One of the tasks set for me by my guide, mentor and friend, Jessica Serran  is to imagine- nay, create- in detail the exact person who will become a loyal supporter and collector of my work. We both believe that what we mould and visualise in our mind’s eye not only helps me focus when I think about how to find my audience, but if we visualise Mr or Mrs Right, the universe has an uncanny way of providing just what we need, want, and deserve. *

I won’t go into detail here about the vegan, ocean swimming, puppy breeding, multi lingual, property magnate high achiever that I imagine you to be** as in a stream of consciousness I came up with the following. Think of it maybe as a manifesto for this blog. It may, or may not ring some bells with you. If you identify with, aspire to, or feel a certain warmth towards any of these character traits, then maybe, just maybe, we are perfect for each other.

*It works. Sceptics amongst you, stay posted for future instalments on this theme.

** Just joking, no sense of inadequacy necessary.

Do You?

Do you pass through the world like a spaniel in a field of sparrows? Your head spinning with wonder at the cacophony of sights and sounds? Do you feel a tendency to overwhelm in crowds and new situations? Is the goodness sometimes just too much?

Does it feel sometimes that there is so much to see and do and learn in the world that one lifetime just isn’t enough?

Are you a sensitive soul? Were you told as a child to toughen up, and not take things personally?

 Does the world, with all its negative bias and relentless catastrophising knock you down? Do you actively seek out evidence of joy to cleanse your emotional palette?

 Are you a lover of colour? Do you see a thousand shades of green as you walk through the forest? Are you a collector of fabric swatches and paint names, colouring pencils and psychedelic socks?

 Do you bury your head in the smell of a new book, lift it at the smell of ripe tomatoes,  and dance in the smell of rain on dry soil?

 Are you able to love things you don’t completely understand?

 Do you love to roll a new word around your tongue, or fold the corner of a paperback and underline phrases and words, in an ecstasy of marginalia?

 Are you a collector of pebbles and feathers, words and quotes, which link you straight back to a space and time? Does your mind feel like a bulging scrapbook of memories, imaginings and ponderings, what-ifs, and wonderings?

 Do you walk barefoot through the grass and marvel at your connectedness with every living being? Feel life pulsing in the bark of a tree, in the breath of wind, in the rhythm of the ocean?

 Are you so highly tuned-in to your environment that your energy ebbs and flows depending on who you’re with or where you are? Do you feel it? Do you FEEL it?

Do you ride the highs and lows of life with fear and love and longing? Do you know deep down that the light shines only after the dark?

 Do you feel like the time is here to turn your back on the naysayers and the doubters, those who judge and condemn and say that their way is the only way? That with age comes wisdom and perspective and a running-out-of-time. That it’s time to Do Your Thing; live life on your terms, sing your song, dance your dance, paint like Pollock or Picasso or a five-year-old or whoever the hell you want?

 Do you question the meaning of life and whose DNA makes up your bones, which queens and scold and travellers live on in your blood, knowing that you’ve been here before and will be again?

 Do you understand that all we are doing is walking each other home, and that you have a beautiful, unique place in the world?

DO you strive to live your best life, and know, finally, that

 THIS

 IS

ENOUGH?