'New old leaves dance in nursery rhyme circles'

 and I texted back:

'Summer sunshine condensed into crackling little tree flames that set our minds alight'

Then I was out in the dusk under trees still shining though it was hard to see twigs for wood stove kindling in the carpet of red-orange cherry leaves, enchantment indeed. Too dark for a photo. Might try tomorrow if there's a similar light-in-the-leaves-type time of day.

I got thinking about a favourite lecturer who once wrote on an essay of mine, respectfully but in no uncertain terms, 'You need to read less psychology and sociology and more good novels.' I'd been over-analysing George Elliot instead of responding to her writing. I tell you this because it's stuck with me as a reminder to be in the beauty and majesty of life more. Many a time it has helped me to shift from too clinical a way of being in life.

Yes, in business there are books to balance and structures to evolve and support. In coaching there are helpful and at times essential forms in which to work. NLP, the GROW model, Clean Facilitation and more: at times I use it all.

But it is not enough.

'Enough' includes simply being with the client for their story to evolve, making space for their best expression to arrive. Just as my friend's text inspired my response and added to the quality of my stick-gathering experience later, then this blog, I coach for my clients to live richly and magnificently, or simply and contentedly, or whatever their best words are for living in what is for them a good way to live. Today, tomorrow and as they make themselves at home in what ever they want to happen in life.

Wishing you joy in the autumn.

I didn't give a thought to what I would write about it but I knew I would write something.

I'm thinking about the two different parts to my business, the Personal and professional coaching/workshops/workshop design side and the wellness/raw and living food side and about how they aren't really different sides at all, just me having busy interesting days.

I might be coaching someone who is going through the change from employment to self employment that has been catalysed by voluntary or involuntary redundancy, teaching people recipes for vitality, helping an executive to figure out how better to manage a team, working with people who support teenage mothers or co-designing a training or workshop for a big company or a fellow coach.

Yes, it does all fit together. It's just me facilitating positive change for people who are drawn to work with me for one or more of a variety of reasons. I have specialisms and in-depth knowledge, and I have mastered the Art of Asking Questions, the coaches craft that enables me to accompany someone who is exploring their own inner nature and creating how they will live in their personal and professional life.

I claim all that for myself and I hope you do too in the sense that you too are a specialist and a generalist and have a rich store of knowledge, skill and empathy garnered throughout your life.

It may be convenient, and frequently necessary, to label precisely what one does in the world, but the label is not the butterfly.

The challenge here is to bring one's whole self to whatever part of one's life you are engaged in at a particular time. I haven't always managed that, but when I do, joyfully and easily, life is much better for me and those around me.. Marianne Williamson wrote that lovely admonishment 'Who are you not to be (brilliant, fabulous, gorgeous, talented)' to pull us up when we are not being our whole magnificent selves.

And what does that have to do with a photo of a snail stuck on a dried head of cow parsley? I started with thinking about the two different parts of my business stuck together, but it's more just the beauty of taking in the different elements of a snapshot of nature and seeing how it all fits together. Let's do that with the different aspects of ourselves

Just thought you'd like to know :-)

Something I haven't had much time for this year is my garden, but low and behold it has been growing all by itself. I'm glad wild gardens have better street cred these days, though not all my neighbours are so keen on the waterfalls of Ladies Mantle that froth over the dull little walls in my front garden. I love the waterfalls, as Mark Darcy said to Bridget Jones, just the way they are. Here's a peek at a corner of my front garden that greets me when I return home (Click on picture to enlarge).

Although I do want to put more time into my garden and have all sorts of visions and plans for it - including growing some veggies to eat, such as kale for the winter - I cannot do it all. Life flows along much better when I accept that and look at the beauty in the way things are anyway - and then focus on my priorities - see above ;-) 

Thank you bumble bee for an object lesson in the beauty of doing something completely and methodically before moving on to the next task.

Here she is again a little while later and it is well worth clicking on the photo to see her more clearly:

And, following her lead, I have stuck in and completed one whole writing task in one go.

The follow-on benefit is that with a sense of completion from meeting my writing deadline, and from having done things so well in the process, I have been buzzing along with the next task and the next, till now I'm even blogging about it - nourished by thistle, bee and nectar imagery, as I hope you are too.

What's the task you could do, very well, that you could complete all in one go which would get you moving busily, and happily, on to the next task and the next? It feels great.

Think of that dandelion growing in a crack in the pavement on the intro for Coronation Street, just there whatever dramas are going on round and about. Well, this sunny yellow flowering plant - mustard I think?- is just there too, right now, down the road from me. I'm so glad some tidy-minded good soul hasn't pulled it up. It's proud, upright, sunny, quietly flourishing, cheering.....and still.

Cars whizz by and in between there are moments in which the place breathes out for a moment.

You can do this as a spiritual practice, as spiritual as any variety of meditation. Just listen out for those moments between what is happening.

In the coffee shop a lull between tracks, in a restaurant the time between topics and the moment the food arrives, walking down the street the moment before the lights change. In a quieter street the sounds of footfall dying away or the rise, and fall, of a conversation overheard.

Putting attention in the quietness is only a shift of the point of view from which one perceives. Moving attention there from being engaged in one activity after another and from noticing all the activity around one is simple. It's a moment to settle into oneself and to feel a contentment in being alive, even for just a moment. It can lead to a changed way of experiencing being in busy places. You can do it in the quiet of your own home too, for example coming out of your busy thoughts to hear the peaceful snores of an old pet.

See how this practice of turning your outer attention to stillness can nourish your stillness during inner meditative practice.

(and you can click on the photos to enlarge them)

Part of me wanted to concentrate on the city things as, after all, a park is a park. But that part of my magical day was, er, magically magical, unexpectedly so. 

Of course! walking in New York's lungs after a plane travel and tower-block hotel experience. Colour, beautiful plant forms, new vistas. This is some park. It's well cared-for and must add to much to the quality of life of Manhattan Islanders, such as these dog-walkers:

And though a sunny day is always nice, I loved the drizzly day as much as the spring green leaves did, misty, enchanting. Even the umbrellas were treats adding to the drama. 

There's something special about the tamed wildness of parks, plants gathered from the four corners of the earth and flourishing together - tamed but still wild, really. Like us actually, tamed and civilised yes, but still our real selves are part of nature. Whether you would want to sketch this curve of a Japanese-type branch or climb up the tree and sit in it it draws you in.

                                                                                                                                                                Looking back, in memory as in the enticing view under a bridge below,as I was leaving, the experience is framed in the buildings around, the frame for an amazing living art piece of greenery.

                                                                                   Nature gave so much, as it always does, to the day, even in the middle of an enormous city of buildings that touch the sky, including the Empire State Building:

                                                                                                 If reminder is needed, my day in New York is a reminder of how fundamental nature, and art, and architecture - all of them together really - are to life.

Never mind smell the coffee, smell the fresh air and the blossoms in the park.

.......and the Korean vegetarian lunch? - my other blog is my foodie one and I might well post about that delightful meal there.

Several times I've seen them since I've been here (Florida that is - see my other blog -www.rawinscotland.com . One was at least a metre long, black, and snaking rapidly across the path.  One was small and brightly striped and not moving so fast. Each time I stopped, stock still and watched, not wanting to attract any attention until the snake was well on its way. I was glad I didn't tread on either so felt a twinge of relief each time that the snake seemed to be on its own journey and not ready to engage with me in any way. It wasn't scary though, just interesting. Two for the I-Spy book of snakes or a Girl Guide badge perhaps.

It reminded me of when years ago I spent weeks in a forest monastery in Thailand and was once sitting meditating by myself a little away from the huts in a slightly jungly patch of trees. As I opened my eyes I saw a large snake, at least a metre long (or has it been growing in my imagination in the interim?) slithering , left to right, less than two feet in front of me. I was in such a calm state from meditating that I was completely unfazed.

Probably a more helpful reaction in the circumstances than panic or fear!

In the moment when something potentially dangerous is going on, choosing to stay calm, uninvolved actually, is a helpful choice. When there is old contitioning there may be fear or panic and I think it's important to remember you have a choice about how you respond to past contitioning.

When there's an overtly emotional reaction it may actually make the situation worse - I wonder whether a frightened snake or a snake in the vicinity of a sudden flurry of human activity is more likely to bite?

What is there snaking around in your reality that is actually better ignored?  Responses to this appreciated - I think it's an important topic.

It can be easy to notice all the beauty in a different place, but that sharpens the eyes for what is to be seen right where you are now. Even if it is just the the last leaf on a neglected potted plant on a windowsill it has beauty.

It's also easy to look across to what someone else has or at what their business is and to think 'Ooooh, that looks so good!'. But perhaps what you already have is good too?

Nature in Florida is very, very beautiful. But there's beauty everywhere.

I think one thing I like about these three little palm trees are that they are recently planted, nicely placed in an already lovely garden.

What can be added to whatever is already growing in your life, work and business?

Then in this second photo there is the solid presence of a mature tree, no longer needing support. It just keeps growing from year to year. It yields seeds. In fact it's now also host to a fine dusting of something. Lichen? And in this photo you can also see the crocuses just starting to die back, their flowering just passing.

How would it be to look at your work, business or home life in this way, thinking about your various projects as different plant forms, growing and changing? Needing different care and attention from you as seasons pass?

I'm hoping to get some veggies going in my garden this year so who knows what tendrils of thought will grow from that!

And talking of veggies, plants to eat, my new blog is up and running. Still a few things to be done to perfect it but you are welcome to wander over for a look: Alive and Raw in Scotland ....and Beyond  I'd love to read your comments :-)