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Category Archives: Reflections

As I sit here…..

17 Wednesday Oct 2018

Posted by in Change is a coming, Reflections, The adventures of living life in the French countryside, The continuing adventure, The seasons

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As I sit here this morning, with my first cup of tea of the day (I am English after all!) I have found the urge to write.

The picture above is my garden at this present moment that I am writing this. The view from the valley as you can see is totally obscured because there is a thick fog and autumn has finally rolled in. A complete contrast to just weeks ago..

For the first time this season we have condensation on our windows, and single figure temperatures outside, but our house is warm. The roof on our kitchen has finally been replaced (more of that to come in another post) and add to the mix our new front door and the difference it has made is immeasurable. I smiled to myself today when I looked at our doors, and there was no condensation on them.

Sadly they are nowhere near as pretty as our old door, but it had to go, it was beyond repair (and trust me I tried) the oak had split from the hundred years of driving rain and wind it had endured so it could not be saved. We have re-used it (as you would know we love a bit of old and vintage, and will repurpose where we can, you only have to look at our Etsy shop) as a feature in our garden, it now plays the part of a secret door into a fairy kingdom.

I know we’re mad! But helps in life sometimes!

I love the autumn, One of the biggest things for me about living here is the changing of the seasons. I’ve said it before and I will probably say it again; it is a constant reminder that things change, and that although they will come back again they will never be the same as the one before. Nothing in life ever is. For me the autumn is the most poignant because all the things are dying off, it is the end of something that you will never get back, and it is a reminder to treasure every moment.

As some of you may know I am sharing a story from long ago about Rich and I, it has taken off. It is a sad story, but remembering where we are now, it is a story of hope. It too is a story of something dying and then coming back again, but in a different way, it was never going to be what it was before. Perhaps it is apt that I decided to share it in the autumn!

For those who have read my blog over the years you will know it made us stronger, and gave us the courage to take this adventure; and despite the hardships we have had along the way they have never broken us, almost sometimes, but we have always got through.

We have learnt that money really does not buy you happiness, and material things may give you comfort but they don’t make you happy. Because despite having no water, no roof, a leaking cesspit, dodgy cars at one point, and at times been down to the last six euros to our name, things have always come through, because we are happy in our minds. We have the ability to laugh, sometimes at each other, every day. We lost our egos.

So yesterday we read a passage from the Tao and the explanation asked a question, to think about what you thought made you happy and then ask yourself if that were true. It was designed to help people realise that the material things they bought did not really make them happy. So Rich and I both thought about it independently and both came up with the same answer, independently: it was to sit in our garden and look out across the valley.

We love our life, we love the simplicity and we both agreed that even if we had enough money to not have to worry about spending it, we still wouldn’t go out for meals, our greatest pleasure would be to sit in our garden and look at the view, with each other. (And all the furries of course!)

We are blessed.

Have a food day folks, enjoy the small things.

Moisy

If you want to learn more about us you may want to check out:

Makingthisbetter.com my new blog

PetiteFrenchfancies @etsy is my shop full of eclectic (of course) things.

You can also find me on Instagram as moisfrenchadventure, and Pinterest as moisfrenchadventure.com

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The Wind – The Godsend that clears my mind

12 Friday Oct 2018

Posted by in Reflections, The adventures of living life in the French countryside, The continuing adventure, The seasons

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For mental Health Week in England I thought that I would share with you one of the things I have always found therapeutic and that  I especially love about living here – The Wind.

As a lot of you know our garden is full of trees, we have at least four Oak trees, a big old sycamore, two Silver Birch, some pine trees, our gigantic Walnut tree, Cob nut bushes, cherry trees and never least what I call my tree of Tao.

I have said many times how I love to watch this blow and sway in the wind, almost as if it is reaching out to me and saying believe me everything will be allright.

Today is one of those sunny, blustery Autumn days that reminds me of why I love this season so much. I felt the need to clear my mind and sat in the garden with the trees blowing around me as I read my passage for the day from the Tao.

As always as the wind blew through my hair it was as if it was blowing out the cobwebs and confusion and clearing the way for me to reflect and see clearly. Add to that the leaves swirling in the wind as if my thoughts had materialised and were being blown away, no longer required, discarded, and I knew that I had done the right thing, to sit in the garden and let nature show me the way.

I bring this up on Mental Health Awareness week because the ability to reflect is very important to me, and sometimes very painful. But reflect I must because I know that it is the only way that I can learn and grow.

So if you are feeling anxious, down, or confused in some way – You know what I mean- when there is something on your mind but you just cannot put your finger on it – then just go out in the wind and sit somewhere away from others and let it clear you mind for you.

I am blessed I only have to step out of the front door….

Have a good weekend folks, enjoy the Autumn, whatever the weather.

Moisy

Changes – Follow the trees and go where the wind takes you.

07 Sunday Oct 2018

Posted by in Change is a coming, Reflections, The adventures of living life in the French countryside, The continuing adventure

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As I sit here on a rainy autumn morning, I am inspired to write in the blog that got me out there. This is the blog that is the sequel to the other one really (makingthisbetter.com) – even though I started writing it first – because this blog is about our next adventure, and in it I hope it shows all the things we learnt on that bomb strewn road that we travelled for so long.

So I am sitting in bed with my second cup of tea, looking out at my favourite tree gently swaying with the breeze and going with it, instead of fighting against it, and I am reminded, as the seasons change, that change happens every minute of every day; and you just have to go with it, bend like the tree, and understand that fighting against it won’t change anything.

Autumn is, for me, a particularly poignant time of year, the leaves are dying, birds are leaving, winter (and harder times) are coming, and the year is drawing to a close. But you can’t fight it, so why not enjoy it, because it is the season where nature puts on one of her most stunning dresses, and shows us how beautiful everything is, even in death.

Even this week, after being extremely busy with Rich doing the roof, and me being main caterer and house maintainer, I have changed our lives again; I have set up my new blog, a serialisation of my book ( The book currently has the title ‘I don’t think I can do this’) and put it out there for the world to see, and our lives have changed again. In less than six days it has had nearly a thousand views all over the world and counting. I know it is not only a good story, and that it would touch the hearts of many, but that it would also help people. We both knew this could make a change to our lives, but we are strong together now and know that it won’t change what we have learnt.

I have to say that it has been an especially brave thing for my husband to do, because right now, where the story is at the moment in his words, he looks like a c**t! I did reply that at that time he was a c**t but the important thing for him to remember is that he is not one now, and it is always the here and now we deal with.

So changes are still happening, we had planned to get out in the garden this weekend, to try our our new log splitter (the things that excite us now!); and to continue with the mammoth task of cutting our wood. But the rain came yesterday and we had to get the final part of the roof watertight, because it is not yet finished; and ‘The Livermore’ and Dylly Dylly have decided to make an impromptu visit and are arriving on Monday, this time with A.N. Other in tow, to see if they fit in with the pack ( see more changes!); and today we planned on going to a vide grenier, but the rain put paid to that.

So, going with the flow, we have spent a morning in bed with the two Welshie snuggle bums, later I will do a little housework and then blog, there is a big story to tell….

But remember folks, this blog, moisfrenchadventure.com is really the adventures of Moisy and Rich here and now, going with the flow, so this one is the one to keep you grounded when the other blog takes your breath away.

A big thank you to you all for your fantastic support.

Have a good weekend, and remember go with the flow…

Moisy

It’s out there – well part of it for now!

02 Tuesday Oct 2018

Posted by in Change is a coming, Reflections, The background story, The continuing adventure

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I took your advice my new blog is set up, it may go a long way to explaining why Rich and I are so ‘resilient’ as we were told the other day!

I am out of practice setting up blogs – it’s been three years – but I hope that you approve of it’s design, and that it helps others. It is what it has all been about.

I will keep you in suspense no longer it is called ‘making this better’ @makingthisbetter.com; it had three followers already, and over twenty views and has only been open just over an hour!!

What I will say is that this blog is not about judging  – if it wasn’t for my husband’s bravery we would not be here today.

As my son said to me ‘Mum! You are not an easy person to come back to!’

Never a truer word was said!!

Moisy

Change is coming, the things we’ve learnt – The Roof

25 Tuesday Sep 2018

Posted by in Change is a coming, Reflections, The adventures of living life in the French countryside, The continuing adventure

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“An integral being knows without going, see withoug looking, and accomplishes without doing.” 

Lao Tzu

In my previous post I told you how our roof is now being replaced, but for those who like to think differently there is more of a story here – it is how Rich and I have learnt to accept things as they are, and now things are coming together.

This has been our kitchen roof for the last two and a half years.

I wrote in a previous blog about Allianz the insurance company with whom we had our house insured, and how when storm Katy blew through in the March 2016, she ripped some holes in our roof and the insurance company refused to pay out because ‘we had not maintained it!’ Considering we had only lived here seven months that was difficult!

We had run out of money at that time and had no means to repair it. We listened to others and bought some tiles when we had some money left from our intermittent income believing that we would eventually accumulate enought to repair the roof, but we never did; we tried to drive circumstance and made our lives even more difficult because we were spending money we could not afford on something that was going to do nothing. As if to prove the point in the September a tornado ripped through the garden, literally! It took half the silver birch with it, and our gazebo, it carried Harley’s paddling pool off into the chemin

…but more than anything it took half the roof!

So for two years we lived with a tarpaulin. Two tarpaulins over each other in fact, after the cat ripped one!

At first Rich and I could not see how we could carry on living here, or carry on with this adventure. Other’s asked whether life was indeed trying to ‘show us the way’ and if we should give up. But at this point I had started to read the Tao, and I did not want to go home. People asked how we could live like it, but, as someone said to me “It wouldn’t be an adventure if there weren’t bumps in the road!”

So we did the only thing we could do, we carried on and believed that good things would come our way one day.

At first Rich got really stressed. worried about the timber rotting – as someone helpfully told him it would – questioned how we were living like this, but I never stopped believing; and I would read the Tao to him and eventually he ‘got it’. So whilst over the years we’ve had bowls all over the kitchen at times, and learnt how to stop water splashing everywhere, we also learnt to accept that it had not killed us, had not killed our dream and we were still here. The worry about how we would survive left us because we knew that to worry about something that you cannot change is just a waste of energy that will just bring negative shit your way; and most important of all we learned to laugh about it.

As time went by I started to read Deepak chopra and as he says:

‘You accept things as they are, not as you wish they were in this moment. This is important to understand. You can wish for things in the future to be different but in ‘this’ moment you have to accept things as they are.” 

(The Seven psiritual Laws of Success – The Law of Least Effort)

This situation has reminded me of my old life when I lived in England; then we would have stressed to the max about getting the roof fixed, got into debt, panicked, listened to others who would have said we had to get it done. We would have believed that we could not survive without it, and we would have worried about what other’s thought. Here in rural France everyone lives simply, and I find that people understand and accept when people cannot afford things and they do not judge – not our neighbours anyway. But most importantly Rich and I have learnt not to care what other’s think, to let go of our egos and just be us. I say it often, as my darling late mum used to say “All the time they are judging you they are leaving someone else alone.” A brilliant way to look at things.

So here we are over two years later and our roof is being replaced. I know that this is at the right moment of time that his has happened and I know that we had to be without that roof to show us that we did not need what we thought we did; that nothing other than ill health and death is insurmountable and that something would come along in the end and enable us to replace our roof – and come along it did. But most importantly this lesson showed Rich and I that you do not need everything that you think you do – No, not even a roof!!

Let go,  don’t force things and see what happens.

Trust – Always

Moisy

“Relinquish your attachment to the known, step into the unknown, and you will step into the filed of all possibilities. ”

Deepak Chopra (The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success.)

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To always have hope – Feels like home

16 Sunday Sep 2018

Posted by in Change is a coming, My home, Reflections, The continuing adventure, The seasons

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When we moved here, three years ago last month. our pampas grass was small and not growing well.

It was squashed between numerous pine tress that overshadowed it depriving the poor pampas grass of any light; add to that Harley would lay in it as if it was a little nest and it did not stand much chance. Despite this it continued to live, but no grasses would appear in September and stand tall and majestic with their fronds blowing in the wind.

I love pampas grasses. I always wanted it to grow, lived in hope that one day it would have huge grasses, the size of paddles, blowing in the breeze and framing our beautiful view. Well this year we choppped down most of the trees – we had to some were dead, some posed a risk to the electricity cables – and the pampas finally got the light that it needed.

‘It won’t grow’ said Rich when we talked about it one night, ‘Harley still lies in it and squashes it!’

But I held on to hope. I had started to get the vibe that this old French farmhouse, and it’s ghosts of the past two hundred years, had finally accepted ‘Les Anglais’ and realised that we loved the house as much as they had. Being French they knew that, although we had not had much money, we would do our best to look after it; and, suddenly, things started to go our way: The trees were chopped down, the front door was replaced, the gate was replaced, the water connected, we now have French vehicles, our roof will be done before winter. We have the support and help from good friends, some considered as family, and help from those who care, and as the year went on the pampas grass grew and grew.

So here we are now and this is our pampas grass

Things are changing …..

The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is
Rapidly fadin’.
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin’

Bob Dylan

Have a good weekend folks never give up, always have hope

Moisy

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Can you have too much Kindness, Empathy, or Conscientiousness?

15 Saturday Sep 2018

Posted by in Reflections, The continuing adventure, The good, the bad and the ugly.

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Kindness – the quality of being gentle, caring and helpful

This is a post to make you think, all of the questions are rhetorical, but I would love to hear your opinions.

Since living here, as some of you may know, we have experienced many people who have turned out to be (how shall I say it given the topic?) not very nice. They have taken advantage of any kindness we have shown them, any empathy that we have felt and, given their nature, most often than not totally abused our conscientiousness. In fact as I have researched this post I have struggled to find a quote that I can use for kindness.

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So it makes me wonder if the bastards are starting to beat me!

Over the past few months or so I have been thinking often if there are there times when we can be too kind? I believe that all things are lessons in life and that because I am naturally kind life is trying to tell me that I need to protect myself sometimes and not always give people the benefit of the doubt; it has made me wonder – When do we stop being kind?

I have often had it said to me that people mistake my kindness for a weakness. Is that them? Or is it me?

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I think that it may well be them and that their need and to feel superior, and to use people and abuse their kindness is because they are ultimately insecure in themselves or in their lives.

So this brings me onto Empathy.

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As some of you may know I had an incredibly stressful job back in the UK. My job was with the NHS, the National Health Service, and main provider of health in the UK. The main part of my role was to oversee all of the feedback that came into the organisations that I worked for and to improve service from that feedback. But ultimately it was to deal with complaints and concerns that came into the organisations.

Now I have a strong sense of empathy, I cry when I see other’s predicaments, my heart goes out to people and I have always, from a young age, been able to see that ‘There, but for the grace of God, go I.’ But there is a problem with having a strong sense of empathy and that is that other’s can abuse that, and eventually transfer their problem on to you and believe that you are the one either responsible for it, or solely responsible for sorting it out. Had I known then what I know now perhaps I would not have had a breakdown….

‘Empathetic Reactivity – When too much empathy is bad. With empathy, you will feel their stress, anxiety, and anger in your body. You might feel their pain emotionally and physically. … Taking on other people’s feelings so that youlive their experience can make you susceptible to feelings of depression or hopelessness’
Psychologytoday.com
Now clearly I did not learn, and since coming over here I have continued to be taught the lesson because I did not learn. There have been the lonely people, who at times were completely and utterly rude to me; but would then cry and say how lonely they were and I would go back to visit them, even though there behaviour had been bad. In fact there have been a lot of lonely people who I have had empathy with and been kind to who have then been rude to me. Perhaps now I can see why they are so fucking lonely!!
I have had negative people who, only when I have stepped away from them have I seen how negative they were. I continued to be kind to them but can only see now that they too were negative because often people stepped away from them, thereby making them lonely – there seems to be a pattern here!!
That then makes me ask the question can we be too conscientious?
The definition for consienciousness is ‘governed by conscience, to do something according to one’s inners sense of what is right – to be principled.’
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Now here lies the problem- What happens when the people you encounter don’t have any principles or conscience? Or when they do they are selfish principles where their consience will always put them first? So here you will be, with your kind empathetic principles or conscience; and there they will be with their selfish, or bigoted principles or conscience, and who do you think will end up being taken advantage of?
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I have come to realise that, through my lessons since moving here, I should remember that not everyone’s conscience considers others first; and that an awful lot of people will not take the painful course.
Add to the mix out here the ‘Have’s’ and ‘Have nots’ – the people who have money and those who, like Rich and I, live hand to mouth each day. that then makes it very difficult; because often the ‘Have’s’ more often than not, sadly, don’t have any empathy and they sure don’t have an ounce of consciousness so they take advantage of people – I am not just talking about Rich and I now because I written of this often in this blog (see ‘It’s time someone said it’ or When do you stay quiet?’) of how people have been exploited over here.
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You may have guessed that I have mulled this question over a lot over the last month, and considered life’s message and this is my conclusion:

Yes, you can be too kind. But.. I believe that you should be kind first and then see the reaction and consider it and if the other person is not kind to you don’t continue to be kind, but importantly don’t be unkind either, just step away.

More importantly always you consider yourself when being kind, do not do it to the detriment of yourself.

With regard to empathy – Yes I totally believe that you can have too much empathy. But I don’t want to lose that ability, I don’t want to be sucked into the dark side, so I have come to the conclusion that sometimes I need to reign myself in. I cannot give my all and I should not try.

With regard to conscientiousness that is easy for me, I will always be conscientious to others, because that is my prinicple, do unto others as they would do unto you. But that is a double edged sword because what do you do when they do bad things to you?! For me I will not necessarily do them back (again I don’t want to be sucked into the darkness) but I will step away. I don’t need that shit in my life anymore!

So everyone what do you think? Is there such a thing as being too kind, and what happens if we all stop being kind just because of the ‘Haters’?

Here’s what Mother Theresa had to say, and I think she is right….

Image result for kindness quotesI love giving you something to think about at the weekend!!

Moisy

Changes are coming: The crap we keep

10 Monday Sep 2018

Posted by in Change is a coming, My home, Reflections, The continuing adventure

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So here I am at 18.30, my time ,and I started to write this blog at 14.30!! That is what it seems to be at the moment busy, busy, busy…

As you know from my previous posts, with the titles including the words changes are coming, we had water fitted last week, took the pool down, met the bank manager, and decided it was time to clear out our barn.

That is one of the things when you embark on a major life change such as this, the crap you bring with you! Heed my warnings all you adventurers, you may have thought that you had got rid of all the crap you did not needm but guess what you haven’t!

Then three years later, when you decide that perhaps you should go through those boxes of stuff that you thought were so essential you paid a fortune in storage for them, and an even bigger fortune in moving costs; the same stuff that you then leave in your barn for three years (obviously because it was that essential!) only to go through it one day and say ‘What the fuck did we bring that over to France for?!

So as we climbed over the crap, (treasured possessions as once was) we realised that we had a task on our hands.

 

 

As I have said before when we moved from England we were on first name terms with the little old ladies at the cancer charity shop (sorry I don’t give cancer a capital c anymore, it doesn’t deserve it!); so much so they all shouted ‘Rich’ when he went in with even more stuff that we gave away (like an episode of ‘Cheers’ only in Herne Bay in England!)

When we moved we thought we had been mercenary, we thought we had been hard, only to discover during this task, four boxes of our son’s stuff that we could not throw away ‘because he might need it one day.’ He needs it so much that he doesn’t even know it is here. Then there was the box with chipped plates, one random saucer that had not cup to go with it, and (I kid you not) glass jars that I used to put candles in!!

There were the broken lamp shades (it is safe to say not one surived the move), broken lamps, a plastic chair (which was weird because we have never owned plastic garden chairs), old cards ( I swore I threw them all away) old postcards, T.shirts, peices of random paper and even open envelopes!! There is no room for sentimentality when you do something like this, you have to let go of the old to make room for the new.

In addition a lot of the things we had brought over with us were reminders of people who stopped being in contact when we made this move; perhaps they decided that we were a bit too ‘out there’ for them, or that we made them feel as if they may be boring. (Yep, there is an irony there!) But let us not forget I was inadvertently told recently by someone that I was ‘full of hot air.’ At least I think it was inadvertent,other than that they were just being fucking rude!! But only if I gave a crap! (Oops there goes my hot air again! Better to be that than boring!)

So we went through everything (in one half only and it took two days) and let it all go (again)

 

We also discovered that other people had used our barn as a dumping ground and we had so many empty cardboard boxes (‘for Moira’s etsy’ they used to say) some with no lids and some with shit that other people had dumped in it!! Thanks one and all, and just to get it out there, I don’t want any more boxes. If I want them I will get them, I’m that sort of gal!!

But we did find our memory box, and, because we have changed we let some of that go. You cannot hold onto the past; I let my mum’s top go. I thought that I had let it go when we moved over here, I kept it at first, after she had died, because it smelled of her, it was her favourite top and she had worn it often;  I had moved it with me three times, because I thought it kept my mum with me but when we made our move over here I clearly remember saying ‘I need to let this go’; but I must have decided that, at a time I needed moral support, then I needed to bring it with me one more time. My mum died twenty one years ago, that top is not her, her spirit is free, not in a top from Marks and Spencers! So I have, now, let it go.

We did keep George, the wooden snake that Tom picked on our first holiday together as a family to Menorca; and Srog, his frog that I bought him from London Zoo, and there was some stuff we put back and said ‘Perhaps next time we go through this we will let this go then..’ We know that we are changing all the time you see.

There is stuff that needs to be researched, as I believe it has a value now, and it would be good to pass that money onto Tom, because most of the things are his after all, like is train set, and his action men still in their packaging.

I am going to sell Tom’s beautiful cherrywood cot/bed (yes can you believe I  moved his cot over here, because my mum bought it for me); but I am letting it go. I have learnt so much over the past three years, and one of them is that material things are not necessary to keep the memories. That is such a beautiful cot that I would rather a family who needed it, had it to cherish.

On Saturday we loaded up our new van and took half of the stuff to the dechetterie (the dump) with the other half to go on Wednesday. Most of the cardboard boxes are going on the bonfire (quick all those who say you shouldn’t have fires calle the Marie!) and our barn is tidy with boxes in there (also waiting to be burnt) and we now have less than half of what was there and a tidy organised room.

 

Now all Rich has to do is sort out this lot on the other side!!

 

You might have guessed, still lots of work to be done.

But most importantly my post is to say, let go, let go, let go, life is too short, let go of the crap and good will come your way.

Moisy

Inspiration

01 Saturday Sep 2018

Posted by in People, Reflections, The continuing adventure, The good, the bad and the ugly.

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Inspiration: …

‘The action or power of moving the intellect or emotions….’

‘Fill someone with the urge or ability to do or feel something, especially to do something creative…’

‘The act of influencing or suggesting opinions ….’

I started this post a few days ago, and then life took over and showed me the way and I thought I would share this with you today, to perhaps inspire you over the weekend, whether to make change for yourself, to think, or to inspire others…..

Over the past month I have it said to me, by numerous people, that I inspire them. What a wonderful thing to have said to you!

For me, especially, it is pertinent because I started this blog to inspire others, the people who wanted to make change in their lives, to have that adventure.

So how did life show me the way?

Yesterday morning we encountered a ‘Hater’ a person who is at odds with the world, who joins in the vitriol on the group FB sites, and who hates to see people doing well. She messaged Rich to tell him how he was NOT allowed to sell his old van without certain certifications! Not content with that she then messaged him direct (all under the cloak of pretending to care) to tell him the same. Her aim was to raise his fears, hold him back, stop him selling the van. We ignored her, it is the best thing to do to people who know that they are so banal that they already invisible to most. I suppose I should be grateful, really, she was part of the inspiration to write this post, as Nora Ephron said ‘Everything’s copy!’

But it did get under Rich’s skin, until I pointed out that he was allowing her to achieve exactly what she wanted to, how he was allowing her to spoil the afternoon we had planned: to take the dogs for a lovely walk at a beautiful lake near to us. Rich listened and he let it go.

Then that afternoon at the lake I encountered a lover of life, a person who is just genuinely pleased for everyone when life is going well. A lovely lady who I had made cyber friends with many moons ago when we both re-homed dogs from the same human being (read what you will into the term I have used!)

It was a beautiful afternoon and as we walked one way around the lake she and her hubby were walking the other way. I had never met her in person, only via FB and this blog, but she knew me as soon as she saw me and said ‘ you must be Moisy’ and rushed towards me to give me a massive hug. Life had set it up perfectly to emphasise that where there is bad, there is also good. This lady reads all my posts, loves them all, was so pleased that things were going well for us, and understood how hard it had been for us. She was the good to counterbalance the bad.

I came to realise that I have achieved my aim to inspire others. Over the past month, one friend has told me how I have inspired her to sell her house and make the move into the countryside, and to believe that what she needed would come her way if she just trusted life to show her; and it did.

Another friend has been inspired to face her fears and start a blog (although she must face the fear of worrying what everyone thinks, or she won’t write anything.)

And then it got me thinking and reflecting on the past few years: On how people I don’t know have messaged me to say I have inspired them to think about the lives they are living and how they are making them ill.

Of how other people have started blogs because of mine, how I have inspired them to drop their guard, and write what they wanted. Other people have started to read the Tao, have wanted to make change, and more than anything people have encouraged me to believe in my book, and to now write one about my experiences on this adventure and have thereby inspired me.

More than anything my dear friend is now looking to live in France part-time, to make more change, God knows she’s made so much in the past year she’s almost flying now, and there’s nothing to stop her!

So who inspires you?

How would you like to inspire others?

If you asked me what inspiring others is it is …..

“To give someone the belief that they, too, can make change…”

I hope I have inspired you to think this weekend, and remember live for the moment, the only moment is now

Moisy

Embrace the moment

25 Saturday Aug 2018

Posted by in Change is a coming, Reflections, The continuing adventure, The seasons

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Summer soft

Wakes you up with a kiss to start the morning off

In the midst of herself playing Santa Claus

She brings gifts through her breeze

Morning rain

Gently plays her rhythms on your window pane

Giving you no clue of when she plans to change

To bring rain or sunshine

And so you wait to see what she’ll do

Is it sun or rain for you

But it breaks your heart in two

When you find it’s October

And she’s gone

And she’s gone

Summer’s gone

Taking with her summer’s play

Summer Soft written and performed by Stevie Wonder . From the album ‘Songs in the key of life’

Do you think that nature changes the weather so quickly and suddenly as a reminder to us all to ‘live for the moment?’ It is as if she is saying ‘Look how hot it was yesterday, but today you need a jumper! Did you enjoy the sun that I sent you? Because now it is too late…..’

Here I am, sitting in my bed, drinking tea (yep I am English after all) and the temperature has dropped to fourteen degrees, we are promised that tonight it will be six degrees and ‘chilly’.But only three weeks ago it was sizzling hot, we were returning from our sojourn in the Vendee and looking forward to an evening in the pool; and it made me wonder is this natures way of reminding us to not take anything for granted because before you know it everything will change?

As the wonderful poet Robert Frost wrote…

Nature’s first green is gold,

Her hardest hue to hold.

Her early leaf’s a flower;

But only so an hour.

Then leaf subsides to leaf.

So Eden sank to grief,

So dawn goes down to day.

Nothing gold can stay.

Living here the changes to,seasons are very clearly defined, perhaps because you are embraced by nature, she is, quite literally all around you; from the leaves on the trees dropping all around us, to the crab apples that are falling from our tree, sadly for the last time as she must go because of things new; and whilst there will still be hot days ahead the colder evenings will remind us to make the most of them.

So what will you do today?

“Sit still and embrace the moment, that’s what I say!’

Have a good weekend folks.

Moisy