Pics of old...

Speaking of laughter - here are some pics from my youth and travels gone by... Left to right - clockwise.

1. Me in Hong Kong : Yes i cut all my hair off to make a point and yep it didnt turn out to be the greatest point i have ever made! Thank goodness hair grows back...

2. Me in Italy, Sorrento: This was my first trip overseas - 19yrs old, wondering through the beauty that is Italy - thank you mum for encouraging me to live my dreams! awwww.

3. Me in Thailand: This was my snorkling expedition and the pre-weighloss days.

4. Me in Dubai: I spent a hot December with my cousin Buddy In Dubai, the luxury and money and bling is very overwhelming. Yes i AM wearing THAT to the beach - when you look like a local, best not to wear too little clothes!

5. My Graduation - 1994: Wondering why my complexion is so dark?? just got back from Italy LOL

6. Boat trip in Paris: Wonderful trip i just love Paris, romantic, beautiful, rude people, drive like maniacs gotta love it all.

7. 19 Years old going to some function: Hey i only wore stockings in the 80's ok it wasnt MY fault i didnt design the 80's style ok!

8. Me on my honeymoon in Bahamas: - awww 20 years old.. fresh out of Eldos! LOLOL

And i will stop there for fear of boring you all to tears!! Oh someone asked me do i live and travel and do everything all by myself cause there are only pics of me on here -

NO! i just need to be the centre of my own blog!

Your Boobies' Names Are...

Elvis

WHO KNEW????

LMAOOOOOO

TRY IT: ladies only (Thanks Sam only YOU can find this website! LOLOL)

http://www.blogthings.com/boobienamegenerator/

"You cant fall off the floor"

I heard this saying on TV the other day and started to meditate on it in the last while. And found it to be such a profound truth...

There are times in your life when it feels like you have truly hit rock bottom and where to from there.. well since you are on the floor and cant fall any further - the only way is up...

I have always reacted most favourably to little injunctions such as "enjoy what you do", do it with your heart and soul.. and albeit still part of my very core beliefs.. i think there comes a time when you just need to have some fun, take a step back and look at life and laugh even when your soul is crying.

There is a healing power in a smile that turns to laughter, it has the ability to lift your spirit and just give your life that one second vacation that it needs so very often. I recall fondly the many wonderful days i have had of plenty of laughter with my friend Ingrid, whose ability to contagiously laugh her way through any ridiculous situation is truly an inspiring characteristic.

Just as love or being inlove has the ability to adorn the soul and decorate the heart with emblazoned moments of euphoria.. so a gentle laugh and a sincere smile can be an elixir to the soul, though its not in itself a solution to any one thing.. nor does it allow you to escape from the floor for more than moments, but it does have the intoxicating ability to soften the hardness of the heart that life sometimes cements us with..

Be happy - just now - just today - laugh..

Because from the floor - you can either lay there and let your life walk all over you - or you can get up and go on...

not an easy feat - but a courageous one. Laugh.

Smile.

San Francisco.

I had such an awesome long weekend away In San Francisco - This lovely London meets New York style town with all its old buses, famous trams and history and culture really appealed to me - i am not sure if i could ever live there though - they seem to have unpredictable and not to the positive pole weather! I did all the major touristy things, Went to Alcatraz and just had a blast. Ate way too much - but when the food is that good - whatcha gonna do??

Enjoy the pics!

Week 62 update.. yes thats not a typo!! (I have been here that long already!)

Its been quite a bit of a rollercoaster ride, i must be honest.. Work, no work, travel, frustrations, gaining friends, losing friends, enduring unbearable cold temperatures, impossibly huge amounts of rain and the most unpredictable weather i have ever experienced!

Its so weird how the human body and soul adjusts to things, although i am still learning and growing so much - i have now gone beyond the feeling that i am a traveller, a visitor, a foreigner - most things now really feel very "normal" to me - the novelty has subsided and i have started feeling that "at home" feeling. Which is good - even though true to human nature i somtimes again desire the newness of experiencing something for the first time, the elation of discovery.. but i must be honest.. i also love the comfort of knowledge, of experience, of knowing where it all goes and how it all fits.

So i dont know the national anthem yet or have American accent - which i have now given up all hope of ever attaining - home for me is not really where the heart is at this point in life.. but where the least amount of stress and the most amount of comfort and contentment lies for this time and this season of my life?

Sound like a sad state of complacency? on the contrary.. passion never dies, dreams never die - but as much as we pursue - we need to get to a place where we can also just "be" and live and take what it is and use it to add to the pages in the book of our lives.

Think of it this way - although you will never look back fondly with stars in your eyes and with bliss record the amounts of diapers you changed on your child throughout their baby years - but rather you will feel the proud elation of your heart when you watch them grow and achieve.. yet how could they - without the diaper changes?

hey hey now - i am not comparing my experience in America to diaper changing!!!! sigh! dont be difficult. What i am saying is find the joy in ALL facets and "admin" of life! and love it for that moment and make that moment the dream that you are living the joy of just being happy because the present is the only reality you have!

:-)))))

Forbidden
To no end our passion has come

To this captivated state

Forbidden in times of freedom

Basking in indiscretionMy heart feels safer

In this none virtuous realm

When purity eludes my soul

My desire leads me astray to a love

Found in the darkness

Found in my weakness

It is you love that found meIn my strength of happinessIn my faithfulness and devotion

Then rendered me helpless to your charms

You captivate me and I am ever your captive

Raging through my soul you bleed my very values,

My ideals thrown and tossed aside as you take me prisoner

Never to leave

Never to love another

Copyright: Jade

I have sat in the presence of my own personhood and drank the robust wine of my own thoughts and laughed hysterically at some humorous memory that i could only but share with no one but myself for a whole year.. while on my unique journey in the States.

I have loved and lost and succeeded and failed and at the end of it all.. with a few less hairs and few more wrinkles... i am whole. Complete in nothing and no-one other than the contentment of being myself.

To everything there is a season.. and everything in its own time blooms in that season, not before and not after....