Newtown - Love, Food, Books!

Today my main priority was to have a date, quality time, an adventure with My Mr Wonderful.  I always want to make time for the two of us.

We have been wanting to go to Newtown for a long time - talking about it for a long time - so today was the day.  I was excited to go to Green Gourmet, Vegetarian Restaurant - Gareth and I loved it - especially the chestnut sang chow bow and vegan rice paper rolls (see menu on their website www.greengourmet.com.au/ with restaurants at Newtown and St Leonards).  It was a great start to our adventure, and we are already talking about going back for lunch and/ or dinner.

What I love about Newtown and loved about our day is the opportunity to just explore - and see where the journey leads - also the opportunity to expand our horizons.  We were drawn into the home furnishings shop - Classic Furnishings Gallery Javanese Collection - beautiful furniture.  What impressed me the most was reading the "Our Story" book displayed in the store.  It talks of Indonesia where they source teak, where the owner works with people from several villages in Central and Eastern Java, where they locate disregarded trees that have fallen due to erosion or flood..  The owner also buys wood from homes that have fallen into a state of disrepair or deterioration and pays the owners enough money to rebuild their homes in bricks that are cooler in summer and warmer in winter.  The furniture is also made in Java, creating jobs for the local communities. See their website to read more about their Story www.cfgallery.com.au/NewSite/about.htm. Gareth and I both felt that we would venture back to Newtown when we are looking for furniture in the future.  I felt so inspired reading the Story of their business, felt very inspired that in the designing and building of my own business I would love to help people and make a difference to community, being conscious of mother earth.

Next adventure was Gould's Book Arcade.  Love this place - this is an adventure in itself - aisles and aisles and stacks and stacks of books - up and down, around and around.  This is a 'must go to' when visiting Newtown.

I walked in and felt that I would be led to where I needed to go.  I just love books.  I found myself (to no surprise) in front of the self-discovery section and the book that jumped out at me was Dare To Connect Susan Jeffers - I have read another book by this author and loved it!  It was only on the drive home, that I flicked through the book and realised that this book was such a gift of insight and beautiful words.  Susan Jeffers refers to Ram Dass, author and teacher who "suggests that when we are born, we immediately go into 'Somebody Training'; that is, we are taught by our parents and our society that what we are 'supposed to' be in this world is a Somebody!  They define a Somebody as a person who has achieved some measure of external success.  As a result, our 'Somebody-ness', or self-worth, is dependent on such factors as money, status, power, personality, looks and intellectual excellence."

Dare To Connect explains what is wrong with this:

"a) Somebody Training emphasises individual differences and puts us in competition with everyone around us.  Hence, we are always on a treadmill trying to keep up with or surpass everyone else... or we just give up when the competition seems too great.

b) When we strive to fill ourselves up with approval from people 'out there', we twist the essence of who we really are and create a false picture which we hope will bring us the acceptance we crave.  And when we lose sight of who we truly are, we feel empty inside.

c) When we focus only on externals, such as looks, money, success or sex appeal (ours or theirs), we lose sight of our common humanity.  We lose sight of the feelings that lie within, of those unseeable qualities that create a feeling of bonding.  And we feel alienated."

I just love this book - it explains -
"Somebody Training teaches us to... Work on what's outside
Everybody Training teaches us to... Work on what's inside
Somebody Training teaches us to...See how much we can get
Everybody Training teaches us to... See how much we can give
Somebody Training teaches us to... Develop a winning act
Everybody Training teaches us to... Discover the authentic self
Somebody Training teaches us to... Ignore the Higher Self
Everybody Training teaches us to... Act from the Higher Self
Somebody Training teaches us to... Control the actions and reactions of others
Everybody Training teaches us to... Control our own actions and reactions."

I really love the beautiful words of the affirmations in Dare To Connect -
"I am good enough exactly as I am...
and who I am is a powerful and loving human being
who is learning and growing every step of the way."

"I am powerful and I am loving.
I have much to give to this world.
I am a person of worth.
I deserve love.
I am a capable person.
My life has meaning.
My life is unfolding perfectly.
There is plenty of time."

"I acknowledge your presence.
I salute our humanness.
I welcome what you have to offer this world.
I hail the beauty in you.
I receive you with a loving heart."

I love this one, which is simple and so easy to remember and can help Spread The Yellow - "I greet the light in you!"

Susan Jeffers in Dare To Connect has created an "Everyday Training Action Vocabulary" - which is so in line with my Vision of Spread The Yellow -
"Appreciate   Validate   Empathise   Praise   Care   Share
Flow   Include   Relate   Compliment   Encourage   Reveal
Play   Relax   Balance   Explore   Commit   Cooperate
Listen   Learn   Grow  Blend   Lighten up   Enjoy"    

Wonderful book!!!

Wonderful day!  The rest of the afternoon we just explored shops, browsing, popping into any shops that caught our eye - eating gelato from Ice + Splice and venturing down to Eastern Flair where Gareth bought me a beautiful bright Yellow sarong that I will display in my Coaching space (photo below does not capture the brightness of the Yellow).

I am so blessed to have My Mr Wonderful who always wants to Spread The Yellow to me and is so supportive of my 'me-ness' and our 'one-ness' and my Vision. It gave me such joy and happiness today to just 'be' together, walking together hand-in-hand, kissing, laughing, talking, sharing, caring.  How nice to be 'in love' - finally, after years of aloneness and wrong relationships.

As I end my Post I would like to share some great images from the other book I found (or that found me) at Gould's Books - Happiness Is... A Warm Puppy Charles m. Schulz (I think I was drawn to it because Gareth loves dogs and the word Puppy caught my eye) - it is definitely a book that warms the heart - enjoy.