L E O N I E . W I S E

venus (after surgery). banksy installation at the bristol museum 2009

so, anyone who reads this blog (or any of the blogs of emma, jo, lisa, megg, penny, sas and susannah) will already know that last weekend we all got together in a cottage in a small village in england. i still don’t (and don’t think i ever will) have the words to adequately describe the weekend, even to those that were there with me! it was a gzillion different kinds of wonderful.

the weekend was full of such openness, sharing and love that the only way to be there was as my truest self. i come home on a high, with a heart full to bursting point, fallen in love a million times over with each of the beauties i shared my weekend away with.

and i find myself returned home to the same place, the same husband, the same job, the same clothes in my wardrobe (okay, apart from a new coat purchased after being inspired by emma) and yet not the same life.

it’s the same feeling i have had upon returning home from being held in the company of women in the past; a feeling of being accepted, fully, simply as myself, then leaving that safe space & making my way out into the world once more.

and it’s hard.
hard to come home and integrate back into the world.

because i am no longer physically cocooned in a cosy cottage, within a warm blanket of loving arms, understanding and love. all i have here is me and the world.

yes, my friends are still there and still love me. but they are not here. and i am not there with them.
yes, my husband is still here and still loves me. and i love him dearly, that hasn’t changed.

but still i feel like a piece of me is missing…
it’s like all my friends suddenly grabbed their coats and left the playground, leaving me standing there alone with just the sound of the empty merry-go-round grinding slowly to a halt.

as i said before, it’s not the first time i have come home from a weekend away feeling like this. and the realisation came to me today that this is all i really have.

me. here. by myself.

so, everytime everyone else has said their goodbyes and gone home, i better bloody well be willing to love myself; to sit down with my reflection, greeting myself with the same look of love in my eyes that i have seen in others when they look at me.

that is my love after love.

Love After Love

The time will come
when, with elation
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror
and each will smile at the other’s welcome,

and say, sit here. Eat.
You will love again the stranger who was your self.
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you

all your life, whom you ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,

the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.

Derek Walcott

i am back in a place where my heart is full and my head is empty…
…because i don’t have any words to adequately describe the weekend i’ve just had with seven glorious women.

so, in lisa’s words…

the realest of real women gathered this weekend. shed, nourished, clear, expanded, relieved, and ready to give voice and take action on all possibility.

emma, jo, lisa, megg, penny, sas and susannah… i love you more than crumpets toasted over an open fire.

#814 in the 1000 things to do in britain book – join the cloud appreciation society

(yes ~t,  i can hear you laughing at me from here)

a true story about the power of love, gratitude and abundance

when my faith wavers and my eyes begin to see more despair, dirt and grit than hope in the world, something happens to remind me of the power of community…

like the little house that love built.
(back story from kelly-rae here, more from jen here and a request from my dear friend gypsyalex here)

most of you who visit any of the above inspirational beings quite possibly already know about this story. for those who don’t and who are feeling even a little despondent, without faith, or hope, or anything good to cling to, hold on to this…

in order to create there must be a dynamic force, and what force is more potent than love?
- igor stravinsky

yesterday when i looked at the chip in site of the little house that love built, the final few dollars of the $2500 that was needed had already been raised…

yet more was being given.
today, when again i visited, still more had been given.

jen shared a beautiful short story of thanks which you can listen to here

it makes my heart sing to see so many people in this amazing online community giving to another in need and it fills me with hope.

maybe if it’s hope that you need today, it will give you some too.