Mindful Meanderings

It's the "snot and grot" season here in England  and Heni has been off college for two whole weeks recently. As usual she has been trying to get an extended half term holiday!  When everyone else gets ill, she often gets it ten times worse. Fortunately, we managed to stave off the antibiotic rounds... and she returned to college at the end of last week.  For the two weeks that she has been home it has meant that hubby and I have been back on slow down mode, taking care of her needs ..... not really knowing how things would pan out...It is always very stressful when she is ill and is not usually a very pleasant time....

It has however, been quite handy that I've had some extra "sit and do nothing time"... cuddling Heni on my knee. It has meant that over the two week period I have been able to tune in and listen to the great interviews each day on the Mindfulness Summit  hosted by Meli O'Brien (aka Mrs Mindfulness).... and just sit listening....soaking everything up.
A few days ago when Heni was feeling a little brighter,  we wrapped her up in lots of blankets and set out to get some fresh air in the woods close to where we live.  As we walked around I reflected on some of the things that I had learned.

Making Memories and Traditions - Audley End House

Hubby has been away on a business trip recently and I had a full day of respite organised on the Saturday  of the week he was gone. As usual, I decided to get out of the house and go do something with Daughter Number Two and The Hungry Boy. We love to try out new venues and seeing as we hadn't used our English Heritage cards for a least a month or two, I  decided it was time get them out, dust them off and put them to use again in making some more memories! 
We left Heni at home in the capable hands of Laura and set off on our adventures to..... Audley End house. It is about an hour and a half drive from where we live and so wouldn't have been a natural choice of places to go if Heni was coming with us....plus the fact that it would be a full day out.... long trips tend to takes their toll on her these days. Seeing as it was just the three of us we packed a quick picnic, stuffed it in a cool bag and hopped in the car and headed out...

"Ponderizing Pebbles"

 

Over the last weekend we listened to General conference, two full days of spiritual uplift and strengthening gained from 5 sessions (two hours each) and 35+ speakers. It sounds like a lot of time to pay attention and listen but it just whizzes by and is like  an intensive Ted Talk session but on Spiritual steroids!
 
Just like food  is important to nourish our bodies for us to have energy and strength, I always feel like I have gained spiritual nourishment and strength from listening to  the many varied subjects and wise counsel gained from the conference talks. I always come away from listening to it feeling more balanced and with a desire to do better and be better.

One of the many talks that I liked  this year was on "Ponderizing!" Never heard of it? Neither had I.  The talk was by Devin G Durrant (you can see the whole of the talk at the end of this post) and this is part of what he said:-

Walking with Wheelchairs - Rye Harbour Nature Reserve

Its been a little while since I did a walking with wheelchairs post so I'd like to tell you about some walks we came across during our summer holiday to Rye. Literally  a few minutes stroll from our holiday cottage In Rye Harbour was a fantastic nature reserve with miles of paths  and trails to explore....there were at lease three good circular walks  which vary in length that you can do. While we were there (and had the proximity and time) we  went out on numerous days and decided to try some of the various routes. 

Making memories and traditions - Blooming In the Dahlia fields.

At different intervals throughout the year we tend to go on visits to the same local garden centre close to where we live.   Usually It's a tradition to go with the family just before Christmas  as it somehow seems the perfect atmosphere for Heni.... she enjoys seeing all the sparkly ornaments and  the multitude of pretty coloured fairy lights that attract her attention.  We also enjoy seeing what "theme" of decorations the garden centre  has put together to collect money for local charities....
BUT NO.... It IS still too early to be talking about Christmas for my liking.... and so I would like to tell you about our  Autumnal visit to the garden centre and their beautiful  Dahlia fields instead ; )

If you ask me, Garden centres are the perfect "sensory room" with lots of colour and movement going on as people push interestingly shaped and coloured trolleys here there and everywhere.