It’s 1977, I’m 7 years old and introduced to dance through attending Ballet class while living in Papua New Guinea - I smile widely, thrilled that I can feel so much joy joining in the circle of little ballerinas skipping. I am constantly told by my teacher not to land so heavily which confuses me because I feel so light! I also witness Sing Sing’s in PNG - celebration through, drums, fire and dance - a traditional way of expression. I am amazed and alive with music and dance firmly implanted in my world.

Stopping on one of my morning walks to be taken away by the absolute beauty of this plant, I paused. In one moment taking in this plant’s whole story of waiting for the exact moment to decorate it’s surroundings with this most beautiful bloom.

I’ve said that phrase “I don’t have time to muck around….” to quite a few people in the past years. It’s been an interesting and at times disturbing way to see how people have responded to my “Why”.

I’m sitting here for National Stroke Week - it’s Friday and from what I see people have been spreading the word about how to recognise stroke like symptoms by learning about the F.A.S.T. signs.

Disability can look like

The gold which passes by

A million unheard voices

Love in unseen eyes

I’m wondering if I should prepare my audience for a blog that doesn’t feel like it’s going to be uplifting, inspirational, motivational or bring joy. I don’t know.

If our lives were a song

Then I’d see music everywhere!

Drift on a feather

Softly settling for the evening to leave behind……..everything

Returning from beyond this world when I had my stroke - oh what a strange return. Opening my eyes to share the mystery of beyond and finding there was no way I could begin to explain the sacred places I had been to. Returning in a body which simply didn’t work the way I needed it to.

I’m going to get straight to the point of pain here - face that pain. Continue to untangle that ball of wool. Let those fluffy tangles feel the ease of not being scrunched up.

I’ve been surprised over the last few weeks - a few people from my past have contacted me. Old school acquaintances - I’ve laughed out loud at some of the memories which this bought up. What are their memories of me - I know what mine are of them, or of those moments of interaction.

Allowing thoughts to come and go, being Mindful.

Mindfulness approaches focus on thoughts, I understood that when I began to look more closely at Mindfulness as a practice, it was a powerful personal self resource.

I’ve been reflecting a lot in lockdown.

My current work (volunteer and paid) takes me to spaces and places where I see people with my lived experience - at the point of pain. When is there not a better place to intervene than at the point of pain?

I like to think that we are a resilience bunch of people. I like to think that I am in good company as I move forward towards my future. Our future as a collective.

It’s hard to recover in an open forum, it’s hard to recover in privacy. It’s hard to recover when outside influences interrupt my internal dialogue doing my best to work out exactly what it is that’s the issue. It’s hard when everything seems so hard!

The power of influence from interactions has been so important to my ongoing recovery, well being, sense of self and day to day living. Because my interactions with the world are also influencing others. I try to leave a positive impact or at least an impact where people are moved to reflect on their own lives positively.

The power of influence from interactions has been so important to my ongoing recovery, well being, sense of self and day to day living. Because my interactions with the world are also influencing others. I try to leave a positive impact or at least an impact where people are moved to reflect on their own lives positively.

When I had my stroke, my head screamed, my brain burned in response to the trauma, and I could feel my whole body reach out in almost an SOS response to provide any sort of comfort to my injury. At that time, I became aware of the familiar feeling, my body had sent out SOS’s before to situations, invisible situations in life. I was wired for survival.

Why have I named my business Moon River Turkey? Well, that’s a story and a half!

I had no idea how holding onto those words for many years would be so relevant, and so freeing to finally release them into a purposeful business.

A bit of scene setting is needed first, I need to get the facts right.