Marlene Neumann Centre for Photography & Light

30/11/2025

Thoughts from Marlene...

“Realise life is short and life is a privilege.”
Love Marlene

29/11/2025

Pop in and visit when you are in East London. We are open every day from 9 am.

27/11/2025

Book a Free 20 min call on Zoom with me
https://connect.thevoiceofnature.net/connect-with-marlene

My eyes welled up with tears and moments later, my cheeks were wet. I tried to hold them back but they just flowed. A moment of unstoppable sobbing began to pour out of me.
Once the tears had subsided, I found myself a bit stunned as to where that sudden grief and sadness 😔 came from that had overwhelmed me.

There is no time frame or limit to grief. I realised my heart was still so sore 💔 for the loss of my sister who passed away only a few months ago. Watching her fade away day after day in the hospital had certainty taken its toll. Missing the daily phone calls, asking how I was - there was one more human out there that cared for my well-being.

I realised in the past 7 years there had just been so much loss for me. My Mom had passed my sister Jenny; several dogs of ours and of course my beloved Sophie and now my eldest sister.

There are specific stages of grief, but none better than allowing yourself to just burst into tears 😢 right here and now. So many people are afraid to feel their feelings, or are too uptight to just let go, cry and release.

Grief is not just about the loss of loved ones it is also about leaving behind 😢 older versions of yourself. Being let down by a friend whom you trusted your heart with. That is a loss of how that relationship once was.

We spend our lives shoving down emotions and feelings. This results in illnesses in our bodies. Ask yourself what emotions you have kept bottled up inside of you that are keeping you away from compassion and kindness

How I deal with my own emotions around loss and deep sadness is, I sit with the emotion allow it to run through me and I observe it. I feel the feelings, identify where its coming from, and how it’s affecting me. Then I soften and have compassion for myself. I usually have a chat to my inner little girl recognize what a situation is bringing up for me.

I know that we are all meant to understand that grief and loss is part of life. But sometimes it just overwhelms us. It becomes a problem when we can't get ourselves out of this feeling and we don’t have the tools.

Each of us can do with a little extra support and kindness.

The beautiful realization is that our own life will also one day be a loss to the world and to someone special.

The gift of grief is it allows us to know we are alive 🙏

If you are struggling with things, you do not have to go through it alone, reach out!
Book a Free 20 min call on Zoom with me (see comments for link), let's see if I am someone you would like to have as a spiritual mentor and receive emotional guidance.

Much love
Marlene

25/11/2025

All these incredible images are available in various sizes. We can frame your gift at Marlene's gallery in time for Christmas.

21/11/2025

Invitation to join Marlene online for her Live Meditation this Sunday.

Take a moment…
Breathe in… and come home to yourself.

What do you really want?

What are your dreams… your desires… the quiet truths that live beneath the noise?
So often we are clear on what we don’t want — yet uncertain about what our soul is truly calling us toward.

This meditation is an invitation to turn inward… to listen… to feel… and to remember.
Within each of us is a place where manifestation begins.
A place where clarity rises. A place where we gently align with what we long for.

This Sunday evening at 6:30pm (SAST), join me for a one-hour live meditation.
Together, we will enter the present moment — fully, consciously, with open hearts.

We will explore the sensations of our deepest desires:
✨ What do you want to feel?
✨ What do you want to experience?
✨ Where do you see yourself going?
✨ What reality is your soul ready to step into?

Let’s sit in that space together.
Let’s create it… embody it… breathe it into being.

Because when you live inside your dream — when you feel it in your body — you call it toward you.
You make space for it to become real.
Come and manifest what is waiting for you.
Your future begins in the stillness within.

Register to join my free Meditation Circle https://thevoiceofnature.net/meditation-circle/ and the Zoom details for my FREE live online meditation this Sunday will be sent to you.

Love Marlene

20/11/2025

A reminder of what it means to be fully present, in the moment from Marlene.

19/11/2025

Register online and watch episode 1 FREE of Marlene's 'Capturing what People don't Talk About' 4 part series.

What does 'being a person' actually mean?

This thought popped into my mind while I was sitting watching some doves wandering around my lawn, looking for the last seeds I had thrown out for them earlier that morning.

Many will know that I had a dove called Sophie that lived with me for 12 years before she passed. I have a great affinity with birds especially doves.

This morning I observed these doves the same way I used to sit and watch Sophie. When the need came the doves flew up to the bird bath and drank some water. What was it that made them decide to do that? Was it a thought or their instinct? I recall watching Sophie, she was so alert, curious and observant.

I sat wondering if we with all our thoughts are really superior to Nature and animals. Often when I am making my nature spirit wands, I just craft away with little, to no thought. I just know what to put next, what colour etc. To feel, to tune into the wood I am working with. Was this what being human is meant to be? To follow our intuition? Is this what the doves were doing? Are they just ' being ', using 'no mind', just knowing what to do next, it comes naturally to them.

When did we start allowing our thoughts to run wild and lead us astray? Everything is information based these days. Do we as humans sit and not label anything? Like the wind, water we drink, the simple things? Our breath as we breathe in and out. Just experience what is, like the doves.

We have to unlearn the bad habits and the patterns we run. For 12 years when we were younger our minds were used against us – we were groomed to all behave a certain way. What if there was another way to be, to live? Would you be curious to find out?

I created a series of videos called' Capturing What People don’t Talk About ', energy, emotion and spirit. There are four episodes in the series that cover these subjects. After my life altering experience at the age of 38 I discovered a new way of being, a new way of existence. It has never left me. Through ‘dying’ to my old self, I found out what it actually means to be human.

Receive the first episode FREE… For those that want to take themselves to the next level and practise this inner awareness - I encourage you to sit quietly with these episodes and to discover what I found. A whole new world opened up. I want to share this with you – register online https://thevoiceofnature.net/how-to-be-human/

Love Marlene

17/11/2025

Free gift from Marlene - sign up and join her 7 Days of Calmness.

7 days of calmness with Marlene Neumann helps you focus on calming your mind and body down in this busy season

16/11/2025

Unique gift idea - book bundles are available at Marlene's Gallery in Vincent. We are open from 9 am every day - entrance is free.

Marlene Neumann's book A Dance with Life: filled with inspirational images and her personal stories tell us how to thrive in life and how to make life count

15/11/2025

All these images can be viewed in Marlene's galleries in Vincent, East London. We are open everyday from 9 am.

13/11/2025

Register online to join Marlene's Creativity through Photography Online 6 week workshop starting 5 March 2026 -
https://connect.thevoiceofnature.net/creativity-through-photography-march-2026

12/11/2025

Free gift from Marlene to experience this ancient forest.