a picture without text

i want to write the perfect post
that doesn't have text
just colour and handwriting.

this is the story of one afternoon in sydney...







































To be continued...

discovery

i'm back
from hanging out
with two women who wear the most perfect footwear in the world:
bright green & blue cowgirl boots
and
bare feet.

photo posts to follow, but for now I'm off to bed...

and for right now:

i send you a perfect discovery adventure
exploring old ruins
champagne passionfruit frappes
and
laughter.

serious

this is one of the wisest women i've ever had the pleasure of knowing.
her name is ellanita, she is 60,
and she is this amazing blend of sage, visionary and child.

she still watches kid movies
and when she laughs,
she laughs freely and wildly
like a whole flock of ducks launching off into the sky.

she giggles and snuffles
and the peels of laughter flow from her like a river finding the ocean in the air.

sometimes i get really serious.
like, lately.
last sunday at the spiritualist centre the message i was given was:

you've been too serious lately. you've forgotten your spontaneous side, your childlike side. you haven't been laughing as much.

and it's true.

my little eyebrows knit together, i become fixated on my to-do list
and i forget that the wisest people on earth laugh the most.

i'm off to roadtrip to be with two women this weekend, my two goddesses in honour. i'm off to go wear a new turquoise and lilac dress in the sun, be hugged warmly and deeply, discover city streets and just be free for a while. i'm off to shed this knitted brow and go collect that laughing silly loving sage girl of mine.


laugh your serious ass OFF with this and this.

wonders from all over the world

Words above are from Keri Smith's delicious Wish Jar Tales from four years ago. I've been going over and reading them in delight.

The Light Movie touches my heart.

The Path of Ceremonial Arts inspires me with the work they do.

The IsisMoon Calendars are rich wonders of moon wisdom.

I want to go to the Goddess Conference.

why art

she dreams in the desert, charcoal, pastels and mixed media

Not so long ago, I had a conversation with a sciency friend.
We had similar marks at university before I decided to take another path and actually DO my art instead of learning about its history.
He enquired ~ "Why art?"

It was a good question.
At school, I finished with good marks - great marks. In approximately the top 5% of the state or the like. I could do anything I liked. I elected to pursue a Bachelor of Arts which required an entry level of OP 16 or below. I had an OP 2.

I studied full time and part-time, on and off for a few years, changing my majors from journalism, to sociology, to Australian Aboriginal studies, to psychology, to public policy, to art history and economic policy.

I have flirted and considered seriously career aspirations of being Prime Minister of Australia (not joking), senior public servant and Mayor of my hometown.

All of these things because I knew I could do anything I wanted.

Nothing really challenged me. In intellectual matters, I knew all the games. I was (and still am) an information sponge. I have somewhat a photographic memory at times. If I wanted a mark, I could get it. If I wanted a job, I could get it. Life was, and still is, all about choices. I am not limited by any outside circumstances or influences. Everything is my choice.

And I chose art.

I explain the past above in order to emphasise this point -
out of all the things I could have chosen in life, I chose art.

He wanted to know:
Why art?

Art is my greatest challenge and my greatest pleasure.
When I get it right, I walk out beaming and thrilled in every part of me. I wonder back in my studio as I walk around the house just to peek at her. Before I go to bed, I go and absorb her into me so the last thing I see is that something magnificent I just created.
When it doesn't work, I roll it over and over in my mind again, calling the answer to me. It comes in visions, in dreams, in sudden bursts of "getting it." I listen to her, to the story she wishes to share, and play until she is in this world how she wishes to be.
Art terrifies me. It calls on all parts of me. It's not something I can work out with a simple equation. It's not something I can memorise. It's not something I can use my ginormous (he he) brain to work out. It's every single part of me ~ mind, body, soul.
It's something intangible that I attempt to document. It is ethereal and other worldly, and I am a woman splashing it down in acrylics.
Sometimes I am scared shitless of creating. Sometimes I am brave and courageous.
When things are right, they feel so very very right. I have cried upon the floor when things work out. And I have yearned, striving for that feeling of more, more. More authenticity, more reality, more dreaming, more colour. More being present with myself as I gasp my way through this art of creating art.

That's why I chose art. And that's why I keep choosing it.
It entices me, encourages me, and pushes me into being even more of myself.

It teaches me the possibilities of creation,
of the artform of shaping my own life,
and the miracle of making my own self more Leonie.


Why do you choose what you choose?

wee boy

We found out our sweet boy Charlie may have epilepsy today, after he had a fit at the vets (I must commend his sense of timing and place). We'll be keeping a close eye on him to see if there's a pattern to his fits (or if he even has any more), or if he is experiencing fairly bad anxiety attacks (read: can't walk, legs won't work, back seizes up, glassy eyes).

He is quiet this afternoon, lying down in my studio.

I lay down next to him, and checked in with me.
I realised on some levels I was resisting him, thinking "he's just a dog... don't get attached... especially a dog that might have a problem..."
As though if I loved, it meant loss. And loss in love - is it worth it?

Yep, I felt all of that. I'm not going to judge it. This whole beautiful life and this beautiful dog love me so unconditionally they teach me those lessons.

I moved my head to be next to his, and I spoke to him:

My darling boy, no matter what, I'm going to love you.
It's okay if you have epilepsy. It's okay if there's something happening in your body. It's all okay... no matter what. No matter how long we have, I am blessed to know you. I am blessed to love you, even when that means we only have moments or years to experience each other.

And I thought how it kinda made sense to make this a mantra for love.


Health issues - they always make me radiantly aware of the shortness, the promise and the magnificence of this life. How lucky we are just to be here now, experiencing all of it. Even the stuck parts, the loss parts, the grieving and the awakening parts.


in love and light,
Leonie


P.S. If your sweet fur~kid has epilepsy, please share your experiences...

birthday man

To the most beautiful man in the world:

I'm so glad you were born.


That's all, and that's everything.

making sense

I want to write for the sake of writing.
I want to write for the sheer abandon of it, the falling into the moment, the sinking into myself of it. I want to fall apart and rupture clean and pin it, piece by piece, together with words. I want to remember why I write.

I remember why I write:
Because, simply, the world makes sense to me when I write.

There are some things that I know.
I know that it feels good to meditate, and sometimes when I sit in gentle breath upon my bed, I am called outside with an urgency. I pull on a jumper and sweatpants, then barefoot onto the grass to be closer to the heartbeat of mother earth. It feels like she wraps around me, and I ground in her energy.
No matter what.
It is all okay, it is all okay, it is all okay.
This is what she teaches me.

These are the days that sparkle with a new and precious Succulent Wild Woman watch from a dear friend. I enter rooms hand first, as proud as a five year old with a ballerina box that spins and sings once the lid is opened.
These are the days that I'm not sure where I'm going, or exactly what is happening, just that I know that it is good and ripe even in the chaos. Even in the pain, there is still peace. Even in the tears, there are lessons.
There is no compass available but my soul, and my soul tells me I am doing good. I may not know much about today, and I may not know much about tomorrow, but I do know change is birthing forth into our lives. I do know I will be okay no matter what. I do know I can do this I can be this I can create this dream life.

Inside me is where the world is created.


Today
Immensely inspired by the glorious Jen Lemen today.
Watch this horse clip without crying... and you're probably a lot less hormonal
than me at the moment!
With two hands, I offer you a Secret.

it's snowing!

It's freaking SNOWING here.
It's November. It's summer in two weeks.
And we just had a snow flurry.

Ding dang freaking miracle odd day!

how i celebrated...

turning 24...

meeting friends for a sangria picnic...



eating a multitude of goodies and supping on italian sparkling wine & sangria...



laughing as the wind and rain and mother earth blew upon us, changing our mountaintop plans for a valley close by...



being surrounded with good people in a beautiful place...



at 10am I wondered off into the bush by myself,
raising my glass of redmagenta liquid to each of you,
sitting upon a fallen tree trunk,
soil heartbeat thumping through my soles,
my arms touching mother sky.
giving thanks, receiving love, sending energy
out into this beautiful world of ours.

we are all connected.

later, my love and i venture up to the mountaintop
to connect with the energy.
i sit in the earth for a while, {the very same earth you stand upon}
watching ants, breathing in the sweet oneness of air
{the very same air you inhale}
and i felt alive.



i stood
and opened my arms
-wide-
to the valley
the rain sings my name



and the wind whispers dreams to me.


i thank you

after the mist has danced in my hair,
we make our way back down the mountain again...
we spend the afternoon in the sweet spirit quiet of a spiritualist centre,
i cry on the phone to a dear friend as the sky transforms to twilight,
and my sister sings me hi-5's happy birthday song.


and that, my friends,
is how i turned
24.


in love and light
Leonie JourneyWoman

my 24th birthing day

energy gathering

a beautiful friend of mine
has organised an energy gathering.

at 10am tomorrow
i will be atop a mountain
celebrating my birthing day.

i will stand upon the earth,
looking out to the valley
that swoops around us,
to the gathering of alpine mountains
that embraces us in all directions.

i will raise my arms
and feel the energy
connecting with all my friends from across the oceans,
those souls who have touched my heart via this medium.

if you feel called
to gather in this energy,
please find a patch of earth
to feel the roots growing from your feet into the soil that unites us (this earth is one piece... we are forever connected and touching)...
to feel your white light energy soaring from you to the sky,
inhaling and exhaling the same sweet air that we all are...

the energy will be there,
of souls gathering and celebrating
this earth, these connections, this life...
sending white light out to share
with yourself, with each other, with this whole globe...

i'll be singing your names from atop a mountain...
and look forward to meeting you!

(To find out what time it will be where you are, check the Time Zone Convertor. My time will be 10am Sunday Nov 12 - Australia, Canberra time [3pm US Pacific Time]).

If spirit calls you ~~~

Be your own best friend

I turn 24 on Sunday.
I'm celebrating with a mission: Sangria breakfast on a mountain top.
I've been in a state of lack, feeling like a Nigel No-Friends, worrying that very few people would show up (it seems to be the start of festive celebration season already).

And then, yesterday
I read some words by the always superb SARK:

Be your own Best Friend.
Don't abandon yourself.

And I realised with a start:

I'll be there on Sunday.
I will turn up and Be There to celebrate my birthing day.
I will celebrate it for myself and with myself.
Any other friends that come? BONUS! But first and foremost: I'll be there. Anything else is a lovely addition and an additional blessing.

Knowing that changed my whole scope, my whole sphere, my whole energy around.
I remembered I already have a Best Friend, and she is funny, sassy, adventurous, has a HUGE sense of humour, is loving, wise and totally loyal. And her name's Leonie.

So me, and my own best friend,
will be atop a mountain on Sunday morning,
toasting the rise of the sun,
laughing at my own jokes,
dancing in my own divinity,
and celebrating the day I came to this world.

Not only is another world possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.
~ Arundhati Roy

be open to the universe

On my to-do-list today,
I write
"Be open to the universe."

I am photographing my old mentor in a garden,
and she exclaims:

LOOK! The sun is shining in the shape of a cross!



And so it is.

Later, I find myself in the oldest church here.
I whisper into the soothing darkness
and hold my breath under the light of the coloured windows.

The cross is there, at the front.

North, East, South, West.
The four directions.
Fire, Water, Earth, Wind.
The medicine wheel.
A sacred sign.

I'm on the right track.



I believe in divinity, and I believe in me.

just because

When I took the purple sari
and wrapped you both in it,
telling you
"Think of it like a love cocoon"
and you were giggling together
in your love
and said
"I know where this will be tomorrow. ON YOUR WEBSITE."



Well, you were right.

I love you both.

And I love the way you love.



you guys are getting marrrrrrrrieeeedddddddddddd

L O V E,
Leonie

[For all the readers out there ~ this pair have the most romantic love story... Meeting 15 years ago for their first kiss, seperating to do their different journeys and finding each other all this time later...]

inside outside

The world is so rich and so filled, bursting with beauty.
We are sitting in the park beneath the towering oak trees, watching black birds.
Chris gestures for me to watch as one performs a mating dance.
It is hilarious and remarkable.
I want to be more real. More my own flavour. More Leonie.
More green leaves and the sumptuous silence inside me as I scribe into a journal.
I have seen outward, I want to see inward.
There is a whole person in here I am trying to remember.
The wind blows. Vines glisten as a spring shower of rain falls down.
I don't want to think about what everyone else is doing.
I want to think about how I'm doing and who I am.
The light is magical and gives me shivers of delight. A shopping trolley is parked in an impossible, quaint position.
I think about the large camellias floating into all shades of magenta, and about second-hand stores, and thunder
and how I always want to be like this, feel like this.
The rain is falling steadier now, and we are safe beneath the embrace of trees.
The birds sound happy.
Rain always makes me feel this way.

most mystical and most real

photo & mixed media collage of debRA

May you know always
just what a goddess you are.
May you always know
how beautiful you are.
May you know always
how you've changed the world by being in it.
May you always know
how my world has changed because you're in it.

You saw into me when you met me
and you trusted me, encouraged me, believed in me,
and asked for me to join my first womens circle.

You spoke the truth
a truth I had never heard before
and it awoke a whole world in me
that wanted to fall in love with the truth too.

You are brave.
You are magical.
You are both mystical and real.

May the whole be blessed enough to know someone like you.