The best kind of books....

" The best kind of books, however, have a delightful mystery about them. They inexplicably create powerful feelings, images, moods, worlds, and parallel narratives the farther away in time you are from the reading. They grow in time. They keep re-creating themselves in your consciousness, they keep growing, keep becoming other books, till they become part of your experience, like something lived, or dreamed, or loved, or suffered".

Ben Okri - A Way of Being Free

some books that come to mind that this extract
triggered the memory of are:

Edward Abbey - Desert Solitaire
Madeleine L'Engel - Walking on Water
Ben Okri - The Famished Road
Paulo Coehlo - probably an amalgamation of several
Bruce Chatwin - Songlines
Annie Dillard - from different books I've read
Antoine de Saint-Exupery - Wind, Sand and Stars / Le Petit Prince
John O'Donohue - Divine Beauty, and some of the
fragments I've read of Anam Cara
Haruki Murakami - again several contributing novels

I'm sure there are many more, and this list will probably be added to
as I remember one that I can't possibly leave off...but have.

These are not even books I necessarily remember in their entirety but something about them took root and remained an swell in my sub-conscious that crests into consciousness every now and then. Images that conjure a sense, or a feeling for me that has grown beyond my experience of simply reading the text. Books that have been for me what Ben Okri describes, in much better words.

Touch

It's been just another day at college. A good one though as we learnt the movements for massaging the abdomen today, so I can now do the legs, feet and abdomen. Getting there!! I know I will have more willing models once I have learnt the back!!

Just a moment to pause and wonder at the beauty and power of touch. The way it can bring transformation; the warmth and health and healing it can bring; the light of healthy human contact; the despair and distortion in its absence.

I am really enjoying learning more about the ways in which massage can help and heal and relax our bodies. I had a Thai massage client this week who is coming back again for more - always a good encouragement when someone comes back, and in less than a week! I feel very privileged when I get to give someone a massage and it enhances their wellbeing, in particular when they have not been feeling well. It is a gift that I hope to be able to develop.

It is also fascinating (though somewhat daunting with a test looming) to learn about anatomy and physiology. The human body is quite an amazing creation. I had the opportunity to go to see the BodyWorlds Exhibition with a friend when I was in Minneapolis this September. Quite an incredible exhibition that was both weird and wonderful; informative, gross, beautiful and challenging. I keep thinking of it as I look at diagrams in textbooks, it made it so much more real.

Marker of the journey

The spiral for me is symbolic of journeying.
The inner and outer journey.
Physical and spiritual journeying.
The footprints of a nomadic embracing of life.
The unbroken line symbolic of the ebb and flow of life's journey,
an invitation to live with the tides.
The cross, as well as having resonances of faith,
symbolising the vertical journeying and relationship to the divine,
and the horizontal journeying and relationship to other humans and the earth.

The location of this unbroken spiral is
at the crosspoint of the lines on my back,
where the vertical spinal line intersects
the horizontal line of my shoulders.

A permanent symbol of my journey
of the past few years, and hopefully
of a lifetime of journeying to come.

the photo makes it looks a little off centre but in reality it is centred
art:work by Robin Dutcher

Vegetables and Winter Wine

In one of my unlived lives I am an organic gardener. The vegetables are knobbly but delicious. I have a poly-tunnel, fresh salad, healthy compost, bright flowers, a stream and a sea-view.

In reality I have two skinny flower beds, that it took a friend helping to finally get me to clear the weeds. It has been too dark after work to do any more this week, but a month after clearing the weeds I have finally been to B&Q to purchase a few green shrubs and some bulbs to plant into the ground to root and await spring. I look forward to seeing the shoots pushing through, green and vibrant and blooming into purples, whites and yellows. I just need to make the time to get them planted!!

But first, the close dark winter evenings. With the change back from summer time I am now leaving work in the dark and the days seem to be rapidly shortening. My chimney has been swept and awaits the first fire of the year; which must be accompanied I believe with a bottle of red wine, good cheese, dark chocolate and some friends. It’s in my diary!

Give for free

Casa Alianza is a charity that does a lot of great work with street children in Central America, and by going through their website to Amazon ( www.amazon.co.uk) or Expedia (www.expedia.co.uk) when you are shopping there, a percentage of your purchase goes to the charity, but you are just paying your regular price.

How much easier does it need to be? So go to www.casa-alianza.org.uk and click on the 'get involved' button. Then link through to Amazon or Expedia from there. Up to 7.5% goes to support Casa Alianza and their work with street children. Easy!!