Category: inspire14

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Artful beauty

20140202-123334.jpgThe last 24 hours have been super thought provoking for me. After publishing my blog yesterday Excuses I have been deep in thought about what truly is beautiful.

At the same time on my instagram account, I started a instagame encouraging my friend to Occupy Social media with Art rather than selfies, Shark debates, Bit Strips, weird recipes and more.

To fill our worlds with beauty rather than the overwhelming tide of opinion, debate and consumerism.

How often do we feel overwhelmed in our need for perfection when we were created to evoke beauty in our originality?

This sanitised world we live in promotes perfection, it promotes more clothes, more debt, more belongings, a better car, a better husband, a better blog, a better instagram. If only we had just one more thing, we would feel beautiful and therefore happy and content.

A new car is not going to fulfil you.

The satisfaction of a new outfit will be short lasting.

New shoes, new boobs, new friends, new house… The list is ever growing.

As we purvey each others lives through iphone shaped screens, we are silently sinking in the belief that if I just had that…I would feel so much better.

So I am encouraging you, to surround yourself with beauty.

A quote that inspires.

A painting that evokes emotion.

A book that challenges you on the inside.

Maybe it is time that we deal with our dissatisfaction from the inside out.

One insecurity at a time.

With vulnerability and courage.

Giving away what we have to de-clutter our lives from the crumbling walls of our consumerism.

Living in beauty rather than debt, living lightly knowing what truly satisfies eternally than momentarily and fleeting.

All my love

Amanda

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Excuses

20140201-203246.jpgBeing pregnant has amazing benefits; growing nails, growing hair but many challenges as well.

Exhaustion

Weight gain

Lethargy.

Honestly I have been struggling with my weight this pregnancy. I hadn’t lost the weight from my first pregnancy, I was exercising and we eat mostly well, but I really wanted to be in a better place before falling pregnant again.

It’s funny, because this area of my life, affects my inspiration, it affects my productivity, it affects my marriage.

It is core to every part of me.

The last 12 weeks or so, I have been pretending that it is no big deal, but really it is.

Every week as I grow bigger and do less exercise, I am feeling worse and worse.

So today I took charge.

This monday a new round of Michelle Bridges 12 week course begins and I have decided to do the pregnancy program.

I have put it off so many times because I use the excuse of pregnancy, busyness, life, anything to stop me from making a commitment that will take charge of my health.

It is a big commitment, but I am believing taking hold of all the excuses of why I shouldn’t and bringing forth all the reasons why I should, I have committed to making change.

Pregnancy can’t be my excuse anymore. I will be healthy about it, but not exercising is not an option.

The way I eat and the way I exercise, clearly affects my mental health and my inspiration output.

My creativity is directly affected by the way I treat my body.

My relationships are directly affected by the way I exercise and consequently feel.

No more excuses.

What are the excuses that are stopping you committing to something that really needs to change in your world?

12 week’s starts on Monday.

Oh my.

Amanda

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Tomorrow

20140130-143145.jpgThe last week has been full of much bad news. Accidents, Illness, Job concerns, Property being stolen, you know those weeks.

I still choose to believe that tomorrow will be a better day though.

I choose to live in hope.

Sometimes we are surrounded by bad news and reality checks. We are opposed and weakened, overwhelmed by it’s gravity.

We are not overcome though.

We have a hope in a better day tomorrow.

I love this quote by Martin Luther

Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree. Martin Luther

The reality is, the opposition and difficulties we face in the western world are nothing in comparison to that of the Third World. If you are having a bad day or a bad week, it is very likely someone, somewhere is having worse.

So for me and my household, we are hoping and believing for a better tomorrow.

We will not be beaten, we will not lay down.

We will stand and we will fight.

We will give and we will love.

We will forgive and we will forget.

How about you?

Are you believing for a better tomorrow?

What are you doing today to impact your tomorrow?

Sometimes it can be as little as believing and hoping that it is a new day, bringing with it new mercies.

Till we meet again tomorrow

Amanda

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Connected?

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Over the last few days, with what’s happened to my Grandma, I have been so grateful to the people who have supported us by contacting and encouraging our family.

I’m happy to say Grandma is out of hospital and is at home resting with her speech coming back slowly. I spent time with her this afternoon and I found a bunch of brownies on our kitchen table, with a note from a friend saying she was praying and thinking of us. There are a couple of other big things going on at the moment that I cant speak about here, but we have been so grateful to our closest friends who are walking beside us.

Having friends drop by and offer to cook us dinner, one of my husbands friends drove down last night and spent the night with him. A friend came and took me to breakfast this morning and bought a little present for our son Max.

It is at times like this, that really show you who your friends are and how connected we really are. My experience over the last few days has been from friends I have known and developed deep relationships with over years. Friends that I adore seeing and connecting with.

Are you deeply connecting with people?

or are you only connecting with people in little sips. A text here, an email there, a status debate today, a de-friending off facebook tomorrow.

“Connecting in sips may work for gathering discreet bits of information, they may work for saying, “I’m thinking about you,” or even for saying, “I love you,” but they don’t really work for learning about each other, for really coming to know and understand each other. And we use conversations with each other to learn how to have conversations with ourselves. So a flight from conversation can really matter because it can compromise our capacity for self-reflection. For kids growing up, that skill is the bedrock of development.” Sherry Turkle

I stumbled upon a fantastic video which is all about the culture of connectedness in social media and how it tricks us into thinking we all have heaps of friends. In reality though it just makes us feel more isolated and more frustrated.

It’s called the innovation of loneliness

The information for this video, came from this fantastic TED video by Sherry Turkle

Are you feeling alone even though you have many friends online?

Are you connected really?

All my love

Amanda

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Build

20140128-125538.jpgRecently My little man, Maximus has been interested in Bob the Builder. The song has been getting stuck in my head and all day I have been thinking about the word build.

What am I building?

Who am I working with to build something?

What is my contribution to our world?

One of the greatest things I miss about working in a large organisation is building towards a goal, a vision that is greater than myself.

When you are not involved in something larger than yourself, I find it is easy to sit on the sidelines and criticise. It is harder to criticise when you have rolled up your sleeves and being a part of the answer. With its flaws and its problems, you are still getting dirty and making a difference.

At the end of my days I would want to know that I lived a life contributing and living beyond myself, than a life of tearing down.

Are you building or are you doing the opposite, tearing down?

Just like building a house there are so many niggley issues, and problems and project managing all the different contractors and people. It is difficult because everyone has different opinions and ways and outcomes.

The end result though is something to marvel at.

At the moment, my main focus is building my own house. As a stay at home mum, I am the builder of culture in my house. I am the one impacting my children and my family, I am responsible to build them up or tear them to pieces.

Proverb 14 says

The wisest of women builds her house, but folly with her own hands tears it down.

I want to build a house of life, one of encouragement, one of wisdom, one of authenticity, one of innovation, one of health.

Today I have been reading my bible and this verse in Isaiah really impacted me;

Remove the heavy yoke of oppression

Stop pointing your finger and spreading vicious rumours!

Feed the hungry and help those in trouble.

Then your light will shine from the darkness, and the darkness

around you will be bright as noon.

The Lord will guide you continually,

giving you water when you are dry and restoring your strength.

You will be like a well-watered garden, like an ever-flowing spring.

Some of you will rebuild the deserted ruins of your cities.

Then you will be known as rebuilder of walls and a restorer of homes. Isaiah 58: 9- 12

The last few lines of this verse from Isaiah have really challenged me today.

I want to be a builder of life.

I want to build my home and encourage those around me to build into their future as well.

I want to rebuild places that have fallen into ruins and restore homes that have become run down.

I want to build?

How about you?

Love

Me