Dear Life

"What if you wake up someday, and you're 65 or 75, and you never got your memoir or novel written; or you didn't go swimming in warm pools and oceans all those years because your thighs were jiggly and and you had a nice big comfortable tummy; or you were just so strung out on perfectionism and people-pleasing that you forgot to have a big juicy creative life, of imagination and radical silliness and staring off into space like when you were a kid? Its going to break your heart. Don't let this happen" 

Shout out to my beautiful partner in crime who will always be the JayZ to my Beyonce 

I Am Water

I travelled for an hour to find myself on the outskirts of a forest. I walked aimlessly along a well travelled dirt road, over hills and across broken land until I stumbled across this sanctuary. I finally reached my destination and it felt like I had reached home. 

I stood on the edge of a rock cliff looking down on the cascading waterfall. The large pool of water called to me as it has always done. From my earliest memories I can remember feeling a strong connection with water; so fluid, so strong, so powerful. 

I have a great fear of shallow living but a great depth and desire to be more than what I am. Like water I am a contradiction of so many things. Water can move mountains but it can also destroy cities. Its beautiful but terrifying, strong yet fluid, it can cleanse life yet so easily take life. 

I am a water being, I feel connected to myself and to mother earth when I am embodied in the element of water. I close my eyes and I float, my body is weightless, my mind is clear and I am home. 

Double Denim

I have been away over the last few weeks relishing in the love of my family, the feeling of contentment being back home and the inner peace I have experienced escaping reality for a little while. I've needed time to remove myself from the four walls of my mind and go venture back to my true self. 

For a while there I had forgotten who I was. I now return home happy, loved and alive.  Im back with a galaxy of energy and happy to say that in this moment I love the person I am. Here is to being your own individual, crazy selves. Love yourself and the universe will love you back.

XOXO

Dreamer.Lover.Listener

I choose a life where I chase moments and not things. I am passionate about self-care, self-love, practising happiness, meditating, nourishing my body and being active. 

I do this for me.

Gifts are not material things but experiences and adventures that I will cherish for a lifetime. My life will not be a collection of Knick knacks, but a library of memories.

I am passionate about self-care and self-love as my body is the only vessel I have. Love it or hate it, this is who I am and what I look like. I choose to take self-care so that I can be at my healthiest at all times. I choose self-love because if I do not love myself how can I expect others to love me in return.

I say ‘practice happiness’ because it is not something that comes naturally. I practice happiness in moments of darkness and pain. Accepting negative circumstances, breathing them out and trying to make a positive of each circumstance.

I meditate for my mind. To reconnect with myself and my body.

I nourish my body with wholesome natural foods. The earth offers us so many wonderful nurturing products to sustain our bodies. I try and eat as much unmodified, organic fresh food as possible. The earth feeds us and when we die our bodies feed the earth. It is the circle of life.

I am active for my heart, body and mind. I will not let my own choices make me unhealthy – I strive on a daily basis to be the best, healthiest version of myself possible.

I do this for me. These are not rules or guidelines but my way of life. 

L O V E L O V E L O V E

We have all watched movies about extraordinary everlasting love that is never tainted, questioned or forgotten. I would love to be an optimist and say that this is true, that love like this does exist. Maybe it does, who am I to say it doesn’t but I myself am yet to experience such beautiful, unforsaken adulation from another person.

In my experience love is never that simple. I think as individuals we are all caught up in this concept of conditional love, a selfish love that is filled with attachments and needs. When you meet someone you are drawn to them because they meet your needs – these needs soon become strings of attachment to our affection. We may or may not realize this at the time but that person provides something for us, whether they make you feel good, they fill a void of loneliness or even something as vain as ‘they look good’ - there always seems to be a selfish need of fulfilment.

I believe that love should be built around happiness, acceptance and openness. Once the waves of lust wear thinner and thinner (I refuse to let this happen, let’s keep up the sex life spice ladies) all you have left is the deep core of someone. They are no longer masked with this feeling of ‘lust’ that very often gets confused with ‘love’. It purely comes down to them and you. When I love someone all I want is for them to be happy. I want this happiness to occur without any strings attached, without expectations of what they can do for me or what I can do for them; just pure and simple happiness. You will never completely like everything about someone, and vice versa, but you accept and enjoy those differences. To use a famous quote ‘the greatest thing you’ll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return’.

MARLOW-LOU

Marlow-Lou started as a little side project about two years ago as a way of channelling all the things I liked and saw into one platform. At the beginning of 2014 I stopped posting. I was no longer inspired to source images or things that I liked and had no real passion to continue doing so. I was posting images that were not mine, that had no real influence or attachment with myself and therefore Marlow-Lou was simply a shell of other people’s lives and not my own.

After several months of soul searching, life changes and finally a peacefulness within myself I would like to bring Marlow Lou back to life. Not a life of other peoples highlight reels but a life that reflects myself and my surroundings. This will be a platform that various gypsy goddesses will share with you things that inspire us, things that we love, cook and create. Stay beautiful and enjoy 

xoxo