New Web Site

Hello Loved ones ..just thought I'd tell you that my artist web site has been updated !
seehttp://www.theartofknowingyourself.com
It also tell you that I'm running the art of knowing yourself in a retreat and community centre in Greece this summer...would be FAB if any of you would like to come
with love
Fuchsy

A wonderful retreat

Dear friends on the Dao I have just come back from a wonderful reatreat in Nottingham with Thich Naht Hahn....he is there in the middle of the photo with the children .
I found it a very insightful week , with much time spent in silence.
I learned more about the Buddhist ways of seeing the world , and realised how much I embrace them .
check out the community of interbeing ...the sangha in the UK
fuchsyxx

Another interesting question from the schooloflife.com How Necessary Is a Relationship?

How Necessary Is A Relationship

"Most of us would agree that while love can make us happier it can also make us more miserable than anything else.  So is it really worth it?  Do we need a relationship in order to live a happy and fulfilled life?  Are there times when it’s better for us to be on our own?

Resolute singletons would argue that flying solo better suits our contemporary lifestyle – greater freedom, fewer sacrifices, no commitment, more fun.  Die-hard romantics would counter that 1 + 1 equals something greater than just 2 people, and that life without love is poorer for it.  Others of us don’t know what we want, and drift from one relationship to the next simply because we’re afraid to be on our own.

Whether you’re in or out of love, up or down with it, this class will trawl the wisdom of the ages to see what ideas philosophy, psychoanalysis, literature and art can offer each of us in deciding this question for ourselves."

I'll post up my comments on this one later!
 
 

What's your "real" earliest memory?

I was interested to read this article from today's Observer as a few years ago we got out some old videos of Louis and Fleur and they saw themselves in situations at a really early age. Louis loved the images of me dancing with him as a toddler and fleur loved the video of herself falling asleep in her dinner.

I recently asked them their earliest memories as children and they both cited these two incidents which weren't real memories just video images.

Memories can distort and change our views on things and people, partucularly as children. Do you have any examples of memory distortions or early memories to share?

The Observer Features Sun 22 Aug 2010 00:03 BST
Can you rely on the accuracy of your own memories?

You are what you remember. It's difficult to imagine being you without some access to your remembered life story. But the new science of memory tells us that remembering is just that: a story. Memories are not stashed away, fully formed, in the vaults of the brain; they are constructed, when needed, according to the demands of the present. And they are soberingly fragile as a result. You can have vivid memories of things that never happened, and yet you can come away with the sketchiest recollections of events that actually did.
Memories of childhood are particularly suspect. When I recall my first day at school, I know I'm not remembering the event itself, but more my last act of remembering it. The brain stores autobiographical information in many different systems, and the sensory qualities of early experiences are likely stored accurately. It's the mental home movie into which they're assembled that may not bear much resemblance to reality.
Science gets its teeth into something quintessentially human and chews it to bits. But coming to terms with the slipperiness of memory can be liberating. I cherish that first-day memory: the sound of my mother's voice, the floating dust-motes in the school hall. Understanding that it probably didn't happen in quite that way doesn't make the memory any less precious now.
I don't have to be constrained by particular habits of remembering; I can make myself anew each day. Memory may be a kind of storytelling, but I happen to like stories. They contain a rather wonderful kind of truth.
Visit the School of Life at theschooloflife.com

In a self

Here is mine. It makes me feel at peace.

This is a great program Sue. Thank you for finding it.

It would be interesting to do drawings over a period of time to see how they change.

Just to help the beginner, you can alter brush sizes and shading effects and use File on the right to save and open your pictures.

He was my North, my South, my East and West

I was watching 4 weddings and a Funeral tonight with Louis and I realised that I had wanted to find out more about this poem the last time I saw the film.

The poem is by W. H. Auden. Like many of his other works, it is known by
its first line, "Stop All the Clocks".

This is the section that I think is so lovely...

He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last forever; I was wrong.

The stars are not wanted now; put out every one:
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the woods:
For nothing now can ever come to any good.

Do you have any favourite poems, expressions or lyrics to share?

My inner self

my inner self

This picture represents my inner thoughts about love, spirituality and sexuality.

What is your Inner Self...?

Came across the link to this questionnaire on Facebook...haven't done it yet myself, but thought you might like to...

Have you ever drawn your inner self? Have a go here and share them with us all...

I liked this thought...

“I don't think you ever stop giving. I really don't. I
think it's an on-going process. And it's not just
about being able to write a check. It's being able to
touch somebody's life.”

Oprah Winfrey

What do you think is the most touching thing you have done for someone, or someone has done for you?

Phew, it's taken a lot of logging on and off to get here...but I'm finally here!

Caption for the photos above...friends and family!

Bruv, what a great idea to get the Dao up and running again... Sorry it's taken a while to get going, but just wasn't in the right mood to put something up the last few weeks. But am now raring to go!

I thought I'd take the time to think about what's happened the over the last two years.
I like the way that Bruv had set his post out, so I am following the same format.

People

Well as Bruv has already mentioned, we have had two losses in our family, Namaste's father Dougie and Bruv and Nammy's SophieDog...they will be very sadly missed.
We also have some illness problems with dementia in the family. Sadly this is becoming more and more common these days, particularly in much younger people. There was a really interesting programme on French TV about it the other day. People of 40-50 increasingly getting Alzheimer's Disease. I wondered why this was happening? What are your thoughts on this?

I also have two friends who need your positive thoughts right now. Eddie with serious depression. No real job prospects for the last 3 years and a break-up with his partner meant that he had no-where to live and as a result of getting very low, he decided to go and live back with his mother in Ireland to recouperate. Tried to speak to him the other day. He couldn't talk for very long. Sounded very sad. Found it difficult to know what to say to me.

Today I heard that my other good friend Ben is now wheelchair bound as of 4 days ago with MS. Ben has fought this disease so positively for the last 10-12 years but now I fear it is over-taking him. He has a major review with his hospital tomorrow which, he feels, will result in him being sent to sheltered accommodation and having to take medication with some serious side-effects. Please send your positive thoughts to him for tomorrow.

Louis has had some hearing problems - still not resolved, but has been so brave having had 3 small operations which have all failed ;( Don't worry Louis, we'll get there in the end! Off to see a cranial osteopath on Friday to see if they have any light to shine on it.



Manny, has also been low the last few months, completely stressed out and really tired... too much work and not much play.
He has also given up smoking (in the region of 40/50 per day) so I'm really proud of him, but it hasn't been easy!

But the person I feel really deserves his place here is Bruv, who after 8 years of waiting for his foot to heal, gave us the great news that it had last year. That was such fab news! Jamesey has also been through a pretty rough year with foot problems which have now finally been resolved, so hurrah for James too!

Mum and Dad also have to go here...even though they are now 84 and 85 respectively, they still manage to do their own household chores. Thanks to Phil and Jane, they also have help on hand to do shopping and all those other chores, visits to the Docs etc etc.

The other "people" thing that I have to talk about was my 50th birthday last year. All my dear friends from the UK plus Bruv and Namaste, plus all my France-based friends came along to celebrate and I have to say it was one of the happiest weekends of my life. All my favourite people under one roof, with some exceptions who were unable to make it.

I haven't mentioned Fleur, because nothing has happened to her that is eventful other than her doing gymnastics for the first time this year and loving it! We now have evening sessions on the rug of her exercises ;)

Places

Well the biggest news here is that we bought our own house 2 years ago this September. It needs lots of love but we'll get there in the end... My favourite place in the world is on our verandah...having coffee in the morning, or an apero in the early evening! Bliss... Our cat Cassis loves it too!

We're also going back to a holiday place this Summer which we fell in love with. Nestled in sunflower fields for miles... a small gite with a shared swimming pool, where we met two English families last year and got on really well with. We'll be off there again in August to meet them all...



The other place I really had a wonderful time in this year was Berlin. I went there for a friend's 50th birthday and we had a fab time. What an energetic place, full of artists, writers, musicians and young people wanting to reinvent the history of the City.
There are also the historic memories, the Jewish Musuem, a great tribute to the millions of jews that died in Germany, and many other places so atmospheric, so full of memories, love and hatred.



Spirituality

I have to say that I have been a little lacking on the spirituality front, which is why I am so looking forward to posting on the Dao again and reading all your posts.

I seem to have lost my spiritual side a lot, I need to get it back. When I do spend time with my two dear spiritual friends over here in France, Katrin and Françoise, I get such an energy boost from them. I really need to get back into it!

One thing I have done is to learn EFT from Françoise. I use this a lot for different things and I have taught the kids how to use it. Louis does it really well. I am also hoping that Katrin is going to start up her first yoga class in September...I will be the first to subscribe!

I started to read "You can heal your life" again this last week as I have had so many aches and pains recently and I felt that I needed to reconnect with my body again... so I have also reconnected with the universe and it has been amazing what has happened this week on that front. I'll share that with you another time.

Oh well, I've rambled on for long enough! Bye for now xxx