21 Years Later

Dear Mum

It has been 21 years today that you left us to take your journey to reunite with creator and our ancestors.  21 years, such a long time yet at times only yesterday, the feelings still raw when our guard is down.

Were you only a year older than I am now?  It seems even more unfair now as I realise that 51 is only the start to embracing life.

You are missed daily and often in my prayers, for guidance, compassion, forgiveness, gratitude and love.

The Easter season is about resurrection to some, yet for us it was a crucifixion that has taken 21 years to come full circle and rebirth for me.  I’m sorry I am such a slow learner and procrastination being my Achilles heal but I am finally going home, in the same season that it began!

You taught me a lot mum, how to show compassion, generosity, forgiveness and love.  You also taught me how not to be, so that I may remain within the lessons of life you showed me, which are the foundation of my being.  Thank you ❤

Thank you for loving me during my ‘spirit’ episodes as a child, through my selfish teenage years and through the first 6yrs of being a mother myself. Your input to our lives has left a huge hole.

So now in my 50th year, I am following in our shared dream to live out our days on our beloved mother land.  A dream you never got to live out.  I will honour you there and carry you with me to all our favourite places, and think of you every time I see a bottle of KEO.

M – Mysterious

U – Unbeatable

M – Matriarch

I know you would be really proud of our beautiful Natasha, as I am.  She has turned out to be everything and more than what we could have hoped for after such great triple loss, she even looks like you at times.  We speak of you often to keep your memory alive and hearts connected, but, you know that don’t you.  ❤

See you soon in the Vill-Aige then we going to the Thalassa to eat Bowaton. 😉

Love You Always

H Kori sou ❤ ❤

Releasing Grief

In loving memory of all who have gone before, who wait beside the open door. To greet us with  love and arms spread wide, within their smile we will forever reside.

                                                                                                 

I release the weight of grief and pain.
For in my heart all remain.

As beings of light and sound and waves, together we live on beyond the grave. 

With great admiration, I give thanks for your grace, for choosing to share your gifts with the human race. 

I give thanks that my eyes were blessed to gaze upon your face, and realise without a doubt, that we are all one in outer space.

Mitakuye Oyasin.

MWT ❤

A New Story

As we change our story, we change our world

We humans find our way by story. Our stories shape us, hold us and give meaning to our lives. Every so often it becomes clear that a prevailing story is no longer serving. Now is such a time. Humanity needs a new, inspiring picture of the future to live into.

This website is designed to support the emergence of a coherent new story for humanity and the production of practical, collaborative ways to live this new story.

We invite you to help us accelerate our collective understanding of what the ‘world in waiting’ holds for us, what is already emerging and what needs to change, both in us and in the human story.

As a first step in this journey already begun by others, the Findhorn Foundation gifted to the world the New Story Summit: Inspiring Pathways for our Planetary Future, which was held from 27 September to 3 October 2014, a gift economy gathering of the human family to experience planetary community, draw on our collective intelligence and co-create a story to inspire us all.

The Summit was more than full so we know there is huge support and longing for a new way to live together – a way which honours ancient wisdom and the interconnected whole living system of which we, the Earth and the cosmos are all part. It’s all connected and we are all accountable. To find out more, visit our Summit page.

This online hub will continue to be just that – a hub for people from all over the world to meet, engage, collaborate, share information, dream, synergise and inspire each other to live a new story.

If you would like to join this wave of collaborative action to shift consciousness and build on the threads of a new story already being lived and experimented with, you are very welcome. We invite your engagement, transparency, trust, compassion, innovation, entrepreneurship and generosity of spirit.

Watch the film here: http://newstoryhub.com/film/watch/

 

20 Years

Today is the 20th Anniversary of my mothers passing over the rainbow bridge and felt drawn to honour her memory by sharing her story.

Born Annika Gregoriou in 1944 in Cyprus, she grew up in a farming family, with 7 Siblings. All hands were needed, so schooling was a luxury and she only went to school for one year before having to pull her weight at home at the age of 7.

Age 15 her father arranged a marriage for her as part of a buisness deal, they got engaged then on finding out that he was already married, she had her excuse to escape before they married her off. Her younger brother had come to the UK a few months before and arranged for her to join him.

15 yr old when she left Cyprus.

She worked alongside her brother in a friends Cafe and she cleaned at the B+B where they stayed, to earn money to survive and send back to her parents.  That is where she met my father, a Trucker, who was staying at the B+B. They married in 1964.

They were married for 13years, mum loved children and wanted a big family. Sadly she had 8 Miscarriages and ended up with just me. She would never talk about how she nearly lost me age 2 when I drown, I guess the memory was too hard to bare.

We had a wonderful family holiday in Cyprus just before the war in 1974.

Famagusta Cyprus

They split when I was 8yrs old and we moved into a friends place to house sit while she visited her daughter in Australia for a year. I befriended our neighbour Gladys and she took us in like family and we looked after her till the end of her days when I was 13.

Me and mum when I was 7 and 9.

Mum got Alapechia and Anorexia when we left my dad, she was ill for a couple of years but never stopped caring for me and everyone else, through her challenging times.

Her greatest Joy was when my daughter was born, she loved her like her own child.

She had a sense of humour that got her through the dark times.  She always thought of others before herself, I guess it was drilled in from childhood.  Her brothers didnt speak (still not) for many years and her biggest wish was that they resolved their differences.

Even though she was brought up being forced to kill animals, she had a love for them, an empathy, an innate need to nurture. The pics below were taken in my room where I grew up at my grandparents, with the bunny she rescued from her dad and with her Mum.

My mum raised money for heart units at Pinderields hospital, ironically it is where she was died (killed) You can see a a clip from the newspaper framed above her in this pic, from one of the times that she was in there for fundraising for the hospital.

When she came to visit us in Cyprus in 1995 the year before she died, she made us curtains for the flat, she loved to sew and used to make Weding dresses when I was a child.  Growing up I used to promise that one day I would get her her own Sewing shop in Cyprus. That never happened, the year she was moving back to Cyprus is when she died.  Now looking back at the pictures, it is plain to see that she was unwell.

Mum was a special lady, who endured a lot in her short life but held on to the love in her heart with a smile on her face and never lost sight of hope.  She had an equally veracious temper, I bare the scars to prove it. She demanded respect and she got it, she deserved it, that heart on her sleeve meant too many people took advantage and that harsh exterior led people to belive she was tougher than nails, including me in my younger years.

Dead at 51 due to malpractice, her life was just about to start and it was taken from her, from us all, without a second thought or apology.  My biggest heartbreak is that my daughter missed out on her influence, her Love.

She taught me to be who I am and writing this I see the similarities, good and bad.

Life is not gauranteed, tell those you care about that you love them, take that trip, pack in your job and find your vocation, dont wait until tomorrow , till the time is right to do what your heart wants, it may not be given.

There is not a day goes by that I do not miss her, pain heals all wounds they say and it does, the memories, lessons and love however, will always remain. 🙂 ❤

R.I.P. Mum 21.10.44 – 19.4.96