Woman and Child First

Friday's Woman: Rita Levi-Montalcini

“Above all, don’t fear difficult moments. The best comes from them."

Italian neurologist, Rita Levi-Montalcini, died last December age 103. 

"At 20, I realized that I could not possibly adjust to a feminine role as conceived by my father and asked him permission to engage in a professional career," Levi-Montalcini wrote in her biography.

She went onto study Medicine and then went into research and won a Nobel prize for her work with Stanley Cohen in 1986. She was active, smart and lovely right up until her death.

"I can say my mental capacity is greater today than when I was 20, since it has been enriched by so many experiences," she said at age 103.

 

 

 

Leunig to the Rescue

In response to your question 'What is worth doing and what is worth having?' I would like to say simply this. It is worth doing nothing and having a rest.

- Michael Leunig: The Curly Pyjama Letters (2001)

 

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THE AGE - LEUNIG: Just a cartoonist with a moral duty to speak

Good Morning Meditation

Turn on the video below, it's lovely. For the three and a half minutes it takes to watch, just stop. Breathe gently and slowly. Dont think, don't plan, just breathe and watch. 2 things, that's all. Breathe and watch.

Tip: Turn off your phone/s and let the loved one's know they can either join you or leave!

Full Moon Silhouettes from Mark Gee on Vimeo.

I love the music: Tenderness by Dan Phillipson

An Unusal Woman: Ahead of Her Time & Didn't Know It

 

Speaking of Marilyn Monroe and the Mocambo in Hollywood. In 1955, Ms. Monroe persuaded the owner of the Mocambo to hire Ella Fitzgerald (the Mocambo did not book Black artists).

Ms. Fitzgerald on Ms. Monroe to Ms. magazine in 1972: “I owe Marilyn Monroe a real debt…it was because of her that I played the Mocambo, a very popular nightclub in the ’50s. She personally called the owner of the Mocambo, and told him she wanted me booked immediately, and if he would do it, she would take a front table every night. She told him - and it was true, due to Marilyn’s superstar status - that the press would go wild. The owner said yes, and Marilyn was there, front table, every night. The press went overboard. After that, I never had to play a small jazz club again. She was an unusual woman - a little ahead of her times. And she didn’t know it.”

 

Via Vintage Black Glamour on Facebook

Maybe you're ahead of your time and don't know it? Fancy that idea.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

We so often feel like change and growth should be easy and come with some sort of magic wand. It doesn't. 

Personal evolution comes like a well tended garden. Plan it (decide). Design it (set goals). See it with all its colour (visualize what you'll look like when you're being your best self).

And then: Do. The. Work.

Your muscles (brain, heart, soul) will be sore and stiff with the thing. Keep going. You'll become better, fitter, stronger  as you go.

Plus you see the garden grow. Mary was onto it. Mary knew something.

Nurture it.  Water that garden. For god's sake, get rid of the weeds. Negative thoughts, spinning like a turntable of noise, never stop until you get them out of the garden of your self.

Tend to the garden of you. Yes there will be death (loss, pain). Turn the soil of your life afterward. Fertilize it with new stuff, good stuff. Grow the next garden.

This verse came to me in childhood and resonates with a deeper meaning now:

Mary, Mary, quite contrary,
How does your garden grow?
With silver bells, and cockle shells,
And pretty maids all in a row.

Wikipedia

Do the work on your garden. Grow  it, love it. The world needs silver belled, cockle-shelled gardens, in all ways.

 

 

The Art of Receiving Compliments.

We are used to giving. As women, it's biologically built into our DNA over thousands of years of evolution. We are good at nurturing, it's an ancient gift and survival technique.

But what about receiving? Hmm. Not so good at that eh?

The ability to receive graciously is hard for us. When someone compliments us, how can we stop ourselves from putting ourselves down in our reply?  Well, let's see. You stop your mouth going into autopilot and saying, for instance, 'Oh it's marvelous what make up can cover up!' Instead, say, 'Thank you.' Smile.

Give the person the idea that you appreciate that they've just complimented you.

Give yourself a lovely refreshing breath in and breath out. Enjoy the compliment. Receive the compliment. It's a lot easier on your head, heart and soul that way.

Resisting a compliment is hard work, it requires discomfort and a fight on your behalf. That's valuable energy you're wasting! It also is a bit of a slap in the face to the person who wanted to let you have the good stuff in the first place.

So next time someone says something to you, about you that is flattering, enjoy it. It's good for you, it's good for them. Everyone wins!

Asking The Right Questions

 How often do you enquire as to how you are going - on an emotional level?

How often do you make a check-in with yourself and ask the real questions? 

For instance: How am I going? What do I need to do today to lift myself? 

These exercises are entirely necessary if one is learning to manage depression. Buy hey and c'mon. These questions are just necessary. This is daily practice.

Give yourself some attention. Ask the real questions, wait for the answer and then act on your own advice.

Contemplative Sculpture.

Dreamings From Bluecray

Motorcycles, Music and Wisdom in the Land

I dreamt of a billabong, still water clear
a tiny brown platypus sitting so near
hidden by reeds and tall growing sedge
I watched him dive freely away from his ledge.
As he entered the waters all bubbles and glee
I became that dear platypus and he became me
Then waking quite quickly, a smile in my mind
I “knew” what it meant to be one of his kind
A blessing a story a picture a song
this vision stays with me
tho’ the dream is long gone.

Thanks to al @ bluecray for this sweet interlude!

The Stuff of Dreams

          

            The center that I cannot find is known to my unconscious mind.

W.H. Auden

  I enjoy working with people's dreams. Whenever they appear in a session, they always present rich inner material for that person. Dream dictionaries are never used in my office. (They can be helpful but they are limited).

 The main reference point, or interpretation base is that person. I simply ask the guiding questions. What is that related to in your waking life? What do you really feel about the person in your dream? What do you feel the dream is about? And etc.

I kept a dream diary myself over many years, the style of writing still intrigues, delights and yes - informs. It still reminds me of how completely insane I am...Oh but in a good way.

 A dream diary holds a personal history that can be helpful down the track as well as the morning after your dream. What are your dreams telling you at the moment?

An Individual Life

There is not one big cosmic meaning for all,
there is only the meaning we each give to our life,
an individual meaning, an individual plot,
like an individual novel, a book for each person. - Anais Nin

It's interesting that in young adulthood we adopt our own - individual - role models. If we are lucky, those luminarie's keep guiding us and reassuring, long after their deaths and long after the initial infatuation. Nin keeps speaking sense to me, 30 years later.