I’ve mentioned how I keep hearing phrases and posts that resonate with me. This week I started to notice things which do not resonate with me and I thought about how we each have such individual lives and needs and how easy it is to get misdirected in our goals if we latch onto other people’s visions.
A friend made a post about the need to keep your mind active and that we should be continuously learning. However, I do not feel the need to actively seek out new information to enrich my mind, but this may be because I am constantly learning with my job. I’ve mentioned that I am not actually trained for my career, I have evolved into the role I perform today over the last 20 years of on the job learning and my skillset has grown rather organically based on the roles I am contracted for. I am currently working on a new type of hardware, new environments, new software and tools and new types of data on this project and it is a steep learning curve as it is new to most of us on the project. When Friday rolls around all I want is to shut down my churning mind and let it rest.
Instead, for me, my creative side is what bursts to get exercised. Whether that is my plants, my painting, my drumming and singing or my other interests that is what my soul seeks.
We are not all the same, we should not all seek the same things as we do not all need the same things. We need to each conceptualise how we want our lives to look and then actively work towards making that a reality. If you can imagine it, you can manifest it.
I have just signed up for a course called ’21 Days with the Nine Pillars of Right Relation’ which is an online offering from a shaman whose work I really trust. The topics are:
- Connecting to Mother Earth as the first step
- Knowing the Elements and their power through the Wheel
- Knowing the way of the gentle warrior
- Loving kindness
- Embrace Love
- Be Authentic
- Live in Harmony
- Understand your energetic self
- Walking Between worlds
I am really looking forward to this course. It has called me to attend.
We’ve had a busy week by my usual hermit standards.
I had Toby That Pot Guy pop in to drop off the latest pot I ordered. He custom made it for me and I am so in love with it! The shape is so sexy and goes so nicely with the larger pot. I am going to get one more pot midway between the sizes of the 2 large ones and then I shall paint them all in a range of stone, cream and other similar colours that go with the new patio paving. That then forms a physical transition from the patio area to the garden.
Toby brought up a concept that got me thinking. We were talking about positivity and attitudes and he mentioned that we choose our reaction to any event. No matter the trauma we have experienced in our past, we can choose to grow and learn from these experiences or we stagnate. Even worse, we view the world from this place of bitterness. We have to let go of things which do not serve us.
Every morning when I pray to the 4 directions I ask to have all frustration, resentment, anger and negativity removed from my heart and to be replaced with love, kindness and positivity and to keep me focused on walking the Red Road assisted by my Creator.
This week this was demonstrated clearly to me in an interaction with a guy on Facebook whom I thought was taking the mickey, but then Norm read the same thread that triggered me and told me he did not interpret it that way at all. I unblocked the guy and confirmed via messenger that my new friend did not mean what I interpreted behind his messages. That whole situation was in my head. I was seeing him through the lens of previous interactions with men who sealion you, quiz you for nonsense even though they know the situation and are just taunting you to force you to defend your viewpoints.
Toby and I were also chatting about going out vs staying in and I mentioned people tell me I need to get out more, but then there is not really anywhere I could be that I enjoy more than my own home! So maybe what I need is to have more people come to us, socialising in my own space. That also is intimidating for me, what if my food is awful, what if they are vegan and I only know to nourish them with a carrot and a salad, what if they do not enjoy the day or whatever nonsense I have built up in my head to prevent me reaching out. I am trying to overcome these challenges. I think recognising that you have a problem is the first step.
We also had another guy come around this week to quote for replacing our wooden windows. I buzzed the guy in through the gate as I thought Norm had locked Finn in the bedroom. Finn proved to us that he will defend us from strangers as he went for the guy in a very intimidating manner. He kept circling him, barking, growling, showing teeth and trying to bite him from behind for some reason. That was very reassuring (for me, not the victim of Finn’s attentions). Norm insists Finn only wants to hold onto their arm. I think that was how Ted Bundy lured in his victims, with some lame story about a dodgy arm. We managed to catch Finn and lock him away.
I also had some colleagues who were down visiting Cape Town this week and we had planned to meet up for dinner on Wednesday after work. I had a scramble through my closet to find something that fit and I managed to squeeze into a pair of jeans that are 4-5 sizes smaller than the ones I wore when I started my journey. I was pretty chuffed!
Wayne and Cheryl came to Hout Bay and we went to dinner at Dunes Restaurant which is right on the beach.
The staff sat us under cover on the patio but there was another dog there and Finn and said dog did not interact well, so we moved to a table outside.
However, this table was near the children’s play area and there were some very noisy rambunctious kids that Finn either wanted to eat or chase, we did not want to find out which objective he was aiming for. His eyes were trained on them like a hound dog sighting a rabbit. There were several families who came to talk to Finn and pet him and remark on how beautiful he is and he was always well behaved for those interactions. It was all very distracting for him and on a few occasions he lurched off, violently throwing Norm across the patio. As a result Norm’s back is buggered. Finn is so strong that I cannot deal with him at all on my own.
It was load shedding as it has been all week so we were dining by candle light. The boys both ordered pizzas and the girls both ordered the prawn curry. I tasted the pizzas and they were ok but the curry was average, the prawns were a bit floury as if thawed from frozen and the sauce had very little depth of flavour. But we do not go to Dunes for the food or the service, we go for the views and because they allow our unruly dog as long as he is not too unruly.
I’ve cooked a few times this week. I roasted a pork fillet and decided that since I had the oven on already I would roast my cauliflower too. I tossed it in a bit of olive oil, spread into the pan and liberally coated it with almond slivers and a grated hard Italian cheese.
I served it with the roast pork and coleslaw.
I had some chicken breasts to cook and I coated them liberally in garlic powder, smoked paprika and a dash of chili powder, put them spice side down in a frying pan with a coating of hot vegetable oil and let them sizzle and brown for about 4 minutes. I then popped into a baking tray and baked for about 20 minutes further with the browned side up. I fried some mushrooms then added a bit of creamed cheese, cream, chicken broth and various other bits and bobs tasting until it was yum. I parboiled then fried my brussel sprouts and I pan fried some asparagus in lemon butter. It was all low carb, nutritious and yummy.
Last night we had load shedding from 6pm to 8:30pm and so we ordered take out. I had sushi.
Today is a gorgeous sunny day and I will be in my garden instead of doing all the other things I should be doing. But that is OK, those things will still be there when I decide to do them. I have already done my morning prayer ceremony but I will be spending part of the day in prayer with my crystals as a friend has asked for healing for a family member.
Tomorrow is a very busy day for me. I have drumming in the afternoon with a new drum leader and we are starting to practice the songs that we will perform at the Dance to Heal the Earth (DTHTE) next year. Then for dinner Norm and I have a date night. Mark is kindly looking after Finn so we can have some alone time and consume dinner without a handful of dog treats in the other hand to distract the beast. This is one of the Restaurant Week bookings I have made for us. I will tell you all about it next week.
Until then, have a wonderful week ahead. Kisses from the Kitten xoxoxox
Kitten in the City 