Pete has left the island to go and get my girl via his parents! I go through a sort of ritual of getting her bed ready and making her room lovely for her. This summer will be a good summer for Molly with oodles of professional placements sprinkled with some time with us. George will bake her favourite chocolate cookies and we will all charge out the door for hugs as soon as we hear the car on Wednesday evening. Lovely!
Today has been a little gentle and I seem to have wafted about the place in a little trance. I quite like days like this although I have to accept that I get far less done. I am re-reading Satish Kumar's book 'Earth Pilgrim' because it feeds my soul. There is a bit where he is asked at what age did he become a pilgrim? His answer is 4 years old.
He explains that his mother was a pilgrim and she would take him to her farm which was a good walk away. She preferred to walk than go on horseback because 'when you are walking, every step we take is a step of completion, a step of fulfilment, a step towards self-realisation.'
I went for a walk today as soon as the morning rain departed the island. You get that 'after the rain' smell that I love and all the hedgerows are full of wildflowers. I have asked my noisy neighbour not to get one of those beastly tools out and cut them all down this year. He thinks he is being helpful and making the place nice and tidy. Give me a bank of wildflowers any day over neat and tidy.
I have discovered that there is a natural order to my writing and don't really have control over that. You will be irritated to hear that I am still re-drafting my activist piece and I am not absolutely sure what the problem is. That said, I had another piece floating about in my head and then, this morning, it leaked out! So that piece got finished before the activist piece which wasn't really the intention but who am I to argue? Shards of light is published on my personal blog and followed another piece that I published yesterday entitled 'I wasn't interested in the chair.' The two pieces could not be more different but then that is how my mind works sometimes. The chair piece was an award winning piece of flash fiction that I wrote last year but shards of light is just a personal piece that I thought might be useful to share.
It is easy to think you are alone when you struggle with a chronic illness. I picked up a phrase along the way that I use all the time. It asks me to 'have a word with myself.' I suspect it originally belonged to my father. It sounds like him. It has been one of the most useful prompts I have ever used and it has helped me cope. My spirituality drives me towards the recognition of the power of our souls. My soul just needs a little extra tlc every so often and if that doesn't work I have a word with it. So, although the piece is about my personal journey living with pain on a daily basis I hope that it might be of use to others struggling with illness.
I think pilgrimages come in many shapes and sizes but what binds them together is a 'journey.' Life is one long journey but if we neglect our souls we do so at our own peril. I agree with Kumar's mother and I agree with pilgrimages. One day I will do a pilgrimage to a foreign land that needs a little help. I will do that pilgrimage with one foot in front of the other and one step at a time. I will ignore the pain and focus on the journey and the sense of fulfilment. I don't anticipate being alone on this pilgrimage and I suspect some of you reading this will be with me. Perhaps I will even blog my way through that as well!
Despite facebook's best efforts to stop me I finally got pictures of my flag up earlier this afternoon and gentle bidding is underway. Bidding ends at midnight so if you want to have a go please do. All money raised will be donated to the Butterfly Tree charity. I am still hoping for a few more flag makers so if you have some time and would like to make one do get in touch. Yours will be much better than mine and I still can't believe how long I took to make mine. What was wrong with me? I did set myself the challenge to stay away from the sewing machine because I wanted to think about every stitch and exactly why I was making this flag. Hand sewing every applique and every hem took the time but I wouldn't have had it any other way.
Looking out of my window now I can see the Himalayan poppies swaying in the breeze but, if I am honest, I can see lots of weeds. Not even I can get away with calling these wildflowers so action is required. Boys!!!!
I do hope you have all had a lovely bank holiday (readers in the UK). Can I just say a big 'Hi' to my American readers. You are in danger of overtaking the number of UK readers which is truly amazing. I read lots and lots of blogs now and many of them are from Americans so it is lovely to know that you are reading my little blog. If any of you American readers want to make a contribution to my new site 'One soul many hearts' I would love to hear from you. It will be important to get a range of perspectives on this site.
It really is the most beautiful afternoon on the island after all that rain.
Until tomorrow. xx
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