March 2021

Are friends as important as family?

Family are given to you but friends you get the opportunity to choose.

Family often love you unconditionally and stay with you throughout your life.

Friends often stay for a period in your life and then drift away. However I have noticed really close friends stay for the duration.

Some friendships are as close and as strong as a blood tie. They can be based on a common interest or less obvious things like the same sense of humour, life values or the joy of giving and receiving.

The picture of the three flowers represent me and my two closet friends. read more

By Alison Wem, ago

Silence: does it help calm our brains and give well-being?

Many people do not value silence. I have found it to be comforting, nourishing and cosy.

The noisy world is drowning out our creativity and our inner connection. Noise effects our brains causing elevated levels of stress hormones even when we are sleeping. When I was a busy, working Mum most of my day was with other people and their noise. Being on my own in silence was refreshing.

In 2011, the World Health Organisation (WHO) concluded that the 340 million residents of Western Europe (about the population of the United States), were losing a million years of healthy life every year, due to noise. read more

By Alison Wem, ago

Rumi’s Reflections: Alison Wem’s Journal – Day 4

The spirit is so near

that you can’t see it!

But reach for it… don’t be a jar, full of

water, whose rim is always dry. Don’t be the

rider who gallops all night and never sees

the horse that is beneath him.

                                                                     Jalal al-Din Rumi

This is so true. My soul Lucinda is so close yet so far. I have to consciously think about her to be able to feel and hear her. She is wise but I have to remember to ask for her help. read more

By Alison Wem, ago