Monday 18th April 2011 

Hello Lovelies, Yay!! Today is a significant day! We’ve been back in Seattle for 2 weeks now and I’ve decided it is time for me to start posting “in real time” – about what is happening NOW, today…  and yes I will still continue to catch up posting all the great experiences from the cruise and the last 2 weeks. It has been ‘getting the better of me’ – isn’t that an interesting phrase!! – writing about stuff that is days and weeks old and trying to catch up which has meant I haven’t let myself write about what is happening in the present AND lots of interesting things are happening every moment.

Also, learning from my experience posting every day is not always possible for me so I have decided that I will lift the pressure from myself – pheeeeeeeeeeeeew!!…and post as often as I can, especially seeing that I am still have lots to write up on the 2 weeks of the cruise and the Training with Donna Eden which I have some great pieces and photos from.

It is great being back in Seattle where we are just beginning to feel settled in after 2 weeks. Life is good even though it is still quite cold here. It’s a very late and slow beginning to Spring.  Everywhere there are trees laden with Spring buds and daffodils in the gardens….. but with the chillllllly winds and low temperatures in the mid 40’s it still feels like the end of Winter… It’s been thick coats and gloves and beanies in the getting cold-ears-out-walking weather …..but blue skies and some warmth are starting to happen…. Yay! We didn’t expect it, or come prepared for it to be this cold!! Such a contrast to all the environments we’ve been in recently….the Caribbean, Perth and India……

We were lying in bed cuddling this morning and Shelton was still in that still half asleep mode… and out of nowhere I start singing…… you have to sing the next 2 lines…..:O)

Good Morning, good morning and how do you do♥

Good Morning, good morning and a happy day to youoooooooooooo…

Isn’t it great to wake up with your energy dancing around inside and jumping all over the place…you know that …”if you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands…” type of feeling….I just had to get up and start the day….and I leave him snoozzzzinnnnnnnnng away….

I turn the computer on and I am greeted by an email from Get Up with a fantastic campaign and a petition for mental health reform. They created a huge candlelit message on the lawn at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia. I am so touched. It is brilliant. What a way to get their message out. Each candle represents a loved one who has been affected by mental health and it has been chosen and put there by someone who loves them. Thousands of candles lit up the enormous message FUND HOPE FOR MENTAL HEALTH. It is Get-Up’s way of bringing the Australian government’s attention to the desperate need there is for federal funding of this very important issue. I encourage you to check out their info and add your support at http://www.getup.org.au/campaign/healthreform&id=1657

I immediately get curious about how many of the people with depression and the suicides and the addictions and many other conditions who are represented there have been influenced by DIVORCE. I decide to play a bit and to ‘piggy-back’ on their extraordinary creativity and imagine each candle representing someone affected by the pain of divorce and unhappy relationships in Australia and imagine a similar campaign with the message FUND HOPE FOR HAPPY MARRIAGES/FAMILIES. How brilliant these people are to have created this campaign. I am excited at the possibility of getting the message out about both the need for mental health reform as well as for happy marriages and families.

For an article on my vision of decreasing the divorce rate in Australia by half by the year 2015 (which is about 50% of marriages) please see http://imagomatters.org/couples.php

Question for you: Would you be willing to light a candle representing yourself or a loved one who has been affected by the pain of divorce in a campaign to bring attention to the need for education for HAPPY MARRIAGES/FAMILIES♥

Both of these areas are about EDUCATION. We consider RELATIONSHIPS and learning the Tools and skills as the FOURTH “R” of EDUCATION. All life is about being in relationship and we ALL need to have knowledge of and use the best communication skills available. Everyone needs to learn them – we are not born knowing them! Decades of experience and research has shown that successful, healthy, lasting relationships are most commonly built through emotional intelligence, EQ and unlike IQ, emotional intelligence can be learned and by practicing this work everyone can improve.

Question for you: Are you willing to make a stand for happy relationships and families by sharing the info of how everyone needs to learn relationships skills and tools to someone new to this idea this week♥

Today, each of us can plant seeds both in the way we act with our loved ones as well as in talking to and sharing with others that haven’t yet had the opportunity to experience the world in this way. In my opinion having the knowledge and tools to create happy marriages and families and relationships is not optional – it is essential and it needs to be available to all.

Your support is vital and means so much to us. Have a Happy and Loving week, Susie xx

“Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.” Buddha