Mama Madhya - Time For Pause

Every year my youngest daughter and I make our annual pilgrimage to the Aum New Year's Festival at South Head, north of Auckland, New Zealand. It is a ritual we have honoured for many years now, and during that time I have watched my daughter grow from a small child into a young teenager, right alongside my own continued evolution as a woman and mother.  The time we spend at Aum is filled with fun, laughter, music, dancing, connection, healing, and a return to simplicity. It is a time of joy. For four days, there is no cellphone reception, no constant digital pull, no news cycle constantly humming in the background. Instead we are immersed in artistry, authenticity, and self-expression in all its forms. Like all festivals, Aum is a coming together of people for the sole purpose of connection and creativity - a relief and reprieve from the relentless pressures of daily life.  Nature as Medicine The festival is held in a sandy, bush-filled landscape where deer roam freely, and ...

Every day can be a page turner if we so choose. Some days we put the book down and leave it untouched for weeks; then curiosity takes hold and we find ourselves picking the story back up again and become engrossed in the plot - wondering where it will take us, how it will end, or whether it simply leads us into the next story. And so it is with life: a never ending journey of discovery. In the quiet moments - those rare pauses where we step away from the story and simply breathe - we offer ourselves grace. Grace to catch up with what has been, and to prepare for what comes next.  What is Grace, Really? Grace is funny thing to define. It's not something you can rate out of ten like joy or excitement. It's quieter. A quality more than a feeling. A state of being we often don't recognise until we look inward or back over the path we've travelled.  A dear friend of mine, one I shared my early life with - and who tragically passed away at just 24 - once wrote on my 21st key:...

Change is the only constant in the universe. Sometimes it creeps in, slow and steady, over decades. Other times it crashes into our lives - in a split second, a heartbeat. This reality means that we are always in flow - until we are not. Until change sweeps away everything we thought was solid.  Stagnation is something we look at often in Chinese Medicine, the stagnation - lack of flow - of qi or energy can lead to illness and through accumulation, even death. Life must move. But constant movement without something to hold us steady can leave us feeling like a ship without a mooring. We all need anchors - a point of stability that allows us to grow without drifting into chaos.  My life is has been a delicate dance between movement and stillness, between seeking change and longing for something safe to hold onto. Looking back, I can see how these forces shaped me - not just in the obvious ways, but like those before me, in the small, quiet shifts that have trickled down to the ...

Today we live in a world that it layered with subterfuge. The simplicity and rawness of years gone by have been replaced with this growing world of alternate reality. Every little aspect of life is documented and devoured, celebrated but also offered up as fodder to the masses.  The Pressure to Conform From the minute of conception there is often an intense overlay of observation, and as time goes by, a pressure of how the unborn may live, breathe and be - according to what is trending, what is popular, and what is perceived to be "the right way". Under the guise of freedom and choice, we have become more trapped than we have ever been before. Whether it is through religion, woke ideology, freedom-seeking alternatives, traditional or cultural values-based thinking, we walk into this world with less ability to just be our raw and authentic selves. At every turn, we are offered narratives, roles, and labels that quickly begin to layer over the core of who we are - often before ...

It is said that the universe is made of infinite love. An all encompassing, mind blowing, unconditional love, from which we come and to which we return. A love that vibrates through every cell of our being, and through every atom of the universe. Permeating richly, deeply, knowingly weaving its way through our lives, supporting, guiding, and observing.  Infinite Love: The Source of All This kind of love is the thing of poets, songs, paintings, of religion and nature. Something that we can only briefly touch at different times in our lives. Such as when we see our unborn child for the first time, a beautiful landscape, or natural wonder, experience religious awakening, or fall deeply in love.  It's a love that makes everything feel connected, meant to be, and without harsh edges. Just by its very nature it is creative, expansive and beautiful.  It takes away all pain, sorrow, and despair.  It's the kind of love we are born with and spend the rest of our lives trying t...