what lucy ate

A personal dedication, and an invitation, to be more alive this year.

Don’t be so afraid of losing life that you forget to live it. – Andrea Gibson, poet It’s been almost 10 years since this photo was taken. Looking back now, I see how tiny my body had become. How fearful I was in holding tight, hiding clenched fists as they clutched at what felt safe and familiar. Almost every moment, ruled by sharp measurements of worthiness based on how acceptable my physical…

Saving the Earth starts with putting your pointed finger down.

‘The Earth will be safe, when we feel safe in ourselves’.– Thich Nhat Hanh A reflection on International Women's Day | March 4, 2022image | Shaan R Ali This International Women’s Day is not just for the feminine. It is not just about folks who identify as women, or about girls leaning into womanhood. It’s not about perfect equality, or women ‘taking their turn’. How the quality of the feminine…

Why beauty is worth remembering, especially in the darkest of moments.

Photo | Alex Conchillos | Pexels.com All around us, the media paints a picture of a world dominated by greed, hatred, injustice, anger, grief and brokenness. This is all true. Maybe it even feels comforting, in a strange way, for us to point the finger at the Other and say ‘Look at their ignorance, their wrong-doing.’ In a world where we might feel rather lost, such contrast could be a form of…

Why writing matters: one reason, of many.

Writing as a way of clarifying.Writing as a way of connecting.Writing as a way of collecting.Writing as a way of remembering. Writing, because itgives name, gives shape, gives permissionfor this to bepart of herepart of nowseen, heard, felt, imperfect andstill, belonging. Writing, becauseperhaps this foryou, the reader may be a silken threadspiderwebcatching dewdropsstill, quiet reflections…

To collect / to experience : not the same

Collecting the momentis not the sameas experiencing the moment. If you are the photographeryou will not be in the frameyou capturebut cannot fully participate in the momentumof what is unfolding in the frame. If you are relishingthe flavours of the momentthis requires full absorptionno time to reflect. (Selfies, on an aside, are adifferent story altogether.The curated, the performativecannot…

We live in an age which places more prestige on the certainty of answers than the fluidity of questions, yet it is always the latter which sparks any journey of discovery. The more points of reference we have, and the more unique perspectives we can simultaneously hold, the closer we are to a more universal Truth. Perhaps no single human being can behold an ultimate reality (and I don’t think…

When we say something is ‘perfect’, what is it we really mean? The Oxford English dictionary links this word to the root of Latin perfectus ‘completed’, from the verb perficere: per– ‘through, completely’ + facere ‘do’. Perfect may be interpreted as the thorough, complete attending to an action or thing. This completeness can be seen as both a task being moved to its natural end, as well as a…

A Woman’s Body (Home)

A woman’s bodyand the secret spaces withinmust be the most resilient thingI have ever known. She is the container of skies brightwith sunlight, herding stormcloudsholding the inspiration of lightningand the thunder’s promiseof harmony. She is deep oceanforever dancing withchange, effervescentwithin, without –always one water. She is the rising mountain,full of stories andthe strength of…

33 years: a reflection.

33. The age my mother was, moving her family from one continent to a long white cloud of unknown islands down under. Now here I am, after 33 orbits around the sun. Privileged to hold this life of abundance, of opportunity to offer others a sense of spaciousness, self-awareness, maybe even moments of joy. This past year – for perhaps all of us – holds many new beginnings. For me, it’s included…

The simple mantra that can change a life.

‘Live deliberately.’ I found these two words perched quite innocently amidst a buffet of ripe wisdom, on page thirteen in Julia Baird’s illuminating book Phosphorescence (get a copy, read it for your soul). This simple pair of words stuck to me like cherry juice on one’s chin. A pleasant stain, a mark of something savoured, sensual, delighted in. Live deliberately. The world around us can…

How questions lead us beyond the life we admit to, and towards a life expanded.

Question everything. The question is a seed. What grows up, must also root down. Through questions, we grow more intimate with the ground of our history, and the open space of future possibilities. Questions help to establish our place in relationship to the world. An answer, in contrast, is a plucked flower. It can be a beautiful thing; captured in its finest form, elegant, fragrant and…

Life does not come in packets.

Life does not come in packets. Yet we live in a society so accustomed to having what we need (and don’t need) presented with ribbons and frills, or the sleek minimalism of tidy edges and ergonomically designed boxes. We have come to expect perfection. (Honestly, how many of us have picked up and put down an item that has a tiny dent, mark or tear in the side, even if it’s just on the…

Making meaning as meaning-makers

Our most human trait, and perhaps our biggest possible joy as thinking creatures, is to make meaning. I used to find myself feeling ‘trapped’ daily by the thoughts of what I ‘have’ to get done – always a sense of time-crunch. This is despite being in the privileged position of working for myself – and determining how I make use of the time I have. (Perhaps, when you need to be your own boss,…

On belonging, and not sleeping with armour on

If life is seen as a battle, we armour up. We appear strong on the outside. But the truth is, armour stunts us. It is heavy.It inhibits our movement.It restricts our sense of possibility. Armour, in short, prevents us from growing into our most natural selves. And while there are moments in life which require this additional shielding, we too often forget clunk into bed with it on, keeping…

We need gardeners, not consumers

We are part of the world, and came out of this world. It is our nature to be collaborators with Nature, not consumers who take endlessly. Gardeners know this. They understand that nature does not rush. They understand the power of consistency in tending and watering. They respect the cycles of fertility, not a one-way ride but a continuous re-birthing from waning to waxing.

When growing…

Dare to be bold: 5 lessons from 2018, and a poem

Oliver Jeffers | from Here We Are: Notes for Living on Planet Earth

5 things that I have gathered from a year of tentatively stepping outside boundaries of comfort. And a poem that encourages venturing out, even further, with the capacity to always come home.

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1. Truth always wins.

No matter how much we avoid, deny, reason our way around it, there is a deep inherent knowing that speaks through…

Words of Hope: A New Year’s Wish

Hope is the light that carries our vision forward, even when it gets dark.

This year, 2017, has been a rewarding year for me. But in many aspects of our shared world, it has been unbelievably dour, and really should come with the warning: ‘May cause loss of hope.’

But we musn’t. To lose hope is to give up. To choose apathy, over compassion.

We musn’t.

A wish is full of hope. So here – inspired by