quarta-feira, 15 de dezembro de 2021

20/The Egypt Chronicles - Embracing The Uncharted Territory of Life: A Journey of Allowing

20.

Epilogue II

2020/2021

Coming to an end now, of these Egypt Chronicles, I would like to leave a reflection about the current situation we are facing around the world.

Many secrets that had been hidden for decades are now being uncovered and faced in all sectors of Human interaction, be it political, religious, social… And all are being brought to their own limelight of whether to keep on carrying shame, guilt and blame forward into the next decades or whether it is now possible to take care of what needs to be taken care of and let go of what no longer needs to be set in stone as the only truth.

We are invited, at a global scale, to embrace change, to take responsibility for our choices and actions, to reassess our lives, our beliefs, our attachments, our wants, needs and desires, our whole value systems and our relationship towards ourselves, towards our bodies and our health, towards our work and our wealth, towards each other. All is being brought into perspective, whether we like it or not.

And still we insist on staging wars against each other. The ones who are "pro-covid" containment measures and the ones that are "against" them, the ones that are demanding vaccines and the ones that are rejecting them - both sectors considering each other ignorant and responsible for the current state of things, which could generally be defined as a state of massive confusion in the midst of unprecedented change. So we are all ignorant, then. Since each side considers the other to be the same thing, there are hence no sides. It becomes a collective sea of ignorance. Can we find the space in-between?

It is not about being for or against, It is not about fighting each other. It is not about going to war for the cause we each consider more worthy. Have we not seen already, over the course of the history of mankind, that no wars are ever really won? They are merely a temporary fix for deeper underlying issues, the ones that triggered them in the first place.

So should we not be asking instead: what were the conditions (social, economic, political, physical, emotional, spiritual) that created the breeding ground for this whole situation in the first place? And which part have we, individually, played in it also?

Pretending that the only thing is to be wrong or right about this is like having a festering wound and keeping on putting plasters on it in hopes that it will heal, when the only thing that will really prevent it from evolving any further is changing whatever has created the possibility of its existence in our body. And the same goes for the whole social body of mankind or any other collective body.

Many have become so dependent on science or the government or someone else in charge to solve whatever problems arise that seem too scary to face, that it has become elusive to assume that we too have power. The power to take good care of ourselves, to make different choices, to take our own monsters out of our inner closets and address them, doing what no one else can ever do for us.

None of us has all of the answers. Science doesn’t and neither do we. But going into fear will simply keep on breeding more power games, division and war against each other.

As far as I can perceive, both sides are in fear. The ones that are afraid of the virus taking over and killing them and the ones that are afraid of being annihilated by the vaccines or the rising of totalitarian governments. One way or another it is fear that is fuelling dissent.

What about dealing with death, decay and vulnerability from the inside out?

What about consciously choosing to live healthier lifestyles, to review belief systems around health and power, to foster better relationships with ourselves and with others, to accept each other’s diverging points of view whilst being able to cooperate towards common ground?

What about being more conscious of how the media operates, how big pharma operates, how politics operates, how economies operate, how our inner worlds operate, how our bodies operate, how easily manipulation can be achieved, be it towards one end or the other of this polarisation? Of our actions and reactions, of what triggers us, of what keeps us in survival mode, of what is healthy and unhealthy for us as individuals and as a consequence, as a collective?

“How can love be allowed?” Should be the question in each moment of our lives, whenever we feel our freedom is being taken away or others are a danger to us or… Well, whenever we feel less than capable of emotionally dealing with whatever situation is brining us to our knees. Can we please focus on what builds us instead of on what destroys us, acknowledging our habit to choose destruction and yet being able to make a different choice now?

The big, big opportunity is to resolve all of our unresolved issues, individually and collectively, coming to a point of balance from within each one and from within each smaller collective that forms the whole of mankind, so that we can eventually walk on this Earth as if it were the very first time. With an open heart. With a clear sight. With the innocence of a newborn and the wisdom of an ancient sage, for we are not meant to be battling each other forever after. At long last, the time has come to change our script and write a new story. Allowing compassion to be our inspiration.

For this incredible opportunity brought to us in a not so golden platter, but definitely in abundant proportions, I am profoundly thankful.

The love that we are shines despite our overall forgetfulness of our nature. And this is our beacon. That which has never changed. The permanent knowingness of who we truly are. Each and every single one of us. So before jumping into judgement, may we be able to quieten down our haste to fight and allow something different to be known to us in the stillness of our eternity.

A warm and loving hug to all who have been reading this series of Chronicles. I appreciate and honour you dearly. Thank you!

Bathing in the ocean in winter... always a good way of boosting vitality :)

Here is a conversation I came across, which is extremely interesting, unpretentious discussion around the thesis, antithesis and possible synthesis of the whole current situation. I am sharing it here, in case you'd like to watch. Watch here.

💙💚💛💜💗

Read the other Chronicles here:

terça-feira, 14 de dezembro de 2021

19/The Egypt Chronicles - Embracing The Uncharted Territory of Life: A Journey of Allowing

19.

Epilogue I

2020/2021

We’re back and all of a sudden we are in lockdown.

To many this is excruciating. To me it is natural. I have been working from home for some time now so nothing is really much different. I enjoy to be alone. I enjoy to be quiet. I enjoy to be still.

And what I enjoy the most in this particular case is the overall quietness. As if the whole world was given a break. A breather. And I can feel nature relieved from all of the toing and froing of modern day life. I can feel the underlying gift of this massive shift that is happening. An incredible shift. Something we didn’t see coming - at least not in this form.

The world economy is being shaken. Families are being shaken. Individuals are being shaken. Societies are being shaken. Securities are being shaken. Everything is being shaken. Turned inside out. Given a time out to eventually reassess.

As I have shared previously in these Chronicles, while we were in Egypt, Joana, my dear friend and Soul Sister, went through several bouts of strangeness. Feeling ill at ease with abundance, with simplicity and with her own self-confidence. And yet she has always been and is, willing to go beyond.

I admire her courage, always have. She has never ever said no to looking at herself honestly and taking the steps she felt were necessary to implement changes.

I mean, how many women have the courage to leave a marriage that has died years ago, as well a business that just keeps on plummeting into debt, with three kids, all at once?

She did. At first she came to live in my house and we made a deal that since she had no money to pay the rent she would provide food in exchange for her living space. And she started from scratch.

She had been so far from trusting herself and her skills, that in all that time she had had her holistic therapies and natural medicines shop, she had never really valued her own work and thus had never created a real client base.

So when she left home and closed down the shop, she had to start over. She started making some homemade pies and biscuits and started going to therapy centres offering her services as a Reflexologist and Massage therapist. And it was hard. But she couldn’t give up. That simply was not an option.

When she moved to my place, it was also when I was going through a lot of my integration process so we started doing integration together, sitting in compassion with and for each other, holding space for each one of us to bring back our bits and pieces, breath by breath. Her support was invaluable. And still she did not value herself.

Anyway, fast forward and Joana eventually came to the point where she has more clients than she can handle and she gets to have to save her free days in her schedule, in order to take good care of herself, otherwise she will easily be working every single day. Such is her success right now. She no longer struggles with self-worth and financially she is completely free and living a life she had not even dared to dream of, some years ago, and yet it is real.

But, when we came back from Egypt she had a big challenge. A big hurdle to face and overcome.

When she chose to come to Egypt, she used up all of the money she had aside, leaving only 150€ at home, because she knew that when she got back she would have a full schedule and in one week she would make all the money she needed to cover all of her bills at home and have some left over to put aside too. But this, my friends, is not what happened.

For all of the times that Joana had been frightened whilst we were in Egypt, now there was an upgrade. As if all of those fears had summed up into a big pool of terror and now she was seriously, very seriously terrified. What was she going to do? How was she going to cope?

So I invited her to do the scariest possible thing. To stop coming to the Compassionate Breath Sessions, to stop attending any and all kinds of exterior support for at least a month and be the one that she could Trust - her herself. No one else. Just be with this terror and allow the solutions to show up from within, on her own. It was this or go crazy. She was at the end of the line.

And so she did. Immediately she was capable of asking her mum for some financial support, which was offered with no questions asked and she gradually became still, silent and more and more confident. After all, she was alive, healthy, wise, and her children were also safe, healthy and happy. She had a beautiful life, a comfortable home, food on the table every day and loads of time to do things she had not yet had time to do. What more could she want, really?

And this is when creating Self-Massage classes, videos and other forms of online support for her clients really gained root. Before, it had been something she had never really trusted herself to be able to do, though she had felt a passion to do it from even before we went to Egypt. She had just not gotten down to it. But now there was nothing else to do! No more excuses.

And so three months after we came back, Joana was ready for an avalanche of clients that has only grown and grown, as she shares her truth and the magic touch that she provides in such a unique way. I honestly feel she is a pure vessel of God’s hands, the God within her, that connects with the God within each of her clients and brings forth an incredible level of healing, be it when she provides massage or reflexology in person or virtually. A Medicine Woman in a very real sense.

And I am blessed to have her in my life. For so many reasons. So thank you Joana, for sticking around and never pulling back from the wholeness of you. I celebrate you with deep respect, honour and loving gratitude.

As for myself, during the months of confinement I had time to decide very clearly that the time had come to leave my job at Linda’s School - my workplace for the last 25 years, alongside my InPassion project and my previous work as a Fitness Professional. It was time to devote myself fully to my Passion for Inspiring Passion :) Not a mission. Not a purpose. Just a pure passion.

And so by December 2020 I resigned.

This new way of life we have come to discover through the pandemic has brought the whole world closer to me, instead of further away. I started working online more and more and now I communicate with people from all continents just at the click of my fingertips, a computer, a phone, a camera, a microphone… And there are really no boundaries.

Not travelling abroad for almost 2 years now, has not been a loss for me. It has brought me so much closer to the beauty where I live and has lead me to discover so many more incredible places in Portugal. It has given me more freedom to be in my own stillness and to love that which is at my doorstep in a way I had not experienced before.

I have been bountifully rewarded by an exquisitely tasty variety of fruits and vegetables that I had not tended to, cultivated, picked and honoured quite the same way as I do now. The chickens, the dog and the cat, the walks out in the countryside around home, the garden… everything has become more colourful, yielding and loving. When I go for a walk around here, I can literally feel the air, the ground, the whole atmosphere kissing me and hugging me, happy that I’m here and receiving it all.

I have not lost absolutely anything and this year of 2021 has been a year of “firsts” every single day.

I have finally got my motorbike - something I had been dreaming of for 10 years… and which I discovered I did not need to get a driver’s license for if I got a scooter of up to 125cc. So that’s what I did. And I have a lot of learning ahead of me but also a lot of time.

There have been new experiences in the most ordinary everyday things like making persimmon jam for the first time, and also in big ways, like taking over the olive picking season. The common ground is simplicity. And gratitude. Gratefully embracing simplicity.

… And a continuity of uncharted territory, just like it was in Egypt. No plan. No agenda. Just experiencing day by day what is available here and now. Not knowing. Not having to know. And yet knowing so much in each moment. Embracing. Letting go. Receiving more. Allowing more. Loving more. Being more. And more and more and more.

My daughter has since turned 21 and is now an independent woman, with her own house, job and life journey and my son is discovering his passion for investment and finance, blooming like a wild flower ever since he has been experiencing homeschooling. Whilst before he was dumbing himself down, never really caring to think or to question, now that he is not at school he has become curious, inquisitive, enthusiastic… sarcastic too. His critical thinking has developed so much that we now have really interesting discussions around themes and issues he couldn’t care less about just a year ago. And I have time for him. For this homeschooling experience. And I absolutely love it!

My relationship with Pedro has developed in such unexpected ways, love always showing up at each turn even stronger than before. The level of freedom we have allowed ourselves in this relationship, the trust and the surrender to a new way, have been a very precious gift.

Mt relationship with my mother, whom I have been kind of living with for over 2 years (we live in our own houses but they are together and on the same land), has improved exponentially and we both respect each other and admire each other in ways only love can allow.

New friends have shown up like flowers on a beautifully growing tree and all of my connections are meaningful. All of them. Which is an exquisite experience.

My life is full of beauty in all senses, abundance is a natural flow and I celebrate being alive, here, on Earth, now, each day.

Time has become so expanded that a year seems like 10 and a day seems like a week. Not that it is full of activities or occupation. Just that it is fulfilling in each and every moment. Whole. Completely Now. Always. This state of permanent Presence colours time in a whole new way. One I keep on discovering each day too.

And why am I sharing all of this with you? Because I can. Because I choose to. That’s all.

So thank you for rejoicing with me. It is all the more fun :) All the more significant. And thank you for being here too. On Earth. Now.

This is the New Earth. And we create it as we go along. As we allow. As we discover Isness in Human form. Welcome!

💙💚💛💜💗

Read the other Chronicles here:

sábado, 11 de dezembro de 2021

18/The Egypt Chronicles - Embracing The Uncharted Territory of Life: A Journey of Allowing

18.

Goodbye Egypt

16th March

Our last day. The day we go back to Portugal.

Yesterday was the first day we were aware of the Covid-19. I received an email from my Publisher talking about it and actually asked if it was some kind of government restriction or something, as I was not yet acquainted with this denomination or that there was an issue in the first place. The man must have thought I was crazy when he read my email or that I was kidding or something!!!! But the fact is that in our travels we were not at all concerned about the news. Well, we never are, really. And so we did hear about the Corona thing becoming an issue when we got to Cairo, but still we were at the café and it was full and no one seemed to be very concerned.

My daughter had mentioned something about airports being shut down and the need to maybe come back earlier but I had reassured her we would be going on the 16th and there was no need for concern. Which was exactly the case.

Abeer had said she wanted to take us out to dinner once we got back from Alexandria but after the storm she was not up for it any longer. And possibly the Corona was already something she was considering might be a threat too. So that was it. No dinner to say farewell. We would have loved to hug her though, to thank her in person for all of her help in suggesting our itinerary and getting it all organised and also because we simply loved meeting her. So thank you very much Abeer and Cécile! It was a blessing that you came our way and we hope to see you again.

After breakfast we check out and call an Uber to the airport. Simple. Clean. Safe. Just as we choose.

It is the first time of the many to come in the following months, that we are offered hand sanitiser after leaving the taxi.

At the airport all seems to be flowing easily. Some people are wearing masks and keeping their distance. Others not.

We have a bit of a laugh at a man standing behind a young guy who is on the phone and keeps on blowing his nose, apparently oblivious of the new pandemic scare. The man keeps on looking at him with a very disconcerted look, all too unhappy for being right behind him, and trying as he can to keep his distance. Eventually he moves to another place and removes the purveyor of his distress from sight.

We get past security, who by now are measuring temperatures but nothing else than the regular thing at airports.

Once on the plane, we are informed there will be no meals served due to the current restrictions.

When we get to Vienna, where we are changing to another plane, we are presented with a sight we have never before come across: a completely deserted airport. All shops are closed, staff are wearing masks and gloves, it’s like a scene from a doomsday movie with the added bonus that there is a lot of space and no noise. It is like an apocalyptic scene. Surreal.

Regardless, everything is flowing and we get on our other plane on time, headed for Lisbon, our last stop.

It is almost midnight when we get there and again the airport is pretty empty. We are asked for nothing and it is completely simple to grab our bags and leave.

Pedro, my boyfriend, is waiting for us outside, which is a gift, since at this time there are no trains or buses to Tomar.

We are happy to see each other once again and share our stories.

Little did we know that this would be the start of a few long months of lockdown and had we not caught our plane on this day, we would have found more and more restrictions until Cairo airport was shut down on Thursday the same week.

Over one year into the Covid-19 scare, which never caught me in its fearful snare, and I must say I do feel the world has changed. It is something I cannot quite define, and that is not yet very visible, but I am sure something fundamental has shifted.

Over and over again I had said the world needed to slow down, people needed to stop and reassess, something had to shift. Well the world was made to stop and people were given the opportunity to reassess. Many have done so, others have just slipped back into their prior habits, but what has come of this unexpected turn of events is yet to be seen though I can sense it and what I sense is fundamentally extraordinary.

I will leave it right here, for now and I invite each one of you that is capable of opening your heart and receiving whatever gift is here right now for you to receive, to do so in profound gratitude and let go of all of the fear, the blame, the hurt and the struggle to make sense.

Peace lies in the heart of those who allow it. May it be yours also.

💙💚💛💜💗

Read the other Chronicles here: