The Story of Todo

I live in my magical forest; where hobbits, goblins and elves wander through. I sit on top a canopy of furry green moss, just listening to the sweet, still sound that whispers along the glade.

Sometimes I am alone, and sometimes I am with my fellow fairy sisters. Always exploring, always laughing, always connected, and always free.

I dip and dive in the chilly mountain stream, nestled in the hidden overgrowth and climb up my favorite mushroom stalk to dry my wings on its furry grooves.

Then along comes a hobbit I have never seen before, so I keep very quiet and watch him down below. He has followed the white rabbit and has found himself in this new and different forest, but is strolling with wonder in his eyes, but caution in his step.

Boom! I fly crashing into him and knock him to the forest floor. Maybe I should of just said Boo instead! But I offer him my hand and help him to his feet, where he shakes off the gathered leaves and grants me a smile as warm as the summer sunshine rays that filters through the trees. How blessed I do feel.

A friendship begins and I find myself asking why I never bumped into this gracious creature before. I feel somewhat deprived, but not really because we were only destined to meet in this forest when our paths merged at the right moment for both of us.

I want to take him to a secret place, a place that exists under our forest umbrella. This place where we can play freely in the wondrous woodland, and be connected with the universal energy. A place that binds our spirits and connects our souls.

This place is my heart, where my hobbit has turned the dormant dew of its night into sparkles of water that gently nourish and rejuvenate the flowers of my soul.

Times drifts by and the days of spending time with this fairy fantastical hobbit and discovering all who he is, illuminates my being.

My thoughts of him are never ending and I jump in ecstatic joy, tingling happiness and unbounded love.

I just want to say thank you, Tyran, for being Orangeblossom’s Todo, but most of all for just being you and for allowing me to crash into your world – you have repaired my broken wings. I hope I can show you more around my magical fairy forest world where we can walk and run, stumble and tumble, trip and skip, hop and bop, dash and dive and fly and float…together.

Love Orangeblossom xxx

The Flight for Freedom

Freedom.

That scene from one of my favorite movies, “Braveheart”, immediately springs to mind. The one where William Wallace is brought into the public square for execution. He is offered clemency (a quick death by beheading) in exchange for declaring himself the king’s loyal subject. He refuses and is strung up, first by his neck, then by his wrists and ankles and pulled until his bones dislocate from their joints. He is then tied to a cross and disemboweled alive. Refusing the taunts of the executioner to accept subjectivity to the king, he yells with a piercing roar that silences the crowd…"Freeeeeeeeeeeedom!".

Freedom. Is that not what our most inner human need is? The freedom of choice, of speech, of religion, of beliefs, of Life.

I know that if I were to be granted one super power, it would be to fly. How I look at birds, with envy, at their ability to soar to the heavens, play in the clouds and still come down to earth to feed and rest.

Like the mythological story of Icarus. When Icarus took flight on his feathered wings, the exhilaration was so intense that he decided to try and reach the gods in the heavens. So he ignored the guidance to fly at a moderate height and eventually the sun melted the wax that binded the feathers of his wings, and Icarus plummeted and disappeared into the frothy sea below.

Ok maybe not the best story to use as an anology for flying - I was going for the historical human desire to fly like the birds, but ultimately it seems that in our pursuit for freedom, we mostly are always met with opposition.

I feel like flying today. To be able to glide and drift on currents, to be able to feel the cooling air wrap around every part of your body, to be able to just feel afloat and…free.

Freedom is a birth right. It is not something that should be fought for. But over the ages, we have seen mankind battle each other for this and murdering or torturing those who fought back.

With all the wars and fighting going on around the world, I often wonder if these people actually still know what they are fighting for. Take the Middle East, they have fought for thousands of years, over what? For the promised land? For religion? Does it really matter anymore now? The prospect or concept of peace is something so far removed, that i wonder if they even know what it is, seeing that for all these years they have just been engulfed in war, death and destruction. How can you fight for peace if you have never even lived a day in it? I wonder if they even want peace, or if they just want to carry on fighting, as they have always done, and have only even known.

Its sad to know that we have not learnt our lessons from the past. Perhaps it is just our time on this planet to go through these vicious cycles or war and restricted freedom. And it is hard to justify or understand the political situations that are going on if you have only ever lived where you have been given your own freedom.

I have included an extract from the Prophet for his take on freedom…

“Ay, in the grove of the temple and in the shadow of the citadel I have seen the freest among you wear their freedom as a yoke and a handcuff.
And my heart bled within me; for you can only be free when even the desire of seeking freedom becomes a harness to you, and when you cease to speak of freedom as a goal and a fulfillment.
You shall be free indeed when your days are not without a care nor your nights without a want and a grief, But rather when these things girdle your life and yet you rise above them naked and unbound.”

I need to find other ways to fly, and resist the urge to jump off things! Maybe I just have a fear of being locked and bounded in an emotional and spiritual cage and this realization urges me to find the earthly freedoms that I do actually already have. The freedom that my cherished friends grant me. The freedom of the love that my family gives me. The freedom of being in love.

“Just living is not enough... One must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower.”

- Hans Christian Andersen (Danish fairy tale author)

May you always feel the sunshine of love, carry the freedom of being alive and may you always hold a flower in your heart to remind you that wherever you are, you are always surrounded by the beauty of your earth and her inhabitants.

May you fly on your wings of your own freedom!

Peace, Love and Freedom
Orangeblossom xxx

Soul meets Body – by Death Cab for Cutie

I want to live where soul meets body

And let the sun wrap its arms around me

And bathe my skin in water cool and cleansing

And feel, feel what its like to be new

Cause in my head there's a greyhound station

Where I send my thoughts to far off destinations

So they may have a chance of finding a place

where they're far more suited than here

I cannot guess what we'll discover

We turn the dirt with our palms cupped like shovels

But I know our filthy hands can wash one another's

And not one speck will remain

I do believe it's true

That there are roads left in both of our shoes

If the silence takes you

Then I hope it takes me too

So green eyes I hold you near

Cause you're the only song I want to hear

A melody softly soaring through my atmosphere

Where soul meets body

Where soul meets body

Where soul meets body

I do believe it's true

That there are roads left in both of our shoes

If the silence takes you

Then I hope it takes me too

So green eyes I hold you near

Cause you're the only song I want to hear

A melody softly soaring through my atmosphere

A melody softly soaring through my atmosphere

A melody softly soaring through my atmosphere

A melody softly soaring through my atmosphere

The Weekend that was The Glade

Last weekend I was at The Glade Festival and as promised, here is the rundown and some pictures that I managed to take amongst all the happy madness that surrounded us 24/7

What is The Glade? This review sums it up pretty spot on:

“This is Glade festival, a three-day electronic dance music festival in a field near Reading, and one that was fully sold out. Directions to this year’s event was only sent out on the week leading up to the festival.

The line-up is filled with quality; underground and credible dance music talent, one that confirms Glade’s status as the most leftfield electronic festival in the country. For Glade’s attendees, dance music is a lifestyle choice and a hedonistic attitude, not a weekend pastime, or something you would hear on the radio. Here the hippies are very much in the majority.

It’s like a village, full of young, happy, people, all intent on the same thing - having a good time.

From the moment you step out of your tent at dawn to a barrage of morning greetings, to the queues for the toilets, and the shared germs. Dirt is a unifying factor at Glade, it’s an all-pervasive dust that covers you from head to foot, and gets under your eyelids and toe nails. There’s no use trying to stay clean - best to embrace it and accept the smell for a few days- you cannot escape the dirt!

The chillout zone is called ID Spiral - which is an area of immense beauty, comes complete with a transparent bio-dome and floating objects - wouldn’t look out of place on a Mars exploration mission.

People are wearing anything, from pixies, angel wings, to Y-fronts, and pirate hats. This festival isn’t reality. It’s a fairy tea party, a pirate ship, and a tree-hugger’s paradise.

It’s anything you want it to be.”

So yes in a nutshell, that was it. There were about 12000 to 14000 people that were sprawled out in a maze of tents and marquees that surrounded the enclosure. Oh and it was a scorching weekend with temperatures well in the 30C and above.

Security was really tight – which of course is a necessity at these sorts of things, but I won’t deny that it put a damper on things a bit.

And it must be said that as far as logistics go, someone clearly didn’t do their homework – 80 toilets and 20 showers for 12000 people. The maths just don’t add up! But such is the nature of a festival I guess! Luckily Jo, Shazz and I found a bunch of less used cubicles and we stood by at 7am when the cleaning van came round and sprayed anti bacterial in – we were straight in there. My chant was “Find a Happy Place, and don’t touch ANYTHING”!!! And this is why we never drank as much water as we should of (considering the heat and all) because we just didn’t want to go to the loo – ah such girls hey!!

The showers were separated male and female and were very much prison style. We got in there at 8am on the Saturday morning, waiting (half and some fully naked) under the shower nozzles and then we are told that the water had run out!! But we were not deterred and we waited until not very long when the water was refilled.

Being clean again - Life’s greatest pleasures as so simple when you suddenly feel deprived of them! Of course our clean and fresh feeling only lasted for about an hour, then we were back in the sunshine, dust and breathing in the sweaty air and bodies!

But I am going a bit overboard, as I should be used to all the roughing it hey?!

Anyway, back to the festival. We wondered around to all the tents and one can appreciate the different sounds and music, even if it’s not really your sound. The décor and organization I cannot criticize – it all went off superbly.

My favorite tents were Origin and ID Spiral. ID Spiral was just such a happy place and was open all the time at whatever hour of the day and night you just felt like escaping. It was nestled in the corner under the forest trees and shade. And they served yummy Chai Tea – horray!! The music was also so….sublime.

The inflatable Glade Church was set along side The Rabbit Hole and yes people were getting married! Along with a pop infused reception to go along – very random. A bit of a mockery some would say, but then again I was not surprised as this was a festival and anything goes.

The food was also amazing – mostly vegetarian and a lot of organic stuff too (so I was in my element!) with fresh fruit juices and smoothies. So we ate healthily!

We had a good crowd with us too – Jo, Shazz, Chris, Mark, Irene, Zane and Mike and we could always just retreat back to our tenting spot and unwind and relax for as long or as little as one needed.

Overall, I am glad I went – it was my first British Festival! At times I found the big crowd a bit too much, so many different energies and vibes that are constantly changing and moving about. I prefer a smaller and more intimate crowd – maybe I have just been spoilt by the Alien Safari and Origin parties back home.

But still, it was an experience and I had a fairy fantastical time!

Festival Love and Peace
Orangeblossom xxx

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ralph Waldo Emerson (25/05/1803 to 27/04/1882) was an American author, poet and philosopher.

Emerson was noted as being a very abstract and difficult writer who nevertheless drew large crowds for his speeches. The heart of Emerson's writing was his direct observations in his journals, which he started keeping as a teenager at Harvard.

An extract from his piece, "The Over Soul":

“We live in succession, in division, in parts, in particles. Meantime within man is the soul of the whole; the wise silence; the universal beauty, to which every part and particle is equally related, the eternal ONE. And this deep power in which we exist and whose beatitude is all accessible to us, is not only self-sufficing and perfect in every hour, but the act of seeing and the thing seen, the seer and the spectacle, the subject and the object, are one. We see the world piece by piece, as the sun, the moon, the animal, the tree; but the whole, of which these are shining parts, is the soul.”

I have put together a few of his quotations, even though he once stated “I hate quotations. Tell me what you know.”

I, however, love quotations, because they express some of the thoughts, opinions and feelings that I harbour, but have just not been able to set free literally and/or verbally. Although there are only a handful that I can remember word for word. I don’t think quotations are there to be memorized and used in repetition. Instead I like to read them, think about them and finally absorb them into my conscious and subconscious so that it may pick out their kindred energy and become a part of my being.

So this is what Ralph had to say…

• The glory of friendship is not the outstretched hand, nor the kindly smile nor the joy of companionship; it is the spiritual inspiration that comes to one when he discovers that someone else believes in him and is willing to trust him.
• A chief event of life is the day in which we have encountered a mind that startled us.
• A friend may well be reckoned the masterpiece of nature.
• Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.
• Beauty is an outward gift, which is seldom despised, except by those to whom it has been refused.
• Common sense is genius dressed in its working clothes.
• Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.
• Judge of your natural character by what you do in your dreams.
• Let us be silent, that we may hear the whispers of the gods.
• Nobody can bring you peace but yourself.
• Peace cannot be achieved through violence, it can only be attained through understanding.
• People only see what they are prepared to see.
• People that seem so glorious are all show; underneath they are like everyone else.
• The sky is the daily bread of the eyes.
• Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not.
• To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.
• We find delight in the beauty and happiness of children that makes the heart too big for the body.
• What you do speak so loudly that I cannot hear what you say.
• When it is dark enough, you can see the stars.

Love and Light, Orangeblossom xxxx

Forests Forever

“Your dream forest may lie within. The forest you have entered in your dreams. An irreplaceable treasure, our children's inheritance." – forests-forever.com

It must have been pure luck that I stumbled (I tend to do a lot of e-stumbling lately!) upon the most enchanting website I have ever come across.

This it literally a journey into the world of the forests. These forests exist right here on Earth, they are not the product of human imagination or hi tech computerized graphics.

From Treehuggers.com:

“Japan’s Fujifilm has put together an incredible site to raise consciousness concerning the planet’s forests and their irreplaceable beauty and their inextricable link to life is revealed through a seamless interface of history from the very beginning, collapsing time into something our brain can handle.

The exhibit is nearly perfect, delivering an enormous amount of content in an elegant and intuitive interface.

But the visuals that accompany the text (as it trickles onto the screen) are aesthetically beautiful, technically intriguing, and, along with the peaceful accompanying music, might even manage to establish a sense of 'serenity' in viewers before they proceed to the main presentation.”

If you're thinking of dropping in, having a quick look around and popping back out again, it's just not going to happen. Wait until you've got some time, or need a break - you should never rush through a museum.

“Everybody thinks that they already know about forests. Perhaps people need to alter their perspective a bit. Forests are not only groups of trees, but a function of the global environment. They provide us with fertile soil, water and food and their existence is necessary for us to survive. Forests are also fragile. Many are damaged by human beings. But, very few people think about how daily life brings harm to forests. Everyone must begin to think about the type of forests we will see 100 years from now.” — creator Shinzo Fukui

Navigating your way around the website:

FOREST GALLERY
The Gallery holds interactive exhibitions, each highlighting a unique woodland from locations around the world.

After the images, each collection has a few Information pages - holding articles written by the photographers, history and ecology of the forest in question, photographer profiles, and a horizontal scroll of the images featured - with captions and credits.

Cradle of Life at the Waters Edge
The Forests outlasting the Ice Age
Under the Forests Maternal Gaze
Primeval Forest – Timeless Grace
The Sanctuary in a Land of Harmony
The Forest of Infinite Genomes
A Guardian Deity, The Boreal Forest
Towering Evergreen Wetland
Enduring Forests, Eternal Forests
The Land of Eternal Jade
The Forest of Life in the Sea of Mist
The Forest of Life’s Blazing Colours
Sylvan Spiritual Haven
The Fabled Forest Living a Fairytale
Wilderness Revived on the Lava Bed

THE FOREST’S GIFTS

The forest and us. Walking side by side, each cradled in the peace that the vastness of nature bestows. The image and inspiration that those forests hold are here, waiting for you.

CONSCIOUSNESS
History traces developments from the first signs of life on the planet to the present day (the last section providing a very graphic demonstration of deforestation in Bolivia via some time-lapse satellite imagery).

History

Since the birth of this planet, the forests have poured their breath into every corner of the Earth for countless thousands of years. Over that time, the forests have grown as one, repeating their ebb and flow and taking their present forms. The Forests are the ecosystem’s genes, passed down from generation to generation for eternity.

Creation of the Earth
Emergence of Life
Benevolence of the Sun
By-Products of Life
Domination of the Land by Plant Life
The Earth’s First Forest
Vast Forests of the Dinosaurs
Coexisting Forest
Disappearing Forest

Vegetation

Vegetation clarifies such points as the differences between temperate and tropical, desert and savannah.

The lives of the forests on this earth are so varied, so diverse. You find them on chilly land, scorching wilderness and mild plains. And on humid islands and shimmering sea beds. But each forest quietly accepts the environment and the fate handed to it, living day to day, searching for ‘the ideal’. While also designing the livelihood of the beings that surround it. Become familiar with the forests that do not give up, but keep evolving, and their incredible wisdom and energy.

Tropical Forest
Subarctic Forest
Temperate Grassland
Desert
Tundra
Savannah
Temperate Forest

ISSUES

Imagine a world without forests, imagine an earth devoid of green.

If there was no forest
The smell of the wind, the sunshine
The joy of harvest, the revitalizing, thirst quenching water
We would not receive all this richness
If there was no forest
Our lives would be left with no order
Our world would be ruled by cruelty and savagery
It is undeniable now more than ever
The Earth faces a crise, a difficult reality.
But the forest stands before our eyes, living strong.
We humans, with out "reason" and "imagination" are the only ones with the power to deliver hope
The key of hope that opens the door to the future lies within us.

Thinning Earth
Overheating Atmosphere
Tainted Air
Eventually, Reason will Vanish

CONTRIBUTION

Forests are full of strength, so kind, its gifts vast and many
Brilliant gift nurtured over ages and troubles.
Possibility fills the forests
As they contain so much power that we do not even know of.
Capacity to connect and nurture lives of all creatures.
Generosity to grant creativity and heal the body and mind.
Forests are more than mere collection of trees.
Forests live within, and together with us all,
How many forests live in you?

Forests Nourishing Water
Forests Purify and Regulate
Cycle of Life’s Essentials
Living Forests

Tree lovers or not, Forests Forever makes an immediate and arresting first impression on its visitors. And the result could easily lead to planet-wide incidents of tree-hugging!!

I really recommend you visit the website http://www.forests-forever.com you will be mesmerized at the exquisiteness of both the images and literature.

Make you want to just run outside, hibernate in the forest, live in an eco village (that’s still the plan eh DB and Lobelia?!) and hug the trees!!

Tree Hugging Forest Love
Orangeblossom xxx

In Remembrance for London July 7th 2005

For hundreds of thousands of people commuting into London, the morning of July 7, 2005 began just like any other.

But at the peak of the rush hour, a series of coordinated suicide bombings that struck London's public transport system during the morning rush hour.

At 8:50 a.m. three bombs exploded within 50 seconds of each other on three London Underground trains. A fourth bomb exploded on a bus nearly an hour later at 9:47 a.m. in Tavistock Square. Fifty-two people were killed in the attacks, including the four bombers, and about 700 injured.

A week later, millions stood in silence to honor the victims of the deadliest single act of terrorism in Britain since World War II.

Today at 12pm, we pay our respects to the casualties of terrorism, not just in this country, but to the innocent millions whose lives have been sacrificed around the world.

I have added some passages and quotes about peace – because where there is darkness, there is also light. And this light is the enduring human spirit – the belief that within us all lies the ability to bring good to this world.

"It is better to light a candle than curse the darkness.Lights of peace become circles of peace.Circles of peace become communities of peace.Communities of peace become a peaceful world community." - Bob Stewart

“War does not determine who is right - only who is left.” - Bertrand Russel

“In separateness lies the world's great misery; in compassion lies the world's true strength.” - Buddha

“We must be the change we wish to see.” - Mahatma Gandhi
“When in despair I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won; there have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time they can seem invincible, but in the end they always fall.” - Mahatma Gandhi

“We do not inherit the earth from our fathers. We borrow it from our children.” - David Bower

“The fragrance always remains in the hand that gives the rose.” - Heda Bejar

“You cannot fight for peace. You can only peace for peace.” – David Icke

I then came across these poems written by children in Bulgaria and they are expressed so beautifully, as only children know how…

I had a dream:
The elephants are running free
And the lions and the tigers.
The children are playing on the roads.
The birds are singing happily.
Men and women are walking in the parks.
Peace is an important thing
And everybody should know it
And try to save it!
Ilian Ivailov, 9 years

I dream for happy people
And those terrorists to disappear,
People to be free
And to live their life.
I wish to be free
And to be a star,
And to live in a beautiful house,
And to be in the future.
Tihomir Mladenov, 9 years

Love, Light and PEACE
Orangeblossom xxx

Soul Survival

I cannot help but feel sad and helpless when one of my friends is hurting and in pain. Sometimes one can’t find the right words to help ease the aching. Whenever I feel these moments of being “stuck” I turn to the Prophet writings, because somehow they just make sense of things in a way I could never even try to begin to express.

So this is what The Prophet has to say about Pain:

Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding.
Even as the stone of the fruit must break, that its heart may stand in the sun, so must you know pain.
And could you keep your heart in wonder at the daily miracles of your life, your pain would not seem less wondrous than your joy;
And you would accept the seasons of your heart, even as you have always accepted the seasons that pass over your fields.
And you would watch with serenity through the winters of your grief.
Much of your pain is self-chosen.
It is the bitter potion by which the physician within you heals your sick self.
Therefore trust the physician, and drink his remedy in silence and tranquillity:
For his hand, though heavy and hard, is guided by the tender hand of the Unseen,
And the cup he brings, though it burn your lips, has been fashioned of the clay which the Potter has moistened with his own sacred tears.

Sometimes these words are hard to take in and accept or even just hear and you just want to scream out aloud to someone, no one, to yourself. As Chris says “Your feeling is your healing”. Embrace it.

And sometimes I find some answers in lyrics of some songs like Crowded House

“And your seven worlds collide Whenever I am by your side And dust from a distant sun Will shower over everyone You're still so young to travel so far Old enough to know who you are Wise enough to carry the scars Without any blame, there's no one to blame It's easy to forget what you learned Waiting for the thrill to return Feeling your desire burn You're drawn to the flame”

The flame. We engulf ourselves in the flames of our daily lives. It burns and it nourishes at the same time. But sometimes I guess we choke on the smoke from the fire too long to allow it to actually cleanse us of our wounds.

It is so difficult to survive in today’s world of external pressures and hardships. It’s not so much just ourselves, but other people that cloud our vision and damage our fragile esteems. The old school rhyme “stick and stones may break my bones, but words may never harm me.” Well truth be told, it is mostly the words of other people that do cause the most irreparable harm and psychological abuse. Especially when it comes from those you love or loved. Yet in saying that, words are words and do not always reflect the truth, merely it just reflects another persons own anger, hurt or sadness. Ultimately I feel it’s our own souls (and indeed the love from our true friends and family) that can heal our physical and mental traumas and hang ups, if only we would acknowledge that we have this inner power of healing to do that.

Lately I have been humming away to Tracy Chapman and I just love her soulful music…

“She say dont give or sell your soul away cause all that you have is your soul Dont be tempted by the shiny apple Dont you eat of a bitter fruit Hunger only for a taste of justice Hunger only for a world of truth cause all that you have is your soul.
Standing at the point The road it cross you down What is at your back Which way do you turn Who will come to find you first Your devils or your gods All you folks think you run my life Say I should be willing to compromise I say all you demons go back to hell I'll save my soul save myself.”


What happens when the fire of your love dies...it becomes smoke and ashes. But from the ashes, the phoenix arises and spreads its golden wings to fly heights of higher. I truly believe this, and I am loving flying in the silver lining of the clouds of love.

As time heals the wound, the scars sometimes still remain. But we are all made up of scars, a patchwork on our souls. But it’s these scars that ultimately heal us from within, and we rise up from the depths of our dark winters and into the light of our springs. As Jo always says “we see more walking from the dark into the light, than from the light into the dark”. In truth I think we realised this while literally walking from the dark into the light one night, but nevertheless at that moment I think we both reflected on what was just said. Fused energies and connected souls!

I have long been a fan of the band Live and this is an extract from their song “The Dolphin’s Cry”…

“oh yeah, we meet again it's like we never left time in between was just a dream did we leave this place?this crazy fog surrounds me you wrap your legs around me all I can do to try and breathe let me breathe so that I so we can go together love will lead us, alright love will lead us, she will lead us can you hear the dolphins cry? see the road rise up to meet us it's in the air we breathe tonight love will lead us, she will lead us life is like a shooting star it don't matter who you are if you only run for cover, it's just a waste of time we are lost 'til we are found this phoenix rises up from the ground and all these wars are over ”


Battles are fought until our own wars are won. But really, the fight is only with ourselves. So armour up with your soul survival kit of love, light, understanding, patience, acceptance, optimism and truth. We are all soldiers of freedom and when we break away from our own cages, may we dance the dance of life.

Love, Healing and Soul Survival
Orangeblossom xxx