Grace & Joy‪!‬ rowena scotney

The first in our Conversations series with creative changemakers!

I was so thrilled to chat with Vimla Sharma and discover more about her life, from growing up in Nairobi, Ayurvedic medicine and wise elders and also being taught massage from her mother, along with her 7 brothers and sisters.

Vimi is open about her personal life events, including devastating griefs that she has experienced and a recent breast cancer diagnosis. She takes us on a journey through homeopathy, craniosacral therapy, Grief Recovery, her Shamanic path in Peru, the Sea, the Universe, the Divine ...and so much more...

I felt honoured to listen to Vimi and share this hour with her and I hope you enjoy the episode too. 


Vimi is currently in the process of gently beginning her business again, of work centred around trauma resolution and if you would like to contact her, please email her at - vimladsharma.gmail.com

The conversation starts at 2 mins 35 seconds in.

Wonderful takeaways:


The wisdom of Ayurvedic medicine and tribal elders from a childhood in Nairobi.Massage skills passed down through the generations to Vimi, and her own children.'If you're ever unhappy and you don't know what to do with your life, you always have your hands' - Vimi's mother's words.Meeting a homeopath and inner knowing - 'I will do this! And then I let go. The secret is, you kind of have to let go of the outcome'.Living as a series of 'mini deaths' along the way, as well as the literal.How trauma shapes our lives.'I realised I was always looking outside of myself for home.''The Universe really colludes with you when the time is right - it is about Divine timing.'Innate wisdom and Knowing, beyond book learning. 'We are infinite Beings, infinite space'.'I really always have had this innate knowing that everything is going to be ok.'On grief: 'The sea understood me, the sea never judged me...I felt that the sea was holding me, was nurturing me and I had to learn to be really gentle and kind to myself because I realised that I was my harshest critic.'The beauty and honour of craniosacral therapy - working in the sacredness... and the metaphor of the sea, tides and flow.'I've had to go through the fear. I've made peace with the grief.''Somatically, we can a dialogue with it...and then release' - on our blocks.'This is your work, take it to the West' - on the Shamanic Path in Peru.'We have to remember who we are, we are children of the sun.'Sevika - 'Servant of God' - Vimi's spiritual name as given by Mooji - beautiful spirtual teacher/pointer.The Grief Recovery Method - an action programme that's also being taken into schools - about moving beyond loss.'All the work I do is around trauma resolution, in a nutshell.''We are here to shine our light. We have to show our magnificence.''I can choose the path of going down the fear route, or I have a choice, and I can choose the love path.''This is my way of serving the whole.'
Contact Vimla on Vimladsharma@gmail.com 
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Please see more artwork, articles and info at www.rowenascotney.com 
Music by Podington Bear www.soundofpicture.com - 'Wavy Glass'
Episode
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An intuitive poem of 2 mins 45 written in a few minutes after listening to 'The World at One' on Radio 4 and then looking outside. 

Feeling a  great need for calming ... and the birds and the trees spoke to me x

So wonderful writing these, having no idea really what will emerge...
the process of writing and then reading them is always so surprising and calming for me.

'This is the news' – an afternoon poem
This is the world at 1.45 says the news presenter on Radio 4. 
This is the news, firmly, this is the news at 1. 45. 
This is the news, says the wood pigeon outside my window. 
This is the news, says the collared dove who comes 
to eat at the bird table with her. 
 
It's all okay Rowena, it's all okay. 
After the fighting, after the darkness, after the killing, 
after the bruises, it's all okay Rowena.
 
And then the purring, the mala all along, its Buddha beads, 
my cat, in orange and white, breathing and purring 
like beads. Ginger. And softly sliding 
through different doors. 
A myriad to ignore, these doors.
 
It's all okay Rowena. 
Feel the earth in your hands. Gritty, grounding. 
Outside of culture. Voices. Life out there. 
This is life. This is the world. 
To in here. In this culture, this extraordinary richness 
in this soil. 
The morning spins and it is gone. 
 
The birds are still here. 
Onka, onka, onka. 
Flitting through myrtle leaves.
One thing, one thing, one thing, one leaf.
One shiny, one satin, one thing, Rowena, one thing. 
 
The sycamores in their perpendicular bowing are in agreeance. 
Their branches are knotty, one thing, one thing. 
Bare, weighing up the wind. 
Comme ci, comme ça 
they say in the breeze.
 
The camellia is full pink, blooming pink, and so healthy, so well, 
so new, full of buds and blossoms, 
she calls to me.
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**  please see the donate button on 'Buy me a coffee' as so happy to find out about this! Any contributions towards coffees, poetry books and bird seed :)

... (& of course the podcast/audio recording/editing costs!) gratefully received x

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Please see more artwork, articles and info at www.rowenascotney.com 


Artwork by Rowena Scotney

Episode cover - photo of my garden camellia
Podcast cover - 'Garden Robin' - felting
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‘Do you look behind what’s visible? Do you go a step further?’
Anja Kersten is an inspiring writer, performer and filmmaker with a huge amount of creative offerings full of wonder, depth and intrigue for a magic world.
It was fantastic to have a conversation on topics ranging from sensitivity, imagination, curiosity, wonder, improvisation, courage, authenticity and more...
This is the second in our Conversations series with creative changemakers and I hope you enjoy the episode as much as I did. Thank you Anja!
The conversation starts at 3 mins 18 seconds in & there's a short musical interlude at 20 mins 44 secs.

Wonderful takeaways:


'Everything I've done before feeds into what I'm doing now, maybe an understanding of our humanness'  - on trainings in social work, theatre & education, acting, coaching & more...Stories emerging from improvisation and funny occurances such as an aunt's text about a garden dwarf/gnome :)'50 Shades of Stuck' - on feeling stuck, doodling and humour! 'I love fairy tales' - fairy tales and East Germany.'Being wired differently' - on being an HSP (Highly Sensitive Person) and an Empath.'I was a very dreamy child' - on the blessing of attending the Rudolf Steiner School in Nuremberg.'Creating a community of people who feel different, coming together in their weirdness' - 'Dreamy Capuccino - Live!' - On future projects (tea drinkers also welcome :)) 'Standing in your own uniqueness' - a focus for future 1:1 sessions.To young women - 'Really look closely at the messages [you] get from others and instead of doubting [yourself] immediately, look at the messages and doubt them - see whether they're true, or not.''I don't want to be perfect in anything I do.''We have numerous opportunities to see something extraordinary in the ordinary.'You need to cultivate your curiosity.'Anja follows a regular meditation practice and also her own version of 'Morning Pages' inspired by Julia Cameron's 'The Artist's Way'...................................................................................................................................................
Contact Anja and visit her website Anja Kersten - For a Magic World Settle comfortably and listen in to Dreamy Cappuccino - Inspiring stories, musings & memoirs - beautiful quirky tales of wonder and delight!..................................................................................................................................................

Please see more artwork, articles and info at www.rowenascotney.com 
... and more podcast episodes with poetry, meditations and more! here on my Grace & Joy podcast.
Music by Podington Bear www.soundofpicture.com - 'Wavy Glass'
Episode cover - Anja Kersten
Podcast cover - 'Garden Robin'
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‘Remain in harmony, wherever possible. Create beauty, wherever possible. Relieve suffering, wherever possible. That is all we ask of you.’ 
It was truly wonderful to be in conversation with Janni Littlepage, a friend with so many creative gifts and talents, including being a singer-songwriter, artist, writer, garden designer and much more…
Janni shares beautiful experiences, moments and insights that have inspired and influenced her life and the conversation includes thoughts around creativity, sensitivity, being an empath, and gentle advice to our younger selves and others.
Many animals also feature, including dogs, cats, quails, monarch butterflies and beetles… x
Janni reads her poem ‘Transcendence’ which is Pearl 22 from her book ‘Angels in my Teacup’.
*Thank you to Janni’s partner Paul who helped with editing and including Janni’s poem and music, ‘A Delicate Dance’😊        

***                                                   
1:54 – Conversation begins
2:13 – Alice in her ‘muchness’ and multi-dimensional creativity!
2:24 – The inspiration for Janni’s song ‘Strange Angels’ – including a stray cat, reading about a rescue and an encounter on entering the freeway in Los Angeles…
10:55 – On garden design and the little creatures within home and garden – celebrating much-maligned insects x
16:43 – Mentioning ‘That Quail, Robert’ by Margaret Stanger
17:30 – Janni’s current projects, including the illustrated poem ‘Lilli Belle the Wonder Dog’
22:55 – ‘The Tiny Kingdom Chronicles’ – Four little books on insect characters 
23:22 – ‘Angels in my Teacup – Divine Encounters and Extraordinary Events’ – almost completed
24:24 – Having met Janni in a Lee Harris group. Lee Harris, energy intuitive, has been such a wonderful and important part of Janni’s journey.
24:50 – ‘If my client is not a friend to begin with, they always end up being a friend.’ x Janni’s garden website ‘Janni the Garden Whisperer’.
30:53 – The Buckeye tree – smooth barked, fragrant conical white blossoms…
32:09 – At 7 years old …and also the Butterfly Parade in Pacific Grove, California
34:30 – ‘As I became a teenager and a young person, I had a difficult time knowing where someone else’s feelings began, or ended, and mine began.’ - On the gifts of sensitivity and being an empath…
38:24 – ‘Each soul is sovereign’ – and on developing discernment
41:35 – ‘I had this feeling that I was supposed to do something, with music… Asking spirit and encountering an Angel.
43:58 – Interlude and the song ‘A Delicate Dance’ by Janni Littlepage and Johan Seige and then ‘Pearl 22’, ‘Transcendence’ – Janni reading her poem
45:42 – ‘When you have an idea, whatever it is…be discerning about who you share those early ideas with…
 ‘Now, as I’ve gotten older I have only very beautiful friends... Really think who you feel safe with… it is like finding a jewel.’
50:34 – ‘A Delicate Dance’  to the end


Please see Janni's album website: Jannilittlepage.com& garden design website: Janni the Garden WhispererSupport the show

A two minute episode, celebrating a heightened moment of hush ...

Sitting in the garden this morning and there was such a sense of pause, a hush, for a moment so intensified, so palpable, all senses heightened ... I had my diary with me -  and a poem came through the drizzle, so quickly written x
... and then a 5 min intuitive sketch, with crayons, on cardboard from an old catfood box, inspired by the poem x

Please see more artwork, articles and info at www.rowenascotney.com 

Music by Podington Bear www.soundofpicture.com - 'Wavy Glass'
Artwork by Rowena Scotney

Episode cover - 'Morning Poem - crayon on cardboard
Podcast cover - 'Garden Robin’ felting
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An episode of almost 5 mins, and a poem that wrote itself after a night of high winds.

On inner and outer, energies, fences and a woodlouse...

Poem begins at 1min 20 secs


Please see more artwork, articles and info at www.rowenascotney.com 

Music by Podington Bear www.soundofpicture.com - 'Wavy Glass'
Artwork by Rowena Scotney

Episode cover - 'Night' - monotype
Podcast cover - 'Garden Robin’ felting
Support the show