I love this season....

What season is that you may ask?  Why, mango season of course!  Here in Australia, it's summer and summer means summer fruits.  Summer fruits means gorgeous, fresh produce available everywhere and in abundance.  Nectarines, plums, watermelon, lychees, apricots and mangoes.  Lots and lots of mangoes.

My kids love them and we eat about two a day.  Little Warrior likes munching on the seed and walks around for ages clutching this juicy morsel.  Occasionally I'll find it, abandoned and bereft of any fruit, on his couch, on the deck or in his bedroom.  As long as it's as far away as possible from the nearest bin, that'll do him.

Me?  My favourite way to eat mango would have to be with prawns.  In a salad.  Washed down with a Marlborough Sauv Blanc on a warm day.  Or on a pavlova.  Like 'dis:

Mangoes means Christmas to me.  And Christmas is a special time of year.  Getting together with people you love (and perhaps some you kinda don't) and eating, drinking and being very, very Merry.


So a toast.  A toast to mangoes, merriness and Christmas.


Cheers!!

Merry Christmas to all

It's Christmas Eve and here I sit in my parents' backyard. The backyard I've known for the past 31 years. I'm watching my Polynesian Princess race up and down the lawn. Running along a patch of grass that used to be our pool. The pool I used to swim in constantly until I hit my teens. Then, not so much.

I'm nostalgic today. But that's normal right? Normal to be nostalgic at the end of a year.

This year has seen me yo-yo'ing between returning to work and not returning to work. We visited Hamilton Island in the beginning of the year and had a great holiday. I don't think we'll be doing that again soon. Tightening our belts, one income and all that. But the biggest thing this year has brought for me is peace and less attachment.

Anyone familiar with Buddhist teachings will be aware of the Four Noble Truths:

1. Life means suffering.
2. The origin of suffering is attachment.
3. The cessation of suffering is attainable.
4. The path to the cessation of suffering.

I have lived most of my life attached to physical things. It hasn't made me feel good. Well, maybe for a little bit after I had bought the latest handbag I would get a little rush, but it never lasted long. Inevitably I would already be mentally picking out the next thing I "needed". And so the cycle would continue. But the good thing about not having a lot of money is you have no choice BUT to let go of all that longing. It's the only way to be happy.

I'm determined to be thankful for all the things I have. I still have both my parents. I can still visit them in the house I grew up in-I love that. I have a loving relationship with my husband, two gorgeous children and a roof over our heads. What more could you need?

Merry Christmas all and Namaste

xx