Jun 1 2015

What My Characters Have Taught Me – Evelyn

This idea popped into my head, so I decided to go with it. This is the first post in a series about what I have learnt from my own characters. I have always held to the fact that when I write, I don’t ‘make-up’ my characters, they arrive, as fully formed people, and simply go about their business while I write down what’s going on. Because of this, they often do or say things that catch me a little by surprise, and that actually teach me something. I sometimes pick up my books and flick through, reading the odd sentence here and there, and quite often I am surprised by the little gems of wisdom that I find.

I’m featuring Evelyn in this first post, the lovely lady who we meet in PAM’s Tearooms at the very beginning of The Doorway to PAM. There is an exchange that occurs between her and the main character, Natalie, that I refer to quite often when I chat to people who are frustrated because they so very much want to help people, but find themselves hitting their heads against brick walls because their advice or help is going unheeded. The scene is at the end of Chapter One, and Natalie and Evelyn are sat on a bench in the park. Here’s the part that I love:

Evelyn chuckled. “We are all capable of so much more than we realise, my dear. The only limitations in our lives are self-imposed. Anything is possible.” She let Natalie take this in for a moment, then she turned to look at her, her gaze serious. “All you have to do is believe that you can do anything, anything at all, and it is so. Now, the question is, do you want the job of helping others to realise this too?”

Natalie was quiet for a while. “That seems like an impossible task though. How on earth do I help everyone find their purpose? Help them to realise their own possibility?”

Evelyn shrugged. “The same way I do, my dear. You wait for them to come to you. You see, it’s no good going out there and trying to help people who don’t ask for it. They won’t listen. Even if you can see they are struggling, even if you know what would help them, what would be best for them, they won’t listen until they’re ready. When they’re ready, they will come and find you.” She smiled. “Just like you came to find me.”

The part that I have highlighted above, is that part that really struck me. As someone who loves to help people, I find it frustrating when I can see where I could make a difference, but the person concerned won’t listen or heed my advice. And as Evelyn says, it’s no good going out and helping people who aren’t ready. You have to wait for them to come to you. Which does require patience, and which does require a great deal of strength too, because it’s not easy watching other suffer, but ultimately, if you wait until someone is ready and open to your help, you will ultimately make a much bigger difference in the long run, and you will also save yourself a lot of wasted energy and effort.

The second most important lesson I learned from Evelyn is the following:

“Listen to your own heart. In all honesty, there is no question I can answer better than your own heart can. Everything you need to know, you already know. You just need to find that stillness within you to be able to hear it.”

As a seeker on a spiritual path, it’s often too easy to keep searching outside of myself, from other people and in books and movies, for answers to my questions, when in reality, all I need to do is go within and get quiet enough to hear the truth, the answer that lies within me already.

If you have read The Doorway to PAM, what did you take away from it? What part or character stood out the most to you? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Mar 27 2015

New Cover Reveal!!

I know I have been very quiet lately, and I do apologise – things have been so busy! And April looks to be even busier, because I plan to release my latest book – The Twin Flame Retreat – on the 25th April! (Hopefully in both paperback and Kindle on that date). This new book is the direct sequel to The Twin Flame Reunion, and follows five new characters as they meet their Twin Flames.

My incredible amazing sister, the genius behind madappledesigns, has worked her magic again and has created the new cover, which I am so excited to share with you! Are you ready? Drum roll please!

And because she is just that awesome, Liz has created the 3D version of the cover, which I must admit, made me squeal like a very happy Faerie!

Isn’t it beautiful? I cannot wait for you to read it! I have really enjoyed writing and creating this latest instalment to the series, and going by the beta feedback so far, I think everyone will enjoy it!

I will post updates on how the publishing is going throughout April!

P.S. Apologies for the excessive exclamation marks, I’m a bit excited 🙂

Mar 25 2015

Success is…

After holding a google hangout to share my process on defining success, and having some lovely feedback, because the hangout recording wasn’t great (and very long!) I decided to put together a very short simple video describing the process. It is now on youtube, and if you try it out and enjoy it, please do let me know!

[youtube https://youtu.be/ovSzXCUZwjg]

I have also created a new page here on my blog, which contains links to all of my videos or videos I have been featured in. You can access the page from the menu or by clicking here. You could use the same process for creating definitions for other things, such as love and relationships, or money and abundance. I hope you have fun with it, there are no rules so make it your own!

Mar 21 2015

Spiritual Updates from Source

I’ve been battling over the last few days with my partner’s computer. I’m not an Apple person anyway, but basically, because he had ignored all of the updates, he now has a problem on it that is proving difficult to fix. We’ve had a new hard drive installed, but it still didn’t work. So I have reformatted that and tried reinstalling the operating system, and yet there are still problems. As I write this, it is currently checking the hardware, we shall see what comes of that.

While I don’t wish to bore you with my computer woes, it has made me realise that we are very much like computers. That when we just keep going, ignore essential updates and uploads, it’s only when our system has become out-dated and overwhelmed, are we then forced to stop, forced to fix things, and forced, even to completely reformat and start from scratch.

Isn’t that what illness does? When you haven’t taken a break, haven’t stopped for days, weeks, months, haven’t had a holiday in years, haven’t perhaps eaten right or exercised or taken some time out – your system becomes overwhelmed and your body becomes ill. Which then makes you stop for days or weeks, or even months. But had we taken the time, along the way, to take care of ourselves, to meditate, to receive the necessary spiritual downloads and to just breathe – then we wouldn’t be forced to stop.

My partner has avoided updating the computer for months, and now he has had to put up with being unable to use it for about 3 weeks now. And he, like so many of us, does the same thing with himself. We’re on the go, constantly. Yesterday, while we were waiting for the hard drive to be installed, we visited my sister, then we went to the beach, had ice cream and sat in the sunshine, mainly because there was nothing else we could do – it was an enforced ‘holiday’ from the non-stop work, and we both really relaxed and enjoyed it. But had we not had to fix the computer, we wouldn’t have taken that time out, so you could say that there are blessings in the problems too.

Chilling out in Southerndown

I have been promising myself for a very long time now that I will meditate every day, that I will take time out, but aside from a few weeks at the beginning of the year, I have yet to implement a daily meditation, and my two alarms that I set on my phone to remind me, have become – ‘oh, it’s that time already’ alarms!

I will be working in Scotland this summer, and the location means I will have limited connectivity to the internet, which will mean I will spend much less time online. Other than working, I plan to spend my time writing, walking and relaxing! No doubt I will feel the withdrawal effects of not being as connected to the world, but I am very much looking forward to reconnecting properly with myself.

So if there is something you have been meaning to do to nurture and reconnect with your soul, but you have just been too busy to do it, I invite you to do it now. Don’t put it off until tomorrow, until you’ve finished your to-do list or until you have time off – do it now.

Then let me know if you feel better for it 🙂

Beautiful sunset to end our ‘holiday’

Mar 7 2015

An Interpretation of My Books

One of my readers in the US contacted me a little while back and said that she loved my Earth Angel books so much, that she wanted to write an essay about her interpretation of them. Of course I said to go ahead, I was really curious to see the books from someone else’s perspective, as reviews only really say how much people enjoy the books – they don’t really analyse the content.

Well, Rosa sent me the links to both her essay, and a video of her reading and discussing the essay, and I have to say, I was really surprised at the things that she got from the text and the books. She focused on Velvet, and on her conflict between surrendering and attachment. I have never personally delved into Velvet’s mind in this way, but I think that Rosa is definitely onto something!

I really enjoyed watching her video and reading the essay, it certainly had me thinking about the characters in a different way afterwards, and I really think that my readers will gain something from watching the video. Especially anyone who is having trouble with their Twin Flame union, because Rosa discusses this, and I think she makes some very good points.

You can read the essay on her website here, and watch the video below.

[youtube http://youtu.be/XlbhtZ0mp34]

Rosa also recorded a review video, which you can view below.

[youtube http://youtu.be/dkoD2asn2gw]

I just want to express my gratitude to Rosa for looking more deeply into my books, as I hope that others do too. I am certain that there are more messages and ideas within them than even I am aware of! If you want to share your thoughts on my books in any way, please do so in the comments, I’d love to hear from you.

Feb 25 2015

Is Poverty the Birthplace of True Creativity?

Does it also lead to deep appreciation and gratitude for the beautiful, simple things in life?

I’ve wondered, on more than one occasion, why I have remained in financial difficulty over the last few years. I mean, I am not destitute, or living on the streets,though if it weren’t for my amazing friends and family, and my credit cards, that may well have become the situation. But the thought popped into my head today, that if money were no problem, then perhaps I wouldn’t be quite so creative. That if money was plentiful and my bank accounts all very healthy, I perhaps wouldn’t be able to empathise and connect with those who have very little, and be able to help them.

I said to my partner last night – “I sometimes feel like my career is taking a while to really take off, to make sure that I learn to remain humble.”

I also think, that the struggle, the desperation, the rough times – all become the perfect material for creating stories and objects that will help and inspire others.

None of this means that I wish to be poor for the rest of my life, but it does seem to be that the ‘starving artist’ mentality may have its roots in the idea that poverty forces you to be more creative with what time, resources and money you have. If your budget is tight, you don’t go out and buy everything brand new for a project. You are more likely to recycle, salvage, and think outside the box. So in fact, having less money is promoting eco-friendly ways of being, too.

I do think that extreme poverty, to the point where you are living in scarcity and are unable to think of anything other than surviving the day, limits creativity, as it seems like a luxury to be creative in those situations. But when you are able to survive, but have a limited budget for things you want to do, I do think you become more creative within those limitations.

I have experienced this in my own life, where I have wanted to do something, but not had much money to spend, I find that I become more creative, and though it may take more of my time, there is something infinitely more magical about the end result. For example, when I did the Harry Potter theme parties, for myself and my friends, there were so many things I could have bought online. So much available merchandise, if I’d had a big budget. But I didn’t. I was trying to do the parties on no budget at all. So instead of buying chocolate frogs, I found a template online, printed it onto card, made the boxes, and then bought a frog mold, and melted bars of chocolate. Instead of buying a sorting hat, I dug out my leather from my notebook making days, and hand-stitched a hat myself. For the house points, I got four pop bottles, turned them upside down and screwed the lids onto a plinth made by my partner. If I’d had a budget, I would probably have bought it all, instead of making it myself. And I think it was the Weasley nature of the decorations that made the parties magical. I also appreciated it all so much more, because I knew how much time I had put into it!

I also mentioned gratitude and appreciation, because I truly feel that until you have experienced the feeling of having nothing, or of going through some very dark times, it’s difficult to truly appreciate and feel gratitude for what you have, and for the simple things. I watched a clip from Oprah’s latest Super Soul Sunday, and she was interviewing Amy Purdy. who is such an inspiring woman. She died on an operating table when she contracted meningitis. She said that when she crossed over, and was told she could stay on Earth if she wanted, she thought about all the things she loved about living, and they were things like – the smell of rain, and the sound of ocean waves.

She decided to stay, and now, every day, she experiences deep and true appreciation for the simple things in her life, like her coffee in the morning, and walking in nature.

It seems that adversity that comes from illness, injuries, disability or near death experiences also inspires a deep creativity, and appreciation. Amy wanted to snowboard again, despite having had both legs removed, because it was her passion. But there weren’t prosthetic legs that were appropriate, so she created them.

How many of us just trudge through life, without stopping to create something new, without looking at things from a different angle, without pushing the boundaries in order to fulfil our mission and purpose and doing whatever it takes to follow our passions? Do we really need poverty, illness and adversity to wake us up and inspire us to truly shine?

What are your thoughts?

Feb 16 2015

Revealing Inner Wisdom

A beautiful Earth Angel called George Hardwick, who is on a mission to help others to make a living giving their gifts and living their passion, held an incredible free training session last night, called Revealing Inner Wisdom. It was centred around the experiences he’s had recently, where he has been writing letters to his soul. Please do check out his ten letters on his website, they are truly beautiful.

He mentioned in the session that he had been inspired by the way I write my novels, which is to just allow the words to flow through me, without plotting or planning or thinking too much about it. As he says – everyone can do this, not just me or a select few people. Everyone can connect and converse with their soul, with God, just as Neale Donald Walsch did in his Conversations with God books.

I wanted to share with you the training session which is now available on replay on YouTube, because I think it is well worth watching. Also, during the session, he invites you to write to your soul, and I want to share with you what my own soul said to me, in the hope that it may help you, and inspire you to converse with your own soul.

[youtube http://youtu.be/AkyceLl3Yp0]

My question to my soul:

Dear Soul,

Why do I still feel so small?

With love,

Michelle.

The response:

Dear One,

Because you are a single drop of the oneness. Or so you believe. Yes, you are a single drop, but you are also the entire ocean, within that drop. Everything that is, exists within you. Everything. You are infinite, you are eternal, you do not begin or end, you are everything and also nothing. You are big and small, amazing and ordinary. You are all of it. There is nothing you are not. So you can choose to feel small, because you are. But you could also choose to be big. Because you are that too.

It comes down to choice. You can choose to be the powerless victim, or you can choose to be the force for change. You can choose to be successful, or you can choose to be a failure. You can choose what your definition of failure and success is. What do you choose? If you are everything, then you can choose to bring out any qualities you desire. Want to be driven, motivated, excited, enthusiastic and organised? Then simply shift your focus onto those qualities that already exist within you. Because I promise you, they are there.

Want to be abundant, healthy, loving, joyful and responsible? They’re there too! It’s all within you. You are the entire ocean contained within a drop. But it’s up to you which parts of yourself wash up on the shore of your reality and are manifested into your life. If you want beautiful shells, polished glass and unusual pebbles to be washed up and revealed to the world, then focus on those positive things. If you focus on things you do not want, you will just as easily find your beach full of plastic debris, old cans and other rubbish.

If those things are currently there, then have a beach clean-up day, and clear the way for the gems to appear.

So what will you choose to manifest? Oysters filled with pearls? Smooth driftwood in interesting shapes? Or soiled nappies and supermarket carrier bags?

Choose now. Choose every day. Choose every minute. Clean up. Keep choosing. What you are, who you are, can change in the instant you make a new choice. Choose.

See you on the beach,

Love always,

Soul

Feb 14 2015

Taking Time Out

Hello everyone! Have you missed me?? It’s been really weird not blogging for the last two weeks, since the end of the 30 Day Blogging Challenge. To be honest, I didn’t mean to take such a long break, but I think I needed it.

Though I love having a deadline or a challenge to push me, and I get very productive and creative when time is limited – I do enjoy having breaks inbetween. Because I find that it’s in those breaks that I am in the space of allowing great ideas to pop up, and am taking the time to formulate the next part of the adventure.

I find if you just keep surging ahead, pushing, striving, and pounding the path, then you sometimes find yourself, at some point later down the line wondering – did I go the right way? I was talking to a beautiful angel friend of mine today, who was feeling frustrated and desperate, wondering why everything was so hard, and why she kept getting setback after setback. When I suggested taking time out, doing something relaxing or fun, she replied with – I’m a worker, I don’t like sitting around the house all day.

Which is great, but there are times when your mind and body needs exactly that. When we are in stress-mode, and we are pushing ourselves to work harder, and to make big decisions, the outcome is not always going to be what we want it to be. I made a decision a couple of weeks ago, to move back to Brighton. At the time of the decision, I was feeling very upset and stressed out, and making the decision made me feel better, more in control, and it felt right. But when I had calmed down and relaxed, and the day of the move approached, I had this feeling inside that it just wasn’t the right choice. And in my stressed-out state, I had rushed into making a decision, rather than waited to see what was best. Needless to say, the move didn’t happen, because of several things, but overall, it just felt wrong. And I realised that I should never have made a decision like that while I was stressed out and unhappy.

But isn’t that often the case? When we’re happy we trundle along, merrily skipping down the path, and then when an obstacle trips us up, upsets us or stresses us out, we suddenly evaluate our situation and feel like we have to make a massive decision, and so we do so under those stressful conditions.

What if we were to make those big decisions when we’re happy? When we are relaxed? When we are able to go within and listen to our hearts and souls?

I wonder how much happier and better our lives would be?

What do you think? Do you make decisions when you’re stressed? Do you regret them later? Let me know in the comments below.

Jan 30 2015

Passion That Can Start Fires

First of all, this is the final post in my 30 Day Blogging Challenge – can I get a high-five?? I did miss a day, but blogged twice the following day to make up for it. So in 30 days, I have posted 30 times. And do you know what? I really thoroughly enjoyed it. (I sincerely hope you did too, I hope the daily emails weren’t too irritating!)

I will probably blog more often from now on, but probably not every day! It’s been a good challenge to come up with something relevant every day, and even though I made a list of 30 things to blog about before I started, I’ve only used a fraction of those ideas.

Today’s post was inspired by a beautiful friend of mine, Miranda, by my circumstances this week, and by the book I’ve been reading for the last two weeks (took me longer than my normal book a week goal), which is The Firestarter Sessions by Danielle LaPorte.

I want to talk about passion. And crazy ambition.

I’ve been struggling to understand why anyone would prioritise their work and their to-do list over having a meaningful relationship, and last night, when I finished reading the last few chapters of Danielle’s book, I finally understood. I had an ‘aha’ moment, you could say.

For too long now, I have bought into the ‘myth of balance’, as Danielle calls it. You know, where you fill in the wheel of life, and see how unbalanced your life is, and how bumpy the ride will be. I filled in an online one, and my wheel looks something like this:

Wow. Seriously out of whack, you could would say. Or is it? I know these kinds of exercises are useful to see what areas could use improvement and a bit of attention, but in Danielle’s Firestarter Sessions, she makes the very important point that when you have a crazy ambition, sometimes you have to cut out and ignore anything that doesn’t help you achieve it. Which means your life will be unbalanced. You can see from my wheel, that all my focus is on my career right now, which is my writing and publishing, and in order to focus on that, I have not been working in a regular job and my finances are not good (though I am getting things sorted now). And in my crazy, working all hours to make things happen mode – I don’t take much time out to have lots of fun, and I do try to keep healthy, but that often slides too when I’m in mission mode.

And as I’ve come to realise this week, when you’re trying to have a relationship with someone who is on a mission, and who believes in your mission, then sometimes having an intense relationship is not a good thing. It’s a distraction. It’s going to derail us from our missions. And I have finally come to accept that in order to pursue what we are passionate about, it means going our separate ways.

I’ve realised that when I really put myself into gear, I can achieve so much. I thought that publishing two books a year was a lot. That it was a big goal. After writing and publishing a book in less than 3 months last year, and writing another book during that same time in just two weeks, I have come to realise that actually, I have been really quite slack.

I am an author. I write books. It has literally been all I wanted to do since I was eight years old. So to only actually write anything for a couple of months out of the year seems crazy. How will I hone my writing skills that way? How will I produce enough material to keep my readers happy? How will I publish enough books to make a living from them?

By putting everything I have into it. By giving myself permission to stop trying to balance my life. There has been this pervading myth that women can ‘have it all’. Husband, kids, career, home etc. But do you know what? Dividing all your energy equally between those things is impossible. If you do manage to, you become exhausted. Sometimes, you really do need to just focus on one thing at a time. Yes, you will upset people, no, it might not always be convenient. But sometimes, it’s totally necessary.

So for 2015, I’ve set myself some pretty big writing goals, because this is the year of focussing on my career. I will try to have fun along the way, but for too long now, I have lacked passion and real commitment to my purpose. I want to wake up every day, desperate to get some words onto the page, and eager to get my books out into the world. I want to experience a passion every day that can start fires.

Not only will I be a firewalker, I will be a firestarter too!

Me and my fellow firewalker 🙂

Jan 25 2015

A Magical Quest

What started off as an ordinary, innocent walk in the woods, turned into a magical quest leading to a hidden treasure.

Having not been sticking to her promise to herself over the previous week, of going for a walk every day, on the Sunday after she turned 31, Michelle decided to get back on track and to go for a walk in the woods. She was alone in the house, and though she was trying to get some work done, she was feeling too sleepy to concentrate, and so decided to get some fresh air.

She wrapped up warm, it was January, after all, and as mild a winter as it had been, there was still a chill in the air. She set off down the driveway, and instead of taking her usual route, she headed in the opposite direction. As she walked down the path, she took in all of the sounds and smells and sights, taking in details that she had not previously noticed. As she made her way down the trail, she decided that the time of talking about and thinking about the past had gone. And that it was time to focus entirely on the present and how that would create her future. After all, the past was done, and she had no desire to live there any more.

At each junction, she opted to take the opposite path to normal, and soon she found herself on a path she had never walked on before, despite having walked through these woods for the previous four and a half years.

Where the wise old wizard lives

Intrigued by the possibility of this new adventure, she continued, and found some new caves, where she thought a wise old wizard may live. Perhaps they would have some words of wisdom for her. But even though she called out greetings, there was no reply.

A sleeping Ent. Shhh

She moved on, past a majestic Ent, (who was asleep) and found a curious hole in the ground, and wondered if there might be a helpful hobbit there, perhaps bearing some cheese and crackers or some jolly music, but alas, no one was home there either.

No hobbit was home

She continued along, and found she was heading for the river, the sound of which grew louder and louder. It appeared to be flowing quite fiercely, due to the rains they’d had, she supposed. In the middle of her path, she came across a shaman’s feather. Its black and white stripes reminded her that there was light in darkness, and that duality was needed in life, despite it being difficult to endure the darkness at times. It also reminded her that there was an inbetween, where things weren’t black or white, but a bit fuzzy and grey. And that’s okay too.

Beautiful shaman feather

She silently thanked the shaman, for leaving her the message, and continued further down the hill, a little daydream running through her mind as she carefully descended the slippery, rocky path.

Still unsure as to what her next step should be, in her wonderfully crazy and haphazard life, she was thrilled to find that though the wizard and the hobbit had not been home, the pirates had left her a treasure map! She couldn’t fail to find what was hidden now.

The pirate treasure map

She eagerly read the map and then followed the trail to the river, and found a deserted beach, the water lapping onto the shore. She remembered all the many times she had spent at the ocean, and how it always reminded her of the expansive nature of the universe. Standing on the shore, looking out to sea, would always bring home to her that she was merely a drop in the ocean, part of the whole, connected to all of life.

A deserted beach

She continued on, past a beautiful tree with roots like celtic knots, reminding her of her heritage, of her ancestors. Though she had resolved to not dwell on the past, she thanked them now, for all they had learnt and passed on to her.

Her celtic roots

She found a very hospitable stone, at the waters’ edge, and sat upon it. It occurred to her that it must have belonged to the house she had seen on the treasure map, that had once stood where she now sat by the water. She sat in silence for a while. Her eyes drifted closed and she listened to the sound of the water, listened to her own thoughts, to the ideas that were drifting about in her head. She opened her eyes after a while, and watched the water as it hit the shore then rippled back, and a little poem came to mind, so she wrote it down:

The ripples

Merge

Converge

Shift and

Transform

As the river

Flows

Determinedly

On

The river was rushing past

She watched the water for a while, then thanking the river for its wisdom, she stood up and decided to make her way back. As she went up the trail, she thought about how she had been trying for some time to find a way to prove to herself that she was committed to her life, to her mission, having realised a few months before, that she hadn’t been up until then. She had been trying to devise a ritual of some kind, or to create something, or to purchase something to show her commitment, but she had not been able to decide on what it should be. She didn’t know what this kind of commitment looked like, having not experienced it before. She stopped on the path and looked towards the river, and spotted a heart-shaped patch of moss on a tree. She instantly knew that it was a message for her dear friend, and so captured an image of it to share with her, once her quest was over.

A message from the Angels

A quest! That was one idea she’d had of proving her commitment. To go on a quest by herself. But had this not been a quest? What had started out so simply, as a way to get some fresh air and exercise, had turned into so much more. As she made her way back up the hill, she looked up at the trees, dark against the white cloudiness of the sky, and it hit her again, the fact that everything was connected.

Everything is connected

She realised in that moment, that she didn’t need a special ritual, or a symbol or to create anything to make her commitments, she could do it right there and then, with the trees, the river, the rocks and the sky as her witnesses, she could state them out loud, and so they would be done.

As she climbed the slippery, rocky hill, she began to speak out loud:

I, Michelle Louise Gordon, am committed to my life. To loving myself, loving my body. To taking care of myself, my soul and my body. I am committed to my purpose and my mission here on this earth, and I will do whatever it takes to ensure I complete what I came here to do. And so, I commit to helping others. I commit to inspiring others. I commit to helping others to heal. I commit to my own growth and evolution. I commit to assisting my friends and family and those who seek me out to become their best selves, and to follow their own missions too. I am committed to everything that my soul has in store for me. And so it is.

By now, she had reached the caves again, and as she looked toward them, she realised that the wizard had indeed had some wise advice for her, but she had not been open to it until now:

The wizard’s advice

She knew that the wizard meant there was a danger of her forgetting her commitments, especially with her terrible memory, and that she would need to find a way not to forget the magic of her quest. She thanked the wizard, and continued up the hill. When she had nearly reached home again, she took off her gloves and scarf, having got too warm, and pulled the bobble from her hair, allowing it to fall freely. Without realising, she had wrapped the bobble twice around her ring finger, and she smiled when she saw it. In that unthinking act, she had sealed her commitment to herself. Once she arrived home from her quest, she pulled off her boots, and went inside to make a cup of tea.

The ring, and a well-deserved cuppa

It was clear in that moment, as she watched the steam rise from the silver spout, that the only way she could make absolutely sure that her commitment would not be forgotten, would be to share it with the world. So, cup of tea in hand, she sat at her computer, and began to write.