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Posted in Humanity, Inspiration, Relationships, travel, What's on my mind?, Wisdom

Dear Human

Posted on by Suitcase Cally
Reflections in Nature’s Valley, Garden Route, South Africa

Many lifetimes, many lessons and many places. Put me near water and I’m in my true essence of love and connection to our Mother Earth. Beaches, oceans, rivers, streams, lakes and waterfalls make my heart sing. Water connects me to my true higher self and my most intuitive reflections arise. I’ve often been called a water baby! What’s your true element?

As I reflect on 9/11 and remember what I was doing in the moments the news hit our trading floor in London and the traders called our back office. The hit to the heart and stomach I can still sense. Shock! Followed by crisis management in the global financial markets. An event much bigger than anyone was prepped for. Being called into my boss’s office as we got on the speaker phone to start our incident response with other leaders in the financial communities. The unknown in our faces, a tipping point we all got through that made me realise at the time what’s really important. Not money, not the next task – but people. The rest is just a bonus. The moments and days that unfolded as we all pulled together to support our friends and colleagues in New York is a time that is always etched in my heart and mind.

Today reminds me of all the stories that unfolded, and are still being revealed years later; that today is all that matters and who we love. Truth and love go hand in hand. May truth always reveal itself because that to me is loving despite it’s messiness at times. Nothing needs fixing, we are not broken.

I wanted to share these beautiful words of love by Courtney A. Walsh in memory of every family and person impacted by the events of 9/11. They were sent to me years ago and I often read them as a reminder – we are all love, we are one 🌍❤️.

“Dear Human: You’ve got it all wrong. You didn’t come here to master unconditional love. That is where you came from and where you’ll return. You came here to learn personal love. Universal love. Messy love. Sweaty love. Crazy love. Broken love. Whole love. Infused with divinity. Lived through the grace of stumbling. Demonstrated through the beauty of messing up. Often. You didn’t come here to be perfect. You already are. You came here to be gorgeously human. Flawed and fabulous. And then to rise again into remembering. But unconditional love? Stop telling that story. Love, in truth, doesn’t need any other adjectives. It doesn’t require modifiers. It doesn’t require the condition of perfection. It only asks that you show up. And do your best. That you stay present and feel fully. That you shine and fly and laugh and cry and hurt and heal and fall and get back up and play and work and live and die as YOU. It’s enough. It’s Plenty.” – Courtney A. Walsh

There is only today. Have a beautiful love filled day!

With love SuitCaseCally 💜

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Posted in Humanity, Quotes, Relationships, What's on my mind?, Wisdom

“Letting go wisdom” from Anthony Hopkins

Posted on by Suitcase Cally
Internal peace is a great feeling – art sculpture photo taken from a favourite artist in Hout Bay, Cape Town

Lessons from the past 18 months have shown me the true colours of people and highlighted where I needed to grow and change from outdated relationships-season, reason or lifetime? We adapt, we learn, we grow, and let go for the new. Some stay, some go, and some new people arrive who are my tribe of feel good vibes. There is no race as we all adapt and grow at different paces. These words I stumbled across and it really resonated with me to what I have been randomly feeling and thinking yet had no intention of trying to articulate into meaningful written words.

‘‘Let go of people who aren’t ready to love you yet! This is the hardest thing you’ll have to do in your life and it will also be the most important thing: stop giving your love to those who aren’t ready to love you yet.
Stop hard conversations with people who don’t want to change.
Stop showing up for people who are indifferent to your presence.
Stop loving people who aren’t ready to love you.

Let the light in

I know your instincts do everything to win the good mercy of everyone around you, but it’s also the impulse that will steal your time, energy and mental, physical and spiritual health.

When you start manifesting yourself in your life, completely, with joy, interest and commitment, not everyone will be ready to find you in this place of pure sincerity.

That doesn’t mean that you have to change who you are. That means you have to stop loving people who don’t want to love you yet.
When you are excluded, subtly offended, forgotten or easily ignored by people you give time to, you don’t do yourself any favour by allowing them your energy and your life.
The truth is that you’re not for everyone…
And that not everyone is for you…
That makes this world so special, when you find the few people you have friendship, love or a true relationship with…

You will know how valuable that is…
Because you have experienced what isn’t…
But the more time you spend trying to make you loved by someone who cant…
The more time you waste depriving the same connection…

There are billions of people on this planet, and many of them will end up with you, on their level, with their vibration, from where they stand…

But…
The smaller you stay, involved in the privacy of people who use you as a pillow, background option, a therapist and a strategy for their emotional healing…
More time you stay out of the community you wish for.
If you stop showing up, you might be less wanted…
If you stop trying, the relationship might stop…
If you stop texting, your phone stays dark for days and weeks…
Maybe if you stop loving someone, the love between you will dissolve…
That doesn’t mean you ruined a relationship!
That means all this relationship had was the energy that only you and you hire to keep it in the air.

It’s not love.
That’s attachment.
That’s wanting to give a chance to those who don’t want it!

The most valuable and most important thing you have in your life is your energy.
Its not just your time because it’s limited…
It’s your energy!
What you give every day is what will become more and more in your life.
It’s the ones you give time and energy that will define your existence.

When you realize this, you start to understand why you are so impatient when you spend your time with people that don’t suit you, and in activities, places, situations that don’t suit you.

You’re starting to realize that the most important thing you can do for your life, for yourself and for everyone you know, protect your energy stronger than anything.

Turn your life into a safe sanctuary where only ” compatible ” people with you are allowed.

You are not responsible for saving people.
You are not responsible to convince them to be saved.

It’s not your job to exist for people and give them your life, little by little, moment after the moment!

Because if you feel bad or if you feel obliged; you are the root of all of this by your insisting, afraid they promise you the favors you won’t give them…

It’s your only fact to realize that you are the loved one of your destiny and to accept the love you think you deserve.

Decide you deserve a true friendship.

Wait then… just a minute…
And look how everything is starting to change…”

Link to Thought Catalogue original article: https://thoughtcatalog.com/brianna-wiest/

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Posted in Humanity, What's on my mind?

Free people

Posted on by Suitcase Cally

Never in my lifetime would I imagine our individual and collective freedoms would be so under threat than what I have witnessed the past 18 months. The latest divide and conquer strategy is no longer working and it’s time to question everything, go deep into ourselves and truly ask ourselves what mattters.

I stumbled across this inspiring speech by Charlie Chaplin who performed in and directed the 1940’s satire comedy movie The Great Dictator. The themes seem to repeat through history and have been evident globally in the last year.

YouTube video

The Great Dictator Speech

Having spent many years living overseas in a number of countries and witnessing division due to religion, race and sex; I’ve learnt a lot of this division has not been created by my fellow citizens but by society and organisations I have no control over.

Yet when I witness our freedoms being taken away in what I imagined a Western democracy; a fire is burning within me that says NO this is not right, not fair, not just and not humane as a woman, citizen of the land and for all of us regardless of what these old societal structures attempt to dictate. My world view has been turned inside out and upside down as I’ve learnt more about lifetime deceptions. It’s a time to question everything and not always believe what is being presented.

This speech by Charlie Chaplin expresses so much of what I have been thinking and feeling the past year. Together humanity needs to unite, stop the division and come together for our common purposes including freedom. Everything is an illusion right now and my wish is we see through the veils and stand in our unique powerful sovereignty as individuals and collectively.

The transcript is below to read:

“I’m sorry, but I don’t want to be an Emperor. That’s not my business. I don’t want to rule or conquer anyone.

I should like to help everyone if possible; Jew, Gentile, black men, white. We all want to help one another. Human beings are like that. We want to live by each other’s happiness, not by each other’s misery.

We don’t want to hate and despise one another. In this world, there is room for everyone, and the good Earth is rich and can provide for everyone. The way of life can be free and beautiful, but we have lost the way.

Greed has poisoned men’s souls; has barricaded the world with hate; has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed. We have developed speed, but we have shut ourselves in. Machinery that gives abundance has left us in want.

Our knowledge has made us cynical; our cleverness, hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little.

More than machinery we need humanity. More than cleverness, we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost. The aeroplane and the radio have brought us closer together. The very nature of these inventions cries out for the goodness in man; cries out for universal brotherhood; for the unity of us all.

Even now my voice is reaching millions throughout the world, millions of despairing men, women, and little children, victims of a system that makes men torture and imprison innocent people. To those who can hear me, I say ‘Do not despair.’ The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed, the bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress. The hate of men will pass, and dictators die, and the power they took from the people will return to the people. And so long as men die, liberty will never perish.

Soldiers! Don’t give yourselves to brutes, men who despise you and enslave you; who regiment your lives, tell you what to do, what to think and what to feel! Who drill you, treat you like cattle, use you as cannon fodder! Don’t give yourselves to these unnatural men – machine men with machine minds and machine hearts! You are not machines! You are not cattle! You Are Men!

You have a love of humanity in your hearts! You don’t hate! Only the unloved hate; the unloved and the unnatural.

Soldiers! Don’t fight for slavery! Fight for liberty! In the seventeenth chapter of St. Luke, it’s written ‘the kingdom of God is within man,’ not one man or a group of men, but in all men! In you! You, the people, have the power, the power to create machines, the power to create happiness! 

You, the people, have the power to make this life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure. Then in the name of democracy, let us use that power. Let us all unite. Let us fight for a new world, a decent world that will give men a chance to work, that will give youth a future and old age a security. 

By the promise of these things, brutes have risen to power. But they lie! They do not fulfill their promise. They never will! Dictators free themselves but they enslave the people! Now let us fight to fulfill that promise! 

Let us fight to free the world! To do away with national barriers! To do away with greed, with hate and intolerance! Let us fight for a world of reason, a world where science and progress will lead to all men’s happiness. Soldiers, in the name of democracy, let us all unite!”

Stay well and let’s looks out for each other.

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Posted in travel

Innocence

Posted on by Suitcase Cally
Love matters

Years ago I was sent an email and it was one I kept as it warmed my heart when I was going through a challenging period of healing from grief and loss.

I don’t know who the original author is as I would give credit to them.

Kids often know the meaning of the word “love” better than adults.

“What Love means to a 4-8 year old…”

A group of professional people posed this question to a group of 4 to 8 year-olds :

‘What does love mean?’

The answers they got were broader and deeper than anyone could have imagined. See what you think:

‘When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn’t bend over and paint her toenails anymore. So my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands got arthritis too. That’s love.’

Rebecca- age 8

‘When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different. You just know that your name is safe in their mouth.’

Billy – age 4

‘Love is when a girl puts on perfume and a boy puts on shaving cologne and they go out and smell each other.’

Karl – age 5

‘Love is when you go out to eat and give somebody most of your French fries without making them give you any of theirs.’

Chrissy – age 6

‘Love is what makes you smile when you’re tired.’

Terri – age 4

‘Love is when my mommy makes coffee for my daddy and she takes a sip before giving it to him, to make sure the taste is OK.’

Danny – age 7

‘Love is when you kiss all the time. Then when you get tired of kissing, you still want to be together and you talk more. My Mommy and Daddy are like that. They look gross when they kiss.’

Emily – age 8

‘Love is what’s in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen.’

Bobby – age 7 (Wow!)

‘If you want to learn to love better, you should start with a friend who you hate.’

Nikka – age 6

‘Love is when you tell a guy you like his shirt, then he wears it everyday.’

Noelle – age 7

‘Love is like a little old woman and a little old man who are still friends even after they know each other so well.’

Tommy – age 6

‘During my piano recital, I was on a stage and I was scared. I looked at all the people watching me and saw my daddy waving and smiling. He was the only one doing that. I wasn’t scared anymore.’

Cindy – age 8

‘My mommy loves me more than anybody. You don’t see anyone else kissing me to sleep at night.’

Clare – age 6

‘Love is when Mommy gives Daddy the best piece of chicken.’

Elaine-age 5

‘Love is when Mommy sees Daddy smelly and sweaty and still says he is handsomer than Robert Redford.’

Chris – age 7

‘Love is when your puppy licks your face even after you left him alone all day.’

Mary Ann – age 4

‘I know my older sister loves me because she gives me all her old clothes and has to go out and buy new ones.’

Lauren – age 4

‘When you love somebody, your eyelashes go up and down and little stars come out of you.’

Karen – age 7

‘Love is when Mommy sees Daddy on the toilet and she doesn’t think it’s gross.’

Mark – age 6

‘You really shouldn’t say ‘I love you’ unless you mean it. But if you mean it, you should say it a lot. People forget.’

Jessica – age 8

And the final one…

The winner was a four year old child whose next door neighbour was an elderly gentleman who had recently lost his wife. Upon seeing the man cry, the little boy went into the old gentleman’s yard, climbed onto his lap, and just sat there. Whenever his Mother asked what he had said to the neighbour, the little boy said ‘Nothing, I just helped him cry.’

Keep the love vibrations flowing and return to innocence on those days when we are challenged ❤️.

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Posted in Inspiration, Poems

If This Time

Posted on by Suitcase Cally
A poem of hope

A dear friend of mine shared this beautiful video, and prose with me as we turned the pages into the New Year of 2021.

Kevin McCormack’s inspiring words of hope during this pandemic crisis the world is facing, touched my heart and soul as a reminder of what really matters. I won’t lie and say that it has been a bed of roses, as we all have been affected in some way. My own frustrations of missing a ‘normal’ life of social interaction, as I watched in horror the chaos unfold was something I never imagined in my life time.

The hysteria surrounding us externally in the media, our own lives, the lives of loved ones, families and friends, and the impact to all of humanity and societies globally reminded me to come back to self and nature where the answers lie. I had to find a sense of calm and dig deep some days, as I was searching for answers with conflicting medical opinions as media censorship was evident when medical truth seekers and warriors of light were sharing alternate views against the narrative. A red flag for me having lived in countries growing up where censorship was real. My buttons have been pushed as I don’t like being told what to do, and treated as a threat every time I go out in public to get ‘essentials’. In my little world view everything has been challenged. The past year has proven that everything is an illusion. It’s like being part of a movie set some days.

Taking back what I can control is in my power as a sovereign human being, and letting go what is out of my control by taking the next step, staying present and be ‘in presence’ to those around us certainly helps in some small way. The answers come when we give ourselves permission to pause, reflect and breathe in this moment – it’s all we have – this moment ‘in this time’. This video and the words offered me hope and a reminder to take stock. I am forever grateful to everyone who has been of service, and the gestures of kindness I have experienced and witnessed from family, friends and even strangers.

Today is all that matters and what I do with it. This is the time to take advantage of the winter UK lockdown – go within, continue to be a truth seeker, be of service and love others, and reflect. I may not like lockdown or agree with it – yet accepting where I am, and what I can do during this time to be appreciative of everything I do have, and this beautiful home we call Mother Earth.

My vision for all of us wherever we are in the world is that we come out of this crisis with grace, more kindness, tolerance and compassion for everyone. We will need each other to rebuild our lives and communities.

And a daily reminder I give myself is to keep the faith and chase those dreams. They are waiting. This too shall pass.

With love, Suitcase Cally

The poem: Copyright © Kevin McCormack – If This Time

“If this time has taught me anything, it is that the tiny speck in this universe that we occupy, is both wonderful and wondrous, and if we allow it to, the beauty around us can unlock the beauty within us; and teach us far more than our schooling ever did. 

If this time has taught me anything, it is that success and how we measure it, needs to be redefined, and that the only person to whom you should ever compare yourself, is who you were yesterday. 
Make your growth game strong, and along the way be kind to yourself – if you are doing your best then you are doing enough. 


If this time has taught me anything, it is that it is more important now than ever before, to see the world through your own eyes, begin by looking at yourself – look honestly and look gently. Look inward with compassion and kindness and look outward with humility and appreciation. 

If this time has taught me anything, it is that the opposite of love is not hate, but fear – and our greatest fear is losing that to which we have become attached.

Yesterday is heavy put it down. Seeing the beauty in the world around you Is the first step in purifying the clearing the mind, and If this time has taught me anything, it is that nature unlike us, never apologises for her beauty. 

If this time has taught me anything, it is that life really is about the journey, not the destination. And it must be, for surely, we are not here to reach the destination, for the destination is death. Be alive for after all, life is all you’ve got, and when you pay attention to the things for which you are grateful, you soon forget about what you think you’re missing. 

If this time has taught me anything, it is that bitter tears are the quietest, and on the days when your head wants to hang low, it is important that you look up. Lift your head. Take it in, and breathe deep, for while this world can sometimes be a hard place, your reality and what you perceive it to be, are seldom aligned. 

If this time has taught me anything, is that beauty truly is in the eye of the beholder. We can see universes within universes, but only when we pay enough attention, and this is as true as the nature within us, as it is of the nature around us. 

If this time has taught me anything it is this:
If true love conquers everything, then self-love gives it the fortitude to do so. Know that you are more than your scars – know that every wound in you has healed along the way has taught you what it is to fight back; and to start again from where you are, with what you’ve got. Beat your own pathway, without seeking the approval of others and know that self-love is not vanity. 

If this time has taught me anything, it is this: 
HOPE matters and we cannot live without it. This time has taught me that HOPE is not a wish, nor a desire for things to be different. It is a course of action, a combination of mind and heart. 
The future can be better and can be brighter, and we each have the power within us to make it so. 
There will be challenges to face along the way, to which there are many solutions. There is a source of resilience deep within us all.

If this time does not teach us, that time itself is precious, then will have missed the lesson. 
The lesson that never before have the past and the future been so irrelevant, and that the quest to “find ourselves” has been fruitless till now; only because we have been searching in all the wrong places. 
We are here, we are now. We are each and every breath we take. 
Every day is a gift – a gift to begin again, and to grasp with both hands, the fresh opportunity to learn, unlearn and relearn. 

If this time is not wasted. “