THE BOOK I AM PREGNANT OF

I have started to write my book this morning.

Something has happened in this last week that has deeply upset my life for a few days at the point that I have almost decided to stop writing. Then I thought whatever happens in your life, there is always a good reason, find it and work on yourself.

I must say, it is not an easy task. The natural inclination is to blame others, our life and the unfortunate destiny. But what about our responsibility? Becoming aware of the responsibility we hold in every single event happening in our life is freedom from the burden of feeling stuck and powerless. So I realized that I had to put into practice what is purely knowledge and wisdom.

All of a sudden I realized that I was postponing the pleasure of starting writing my book for the inner fear of not succeeding oh gosh how can you fill in hundreds of pages? Finding daily excuses just to be busy and not to sit in front of my computer, face to face with my everlasting dream of being a writer.

So this morning I sat and started writing.

My intent is to write letting the flow of my story and feelings go on and on. I do not know where I am going to land and how, but I have told myself not to judge my writing until the book is finished. I will not let the Censor be the dictator of my life and pull me down. That is my life, I take the responsibility to LIVE IT.

I had the inspiration for this story in August last year, while I was spooning the most exquisite pulses soup to my family it is winter in South Africa, we have lots of hot soups… it was like a lightning on a summer day: unexpected. I started to cuddle the idea, to nurture the inspiration but I was still far from the action of sitting and writing. You know the idea of realizing something is harmless; the action of realizing the idea can be harmful. At least I was using this “philosophy” as excuse to avoid coming into action.

Till the accident occurred few days ago. This accident led me to think I want to stop writing and do something more “useful” in life; I was about to give up. But this morning I just sat and started to write. I looked at the computer screen with tender love and thought hi there, I am here. We are going to spend quite a long time together, I am sure we’ll be friends. I will not judge you and you won’t judge me. We’ll be supporting each other with love and care.

After I wrote the beginning of the book, I had to be back to my motherhood’s duty of fetching the kids from school, bringing them to swim, going to the supermarket, fetching my boy after the soccer match, healing his wounds, checking on the homework and on the piano practice, baking pizza for dinner yeah, that was tonight’s menu and putting them into bed before sitting again, in front of my lap top, to write this post.

But today, I did all this feeling in love…I was deep in though and cheerful like when you are in love for the first time in your life.

I realized that I had my inspiration exactly nine months ago…The picture is clear now, the book I am pregnant of is ready to be delivered.

Ah…what a joy.

I might be busy in the next future but I will try to keep on reading your posts and writing my blog, keeping you updated on how the baby is growing.

Strong and healthy…

Love&Rainbow

Copyright2010LorenzaVerdini

MOTHER'S DAY

Mother’s Day has just gone by.

I have never been too fond of celebrations which I feel too commercial (sorry I really dislike Valentine’s Day… I cannot help it) but I start to appreciate the importance of being celebrated once a year.

If we take it as a “healthy pit stop” it is really worth while giving time to reflections.

So I did. I took my kids out for lunch and I made the point of my “motherhood career” while having delicious Italian food.

I was asking them what are my best and strong sides and behaviors and what they dislike or feel irritated of. If they don’t tell me, I don’t know…

So, one at the time, they spoke to me.

I felt they struggled in finding the downsides for a simple reason: because children’s love is unconditional. I know where I have to improve and I pointed it out, but they seemed to focus on the positive sides.

Again, another good lesson of Life.

So, half amazed and half comforted I ended up ordering pavlova for everybody and the best espresso for me.

I was spoiled from the morning as they prepared breakfast for me and my small girls wrote nice cards.

I sent messages to my friends and I got back some nice ones that I like to quote:

Happy mother’s day to all the mothers! God made them as he could not be everywhere!

ROOM SERVICE!

Good morning, a special breakfast for you today: a glass of CARE, plate of LOVE, cup of PEACE, a jug of SUPPORT and a big bowl of PRAYERS!

Have a happy Mother’s Day!

A mum has strengths that no one will ever know. She can handle trouble and carry heavy burdens…she holds happiness, love and opinions. She smiles when she feels like screaming. She sings when she feels like crying, cries when she is happy and laughs when she is afraid. Her love is unconditional! There is only one thing wrong with her, she sometimes forgets what she is worth! HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY!

Beautiful people reflect God in their lives. They think His thoughts, speak His words, and love without end. May you always remain as beautiful a mother as you are! Happy mother’s day

The blessed mother of four children and a woman radiating beauty and goodness all around her. Have a lovely and restful Mother’s Day!

To all our beautiful soul mates, as mothers we applaud and celebrate your love that no one can explain. It is made of deep devotion and of sacrifice and pain, it is endless and unselfish and enduring come what may. For nothing can destroy it or take that love away. It is patient and forgiving when all others are forsaking, and it never fails or falters even though the heart is breaking…It believes beyond believing when the world around condemns, and it glows with all the beauty of the rarest, brightest gems… It is far beyond defining, it defies all explanations, and it still remains a secret like the mysteries of creation…God bless you all for our evergreen lives. Have a spectacular day

I really had an unforgettable day.

Love & Rainbow

THANK YOU NO. 44

In the last past few weeks I have struggled in finding my inner voice , the one which has to come out louder, laughing, joyful, childish. The one that makes me see the point of blogging and writing.

I guess it is a physiological way to go through. ok... I accept it, I am human. The bionicle woman exist only in the comics...I guess one of the lessons I have to learn in this life time is to fight for the important things , to stand up for what I believe in; and as there are things which still hurt me deeply I have taken the decision, probably shocking for some of you, to go see in my past lives to see what are the "unsolved issues" that come back into my life.

For those, who like me, believe in the immortality of the soul, the karma and past lives, we all know that we bring strong impressions from our past lives and what we bring in, usually is unsolved issues. So whatever we resist, persist. It is time now to make it clear.

As weird as it might appear, I want to find out, to unfold the knots which still make me feel bound in the wrong way. So, I ll probably go through a past lives regression process soon.

In this big melting pot of controversial feelings, I have also been thinking to stop blogging, purely because I have lost the goal of my inner fire . But today, when I bumped into my blog, I saw a new follower, no. 44 oh wow!!! and this went straight to rekindle a little bit of the lost fire. But it also went to my heart.

Thank to you all but thanks to no. 44 as you are an important number in my life.

Love& Rainbow

WHAT KILLS CREATIVITY?

I had a sudden thought last night.

One of those simple thoughts that feels “uncomfortable”:

what kills creativity in the human being?

Creativity is pulled down every day of our life, and this is a non recognized crime.

It is the society’s crime based on the principles or pillars of “what is to be done, what is good to do”.

So, our society provides us with pre-built paths of life, which are, according to the common sense, the good ones to follow.

We want for our kids an “established” life, because this is the safest way to go to pay bills, to afford “good education”, to buy a house, to get married, to have a stable job. In all this, we never take care of mind and feelings.

We do not teach our kids how to focus on happiness and how to be a fulfilled being. When we recognize a talent in our child, we immediately put it on a competition level. The child must be no.1!

Then, we just teach them what we were taught. We lack trust in them and we can destroy easily their freedom to express themselves and self-esteem.

So there is no evolution. And worse, we kill the Artist Child in each of us from early age.

Creativity for me, as a broad meaning; I believe we are all creative beings as creativity resides in our Inner Self. We create life, we create our reality, paintings, photos, poems, problems and their solutions. We create every single instant of our life, creativity is a synonym of Life. The thing is that most of us do not acknowledge this power, so it exists like a dormant force, or a negative pole into our daily routine.

And enthusiasm dies. Biologically enthusiasm cannot die before 70 years of age but researches have shown that nowadays it dies at 15 years of age. We have depressed teen agers who will turn into stressed and unsatisfied adults, who will most probably develop some kind of disease sometimes in their lives.

Good to know. But who really knows?

Some people wake up at a certain stage of their life, I am one of those. What we usually do is to deny what makes us happy if it does not “match” with the general rules of society. So we give up writing because it is impossible to publish, we give up painting because it does not pay the school, we give up dancing because it is time to get married and on and on the list can be long.

How many of us are living the lives they really wanted to live? Just because we do not believe in the power of creativity anymore.

We are creative Beings. No one is deprived of creativity, but most of us build up the conviction that we are not.

I like to quote the BASIC PRINCIPLES OF CREATIVITY according to Julia Cameron:

1. · Creativity is the natural order of life. Life is energy, pure creative energy.
2. · There is an underlying, in-dwelling creative force infusing all of life, including ourselves.
3. · When we open ourselves to our creativity, we open ourselves to the creator’s creativity in within us and our lives.
4. · We are, ourselves, creations. And we, in turn, are meant to continue creativity by being creative ourselves.
5. · Creativity is God’s gift to us. Using our creativity is our gift back to God.
6. · When we open ourselves to exploring our creativity, we open ourselves to God: good orderly direction.
7. · As we open our creative channel to the creator, many gentle but powerful changes are to be expected.
8. · It is safe to open ourselves up to greater and greater creativity.
9. · Our creative dreams and yearnings come from a divine source. As we move toward our dreams, we move toward our divinity.

What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters, compared to what lies within us. Ralph Waldo Emerson

Let’s fly high.

Love&Rainbow

Copyright2010LorenzaVerdini

MIRACLES

"MIRACLES ARE EXCEPTIONS TO THE RULES FOR WHICH SCIENCE HAS NOT FOUND ANY LOGICAL ANSWER OR EXPLANATION. A PHENOMENON SUCH AS A FLOWER OPENING IS ALSO A MIRACLE"

H.H.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

I wanted to write a post to celebrate the miracle of Life.

I wanted to express my deep gratitude for every single thing in my life, including my problems, because it is thank to them that I can challenge myself and learn to go through everything with a smile on my face.

It is thank to the OPPOSITES in life that I have learnt to appreciate.

I do not have many words today, so I express it with these photos taken by my daughter.

Love & Rainbow

Photos Copyright2010LaviniaMustapha

YUMMY AND SIMPLE

This is the simple and yummy menu I cooked for Easter.

1.CANNELLINI BEAN BRUSCHETTA

· 1 can of cannellini beans

· 5 fresh tomatoes

· 3 tbsp olive oil

· 1 garlic cloves

· sun dried tomatoes in oil, drained and finely chopped

· 2 tbsp finely chopped rosemary

· salt and ground pepper

· fresh basil leaves to garnish

· Italian-style bread

Put the tomatoes in boiling water for 1 minute, peel them and chop the flesh. Heat the oil in a frying pan, add the fresh and sun-dried tomatoes; crush the garlic clove into the pan and add the rosemary. Cook until the tomatoes are soft; add the cannellini beans to the mixture, season to taste and mix well. Grill the slices of bread and spoon the cannellini and tomato mixture on top of the toast. Drizzle with olive oil and garnish with basil.

HHHmmmm….enjoy it!

2.RIBOLLITA

· 3 tbsp olive oil

· 2 onions, chopped

· 4 carrots, sliced

· 4 garlic cloves, crushed

· 2 celery sticks, thinly sliced

· 4 large courgettes , sliced

· 400 gr. can chopped tomatoes

· 2 tbsp pesto

· 900 ml vegetable stock

· 400 gr. can cannellini or borlotti beans

· salt and ground black pepper

Heat the oil in a large pan, add the onions, carrots, garlic and celery and fry approx for 10 minutes. Add the courgettes and fry for a few more minutes.

Add the tomatoes, the pesto, stock and beans and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat, cover and simmer for at least 30 minutes, till the veggies are tender. Season with salt and pepper.

Grill a couple of slices of Italian-style bread per person, put it on the plate and spoon the vegetable soup on top of the bread. Drizzle with olive oil.

This second dish is typical from Tuscany where they use a specific kind of cauliflower that I have not found here in South Africa. Still this variation is light, healthy and delicious.

In the next post I will write about the trick to make the perfect lasagna and the recipe of my pearl barley salad…

Bon Appetit

Copyright 2010LorenzaVerdini

SOUTHAFRICAN EASTER

We had a lovely Easter day at my best friend house.

She lives in a beautiful place in the nature, 10 minutes driving from my home. The way to reach her place is really countryside; it is incredible, in Johannesburg! The road skirts riding schools and horses browse on the meadows like kings of Life, untouched by earthly things and weather. It is a breathless landscape and while I drive to reach the destination I cannot help feeling that time stops and I am in such a state of bliss. I am listening to wonderful acoustic guitar music; the kids are quiet, also captured by the beauty outside. I relax, and although I know I have got to get there, I wish I could stay and whisper in the horses’ ears…

There is a nice smell of homemade cooked food in the car; I have been cooking since early morning for our lunch, not at all the typical Italian dishes that we eat for Easter, but still very Italian. My friend is Portuguese from Mozambique, a very Mediterranean special soul. She’ll be cooking baccalao the national fish dish in Portugal. We reach her property, 10.000 square meters in the nature, with the most incredible view, her golden retriever Rocco running happily to us and her twins, who are 7 and are my youngest daughter’s best friends since we moved to South Africa welcome us saying “ hey guys you know that Limbs has caught and killed the snake?” yes, this is real. We are in Africa, after all. They are talking about the snake that was hiding in the garden; a real spitting African cobra…brrrr I shiver ….. At least we know that today the kids will be able to run for the Easter eggs hunt without risk of meeting the non-invited snake…

So I set out for the kitchen, hmmmm I have the feeling I am going to spend quite a long time in here today but I am so glad I can have a privileged time with my special friend catching up about our busy lives in the kitchen.

How many feelings do we share alone or with the beloved ones in the kitchen? It is such a central place in our nests… So we start having coffee and, after a while, probably a long while, we realize that the other friends will arrive in no longer that half an hour and we still have to cook the vegetarian lasagna and the baccalao! I get my focus back to the béchamel sauce and all the rest, forgetting about the coffee, the dogs, the kids and I feel grateful that I decided to cook half of the things early in the morning. So the sauce for the bruschetta is ready, the ribollita (typical Tuscan vegetable soup) as well, and the barley salad too!!! Phew, they could be hungry! Somehow we manage to get everything ready, the baccalao smells so good but I am vegetarian since January so I’ll give up the pleasure of good champagne and this delicious fish.

Everybody arrives and, as a usual, we’ll be eating much later that we would think, so there is plenty of time to finish cooking and lay down the table with a nice table cloth, candles, small chocolate eggs oh no! I forgot my camera again!

The kids look like real warriors. There are three couples of 7 years old twins (six!) plus my kids and this is so special! But everything goes well, some boys fall into the pool, some others climb the trees, the girls are interested in stealing make up and wearing heels but when the never ending lunch is finished for them they polished their plates in one minute they start waiting for the highlight of the day: the Easter eggs hunt. I can say that the dads have lots of fun in hiding few kg. of chocolate in the huge garden, probably some of this chocolate finds the way of their stomach before finding a quiet corner to hide…

The hunt is like Katrina, the hurricane. And it last 3 minutes. I mean, I was in the kitchen, probably looking for the sugar, and it was OVER! The boys found all the chocolate in such a short time that we have to beg them to share it with the girls. Now the concept of gallantry is really “stinky” for 7 years old dirty and barefoot boys! So what? We appeal to the more popular “sharing is caring” till the moment when the twin sisters of the twin boys decide that it is time to fight.

So they all start running after the boys and, in the general stampede, some of the eggs fall from the boys plastic bags.

Happy warriors girls with the new spoils in their hands. It is time to put on a DVD, something cool and not too exciting.

I look at the landscape and I see the most beautiful sunset. I know this is the sunset that our kids will be enjoying in few years time and I know, again, that we are all ONE.

In the next post I will write about the menu and the recipes !

Bon Appétit

Love&Rainbow

Copyright2010LorenzaVerdini