BLUEBELL WOODS

Juliette Llewellyn 07

Quote

'People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within.'
Elizabeth Kubler-Ross

Quote

'When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives means the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving much advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a gentle and tender hand. The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing, not curing, not healing, and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is a friend who cares.'
Henri Nouwen, Out of Solitude

Quote

'Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born'
Anaïs Nin, Diary entry, March 1937

ECLIPSED SANCTITY

If I am to tell you what it is truly like to live with such hidden restrictions, would you believe all I had to say? It would be opening the floodgates of another, unknown world, a place where I reside each day.

A place where I have found myself to exist rather than chosen to be.

I wake up and draw back the curtains of my mind, letting the sunlight in, warm rays pouring sweetness on troubled thoughts. Easing gently in to the morning, I breathe deeply knowing that perhaps anything is possible if I allow it to be so.

If I just entertain the idea that I am magnificent, that my spirit soars far above the sky and world as we know it, gathering wisdom to aid in the hours to follow, then I know I am freer than I feel. The space between myself and others is perhaps less and I can make connections through the vastness of life and intricacies of being.

Finding warmth in which I can relate and make my world understood is possible. No longer do I have to feel that I am alone with this.

Breaking free of the misunderstandings is liberating.

To be accepted is bliss.

SILENT SPRING

Inside resides
Deep soul
Connects to nature
Green and bare
Lays full
For all to feel
Moving gently
In the breeze
Catches cold on face
Dusts sleepless
Eyes, brushes lashes
heavy to rest
Bird on wing
Soars freely over
High in sky
As flowers spread
Yellow celandine
Fresh and far
Winding base of trees
In delicate spiral

Juliette Llewellyn
early 04/07

'what happens when you lose everything, you start again, start all over again'
Apply Some Pressure
Mark Ronson

SUN SHINES ON.....

Life blooms all around, with pink blossom lightly spreading its branches in to the sharp spring air. Standing elegantly on the base of our earth the trees breathe deeply providing the lungs to our planet. Solid they grow though the years of our lives which fleetingly grace this world.

Witnessing nature is therapeutic, reminding us that life continues regardless of what is happening inside us. Flowers burst open, birds fly upwards and the sun always shines, whether we can feel it or not. Some days pass us by but if we can just notice the changing elements a connection begins to flow again. A connection to something more powerful than our lives can maybe ever be.

Breathing eases our collective psyche, I begin to see the beauty in life again…….

Quote

'Surround yourself with only people who are going to lift you higher.'
Oprah Winfrey

SPRING

Juliette Llewellyn 07

Quote

"Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication."
Leonardo da Vinci

DUNRAVEN BAY

Juliette Llewellyn 07

'if i gave you my heart
in the deep of the night
would you hold it
like a candle
giving you light'

If I Gave You My Life
Justin Nozuka

"Failure will never overtake me if my determination to succeed is strong enough."
Og Mandino

'Whatever happened to the dreamers?
They always looked beyond the sky
They saw a world they could believe in
But only when they closed their eyes....

.....Nothings ever been this way before
A dream is just a dream, nothing more'

Dreamers
Jack Savoretti

INTO GREAT SILENCE

http://www.diegrossestille.de/english/
http://www.zeitgeistfilms.com/film.php?directoryname=intogreatsilence

Stillness slips
Into peace
Into love
Luscious green nature
Always present
Just is
Soft steps tread
Heavy stone
As rain falls
Rhythmically
Into deep pools
Bell tolls
And voice
Finds faith through
Candle lit vespers
Lightly clad in
Cream folds
God is here

Juliette Llewellyn
08/03/07

Upon The Sand

All love that has not friendship for its base,
Is like a mansion built upon the sand.
Though brave its walls as any in the land,
And its tall turrets lift their heads in grace;
Though skilful and accomplished artists trace
Most beautiful designs on every hand,
And gleaming statues in dim niches stand,
And fountains play in some flow'r-hidden place;

Yet, when from the frowning east a sudden gust
Of adverse fate is blown, or sad rains fall
Day in, day out, against is yielding wall,
Lo! the fair structure crumbles to the dust.
Love, to endure life's sorrow and earth's woe,
Needs friendship's solid masonwork below.

Ella Wheeler Willcox
American Poet, Journalist & Freethinker

Poems of Passion by Ella Wheeler
Chicago : Belford, Clarke & Co, 1883.

'To unpathed waters, undreamed shores.'
William Shakepeare

'It is never too late to be what you might have been'
George Eliot (1819 - 1880)

FEBRUARY 9TH: MANY HAPPY RETURNS...

Another year older. I awoke and the snow was already falling. It had often snowed on my birthday. Delicate flakes patterning the Close. My neighbour’s black and white cats padding their precious paws through the whiteness leaving a trail of small footprints behind. This was the only sign of life which graced the wintry scene as I looked out of my flat window.

Today is the day where I grow. I remember why it is I am alive on this earth. Although, at this moment in time that purpose fails me. I know it is to enjoy every moment that I am fortunate to have brought my way. For that is the beauty of life when it works well, those pleasant surprises that pop in to our life unexpectedly and leaves us smiling for hours and days to come. It helps you to forget those tough times that you struggle through to reach the end of a day and then can’t remember what it was that you had set out to achieve. Sometimes it almost doesn’t matter so long as you quietly looked after your self, ate well, was restful and remembered that although different, your life was as important as those who are busily rushing about their day’s business. Connecting to the web of humanity is as important as breathing.

As the snow falls deeper I pray that friends will still be able to make my meal this evening. Something I am looking forward to sharing. Reaching my birthday after all these years I feel I want to celebrate that I have got to here. My neighbour passes with his fawn quilted body warmer and later, Dad arrives togged out in a black fur Russian winter hat! People are walking the street in their winter boots and gloves. Yes, snow has definitely arrived. Time for the day to begin…..

DELICATE WHITE

Feather soft love
Surround us tonight
Glowing with warmth
Sweetness delight
Wafting your wings
Brushing our skin
Feather soft love
Caressing within

Juliette Llewellyn
04/03/05

ICE AIR

Snowflakes fall
Melting
Deliciously into earth
Below
Stands solid
Delicate, soft touch
White layers upon
Layers patterned
With lightness
Weightless
Free
Dissolving droplets
Sliding fast
The cycle goes on

Juliette Llewellyn
07/02/07

UNITY

Together as one
We unite
We collide
Collaborating many
Until we decide
Upon a direction
An open slide
Over the edge
And into the wide
Abyss of universe
Galaxy pride
Together as one
We ride

Juliette Llewellyn
03/03/05

THE MUSLIM WORLD ON YOUR DOORSTEP EXHIBITION: NATIONAL MUSEUM OF WALES

The Triptych
lays subtly before us
ethereal white
barely there

The veil hides femininity but woman’s essence is still present. From each angle the female is viewed, the shape which is indicative of Muslim culture. To hide that much is alien to me as a western woman. To be free in expression is something I have taken for granted.

In fact clothes and my outward identity have helped me through many a difficult period in my life. I lost myself when I didn’t dress for 11 months, no longer did I have a connection with the world. Yet now I try to find some softness through clothes, sourcing organically produced fabrics, kinder to ourselves, our soul and planet.

So, maybe for me, the jilbab covers too much. Making for an androgynous figure. Although, I am told, the women feel secure in their dress, offering what is called hijab: modesty.

Our outward identity is a powerful force in this world
It is inside the layers that our faith burns brightly



Footnote:

Triptych: art consisting of a painting or carving on three panels (usually hinged together). In this instance it was 3 large scale photographs of a woman artist wearing the jilbab.

Jilbab: In modern day usage, jilbāb (Arabic جلباب) refers to a long, flowing, baggy overgarment worn by some Muslim women.

The modern jilbāb covers the entire body, except for hands, feet, face, and head. The head is then covered by a scarf or wrap. Some women will also cover the hands, feet, and face.

NEW YEAR

Just to be able to live more fully in the world would be the greatest achievement for me this year

To scatter freely upon the fields our thoughts of yesterday; to become apparent what we yearn for inside; to bloom like bright flowers, petals open in the sun; to stretch ourselves expansively in to the future, unfettered from the past.

Holding this thought we create the masterpiece of life for all to see. Colours glow vibrantly with all the energy we have to give them, even on grey days, finding a droplet of light to guide us home again. Each New Year is a blessing. Truthfully to be alive sensing our world is a delicate balance.

Time to think what would truly bring happiness. Is it really the things that we believe would? Or something deeper, more poignant and lasting. Something we can’t quite grasp to put in to words. Intangibility touches the very essence of our soul.

CHRISTMAS

The day is bright as the winter sun peaks through the clouds. Glittered snowflakes decorate the window and handmade silver paper chains hang from the wall. Fresh, dark green eucalyptus adorns the room bringing vibrancy to December.

Christmas can be a time of transition and of memories. When you are in a state of flux, neither part of the ill or well world you exist in a space somewhere in between. Seeing all the winter cheer around but not quite being able to fully join in the merriment. Knowing there is happiness to be had and sometimes even feeling a warm glow inside but it passes as fleetingly as the white snowflakes fall.

Hope lies inside that things can be better. A fresh year lays ahead as another year of dreams fades away.

TO START...

Stepping out in to life again after a period of long illnesses is like a butterfly emerging from its cocoon in Spring. Its wings are beautifully patterned but delicate from the time spent wrapped up tightly away from life. The fresh air breathes newness in to the body of the butterfly and it spreads its wings, taking flight in to the air.

Remembering we have the freeness this butterfly has when we move in to the groove of our shattered life at this time is important. Although we may not feel free still in many ways and still have much work to do in overcoming our limitations, it is still important we have faith in ourselves as people. This is the most vital gift we can give ourselves.

It is during the years that have past that our faith can sometimes have been shaken. When your body and mind have been pulled through endless and chronic pain, ill health and fear you feel that are unable to rely on yourself to function in our world. It is a painful place to exist but also in some ways, a place of growth.

Even though, at times, the growth is in a direction that you’d rather not be taking.