Life always offers us lessons and sometimes in the harshest way possible. As we grow older, we are all likely to lose our friends, parents, family members. The passing of our loved ones and indeed our own passing one day one of the only guarantees that we have in this life.

Possibly the only other guarantee we have in life is that we will never get done all we want to do. We all continue to fill up our time and our lives with activities and objects that will ultimately not save us from the final passing.

However, turn this realisation around and you will appreciate that we only have this one precious life right now and it is up to us to make the most of each moment in the way that best suits us.

What would it be like to live a life of meaning and one filled with love?

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I have been away from the world of blogging for what seems like a long time. And six weeks is indeed a long time for me as at one time I used to blog almost daily.

I have simply taken some time out from the online world as much as possible and the break has done me a lot of good. It feels like the right time to get back into it gently.

As I write this, it is a beautifully sunny day in London and it seems that our summer has arrived at long last. It is therefore perfect timing for my annual picnic in London.

Everyone one of us has many gifts for the world. And one of mine has always been the ability to get people together. A few years ago, I decided to get all my friends, contacts and acquaintances together in one place for a picnic.

I called it the “Friends and Friend’s Friends Picnic”, held every summer. It is now time once again for this annual gathering in Regents Park.

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It is mother’s day on Sunday in the USA and also many other countries around the world, thought here in the UK we normally have it in March.

A year ago, I wrote about how it was time to celebrate and honour your mother’s love, but without the commercial hype.

A year later and how my life and my outlook have changed! Now my focus is on celebrating and honouring your mother whilst you still can.

My father suddenly passed away last December and my mother is now the pivotal figure in our lives. The last five months since our great loss have been a haze and it is only now that I am able to get moving again with my life.

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I have often written here about compassion and kindness on my blog.

A while back I wrote about how to carry out random acts of kindness every day and how each act of kindness leads to another.

Being kind to someone is always a win /win situation. The person you are being kind to benefits through your help. You feel good for having helped someone. And the world is a better place through your kindness. Every little bit helps.

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Food is one of my favourite topics and recently I came across a great metaphor linking the humble potato with some ideas for life.

My friend, Servane Mouazan, a social innovator who runs Social Leadership courses for women groups and other entrepreneurs gave me one of her leaflets which says all you need to succeed is to be like a potato!

Like a potato you want to:-

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I have been away from the world of blogging for a few days and am back now with renewed vigour and more ideas. One of the things I have done over the last few weeks is to spend a lot of time on my own and in silence.

I have always enjoyed my company and some friends used to think I was lonely. But there is a huge difference between being alone and choosing to spend time in solitude than being lonely! I find that by allowing time for myself and doing things that I really want to do, I feel refreshed and I re-connect with the real me. Also, it is about self-respect and self-love and treating yourself as you would treat your best friend.

Life is so short and our time here is so precious, so why spend time doing something you would rather not?

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It has already been a week since my last post – amazing how quickly the time is going!

My days seem to be going so quickly since I continue to have as full a life as ever. As Einstein once supposedly explained about time and the theory of relativity – 2 hours chatting with a pretty girl will seem like 2 minutes, whilst sitting on a hot stove for 2 minute will seem like 2 hours!

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It is a beautifully sunny April day here in London and it seems that spring is finally here. The evenings are longer with more light, partly due to our clocks going forward last Sunday. We of course “lost” an hour on Sunday as British summer time began.

Five months ago when the clocks went back, effectively giving us an extra hour, I wrote a post about 9 tips to create an extra hour every day.

On Sunday morning, as I got out of bed at my usual hour but having slept one hour less, I wondered how we could all stop losing an hour everyday and not just on that one day of the year when the clocks go forward.

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Food is one of my favourite topics. And what better time than spring time to try out new recipes and new experiences?!

As I write this from my home office in London, it is a typical British spring day - beautifully rainy, blustery and cold!

Regardless of that, spring is certainly in the air and I can feel the freshness of new ideas, people and events coming into my life. How about you?

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