Wipe the slate clean

It’s been quite a while since I’ve blogged and I wish I hadn’t left it this long...however, I am glad that I’m taking the time today to reconnect with you and this part of my soul. :-)

I celebrated my birthday in June this year. It was a day I will never forget for as long as I live – it was everything a birthday should be and most importantly for me, it was THE birthday that has healed a lifetime of ‘issues’ I have had regarding celebrating my special day.

I think like most people, special occasions carry so many expectations with them. There is a great deal of pressure for the day to be utterly perfect – a day which should, from start to finish epitomise life’s best. A heavy weight for a mere day to carry! From my personal experience, I think this expectation comes from being let down, feeling disappointment or sadness which somehow, on a ‘special occasion’ is amplified. Birthdays also carry with them a sense of entitlement, which is completely understandable and even acceptable. On our birthday we want the people we care about to treat us extra special, with kid gloves and perhaps even shower us with a little fairy dust! So, when we don’t get that, the sadness can be overwhelming because we don’t feel validated and more importantly, we don’t feel honoured.

This birthday I learnt something very special – I needed to stop hoping people would honour me and start honouring myself. My husband and I worked really hard to make this birthday something very special for me and of course for him too. So, I asked myself what I needed to make this birthday one that would not only honour me and who I was, but would also help to heal the past hurts of birthdays foiled. For me it was going to a destination that I have been dreaming of for years – it was Lago di Como – or Lake Como. My husband found the perfect place for us and the word ‘perfect’ does not even come close to describing how absolute the gel between this destination and us was. The moment we arrived at The Grand Tremezzo Hotel I could feel negativity draining from my being. I had arrived on my personal planet; all my sense heightened and tingling. The heady and enduring scent of jasmine, rose and honeysuckle (my favourite scents incidentally) permeated my being, elevating my spirit. The visual stimulus was a feast for my teeming Gemini attention span, the tastes, wow I cannot tell you about the taste – from the Martini I had soon after arriving to the made to order pizzas from the pizza oven to the linguini carbonara that actually took our breath away to the silver service birthday dinner – all utterly mind blowing. The music was a soul nourishing mix of Dizzie Gillespie, Tony Bennet, Nat King Cole – this place had the charm and sophistication that just surpassed anything I have ever experienced and it did it with such an effortless and breezy elegance.

When we got to the room, (which had a balcony overlooking the lake) I had to get the music out to set the scene (this is something I always do when away – it’s vital!). The track that will forevermore take me back to this birthday and to Lake Como is Billie Holiday’s Time On My Hands. As my gaze shifted from the loving eyes of my husband and the mystical and beautiful Lake Como, with the music drifting through my spirit just like the zephyr floating into the room I knew that I was honoured. The day of my birth on this earth was honoured by me, my husband and the Universe. When you give yourself something that you need and want, it makes such a huge impact on you – it frees you from looking outside yourself to find validation. Learning how to honour yourself gives you dominion over your own life and that is the key to your happiness. Give yourself peace, joy and fulfilment and I guarantee you it will wipe the slate clean. Here’s to having the birthdays that make you truly happy! x

Billie Holiday - Time On My Hands
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z935jE8TdTg