Alice's Wonderland: The Dress

Lets get serious guys and gals. Let's talk dresses.

This girl has a book launch to prepare for to which you are all invited of course...BOOK LAUNCH DETAILS This girl has to start thinking dresses.

I will be honest with you. Shopping and me do not go. For a Woman who has written two books with 'high heeled' in the title I really should be more at home on a high street. But really, I am not. I kind of detest shopping. On a spiritual level I think excess of it can be unhealthy as we while away our hours on earth always searching for the next 'thing' to take the pain away or to make us feel happy. I have been there and done that... But on a very human level I can't be bothered with the crowds, the marching store to store, the disappointment, the sore feet and the worst aspect of them all... the changing room mirrors. Yuk.

But like I say. I have an outfit to purchase, a dress to wow the crowd, a little something to shine! As much as I may feel like schlepping about in something black and baggy, it's my book launch, I gotta make an effort. I must be proud, if not of myself, but then of the wonderful universe who put the book in my head in the first place - then sat me down for hour after hour and recited the detail into my brain as I typed it out. That's a whole lotta typing that needs a little bit of a 'big up' from the typist herself!

So clearly the dress must be found. I am secretly hoping the dress will find me. If I close my eyes and will it, then maybe it may just appear... as if by magic. Stranger things have happened! Maybe this post will help. Maybe a shout out to the universe via a cyberspace blog is precisely what I need to prevent me having to trudge through those double doors, scour the aisles and depart with silly amounts of cash.

Dress buying is not as simple as it used to be when I was eighteen. First up in relation to dress buying, the book itself is highly ethical, (some may say ranty) I say ethical, opinionated too yes. So the last thing I can do is fling myself into a piece of cloth welded together by the sweat of eight year olds in Guatemala. I gotta find something uber ethical, something that reflects my desire for the world to be a better place. Primark, I am afraid, you are ruled out.

But does this mean fashion has to be expensive? I mean why should it be? To pay someone a decent wage, why would that translate massively to the consumer? Well happily it doesn't! Nor does it mean I must go clad in cheesecloth and tie dye. Happily the world is catching up and I have seen at least one contender in the great dress competition. There are a mass of online retailers touting ethical fashion, and whilst the high street is slowly catching up, I can have a massive choice of morally happy threads, without leaving my front room. If everything is spiritual, which I believe it is, then dress shopping is too. Maybe even those darned dressing room mirrors have their place! Maybe those damned mirrors have forced me to stop shopping, contemplate the ethics and eventually make the right ethical decision - all just to avoid the high street changing room! High Street 0 - Universal Magic 1!

Suddenly the world of shopping and dressing is appealing to me again. I feel a reversal to my younger self, where a dress was a dress, rather than a moral question! As for what I buy, and how it looks. I'm not sure yet? I guess I'll keep you posted, maybe even a pic before the event. Ethically sound, marvelous dress, here I come!

Oh god... an afterthought... what about the shoes... more ethical dilemmas and clothing related installments to follow from the gal hoping to turn officially vegan very soon! Eeeek!

A review of my book! The High Heeled Guide to Spiritual Living

Feel very blessed to have had the following review published in US trade mag New Age Retailer:

"In her first book, The High Heeled Guide to Enlightenment, Grist recounted her search for spirituality through the wisdom of ancient spiritual traditions. Instead of finding the answer she was looking for, she found more questions. It opened a door that allowed spirituality to find her. Actually, it allowed her to realize that she was already spiritual and everything in her life was part of her spiritual journey. It’s a truth that any authentic guru will give to his/her followers. It’s a truth that readers will relate to and revel in.

She divides the book into eleven lessons. Each lesson is a kind of meditation on a topic: faith, the Goddess, love. Dynamic, witty, and filled with insight disguised as common sense, her writing puts universal experiences, especially women’s experiences, into language that allows us to look at them from a new perspective. This one will apply to a broad audience. It’s fun to read and will leave readers feeling better about themselves. Of course, you’ll want to display it with The High Heeled Guide to Enlightenment — a perfect package."

Thanks to Anna Jedrziewski from the New Age Retailer

Have Faith...

HAVE FAITH

Soul Cafe http://soul-cafe.net is based upon the writing of author Alice Grist. Her latest book, The High Heeled Guide to Spiritual Living is published on 29 July 2011. In the lead up to her book launch event, Alice is introducing you to some ideas to assist in Spiritualizing your living in simple, lifestyle friendly hits!

Keep checking back to here or Soul-Cafe over the next month for the latest dose of spiritual wondrousness and commit to bringing these elements into your life! Feel your Soul grow!

Please use Spiritualize your life as a working tool! Don't just read the advice, live it. Use the comments below to let us know how you get on and if any minor miracles occur!

WEEK 1 - HAVE FAITH...

That sounds easy enough doesn't it..? Or perhaps to some of you is actually sounds like the hardest thing in the world! Faith is not everyone's cup of tea, some can only believe in what they see, feel and know. But faith requires a belief in something unseen, something intangible. It is the very first step towards spiritualizing your life. Without this step, you can go no further. So I ask you... Repeat after me....

'For this week, I choose, consciously and purposefully to have faith'

Now say these words to yourself every day, in your mind, out loud, whilst driving and really feel them. Let them infiltrate your week and know that in this week, yes, this week, that faith will be rewarded.

Having faith is a task I put forward in The High Heeled Guide to Spiritual Living. Like here, it is the first task. It takes a giant step in thinking and being, but it is a step that will catapult you forward into a more spiritual existrence. The act of deciding to have faith is powerful, empowering and vital to this little project!

So Keep the faith ladies and gents. And as you do, and as you exist in that faith I ask that you keep your eyes open for little signs. Ask your guides, spirits and angels to show you signs. When those signs come, you must then choose to believe them. Bring those signs here and let us know and we can all marvel at the power of 'having faith'.

I'll be around all week, so please do ask questions below. I want to help guide you through this, and if you are unsure of a 'sign' then come holler below and us Soulies can be your 'faith and sign' support!

So... It's simple, have faith, ask for a sign. That is all you need to do... Looking forward to reading your mini miracles!

Alice xx

Tarot reading of the week: Three of Wands

Every week, me, ALice Grist (Author and Tarot expert) interprets a card specially for you... I figure the people who need to see it, will do! And those that don't may see next week's cards! Hope this helps you wherever you are!

Three of Wands

There is no time to keep looking behind you when the future is keeping you busy. This does not mean you can't learn from the past, you should, it is part of you and it props you up. But right now there is NO use dwelling on the past. Do not waste your time and energy. There are things right now that need your attention. The energy from the past is always with you in some small ways, and right now it is saying go forward, embrace what you have, take this life and new experiences and run with them. You are not the same person you were, nor are you the person you are trulymeant to be... not yet/ But you are the you who you desevre to be right now. You may well be on the cusp of something amazing. So release past hurts, past negativities, past failure, and focus insead on what you are achieiving right this moment. What does this moment mean to you, right now, this second? Think about that, meditate on it. Move forward with it in your heart. There is something perfect happening, take hold of it and enjoy!

Alice Grist Tarot Readings www.alicegrist.co.uk

Can an atheist and a spiritual soul be in a healthy, loving and committed relationship?

They say opposites attract right? But what about when your partner, wife, husband or otherwise beloved thinks that life is life and anyone who thinks there is anything beyond that is a great big crazy person?

Many of us will have come up with this situation. Especially when we have been with a person many years. You may have undergone some transformative spiritual enlightenment, and they trudge on with the dailies, blissfully unaware of the spiritual essence rising up in you. This might lead to arguments. You may feel they don't understand or respect you. They may feel the same right back. You will both blame the other for changing... or for not changing. You may feel they are stuck in a rut, they may feel you are a nut! Either way in a long term relationship the sudden spiritual birth of one partner is likely to cause much ructions...

Then there is the situation whereby you are a single spiritual, perhaps have been for a while, and you meet a new person. You enjoy dinners, cinema, smooching, but the politics of religion, spirituality etc are not broached. Before you know it you are head over heels, and then your intended future life partner comes out with their very strong and solid beliefs in no kind of afterlife, no kind of spirit, no kind of existence beyond human life and planet earth. The bombshell has dropped. What happens next?

Back to the point... opposites attract. But how does this play out in real life. Has this happened to you? IUf so what is your advice. How have your relationships changed, or maybe even benefitted.

My other half is not quite an atheist, nor is he out and out spiritual. I think, to be fair to him, he doesn't have a grasp of it (who really does), and so he chooses to believe in a non-specified 'something else'. I think he is infinitely sensible, keeping his options open - sounds like a fair plan! He doesn't get as down and dirty in the spiritual sauce as I do. We have had our clashes, oh yeah we have! But in general things are rosey and there is a mutual respect for each other's beliefs. If however he was against spirituality, if he thought me writing my spiritual book was barmy, then yeah, we would have had problems! But happily I can see how his leanings and my leanings have in time come closer together. I'm not quite so new age & angel happy as I was at one point, and he is not so 'scientific'. It's a happy medium.

But for those of us who have encountered full on atheist V spiritual in our relationships, what do we do? What is the upshot? I'd like to think we are all brought to the people we meet for a very valid reason. Even if that is sometimes inharmonious and challenging. Perhaps such an unlikely pairing serves no other purpose than to give each other something serious to think about? Perhaps to help us affirm our beliefs, or, if appropriate change them....? But my question is... can it last, can two people of such opposite ilks make it work? Can you sing mantras whilst he build machines?

What are your thoughts can an atheist and a spiritual person be in a happy, committed, loving, healthy relationships? Does love conquer all when spiritual path meets an atheist's brick wall?

Alice Grist - Creator of Soul-Cafe & Author of The High Heeled Guide to Enlightenment & The High Heeled Guide to spiritual Living

Sniffed me out some new bunnies!

I am becoming a regular Momma Doolittle. For no good reason, my fella sugested I go out and buy another rabbit today. A baby one that we could get cuddles from. Our current adopted rescue bunnies are as cute as anything you can think of, but are reluctant to be picked up. Fair enough, I just leave them to it. We all live together quite nicely. I am the food machine who locks them up at night! But for some reason today we were sorely feeling the lack of bunny love! So for no good reason, I went out in search of the perfect little wabbit.

I was on the way to a pet shop when I decided I urgently needed to go to the farm shop, and see if they had bunnies. Whilst I'd rather get my bunnies from a rescue, doing so precludes cuddles to an extent. I already have two adorable, and much loved grumps... Besides, I would hope that whatever bunny comes to me, is meant to be. So I went into the local farm shop, following my intuition, bought some super cheap free range eggs and asked if they sold pet bunnies. The women got all excited and told me that only yesterday a young lad had come in with a poster about his baby bunnies. The bonus being that the bunnies in question were not only cheaper than a pet shop, but came from a loving family home, where I know they will have been handled more often.

So I set off in my little car to the home of my predestined rabbit friends. The lady and her two sons were in the midst of mucking out their yard, which was full to the brim with bunnies of all sizes, colours and temperament no doubt! Then in the middle she had located her two little baby girls for me to choose from.

Immediately I knew this... There was no choice. I had to have them both! So Momma Doolittle purchased both her new girls and brought them home in the ladies borrowed pet carrier. The girls are now aquainted with the old fellas Gilbert and George, and thus far, things seem to have gone rather sweetly. Just a bit of sniffing and curiosity. Now they are all collapsed together in the heat of this beautiful June day!

So I followed my nose and sniffed out some bunnies. Here are the girls in question... Any name ideas welcome. I was going to go with Ga Ga and Gwen... but not sure. Though would be nice to continue the G theme! The G-Bunnies!