The value of being present

How often have you felt that time is moving slowly? An image that comes to mind is a blistering hot day when it feels as if the tarmac is going to melt rather akin to some Dali painting. As the heat beats down, time seems to almost stop.

Alternatively when you have two children under two it can feel as if one is stuck in groundhog day as one day rolls into another. The repetition can be mindnumbing and the isolation intense.

At other moments, it is as if time speeds up. Before you know it the eldest is improving their fine motor skills, the youngest is chomping at the bit at the thought of going to pre-school and having a scene on the days she is unable to go. This week's favourite game in our house is "packed lunch". The newly acquired lunch box and water bottle feature big time. The former is filled with all kinds of pretend food, toy plates and cutlery from the girls' kitchen and the garden becomes the picnic site.

As I contemplate these changes, I am aware that I used to yearn for the time when nappies would be a thing of the past. Last Wednesday night another milestone was reached when the 2 3/4 year old had her cot transformed into a bed. Sunday night she went through the night without a nappy for the first time and was dry so that was yet another change. How different it has been from the experience with the first child. It was exciting when the elder reached each of these milestones and I could not wait for her to do it. Second time round the growing up of the younger has been tinged with sadness. There are no more babies in the house nor will there be more going forward. So as the youngest leaves one stage behind there is a sense of finality, of a door closing.

Reflecting on this helps me to realise why it is so important to enjoy each phase of one's children's lives because they move on so quickly. What I am holding onto from this week was the joy that the youngest felt from owning a lunchbox which had Thomas, Pingu, Fireman Sam and Bob the Builder on it. It is lovely to witness such joy at so small a thing. Oh to be able to hold onto that sense of innocence or recreate it as an adult. Helping clients to understand the importance of being present and rekindle that sense of delight and playfulness is part of what I do.

This post has been written for Josie's Writing Workshop and the prompt I chose was time.

The green shoots of change

Lately I have been writing fewer posts on the blog and there are many reasons for that, one of which is that I have not felt the urge to write. Tonight despite the lateness of the hour, I feel as if I am walking on air; it is as if I am seeing green shoots appearing in a landscape that felt rather barren up until now.

I am wrestling with what could be a huge change in my life and at the moment I am not ready to share the details with you. Suffice to say that it made loads of sense when my good friend Michael, who is into all things astrological said that we are in the midst of huge transition. What I have read it to mean is that we are moving from a time which has been characterised by lack of structure and subtlety to the point of frustration, to a time of action. Bring it on is what I say.

It is not a seamless transition, there is often a whole load of flotsam that comes with it. I have certainly had my share in the last 24 hours which has included finding an infestation of carpet beetle in the house to putting unleaded petrol into a car that takes diesel! There is more I could mention but that's in the past and I want to focus elsewhere.

Two great things have come to pass today. I found out that I have been selected to coach a senior person from a professional services background which is wonderful because the client could have chosen others! The second was stumbling across a group of fantastic, resourceful women. I attended something as a piece of research for an idea that I have and came away with so much useful stuff that I did not expect which was very uplifting.

I am sharing all this with you because it is often when we are at our lowest ebb, when we think that we can take no more that something shifts and new opportunities appear. If this resonates with you, then reflect on the message of Coelho's The Alchemist. We tend to face our biggest challenges as we near our goal. Don't give up, keep believing.

This photo is brought to you courtesy of JBPhotographer

Coincidence or serendipity?

This is the first time this week that I have actually felt like blogging and that is because I have something to share. I am just back from a few days in Bath where I visited my Mum with the girls. We all had so much fun and I thought that as part of the half-term break that it would be good to keep my time on the laptop to a minimum so that I could really focus on the girls.

It is funny how the Universe works. I was reading through the invitations I had received to connect on Linkedin and noted one from Kath Roberts. The first thing that drew my attention was her request to connect - she had taken the time to give some reasons. I then went over to check out her profile and discovered that her business was called Alchemy4thesoul. It really resonated with me and I am indebted to her because her business summary provided the encouragement that I needed to update mine so that it reflected my primary focus at the moment. I was about to sign off when I noticed that her location was Bath which is exactly where I was.

Intuitively I knew that we should meet and that is exactly what we did this morning for just over an hour in Bath where we had a coffee. What struck me about Kath was her naturalness. There was no posturing and yet it was clear that she was steeped in spirituality, if that's possible.

We shared our stories and all too soon it was time to get back to the girls. It felt too soon as there were so many other questions I wanted to ask her. Then I realised that it was just the start of our connection and that will be more and so I relaxed. Her parting gift was to mention two books that it would be worth reading and the funny thing is that I was only just thinking that I wanted to read more spirituality books.

I am so glad to have met Kath and for our paths to be connected even if it is only for a short part of our journeys through life. I have shared this with you because the more we open up to our whole selves, the more opportunities and enriching experiences come our way.