Writer + Independent Researcher of all things Health + Healing
Embodied Yoga | Soulful Nutrition | Sacred Living | Astrological Insights
2 kidney transplants
Discern your own inner state. That is being sovereign to yourself. When we get whipped up by external noise & tremble that out through our nervous system, it is palpable to all. Energetic boundaries take work. Let your breath help. It's an inside job...
Last Saturday's Nourish + Restore day retreat at the magical @FintryTrust went so well. Beautiful lunch, wondrous gardens and a modern crafted yoga studio flooded with sunlight. Their whole ethos is genuine and lived. For heartfelt facilitators, I highly recommend
Billy Chapata, one of my favourite poets. I gifted the below to my niece for her 17th birthday. A wonderful title, written by a heartfelt man, to inspire our hearts.
I read often from Chameleon Aura (another brillyant collection), for myself and in classes as balm for others
an ode to all the women i’ve ever adored, an homage to the divine feminine; this is for her, this is for them, this is for you 🌹
“to all the women i’ve ever loved” is out now, online and wherever books are sold! thank you for allowing my words to have a home with you 🙏🏾
June, said to be named after the Queen of Goddesses Juno. She who reigns over marriage + fertility. Whether your path is traditional matrimony or a sacred marriage to the Divine (could be both), June offers this rich fecundity as the opening month into Summer. A midyear review 💚
@The_Intima thanks for the follow! Great to connect here. Would love to write a piece for your journal. I see Spring/Summer submissions are closed. Until the Autumn! In warmth, Ciara
Reading heals. Words matter. The city streets can be hot, hectic + raw.
It's been a while since I've been in Johannesburg (my place of birth) and being on the other side of poverty, this is an extraordinary tale of resilience that carries a deep embodied poetic signature
At just 24 years old, Philani Dladla was sitting on the side of a Johannesburg road with a pile of secondhand books beside him.
But unlike most people struggling to survive on the streets, he wasn’t asking strangers for money.
Instead, he spent his days reading every book he could get his hands on, then offering honest reviews to people passing by.
If someone enjoyed the review, they could buy the book from him.
People soon began stopping not out of pity, but because they were inspired by his intelligence, passion, and love for literature.
His knowledge and storytelling earned him the nickname “The Pavement Bookworm.”
Philani had grown up facing poverty, homelessness, and addiction, and books became the thing that helped him rebuild his life.
What began as a small roadside book-selling idea slowly turned into something much bigger.
Over the years, he launched community reading programs and book clubs aimed at helping young people escape poverty through education and self-development.
His journey eventually gained international attention. He became a published author, gave TEDx talks, appeared in interviews around the world, and traveled to motivate others with his story of resilience and transformation.
I love this. I slept in a thousand year old chalet cabin in a Swiss village once that had the family cows in the basement, and they all had cowbells around their neck. You could hear the bells settle down as they all drifted off to sleep...then, one cow would move and they would all wake up, bells ringing, then they'd all settle down back to sleep. Then another cow would move. All night. More cowbell.
People once lived above their cows because they understood something modern people forgot:
heat rises.
A barn full of living animals could help keep a family from freezing through winter.
Today we call cows a climate problem.
Back then, they were central heating, food security, fertilizer and survival.
Today is the feast day of St Melangell, the patron saint of hares. 🐇⛪️
The daughter of an Irish king, she fled to Wales and founded a community of women in Powys.
According to legend she was gifted the land after saving a hare from a pack of dogs.
🎨 Jemima Jameson
“Do not tell me what to do, tell me what you do. Do not tell me what is good for me, tell me what is good for you. If, at the same time you reveal the you in me, if you become a mirror to my inner self, then you have made a listener and a friend.”
George Sheehan (physician)
You reduce crime by eliminating poverty. The reason so called nice neighborhoods have lower crime rates is because people’s basic needs are being met. It is not because of police, alarm systems, or neighborhood associations. Poverty creates crime.
I still can't wrap my head around why AI data centers need fresh water. Not recycled. Not wastewater. Fresh, drinkable water, burned through by the millions of gallons just to keep servers cool. Why are we using a basic human necessity to prop up machines?
If you spend all day at a fish market,
you'll leave smelling like fish even if you never touched one. But spend your day in a perfume shop, and you'll carry the scent even if you didn't buy anything. That's how environment works. It rubs off whether you realize it or not. Stay around complainers, and everything starts to look negative. Stay around excuse makers, and growth feels optional. But get around people who move with purpose, you'll feel it. Get around people who live in gratitude, you'll start to see differently. The scent of your environment will always follow you.
Today at noon thousands of red rose petals will flutter down through the oculus of the Pantheon in Rome. This spectacular tradition is held each year on the feast of Pentecost.
Recognise the pattern
Then, interrupt it
Example - pattern is reactivity and impulse to quick anger/shouting
Pattern recognised
Interruption - pause before speaking. Then speak just a bit more softly, a bit more slowly
Patterns vary. Explore yours + what works to interrupt