison to what lies inside of you."
Ralph Waldo Emerson, American Poet 1803- 1882

Looking forward

The close of a year and start of the next always makes me vaguely nostalgic.

There is a little reflection on world events, some personal tragedies and triumphs and inevitably a statement along the lines of 'I will find the time to do more next year'.

And that is about as close as I come to making a New Year's Resolution.

In fact I have never made one...oh...that is a lie, there was a half hearted attempt at not swearing which failed at about 4am on New Year's Day.

So it is always a surprise to me that so many people do. Research suggests that around 45% of the population start the New Year with one or more resolutions.

For some it is an opportunity to clean the slate and set a goal that will change their life for the better, others prefer to be more...whimsical. I asked some brave friends to share what they were looking forward to in 2013.

Wendy- "I am looking forward to being challenged at work in a new role."

Jack- "I will not ask google everytime I have a question. I will try and figure it out myself."

Peter- "I want do less laundry and use less deodarant, and keep my girlfriend."

Deanne- "To find my inner athlete."

Mary- "I look forward to completing the Sale to Sea (Kayak Challenge) and being more present in the moment."

Linda- "I want a balance: life, children,work."

Claire- "I will stop having an affair with chocolate and go on a date with a man."

And me, well in the spirit of trying new things....here is mine.

I look forward to, with those keen to join in, much more self propelled play time in the great outdoors, oh and not being embarassed to wear lycra in public.
Happy 2013. May it be your year.

To be lost to the flow of the river

"Study how water flows in a valley stream, smoothly and freely between the rocks. Also learn from holy books and wise people. Everything - even mountains, rivers, plants and trees - should be your teacher."

Morihei Ueshiba, 1883-1969

Hello beautiful Spring

“Is the spring coming?" he said. "What is it like?"...
"It is the sun shining on the rain and the rain falling on the sunshine...”

Frances Hodgson Burnett, excerpt from The Secret Garden

Wattle, Diamond Creek

Glory of colour

Chinatown, Melbourne

"Man needs colour to live; it's just as necessary an element as fire and water."

Fernand Leger, 1881- 1955 French painter and sculptor

All that glistens

NGV, Chandelier, English early 19th century

"First you need only look : Notice and honour the radiance of Everything about you...Play in this Universe. Tend All those shining things around you: the smallest plant, the creatures and objects in your care. Be gentle and nuture. Listen..."

Anne Hillman, American actress and author

Discovery

"The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes."

Marcel Proust, French novelist 1871- 1922

The Quality of Light

Almost time to start again

"Every year on your birthday, you get a chance to start anew."

Sammy Hagar

Are you doing it?

Walking Staten Island, NY 2011

"People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it."
Unknown

Getting of wisdom

"By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest."


Confucius, 551 – 479 BC

Who was this smart man? I would very much like to ask him how I can stop falling into the third category. Pity time travel is not an everyday reality or I would be off to the closest machine, with my Mandarin and Cantonese phrase books under arm and jettisoning myself back to his doorstep.

Although I do think it ironic that his philosphy was called Confucianism. 

Riding

I spent a couple of hours on my trusty mountain bike today nosing round the dirt tracks along Diamond Creek and then the Yarra. Delightful!

"When I go biking, I repeat a mantra of the day's sensations:  bright sun, blue sky, warm breeze, blue jay's call, ice melting and so on.  This helps me transcend the traffic, ignore the clamorings of work, leave all the mind theaters behind and focus on nature instead.  I still must abide by the rules of the road, of biking, of gravity.  But I am mentally far away from civilization.  The world is breaking someone else's heart." 

Diane Ackerman, 1948-

The lovely Audrey

I have been feeling poorly so apologies for the lack of content. By way of conciliation I offer these words from Audrey Hepburn.

"I heard a definition once: Happiness is health and a short memory! I wish I'd invented it, because it is very true."

Lake after rain

Maroondah Reservoir

Leap leap leap

Today I am doing something I have never done before.

"All growth is a leap in the dark, a spontaneous unpremeditated act without the benefit of experience."

Henry Miller

The Breath

I have been practising yoga off (regrettably) and on since I was 8.

It started watching my mum doing yoga in her bedroom before sleep.
I would go in to spend a few moments replicating the strange postures she went through in her ritual.
She explained to me that she had started yoga when pregnant to relieve the back pain.
For her it was more a physical therapy, there was no talk of the breath with each posture, it was simply a way to relieve the ache in her lower back.

I practise yoga, continue to come back to it, because it helps me to connect my mind, my breath and my body. And for a time during and after, these three parts are in harmony.

"As long as there is breath in the body, there is life.
When breath departs so too does life.
Therefore, regulate the breath."

The Hatha Yoga Pradipika

Longing for the higher altitudes

Because I am longing for the mountains I go to Rene Daumal for this week's inspiration.

There is one degree of separation between Rene and myself, he died on the same day I was born, 28 years before. He was a writer and poet, and I think in this short passage gives the best explanation of why someone might go through such discomfort to climb a mountain.

"You cannot stay on the summit forever; you have to come down again.
So why bother in the first place?
Just this: What is above knows what is below, but what is below does not know what is above.
One climbs, one sees.
One descends, one sees no longer, but one has seen.
There is an art of conducting oneself in the lower regions by the memory of what one saw higher up.
When one can no longer see, one can at least still know."

Rene Daumal, March 1908 - May 1944

Climbing Kalapatar (5545m), view of Everest Base Camp middle left, 

with Khumbu Icefall snaking to the right

Self Importance- curse of the Western world

Nepal, Sagamartha National Park, on way back from Kalapatar III

I discovered the writing of Matthieu Ricard, (Buddhist monk, photographer, and author) while in Nepal in a small book store in Kathmandu. I understand he has lived and worked in the Himalayan region for forty years.

"By Breaking down our sense of self importance,
all we lose is a parasite that has long infected our minds.
What we gain is freedom, openness of mind, spontaneity,
simplicity, altruism: all qualities inherent in happiness."

Matthieu Ricard France 1946-