I know this family...

I know this family.  When you look at them in passing, they look like just any other family with small children.  There is a certain chaos that goes with having young children.  Yet, they have always impressed me with their easy going attitude towards raising children.  They have learnt me a lot!

A few years back, they started fostering.  The first little angel they took care of, was just that.  A little angel and she stole my heart!  Now, 2 years later, the second angel they are taking care of just turned one.  I had the privilege to tag along and took a few pictures of the kids.  While I was editing the photos last night, this one stole my heart!  This is angel baby number two. 

Where these kids will end up in life is a question all on its own, but I know that this family takes care of them as if they were their own.  They are loved beyond the call of duty.  If only every foster family was like this one!  Ruth, and Richard, you are worth your weight in gold and more!


Every child comes with the message that God is not yet discouraged of man. 
~Rabindranath Tagore
x

Laughter

 

Laughter

1. To express certain emotions, especially mirth or delight, by a series of spontaneous, usually un-articulated sounds often accompanied by corresponding facial and bodily movements.

2. To show or feel amusement or good humor.

 

 

I love to laugh.  I don't think I know anybody that doesn't.  It brings a little light into your soul.  It makes you feel alive.  It just, makes you happy.  I went to a surprise birthday party for a friend last night, and I laughed more than I've done in a while, and it felt sooo good! Think I went to bed with a smile on my face, and I woke up with it still firmly in place.

 

A famous quote reads:  "a day without laughter is a wasted day."  Apparently, the average person laughs 15 times a day.  To be honest, some days I don't think I reach that average.  I want to, but sitting in an office on my own, with no one to talk too, I can only really sit and laugh at myself, which in itself isn't that hard...but at the same time a bit worrying. ;-)

 

It fascinates me what people laugh at.  For instance, I am not one of those people that will laugh at you when you fall over, or hurt yourself.  I laugh at jokes.  Good and bad ones. 

 

Here are a few facts about laughter/laughing:

• 13 muscles are used to smile, but 47 are required for frowning. You have to smile nearly a quarter of a million times to make 1 wrinkle.
• Laughter lowers the levels of cortisol in the body. Cortisol suppresses the immune system. Lowering these levels enhances the work of the immune system and may prevent disease.
• You can stimulate your heart and lungs, elevate your blood pressure and improve breathing capacity by laughing.
• In terms of exercise, you can get the same benefits from laughing 100 times a day, as you can from 10 minutes of rowing.
• 15 minutes of laughter equals the benefit of 2 hours sleep.
• One good belly laugh burns off 3 1/2 calories.
• Laughing for 15 seconds adds 2 days to your life span.
• It just makes you feel good!

People smile only 35% as much as they think they do. I think that's sad.  I often think what do people think of me when they look at me, in terms of a friendly face.  I strive to be a "happy face" :-) 

Smile a while, and give you face a rest :)

Here's to laughing more!

x

Keeping busy...

Albert Einstein ~ "Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."

I agree with this.  I find that when I'm not keeping busy, seeing friends, occupying my mind, I become aware of a little black monster biting at my ankles.  Anybody else like that?

I try to remind myself of all my blessings. I am healthy.  I have amazing friends.  I have the most awesome family.  I am loved.  So how do I stop getting stuck in negative thinking? Heaven knows, if you (I) dwell too long on these thoughts, it's a vicious cycle that just goes on and on, and a week down the line, you are even worse off than when the little black monster came to take up residence!

To be truthful, I think I know where my "black" thoughts start.  It starts with me focusing too much on how much I miss my family.  How much I miss sunshine.  How much I miss South Africa.  People have asked me, so why don't you just go home then?!  It could be that simple, but it isn't.  I can offer support from where I am now that I wont be able to do if I go back.  Another blessing, is off course, if I stay here for 2 more years, I qualify for British Citizenship! In my mind there is no other option but to stay here till then. 

Now, to get "better" I am going to start getting cross with myself.  I am going to tell myself:  STOP!  Phone a friend! Smile! Go for a walk! Get busy! Just do something!!

A long time ago a friend told me this.  He said, we were all created to roam the skies, far above the clouds like eagles.  But sometimes, something happens and we kinda forget we are meant to soar high above everything, and we come down to earth and start believing we are chickens, and we get busy scratching away at the soil, wondering around while we should be soaring up high.  Just because you are on the ground doesn't mean you are a chicken.  Spread your wings and fly!

I don't know if I am the only one that is like this.  I hope not...

This is really just a little pep talk to myself.  If anybody reads this, just smile.

This is me...

Hope you are well. 

Winter has most definately arrived on the Island. brrrr! I am very thankful for thermal socks today.

I think in order for anybody to get to know anybody, you sit down and have a conversation about your likes and dislikes. So here goes...

I like fun, laughter, smiles, sunshine, hugs, sleep ins, weekends, the beach (any beach), washing dried in the sunlight, cooking, romance, painting, Fridays,  photography, flowers, dry humour, animals, the afrikaans language, a warm cuppa on a cold day, sheepskin slippers, community, travelling, adventure, cycling, poetry, movies, crime scene dramas, dreaming, counting down to something, family holidays in South Africa.  This is by no means the only things I like, but the list would just go on and on.

I love God, my family, friends, my Compassion sponcer child, AFRICA.

I stand for justice, speaking up for the voiceless, helping old ladies cross the road, being polite, having manners.

I dislike spiders, snakes, any creepy crawlies, getting up early, aubergine and the tube at rush hour.

I'm the type of girl who mid conversation will burst out laughing because of something that happened yesterday.  A sense of humor is essential in this life I think. 

I'm a light sleeper but a heavy dreamer.

Now, you know a little more about me. Lets see where this goes...

See you soon

Liezel x

hello world...

I think a good place to start is to tell you a little about myself.  With 2 younger brothers and parents who have been very happily married for 37 years, there is always enough love for everybody going around.  I grew up in a small town in South Africa.  A little town where everybody knows everybody. It was one of those places where we walked home from school with bare feet.  In November we would dance through the jacaranda flowers laying on the hot pavements.  Summer holidays was like heaven on earth.  When school started again in January, it would be boiling hot, and we had to do athletics in the sweltering heat (something is still don't understand), but lets just say it all built character.  To me, its home.  Its a place where I still feel most protected.

Nowadays I live in London.  The bustling, don't make eye contact on the tube, mind your own business, double decker bus town. Its been said that London is one of the loneliest cities in the world to live in.  I can tell you this is true.  From time to time that loneliness chews at your ankles, but I have amazing friends who, in a sense have become like my family away from home.  Even though it gets tough sometimes, this city is amazing.  There are so many little hidden gems in this city.  Just the other day I went to Portobello Road Market for the first time.  What a feast for the eyes! Whenever things gets a bit too overwhelming and I miss "home" too much, I like to take a bus across Waterloo Bridge and just realise again, I live in one of the most beautiful cities in the world.  Big Ben (or actually St Stephen's Tower) can take your breath away on a beautiful day. It is here that I really grew to know myself. What I want out of life.  It gave me guts.  Coming here has made me realise I can do anything I set my mind to!

As my close friends know very well, I am also very random.  I absorb random information (sometimes useless) like a sponge.  Whenever I had a question about any topic, my dad seemed to have the answer I was looking for.  I guess this is where that hunger for information comes from.  I am also very attentive.  Nothing escapes me.  I notice peoples expressions.  I notice weird little things.  When I come to the end of my life, I don't want to think I was one of those people that, when asked: how are you? who just replied, fine thanks.  I want to be honest. I want to build relationships of substance, so that when friends/family/people around me say they are fine, I want to be able to see deeper and give comfort where it's needed.

The aim of this blog, is to give and gain perspective.  To inspire.  To give hope.  That is something I am a master at.  Being hopeful.  I am a true optimist.  When you say the glass is half empty, I might just tell you that actually even if the glass is only half full, that the rest is filled with air, so technically, the glass is always 100% full.  Some find this crazy. Some may even find it annoying, but you know what?  I wouldn't live my life, or survive for that matter if I didn't adopt this way of thinking.

The simple things in life is what I like most.  A simple cup of tea with a friend.  A stroll down the river bank on a summers night.  Having dinner with family.  I purposefully choose not to become (too) complicated. 

A wise man once said:  "All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope" ~ Winston Churchill

See you soon,

Liezel x