Here are some artworks from guests this week…. most of them said “I can’t do art!” and freaked out at the thought of coming up to Artland. I am sure happy they overcame that fear. 

Painting from the Heart. This was after a meditation focus on the Heart. Listening to the voice of our soul…. and finding out what our hearts wanted to tell us.

Here is a soul collage – if you can cut & paste you can do a soul collage!

 Its so much FUN!  

Here is a guided sunset painting – choosing our own colours, and I show a step by step way of painting. This helps us to know that we CAN do things we thought were not possible! Imagine all the other things we could do if

a) we were shown how and

b) we had some confidence!  

GO FOR IT.

Me and some of my sculptures. These are my passion! People always ask “when is the Heartland recipe book coming out?” and I guess my heart just isn’t in it!  Thats “work” to me. Art is my play. I just love the freedom of art – I hope I can inspire you to find the freedom to play too.

Here are a few pics I took recently. Please enjoy them!! Love Trudi

This is the budda I made.

I just LOVE soul collage!!! Here is one called "Facing the demons" .

Here is the Temple dog called Will. Better known as the “activities officer”  around Heartland with his regular “walkies” with our guests. He likes to take everyone for a few walks to keep them fit! He is 11 years old and loves all the friendly pats from people. When you arrive he also feels its his “job” to let us know, so if a big bounding black dog comes out to “welcome” you…. just say “Hi Will” and he will be happy!! He’s a very well loved part of Heartland.

We had our first ever Goddess retreat last weekend which was a lot of fun being creative. We made our own Goddess masks. Mine was “the Goddess of the Seasons”. She reminds me to be aware of the seasonal change in nature & to allow those changes in nature to be a part of the change in me too.
So, in spring, allow my growth to happen. Allow changes to happen. Allow myself to branch out & grow ever higher & stronger!
In Summer, enjoy the sunshine!! Blossom into my full potential! Be like the sunflowers standing tall, strong, being able to handle the summer breeze (go with the flow!) Shine brightly!! Be brilliant!
In Autumn, allow the gathering of what I will need for the winter. Nurture myself. A time to shed the past & prepare for the inner work to come. Accept the parts that I need to let go of and know that its all ok.
And in Winter, bring my energy into my centre, allowing myself to develop my inner world. Connect to my source within. Rest. Recouperate. Relax………
Ahhhh what we can learn from a simple exercise of painting a Goddess mask!!
Everything can be an exercise of deepening our awareness.

In June, our friend Debbra is putting on her own 5 day rtereat here at Heartland
(Wednesday 23rd til Sunday 27th June) and the focus is on “clearing”. A good season to do it in too! So please book early as we will only have a maximum of 12 participants.

Love & Blessings to all.
Trudi

“Heartland, the land of the Heart”

April is filling up fast so if you want to come & spend some time here, best get in early.

Our Easter retreat is full – with a beautiful group of women!! Les is the only male this time!!!

There is still some space at the women’s weekend (9^th-11^th) – a weekend of sharing & celebrating our femininity. We will be creating our own Goddess Masks & having fun with them on Saturday night with a drumming circle.

The 5 day retreat from 12^th-16^th has only 1 place left.

After that, we have “A course in Miracles” weekend with Ross Lovell. Still some space available I believe.

The next Healing Renewal is 26^th – 30^th April – so book now if you’d like 5 days of time-out for yourself, to revitalise & learn new things to take home with you. We learn how to better connect  to the Divine within ourselves through meditation , mantras, tai chi, self-empowerment workshops & celebration of our creativity. You can choose what parts of the program you’d like to do – but I must say, most people like to try everything! Why not? If we live in a permanent state of fear & anxiety about learning new things, how will we ever grow?

We have a beautiful young girl from Belgium staying with us – Oona, and I must say, she would be welcome to stay longer if she so wished! Les and I put a call out for some help just the other day (to God that is!) – and within 5 minutes, Oona rang & asked if she could come & stay. (Miracles happen every day around here).

She is the most competent young lady I have ever met. Not only is she beautiful, but she is sincere, loving & generous by her very nature. I don’t think there is a selfish bone in her tiny body. She could easily run her own B&B!!

Hope you can come & join us soon.

Blessings,

Trudi

Someone was staying recently & helping us, and he said the statement “Heartland, the land of the Heart”. This is what encapsulates Heartland.

Our religion is Love. Actually, we don’t have a religion – but if we did, it would simply be love. What more is there?

We have a “little rest” between now & Easter, so Les and I are catching up with family & friends and also spending some time with Nicholas and Grace. I put the inverted commas in that sentence because a “little rest” between retreats simply means no paying guests are here – but we are still working. In fact we can work harder when guests are not here – because we do all the maintanence, cleaning, gardening, creating, painting, tractor work, fencing  etc etc … we have another wall to create with mosaic & paint, we have our tyre sculpture to put together (finally!! If you were wondering why we have been keeping ugly tyres around the place) and we have 2 weeks to get as much done as possible.

Coming up, our Easter retreat is one of reflection & unfoldment. A wonderful opportunity for inner spiritual work & reflection.

The weather is beautiful today – after the rains the colours are so alive & crisp. Truly beautiful!! We are looking forward to the winter season here. It’s a short time of the year where we get to wear a jumper!

I hope you are enjoying your part of this beautiful planet.

Blessings,

Trudi

Well its been a wet few weeks, the grass has been up around our ears but thanks to Lex its getting more manageable! (Thanks Lex!!)  Everything is so lush & green! What a change from the 7 months of drought last year.

We have been very busy with lots of new guests (new friends) and old friends returning to spend time with us. February was getting busier & its looks like March will be moving into a frantic pace as we are just about booked out for every retreat.

Last night we managed a bit of time away by taking Nicholas and Grace to a school fundraiser in town “Alice in Wonderland” which we all loved. A Gympie high school is raising money to send their teens this year to spend some time at an orphanage in Cambodia instead of sending them to schoolies. I think it’s a FANTASTIC idea and I hope all schools adopt this new thinking. I thing schoolies is just an excuse for bad bahaviour that gets tolerated (?) because they are schoolies!  Oh and of course businesses make money from it. Lets not forget the priority!!!

But apart from our short time away seeing a movie, Les and I are mostly working here and allowing ourselves to develop through our work here at Heartland. We endeavour to create Heartland to be a beacon of light and love to the world. Heartland is growing and making new friends all the time. We have a feature article in Australian Natural Health magazine (a great magazine) so look out for the March issue.

Coming up, we have the Easter Retreat which is always a wonderful time spent honouring the Divine within. We are not Christians, but we deeply appreciate the teachings of Jesus and that at Easter time we ourselves can be “born again”,  not in a religious sense, but in our hearts & souls. We can deepen our connection to our hearts. We can open our hearts & we can more fully  come from our wholeness and our lovingness. Can you imagine the world if everyone did this??? J

I know sometimes when I feel overwhelmed & perhaps the kids are speaking to me, both at the same time……  I say “shhhhh” and I take a few deep breaths. Suddenly, I begin to have clear thought! That little pause in an otherwise busy moment, enabled me to reconnect  to my heart and  therefore to the Divine within. So even when you are busy … take a few deep breaths and allow the moment to flow…… you might also feel a loving connection in your heart which will help you.

Love & Blessings,

Trudi

I liken the life of Tommy as a butterfly, because he was ever so fleeting. One moment we were celebrating his arrival, the next minute we were faced with his death.

We think it must have been because he was so frail and took so long to be born. Maybe he wasn’t strong enough to survive? I had explained to the kids the day he was born that he had to stand up to reach the milk – he had to have strength to survive. I told them how if you help a chicken to break free of the egg, it will die. The chicken must go through the difficulties of cracking open its birth chamber…. as that process makes its strong.

So for whatever reason, Tommy wasn’t strong enough and he passed away.

Nicholas brought me instantly into THE NOW after we told him what happened.

He exclaimed “OH NO”, and I instantly went into explaining…. he wasn’t strong enough bla bla bla…. but Nicholas cut me off and said “OH NO, now we have to dig a big hole” and my tears of saddness turned to tears of laughter as I realized that in THAT moment, Nicholas spoke the truth of what was happening. Tommy was gone. He was dead and now we had to deal with the body that WAS Tommy.

Thanks to Ali & Lex we didn’t have to dig the big hole – they brought up their digger and a beautiful frangipani to place over the grave.

All things pass…. animals.. people…. places…. nothing ever stays the same. And once again its all about “letting go”.

Blessings along your path.

Trudi

I think life is all about learning to LOVE…. everyone and everything – including ourselves and our shadow selves and all the many selves that are in others!!! Anyway, that’s what I am learning this week. It kind of all fits together in the “why am I here” box.

I think it all comes down to love.

Loving…. and letting go….and loving… and letting go… and loving again & over again……

I spent yesterday in the hospital with Nicholas (every now & then he gets “cyclic vomiting” & will vomit for 5 days if I don’t get him to the hospital.)

So, I am in there all day yesterday… relaxing… trying to be in the NOW & not think about all the things I SHOULD (or could) be doing at home with our group of guests.

But its all ok… I spent all day letting go… and seeing the Godlight in the wonderful nursing staff and doctors who were very helpful in assisting us.

I feel for me right now, I am learning to love everyone – and myself – being here at Heartland. I AM meant to be exactly where I am.

The people that come seek only to be loved too. How best to show them, by simply loving me & loving them.

Nothing else matters.

Do we need to heal the past? Our fractured hearts and hurt souls carrying pain from the past & childhood memories.  Is it necessary to pull out all the old stuff & deal with it?  My inner voice says yes… when the time is right, the process will happen naturally. And as we heal all those parts of ourselves, then we become truly whole, loving beings.

The greatest gift would be to truly see everything & everyone as God. Living breathing parts of the Divine!!! YUMMMM!!!!!

Well I must go. Mantras are next then chakradance…… I was going to say “the best parts of the day” but I know in higher truth…. All parts are equally the “best bits”!!! J  

Blessings & may the Divine shine in you today!

Love Trudi

This morning at 5am we were woken by the donkeys braying so we raced out of bed & out the front door to find them all waiting for us outside. Aggie, who we had long suspected was pregnant, was indeed trying to give birth to her foal which was very much stuck.

.

So Les & I fenced her up & she lay down to receive some much needed help. Now Aggie is the donkey who is shy & timid and pretty much stands back when the others rush up to get food. She has always been very wary of us humans. And here she was, laying on her side and allowing Les to gently pull the hooves of her foal out of her. It was an amazing scene… but we were not sure if the foal was alive or dead. We watched & waited to see if the foal would breathe, and HE eventually did!!

.

It took another hour or so for the foal to stand on his shaky legs (they are all legs when little!) and this afternoon, he is happily sucking from his mother. Les, Nicholas, Grace & I took a “family vote” and after many many votes & re-votes, we settled on Tommy!! So please have a look at his cute photo on the website!!

http://www.heartlandretreat.com.au/Donkey-Sanctuary.html

.

A lot of people ask “why do you have donkeys?” and I guess a good answer is “why not?” Donkeys can be a neglected and abused animal – most in Australia end up in cans of dog food. We were looking for animals to put on our farm who would eat the grass but not the macadamia trees. The donkeys are in harmony here – we love them and our guests enjoy meeting & feeding them. That’s our happy news for the day!

.

Wishing you the “birth” of possibilities during this New Year. Blessings to all,

.

Trudi

A letter came for my son Sam, from the RACQ which I opened. I thought it was the roadside assistance account for about $50 and I thought it would be a nice surprise if we could pay it for him. But, it was his car insurance for $300!

So I sent an email to his dad to ask if he would go halvies with me, which he agreed. Then I sat at my desk and thought “mmmmmm, now I need $150!”

So, I said (not out loud ) “God, I really would like to pay this for Sam. I need $150. Thankyou Thankyou Thankyou”. (I released the prayer, I surrended my need to control the how, why and when …. I simply “let go & let God”). And, I trusted in the Divine.

I left the office and my computer and  walked into the tea room and at that moment one of our guests opened the front door and said “Trudi, do you sell your paintings? I would like to buy 2.”

I was thrilled!!! I sold the 2 paintings for $150 and paid the account for Sam.

These kinds of things have happened lots of times in my life and I don’t put a lot of value on it – simply because I never stress about it. Its just a part of “normal” life!  Miracles happen!!!!

“Ask and ye shall receive”.

Blessings to all.