The Divided Heart

Book Travelex Day 4 - 9:30 am:
Today's book for SWAP is 'The Divided Heart' by Rachel Power. It's one of the best non fiction books I've read this year. 'Australia's most respected artists, writers and actors speak frankly about the wrench between motherhood and an artistic life. Rachel Power navigates trough the divided heart of these exceptional women to reveal shocking, funny and moving truth of the overwhelming demands of motherhood and an undiminished passion for their work. A Divided heart; a split self; the fear that to succeed at one means to fail at the other. Rachel Power talks to great Australian artists such as Rachel Griffiths, Clare Bowditch, Joanna Murray- Smith, Sarah Watt etc. The book is close to my heart as I see mother Artists struggle with this issue all the time. One of the reasons I started Creative Mums was to give mums with Creative Professions a platform to exchange experiences on this level and to support each other. For example to be able to arrange business meetings while having children around. I know from experience few men can deal with interruptions from children while discussing business. We motherly women have the gift of this extra ordinary skill to pick up a conversation without the slightest distraction and continue with a same intensity. This could mean a spilled water cup, a stinky pooh, a bleeding knee or a simple cuddle for attention. Any men would have made a note - 'NOT professiona'l or maybe 'waste of time'...haha.... Only full time mothers know what a hand full kids can be and what an effort it takes to be a full time carer. For part time mothers it's the same..but we talk about part - TIME. So not all the time. I admire any mother who has made a career or stayed a professional artist while raising their kids - par time or full time. Many older Mum- Artists have told me they wished Creative Mums was around when their children were young. Most of them said they had to put their artistic career on hold while caring for their brood. As Rachel Power writes in her book The Divided Heart: 'Historically, the clash between art and life has meant that 'great' women artists have been with few exceptions, childless throughout their working lives. '
You missed me again and this wonderful book! What about tomorrow another book another exchange, a new opportunity for a great or terrible read!

Day 3 BookTravelex at 4 pm: My afternoon swap today is at The Red Earth Cafe in the center of Manly. The best place to go with young children. The Cafe is situate on an ugly large empty square behind the Post Office. Out of the tourist route of Manly. The Cafe serves great coffee - all home grown in Australia. There is a fabulous cubby house and lots of toys for the kids. Most of all my kids enjoy the empty square to run around on. The owner Patrick is very family friendly and great towards kids. A great lounge for mums & bubs to snuggle on in.
So here I am reading the afternoon SMH paper. Putting my book The Secret by Rhonda Byrne prominently on the table. It's the book well known around the globe about the so called 'law of attraction'. The book teaches the so called Secret about attracting what ever you want in your life. At the same time stating that wherever you are now in your life you have all created yourself by the attraction rules. It talks to different 'spiritual' tutors from across the globe. They all say the same thing but in different wording.
The book also quotes the earlier 'secret thinkers' as all tutors say the same. 'The Secret' is nothing new it all existed long time ago. Some practice it and some don't and that is where the difference is. 'The spiritual substance from which comes all visible wealth is never depleted. It is right with you all the time and responds to your faith in it and your demands on it' Chalres Jillmore (1854 -1948) Maybe due to the old age of this thinker in the last century, quite unusual, I guess it would be a good idea to give it some thoughts. I'm happy to SWAP! You just have to find me!! and my books!! The best about the book The Secret I find the simple thought that we often focus on that what we don't want instead what we want. By banning newspapers we would do a lot of good in the world as we would stop focusing on all those negative thoughts out there. It's a confirmation of what is and by focusing on it-it only get's bigger. Same for the current crisis. Our beautiful planet produces all we need. It's just stories we make up and live out as great actors in our lives. The best inspiring thought I heard today in this line of positive thinking was a mother who lost her 18 year old son to cancer and who actually said she could now see that her son was the 'grande' gift to her in her life. She decided to live by that gift. I think that is amazing thinking which I guess not many of us would be able to master.
Though maybe we can see everything what happens in our lives as gifts the so called good and the bad and be appreciative for time passing by. As that is the only thing we all can be true witnesses off.

Spiritual Business - what is that?

BookTravelex Day 3 - It's a windy morning at Manly Beach. The newspapers & umbrella's are blowing away at the Coffee shop. My children are 'whinging' as they have not slept at all because Mummy had to do a workshop yesterday afternoon. Daddi likes to take them out and about and by the time I came home they had fallen asleep as two statues on the couch, sitting half upright supported in the pillows. So today I have to live with the residue of being a Creative Mum. I wonder what a Spiritual Business is all about?
The book for Swap today is called 'Spiritual Business' - Creating a business from the heart by Author Kate Foster. One saying is 'people write about or teach about what they most have to learn themselves'. The book is filled with the most amazing painting collages and is a pleasure for the visual eye. I'm not sure about the writing as for me it' seems an endless stream of not too much structured thoughts. It reads more like a personal dairy than a guide to set up a 'Business from the Heart'. It looks to me that at the end of the book the Author is still searching and has not found the core at all. The book also came forth of a 12 month experiment, a BLOG!! It reads like a blog..a personal exploration of an idea not captured yet.
Maybe it's because I've always followed my heart in creating a business. Maybe it's something which comes naturally to me. As for me there is not other way in life then from the heart. But for anyone out there who loves to explore where his or her heart is in the business this is a great and visual very attractive book. For me the core of a spiritual business is centered around the family unit. Businesses in general still have to evolve a lot on this level. If Business goes before a sick child what have we come to in this world? My children are the center of my universe and my life and 'business' is built around that. I look at my children's happy faces as they pounder over the book. They whinge, smile and run around and I know how many mums and dads have to miss out on this. And I wonder about who is really creating a business from the heart? You missed me again!! Try again tomorrow -same place -same time Cafe Cruz 9 am. I got lot's more books to share with you and hopefully finally to SWAP!

Pregnant Belly Mandala Painting

BookTravelex Day 2 4.45 pm: After my Pregnant Belly Mandala Painting workshop I am ready to swap a great book about designs and how to paint Mandala's. 'The Art of Creative Drawing' -Symbols, Shapes & Geometry. Enjoying a successful workshop I congratulate myself with a bunch of flowers. Hoping someone is getting the message!! I'm very interested myself in the art of Mandala's as besides their magic beauty they represent a larger scheme of the cosmic world's patterns."The word "mandala" is from the classical Indian language of Sanskrit. Loosely translated to mean "circle," a mandala is far more than a simple shape. It represents wholeness, and can be seen as a model for the organizational structure of life itself--a cosmic diagram that reminds us of our relation to the infinite, the world that extends both beyond and within our bodies and minds." The Art of Creative Drawing series explores the world of symbolism and art with an emphasis on tapping into our deeper creative potential.Working through each book gives an opportunity to explore and delveop drawing skills, while enhancing intuitive and previously untapped talents. Simples step-by-step explanations guide you on a journey of knowledge and creativity, catering for the budding, amateur and professional artist. To book your Pregnant Belly Mandala Painting session go to www.creativemums.com.au
It's lots of fun & makes great photos too.....and above all it's very relaxing. It also unlocks the creative part of your brain. Good for assistance in giving birth! You also can order your Pregnant Belly Mandala Tshirt & LightBox for in your birthing room. The Mandala can be used as a focal image during birth. You get strenght from the thought of the linear line of mothers before you connecting with the 'invisible umbilical cord'. To talk to me about Mandala's - find me at the BookTravelex during the Manly Arts Festival till 27 September.

Sunday Morning Cruising Manly

Day 2 of the Book TravelexSunday morning are dress up mornings like when we were little and used to get ready for church. It's the one day of the week we should parade next to the 'Manly Boulevard' ..though we not really have such a tradition in Australia. We dress up at night but not in the morning, the only day of the year the whole nation dresses up is during the Melbourne Cup. The first year I experienced this as new comer from the Netherlands. I just thought this gigantic party was going on somewhere. I looked at all those gorgeous girls and women and wondered who's wedding they were going too. They actually dressed up for 'horses', quite funny I thought. So why not dress up more often like that? The book I brought in style of this issue is called 'Holy would Dream' by Karen Quinn. It's lighthearted reading material about 'Fashion historian Holly Ross who often whishes she lived in a simpler time, when the clothes where glamorous , the men debonair and the endings happy. ' So where does it all go wrong? How is it that one day Holly finds herself homeless, jobless, penniless -and finance-less? The most interesting part is where she goes on a cruise as a fashion historian to talk about the lost era's of history as fashionable fifties movie star Audrey Hepburn. It's a dream away book and your imagination takes you from your lounge room across the globe without actually moving a foot. It has a Hollywood glamorous stylisch flavour we know about the movies from the fifties. A fun read for 'Fashionistas' . No SWAP luck this morning! Is there no-one actually reading the Manly Arts Festival booklet I wonder? Or do people think it's a silly idea? I don't know and I don't mind...as I will continue on on this BookTravelex Journey. You can find me again tomorrow Monday morning next to the Arts Gallery & Museum at Cafe Cruz at 9 am. New book with a new, one of hose beautiful Australian flowers on top! Spider man and me will be waiting for you!

Journey of our Spirit

Day ONE of the BookTravelex! You missed me this morning ...I had for one of you the book 'Journey of our Spirit' ...ready to SWAP! On top of the book I had put the beautiful Bird of Paradise Flower.

As every morning you can find me at Cafe Cruz around 9am! Please try again tomorrow - who knows what book I will bring. I took the time to re-read passages of the book myself while my two youngest sons where happy frolicking around on the beach. Meeting strangers - but for them they are just 'other kids'. Children do not think that much as we adults they just find a play mate and share their buckets and shovels without even knowing each other's names. They are kids and that's all that counts to them. Wouldn't life be just a bit more uncomplicated if we could learn from those little critters.

'Journey of Our Spirit' is written by Australian Author Helen Martino-Bailey. One quote out of her book: 'Be conscious of the beauty around you: See the Joy in children, the wonders of nature. Think of Divine Love as you see, hear, smell, taste, touch. In doing this life becomes more joyful and a living meditation.'

My meditation comes with my early morning coffee when I gather my thoughts for the day staring out over the water surrounded with the laughter of my kids. Yes, I can pass this book on.... I see - hear -smell - taste and touch? Do you?

Hope to swap a book with you 'stranger' tomorrow at 9 am at Cafe Cruz- Manly Cove - opposite Ocean World.

3 Days to go for the Start of the BookTRAVELEX

We are counting down......I'm very excited that it's only three more days to go to the Start of the Manly Arts Festival and also the start of the first morning of the BookTRAVELEX.
I hope many of you will join in and find participants in public places who are interested to swap books!
Remember the ARTISTIC SWAP 'code' is a flower on top of your book. You can swap the flowers too! don't forget to put them in a glass of water when you go home. Let's enjoy the beauty of spring and take care of our wonderful natural environment. Also don't forget to pick up a Manly Arts Festival booklet from your local outlets. OR look up the full program at www.manlyartsfestival.com

Great idea

Unfortunately I am too far away to participate in this great opportunity to swap books and meet people. I read about a book a week and most of the time I am reading two books at the same time, one relaxing book such as from Leigh Redhead, a Melbournian writer, and a book with new knowledge on topics I am interested in such as at the moment I am reading The shock doctrine by Naomi Klein. Not a book to read in one go as it's really shocking. I have just finished a book called Design is the problem by Nathan Shedroff. Most of the books I get from the library but also from friends and I am a keen verge shopper too.
When I was a kid I had a sticker on my door which said: Live a double life when you are reading!

Travelling Books by Angela van Boxtel

I love to read books which have the words 'Spirit' & 'Heart' & in them. I've read thousands over the year! I will share a selection of them with you during the BookTRAVELEX as part of the Manly Arts Festival 2009 in September. You can find me at Cafe Cruz opposite Ocean World Manly at Manly Cove nex to the Manly Art Gallery & Museum. Every morning I have a coffee there while my two youngest children are playing on the Beach. Besides the great coffee and good service it's a very relaxing place to sit. It's the only place in Manly where you can sit on the path next to the beach. I hope you will enjoy them as much as I do and I'm looking forwards to read in this blog what you thought about the books.

Manly Arts Festival 2009

Book TRAVELEX

Do you have a bookcase full of books which you hardly read? During the Manly Arts Festival you can exchange books in a fun way. Take a book with you on the ferry, to the coffee shop, a restaurant, to work etc. PUT a flower on top of it. This is your exchange code to swap books. Let life become an open book & let the stuff flow and blog your experiences!

11 - 27 September

@ Manly & Beyond
When: Daily during the festival
Costs: Free