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I'm now no longer blogging on this one. Come and visit me in my new home!

Monday Moment - A treat

When was the last time you were treated to something really special, or treated yourself? In the last couple of weeks three friends have offered to treat me - to a sumptuous dinner, to a night at the theatre and to a holistic treatment. I have accepted graciously.

It also reminded me that it is so long since I really treated myself - and by that I mean treating myself without guilt, without the sense of 'I shouldn't really'. I can't remember when I last treated myself purely out of love and appreciation for me. And that I find appalling!

It doesn't have to be an expensive treat but it does have to be given and received with love. Ideally it would be something you just want rather than need.

How shall we treat ourselves this week - and every week?

Monday Moment (on Tuesday)

This is November's inspiration in the Oprah magazine. It's so lovely I thought I'd share it.


Hold onto what is good even if it is a handful of earth.
Hold on to what you believe even if it is a tree which stands by itself
Hold on to what you must do even if it is a long way from here...
Hold on to my hand even when I have gone away from you.

(From Many Winters by Nancy Wood)

Monday Moment: We will get what we focus on!

Watching the BBC news on Friday night, I was both appalled and incensed. In reporting on the economic downturn, the BBC carried a report on Corby where they had a young teenage girl staring out over a building site where work had stopped, stating that this wasteland was like her future.

I wanted to leap into the TV, grab the girl by the shoulders and yell, 'No it isn't! This is just media hype and it doesn't represent anything!'

Because the truth is that in 16 years of economic growth, there have still been failed businesses, lost jobs and stopped building works. In downturns and recessions there are still businesses that grow, build and take on staff. Job losses are not caused by recession, they are caused by businesses that are failing - and would fail under pretty much any climate - or that are restructuring, down-sizing, shifting production to countries with cheaper labour etc.

If we give the message to our youth that their future is a wasteland, then it will be. If we give out the message that regardless of the economic climate, the deal is to get creative, innovative, to look for ways to liberate your talent and to rely on your own initiative, then our youth have a much stronger chance of thriving and undoing the mess we are leaving them as our legacy.

I, for one, am focusing on the opportunities that are always there if your eyes are open enough to see them. I hope all you Divas will join me in supporting our young people and helping them believe that their future is in their hands, and not in the media wastelands!

Monday Moment: Do what you love

Last week I was speaking at the Newark Inner Wheel (the ladies circle of the local Rotary Club), which I have to say was enormous fun. I had been invited to speak about being an author of horsy humour (see here for my books). The ladies were all mature (average age 70), so I tempered some of my jokes, but they loved it and so did I.

It got me thinking that I must do more of this speaking lark, because I just really, really enjoy it. I enjoy making people laugh, putting smiles on faces, entertaining. It doesn't have to make me money (though I did sell a few books on the night which was a bonus), it can be just for pure fun. So if you have a group that needs a speaker, let me know!

In this time of doom and gloom, get out there and do something you love to do, just for the smiles. Right now we need more smiles out there!

Monday Moment Embracing your inner D.I.V.A

I'm going through an interesting time at the moment. It is clearly a time of clearing away the last vestiges of the stories that I have lived which now need to be consigned to the past so that I can live a new story. The story of a Divine, Intuitive, Vital woman with Attitude. The story of the sculpture within the marble (see the last Monday Moment). The story of a woman who owns her divine feminity, sensuality and sexuality. A woman who is certain of who she is; powerful and vulnerable, active and passive, giving and receiving - in balance.

There are four women who epitomise this D.I.V.A for me: Joanne Lumley, Honor Blackman, Felicity Kendal and Cherie Lunghi. Last nights performance of the Rumba by Cherie Lunghi on Strictly Come Dancing just embodied all of that story for me. If a picture paints a thousand words then this video of Cherie's performance says it all. Here is a D.I.V.A in action. Enjoy!

Monday Moment 6 October

Marianne Williamson is one of my favourite authors and I quote her often. I am currently reading her book A Return to Love, Reflections on A Course in Miracles. There are so many aha's in this book, I totally recommend you read it. One passage that really made me think this week was this:

'When Michelangelo was asked how he created a piece of sculpture, he answered that the statue already existed in the marble. God himself created the Pieta, David, Moses. Michelangelo's job as he saw it was to get rid of the excess marble that surrounded God's creation'.

It got me thinking - what if the 'me' I want to be is in within me already, already created and perfected? What if my job is not to try to create myself but to allow the excess marble (my fears , anxieties etc) that surrounds and hides me to be chipped away. What if I visualised that marble just falling away? What if I played out this week as though that marble had already gone, and I am everything I aspire to be? How would that change the way I think this week?

I'm going to try it and see! You might like to try it too. Let me know how it goes.

Have a great week!