Diane has an air of serenity about her that is contagious… when I first met her twenty six years ago and through all this while that I have known her, her core essence exudes a flawless sense of calm. Recently I met her at the launch of her first book, a travel memoir called Junkie Buddha. She read through a passage from the book. The room danced and began to melt as tears welled up silently. Continue reading Connections ~ Diane Esguerra’s Junkie Buddha
Tag: #memory
ART… an agent of change
Art is not what you see but what you make people see.
Edgar Degas
The creative process and the healing process arise from a single source. When you are an artist, you are a healer; a wordless trust of the same mystery is the foundation of your work and its integrity. Art has always worked for me in mysterious ways. Its a feeling, its an expression, its a desire to connect. Often these connections are new and bring about a change. And change by definition is an act of transformation. Once changed, things can not be reverted to what they were. I AM… memoirs of addiction recovery is exactly such a project. A journey and an experience where art is an agent of change. Continue reading ART… an agent of change
Addiction, the addict and their recovery
I AM… memoirs of addiction recovery is my journey to understand better, the lives behind much stigmatised taboo of addiction. Fingers point, eyebrows frown, people suddenly become ‘they’ and ‘we’ jump to hasty conclusions in demonising the addict.There are many kinds of addictions, substance dependence or what is commonly called drug addiction. Indeed there is much controversy in understanding the very nature of addiction itself, which essentially is the ‘loss and ‘regain of control’. Continue reading Addiction, the addict and their recovery
Mementoes of my memory tree
May your life always be filled with beautiful, exotic, deep, enriching, blossoming and blissful scents… and may you always know your own and wear it with pride. Gérard
This hand written note on the inside leaf of Patrick Süskind‘s Perfume is a memento which replays the time I had a fling with a young man, a sensitive soul, while I was in my long-term relationship. Whenever the page presents itself, the distant past flashes back. Not that I am a nostalgic by any means… I love memories. Am not attached to them yet they bring a serene joy in my life. Strange though it may sound, in the spring clean, year after year, my stash of troubled moments have been recycled into enchantment. Continue reading Mementoes of my memory tree
Casa Ali ~ March menu + <3 dinner update
14 Feb dinner update and gallery
Why did I buy into the glamour of Valentines day when after all it was a Thurs-day? The symbolic has great power to re-ignite the past in a jiffy. I love all things ritualistic which you can make your own. It was a very intimate dinner for four guests and three arrived. Sebastian my sous chef had to go rescue a friend in need who was under pressure from the enormous expectations of the day. Valentines day was worth £1.3 billion to UK retailers and American spend on the day fetched $17.6 billion.
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I was well chuffed at how the evening turned out at Casa Ali. Jon and Sara both live within 10 miles of South Norwood, where as Kehkashan made an epic journey all the way from Continue reading Casa Ali ~ March menu + <3 dinner update