Last night we said goodbye to one of our cats.  I cried a little.  I felt a lot.

Fluff had been with us for 11 years - in fact she was with us before the Art of Change had even been dreamt of. She was there pretty near the beginning of our amazing journey of 'waking-up'; she was also there throughout the key moments of our family's development, meeting the girls when they were only 4 and 7 and observing them through their growth into young womanhood.

Throughout that time she gave me opportunity after opportunity to switch off from the mayhem of life, sit down and have her curl up on my lap. She was like a great spiritual teacher in a cat body - always setting the example of peace, but never demanding that I do what she said. 

I probably didn't take enough of those opportunities to switch off, but I did at least take some. And for that I thank her. As I do for the infinite number of chances she gave me to improve my patience each time she came a scratching on the door or yowling outside the bedroom window.

Fluff was part of the glue, the sticky factor, that helped to hold the family together; pets are. And very often it is hard to appreciate the value of their presence, particularly when you are struggling with the umpteenth dead rodent or opening the door yet again because somehow they just HAVE to go out of it. But a value it is, and one that for children in particular, is as huge as it is intangible.

So Fluff, this is my thanks to you, both in appreciation of the 'stickiness' you gave the family and of the constant reminders you gave me to remember to switch off.

My life is poorer for your physical absence, but much, much richer for what you helped me to understand and experience. 

This week will see the airing of the Tyra Banks show  - the US daytime talk show hosted by Supermodel Tyra Banks - featuring Veronika Robinson, Mother magazine editor and author of The Drinks are on Me.

The show, which last week picked up a daytime Emmy for best informative day time talk show, was by all accounts a horror story for Veronika. They flew her over from the UK, put her up in a hotel and had agreed to follow a script as approved by Veronika beforehand.

Her contribution was meant to be on the subject of working mothers versus stay-at-home mothers. However, ever since Veronika appeared on the C4 documentary Extraordinary Breastfeeding, people and media around the world have latched on (excuse the pun) to the fact that she was still occasionally breastfeeding her youngest daughter aged nearly 8.

Needless to say, and in spite of it being agreed in advance, the show switched the subject matter and tried to nail Veronika on the weirdness of breastfeeding older children. Yet another attempt at car crash tv.

What the final show will look like we have yet to see. Going out to approx 11 million people, it could create quite a large wave effect for our rather small operation! This is one of the inevitable outcomes of having the courage to stick your head above the parapet - the media will, at our current state of consciousness, tune into the most outrageous part of a story and focus on that in order to 'entertain' their audience.

However - and this is my take on things like this - if Veronika's appearance helps even one mother to feel a little more confident to breastfeed her child for just one more day- and if she's reaching 11 million people then I reckon she may reach quite a few more than that - then it will have been worth it.  We're here to change the world - we all are - and the world best changes one small step at a time.

Anyone got a crash helmet I can borrow?

So much is happening right now, I realise that the one skill I should probably have acquired post school was Juggling. Ah well, have to learn to do it energetically...

Signatures have been flying through on Veronika's petition re breastfeeding in public places and the Government's planned Equalities Bill. I have been chasing around trying to find the actual wording of the proposed legislation - but it's like trying to capture a moonbeam! We're beginning to approach celebrity breastfeeders and supporters to get their help too - very exciting and very time-consuming. Add to that trying to organise national press, a London and nationwide rally, photos for articles etc etc... and I just came back from holiday!

The Mother mag continues to build up its network of subscribers - we've had fantastic responses to the overseas surface mail options and 6 month subs to help reduce outlay during these more troubled financial times. 

And then there's running the rest of the mail order business and keeping up with my coaching clients (and getting in a bit of writing and recording), the stuff of which is the real inspiration for my work. Oh, and did I mention the family???!!!

No worries on that score - that's what keeps me sane - the family. Their needs continue to come first - however important something else seems. Having that anchor, that clarity of priorities, is the one thing that enables me to multitask in the way I do.

Whenever I'm in doubt about taking something on I'll always refer to how it impacts, or could impact, upon the needs of the family(my top desire and wish). And that is what always gives me my answer and helps me, along with my meditations, to find my balance...

Now then, where are those juggling balls?

On thursday of last week we returned after a fantastic trip to Italy. During that time I was very, very, very naughty.

I didn't look at a single email; I didn't pick up a single phone message; I found, and didn't enter, an internet cafe - even though that old monkey was on my shoulder saying 'you really should check up on things - make sure everyhting's ok'.

Well, I didn't. I took my life - and our business - in my hands and risked 'not getting things done'.

It was FANTASTIC. After about 5 days I could sense a magical feeling of relaxation and peace coming over me that is difficult to access when the calls of business and technology are permanently upon us. Just not having a computer whirring away in the background leads to a different state of consciousness. I learnt to love my Italian lifestyle...

Admittedly when I came back I found over 1000 emails in my in box - but the spam filter managed to get them down to 250. Over the next few days we managed to get those whittled down to next to nothing, and it was clear that no clients or customers had been upset that the whole Art of Change team had disappeared for a few days. The World had carried on ok without us!

Since it's moving towards summer I've adopted a more Italian approach since we've been back - I'm getting up early and dealing with business/clients first thing,  having a nice long crash/family lunch/walk around lunch time (hopefully in the sun) and then returning to work stuff later on in the afternoon. Whilst the warmer weather is with us, it works nicely.

So my holiday reminded me of what I'm often reminding my clients; the world will carry on ok without  my constant interference; I reach a much deeper state of peace and creativity without constant interference from computers, telephones, tvs. And most importantly...

Chilling out in the sun next to some beautiful warm water and loved ones is one of the most important jobs any one can ever do...

The papers are full of it - oil crisis, food crisis (see news feature above), housing crisis, political crisis etc etc. Every day we are reinforcing a fear based paradigm with more and more news about what is going wrong.

When are we going to start looking at what is going right? When are we going to start championing the wonderful people doing wonderful work that are already changing the world for the better?

Humans are incredibly resourceful, creative beings. We thrive when we are creating, but we shrink when we are in fear. Scare us and you'll shrink us. Inspire us and we'll grow.

Mother Theresa once said something along the lines of 'don't invite me to your anti-war rallies, invite me to your peace rallies'. She knew the magic; that the way not to have wars is to create peace. The way to avoid having anything in your life that you don't want is to work on creating its opposite.

The Universe doesn't understand negative creativity - ie 'I don't want...'. It can't help you create nothing. It only understands positive creation. When we look to create we'll find magic can happen. When we look to 'uncreate', we'll find only emptiness...