Under the plum tree

For sunday Scribblings 2. The prompt " plum"  I put the plum in my mind and it just sat there like a plum does. It stayed a plum. Luckily in English words are broken up like plum tree. So I can use that as well. In Dutch it would be one word.

Painting Armand Guilaumin

 Under the plum tree

In the shadow of a plum tree
she sat down leaving where light begun
Entering a dream world
of velvety clouds kissed by the sun

Cradling in this sacred space
escaping from her daily wars
descending into peace full thoughts
rooted in a thousand stars

 the pink plum tree blossom
towers like a crown
above her shimmering hair
meandering over her simple gown

A man passing by, bewitched by her being
his heart erupting, love flowing free
reflected in the eyes
of the girl under the plum tree

Hara Matariki



Matariki is the Maori New Year which is a time of celebration and the remembrance of ancestors.
It is based on the rising of the Pleiades. In astronomy the Pleiades are the seven sisters, a star cluster in the constellation of Taurus, appearing in mid winter. It is the nearest cluster to earth and you can see it with your naked eyes.

In the Pacific it was very important for navigation and it was also used as weather forecast.

The story goes that Matariki, the mother was surrounded by her six daugthers.  They are there to assist the sun "Te Ra" who has become weakened by the winter jouney.
Matariki means the Eyes of Rā (Mata a Ariki), Rā being the Sun God. Another translation is ‘little eyes’ (mata riki).

Another legend goes that Ranginui the sky father and Papatuanuku the earth mother were separated from their children.  Tawhirimatea, the god of the winds, was so angry that he tore out his eyes in rage and flung them into the heavens, where they now exist as Matariki, from Mata Ariki, the eyes of god.

Ngai Tahu is the main iwi (tribe) in the South of New Zealand. My friend at work, Reita is from the Ngai Tahu and I wish her and everyone else Hara matariki, Happy maori New year

A walk through the city center

In the beginning of June the containers had to move as they had to make space for permanent buildings. They live now further down the road in an even more spacy setting and look if they always have been there. The restart mall was initially opened in October 2011 to keep business going in the city after the earth quake

We saw for the first time the new visitor centre in Hagley park with a new coffee shop. It looks good!

The biggest part of the new building is in use as a nursery. In summer you won't see the beautiful plants as they get shielded from the sun by a screen.

Colourful flags cheered up the square in front of the few buildings still standing.  

On a darker note

I didn’t write a poem for ages and so I looked for “Sunday Scribblings" for a prompt. It was gone but I bumped into "Sunday Scribblings 2" which prompts on Wednesdays

The prompt is” A thousand years of darkness”  (I just found out I had the wrong one but post this anyway)

I didn’t experience a thousand years of darkness but had my fair share. When live is tough it is easy to become absorbed in your problems. It becomes your world. Sometimes it is all you can handle. I think it becomes an illness when you get stuck in that world and loose interest in others.

When you reconnect to the world and hear the stories you realise that all go through pain, illness and problems. We are all in this together and shared problems become halve problems.

Problems can be a blessing too by teaching you lessons;
I learned when having pain I don’t have to be one.
I learned to put my own needs first when necessary
I learned I can’t shortcut someone else’s journey, just travel besides them
I learned I can only change myself and my perception.
I learned that things are not important, people are
I learned that people with little love are poorer than people with little money
I learned there is space for light as well as darkness, for laughter as well as tears.

Break free

Life can depress, make one
cuddle up in distress in
a thousand years of darkness

You can get lost inside
a cocoon spun with the
threads of broken dreams

or drown in a lake of tears
in this confined place
that has taken lives space

Break out of here
in the outside sphere
the lake appears like

drops of dew on petals
absorbing the colours
of iridescent light

Break out, break free
let your wings carry you
to an avenue of blessings  

marja blom

 A beautiful sad song in the movie Gloomy Sunday
in Hungarian

Wonder and happiness

"In many shamanic societies, if you came to a medicine person complaining of being disheartened, dispirited, or depressed, they would ask one of four questions: "When did you stop dancing? When did you stop singing? When did you stop being enchanted by stories? When did you stop being comforted by the sweet territory of silence?" Gabrielle Roth

Children carry the secrets of happiness. They live in wonder, play with their environment and learn naturally. They have already so much wisdom within. We can find that wisdom as well. Just connect to the child inside you and wonder about the beauty around you:

See the colours, the charm of old houses, the magic shape of a rose, the twinkling of light in a bottle, look at the sacred flame of candlelight.

Hear the laughter in the street, the crackling of autumn leaves or fresh snow, the steady relaxing sound of crashing waves.

Feel a soft cooling breeze on your skin in the summer heat, the touch to your heart when seeing an old couple holding hands, the fresh water splashing on your skin.

Become alive

The internet is full of beauty to enjoy. Peggy my blogging friend told me about pinterest and now I collect the photos of children, beauty, poetry, music and dance. For the origin of the photos above check out pinterest. If you want to cut out pictures for your own use go to Start, search for snipping tool, select and snip :)

Do you want to see real wonder and joy. Look at this child who experiences rain for the first time.

Vanuatu

When it rains it pours. The last year wasn't great. The law of attraction does seem to exist in positive and negative ways. My lantern was empty so I needed new fuel to shine again. To start we went on holiday to Vanuatu. It was about 26 C and a cool sea breeze made it just about right. We stayed at Port Villa on the island of Efate. Vanuatu consist of 83 island. The official language is Bislama (a form of pidgin english) and is spoken next to English and French.
Bislama got some funny frases like Gat hed (got head) means to be intelligent.

The island is peaceful and beautiful. We stayed at a resort with self contained apartments and a gorgeous beach and pool. A place to relax and that's what we did.

We love to explore so we booked a few trips. We went on the Congoola day cruise. A bit above our budget but it was all worth it. We hang out with some Australians. I don't know why the kiwis and Australians dislike each other as we had a great time with them. OK one sheep joke but I killed it with my look and then everything was fine. We also had dinner with them at their resort at night.

After a bus drive from Port Villa we stepped aboard 23m yacht and sailed across to a turtle conservation project. I made friends with one of the turtles, who is going to be released when he is old enough. After that we went to Sun and Moon bay and I snorkelled for the first time in my life.
Loved it to see the beautiful coral reef and saw lots of Nimo's and other colourful tropical fish.
Unfortunately I had to get out as the salt water entered my goggles and sting my eyes.

We also went for a trip to the Secret Garden where we learned a lot about the history and culture
of Vanuatu. There was a lot of black magic on the islands and we learned that missionaries changed a lot. They stopped cannibalism and having more than one wife. It is only less than fifty years ago in 1969 that a men was put in the oven on Malekula island. So now you know where to send your mother in law when you can't get along ;)  Our guide also showed us a construction used for the bungee jump on one of the islands. That's where AJ Hacket got the idea from and than brought it to NZ.  My husband got to hold a life coconut crab and we really enjoyed holding the iguana's, who are quite tame.

Another trip brought us to Ekasup Village, a "kastum" village where we learnt about the local customs and culture. We were treated with a dance performance and fire walking. It was absolutely fantastic. Most villagers actually live in the village a bit further down the road in huts, where poverty is very visible. The excellent show brings in a bit of income so they can send some of their children to school.
The contrast between the rich and the poor is enormous. The prices of resorts, meals, supermarkets
trips etc are the same and sometimes higher than in New Zealand, so lots of money comes into the island. It doesn't rubs off on the people. Many don't have an education so can't get a job and the people who work often earn only about $300 per month. The money must disappears in the pockets of some and probably a lot goes to foreigners as well. Vanuatu is a tax paradise and there is money laundering and organised crime.

We also had a swim in the blue Lagoon on our around the island trip and a visit to a WW2 museum
where a local passionately showed us his findings from WW2. Vanuatu was overrun by Americans coordinating defenses against the Japanese in the Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, and beyond.

Oh love to come back one day. The Pacific and it's people are very healing.