A Continuation of Reflections

As it was our last club this time round in Castlenel,I did something different ! i consulted I ching about "The Art of Counselling" The response was extremely favourable! We enjoyed talking over John book. I read a recent addition, and John wanted some feedback on this,which I gave him. We also enjoyed chatting about I ching. Adios May 22nd club for a while.

John chose to read from his book Latitude Chapter 12 Seltz, 67, Bas Rhin, Alsace et Lorraine, Alsace1 This is a reported observation of bells ringing once on the hour at Seltz, close to the German frontier, an observation made by a long range walker on the Camino del Cid, while she paused in Castalla. She was a surprise visitor. The only hotel was full that evening and it is expensive. The tourist office phoned to ask if we could help out and we said yes as they know us well. She was glad of the use of a Villeneuve futon and the promise of breakfast at seven. I was in charge of toast and omelettes. Tourists are quite rare here but she was a traveller on a two month sabbatical travelling back to Paris from Cadiz. She had started in Elche yesterday and today she would be off to Alcoi. So she was doing about 30 kilometres a day. I was fascinated having a conversation with someone actually doing what I reckoned the Clockmakers did, carrying very little and being resourceful as witness ou...

John read a beautiful french poem then translated it for me,quite beautiful. Quand vous serez bien vieille, au soir, à la chandelle, Assise auprès du feu, dévidant et filant, Direz, chantant mes vers, en vous émerveillant : Ronsard me célébrait du temps que j’étais belle. When you are very old, at evening, by the fire, spinning wool by candlelight and winding it in skeins, you will say in wonderment as you recite my lines: “Ronsard admired me in the days when I was fair.” Ronsard wrote many poems to a woman called Helen. I read from a dear friend Dave Cormack's ( now passed)book Peacing Together I have not seen this book for a while but when i noticed it on the shelf it took me back to summer evening in a Hotel in Manchester many years ago when he mentioned he was writig a book about conflict resolution. I being quite young idealistic,and in the peace movement said " why do you have to write about conflict? write about peace" he laughed at the time,but when i met him a y...

John read a few lines from John Betjeman’s ‘Parliament Hill Fields’ in the fresh air this evening on the balcony. The poet recalls a tram ride; a summer outing to Parliament Hill. ‘Outside Charringtons we waited by the ‘STOP HERE IF REQUIRED’, Launched aboard the shopping basket, sat precipitately down, Rocked past Zwanziger the baker’s and the terrace blackish brown, And the curious Anglo Norman parish church of Kentish Town. …. Oh the after tram ride quiet, when we heard a mile beyond, Silver music from the bandstand, barking dogs by Highgate Pond; Up the hill where stucco houses in Virginia Creeper drown- And my childish wave of pity, seeing children carrying down Sheaves of drooping dandelions to the courts of Kentish Town I (helen) did not read tonight,but love thid poem,I remember picking dandelions for my mum and them drooping almost immediately!

an evening when we were both tired and I was feeling slightly under the weather, I found this little rhyme on the last page of The Artist's Way It is comforting. WORDS FOR IT I wish I could take language And cool moist rags. i would lay words on your forehead. I would wrap worsd on your wrists. "There ,there",my words would say-- Or something better. I would ask them to murmur, "Hush," and "shh,shh,its alright," I would ask them to hold you all night. I wish i could take language And daub and soothe and cool Where fever blisters and burns, Where fever turns itself agains you. i wish i could take language And heal the words that were the wounds You have no nams for. Julia Cameron.

John chose this lovely passage from the Tempest, Act 4 by W.S. "Our revels now are ended. These our actors, As I foretold you, were all spirits, and Are melted into air, into thin air; And, like the baseless fabric of this vision, The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces, The solemn temples, the great globe itself, Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve; And, like this insubstantial pageant faded, Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff As dreams are made on, and our little life Is rounded with a sleep".

Balcony Castlenel. I read from the last page of 44 Scotland Street. a blessing,I think. Here in this place, Of angled streets and northern light, Under this particular moon,with Scotland Quiet and sleeping behind and around us; Of what may I speak but friendship, And of our human wish for love-not just for me But for friends too,and those who are not my friends; So if you ask me now,at this moment, What is my wish: it is for love over Scotland, Like tears of rain- that is enough. Alexander McCall Smith

No reading tonight. We had Pilar Orion Africa and Sammy here for supper. We heard they are moving to Finland and we enjoyed listened to tales of Orion's visit to Helsinki---long dark winters a lot of snow---wonderful working conditions--and Santa is close bye. Good luck to you all on your next adventure.

Castlenel June 3rd. today we had wonderful news,David has signed his contact with the chinese. A long awaited reward for many years of hard work. For the first time in a long while we felt celebratory and we drank some of the 1.65 I said my favourite poem to John . A Piper by Seamus O'Sullivan. ( a moment of Joy in another wise ordinary day) A piper in the streets today set up, and tuned, and started to play, And away, away, away on the tide of his music we started; on ev'ry side Doors and windows were opened wide, [And men left down their work and came,]1 And women with petticoats coloured [like]2 flame. And little bare feet that were blue with cold went dancing back to the age of gold, And all the world went gay, went gay For half an hour in the [street]3 today. John read this beautiful passage from his book (in progress) Latitude? We had some lovely memories of our time on holiday in Spain many years ago. Clepsydra Three millennia and more before them, on the far shore of ...

We took part in Gavin's funeral today by webcam.It was a comforting experience a beautiful tribute to Gavin.John and I then went into Alicante and walked along the beach and watched the sun coming up over the sea.We came home for breakfast and had a long sleep. I wakened up feeling much better with a huge sense of gratitude for my 43 year long friendship with Gavin. I chose to read the introduction to A Gift from the Sea" ( I felt I got a gift from the sea this morning, hope returning) Introduction. I began these pages for myself,in order to think out my own particular pattern of living,my own individual balance of life,work and human relationships. And since I think better with pencil in hand,i started naturally to write. I had the feeling,when the thoughts first clarified on paper,that my experience was very different from other people's. (Are we all under this illusion?) My situation had,in certain ways, more freedom than that of most people,and in certain other ways,m...

Castlenel. This is the night before Gavin's funeral. i feel upset and weird yet determind to keep the routine going as routine really does help. John chose the last few lines of " Frost as Midnight" by Samuel Taylor Coleridge Therefore all seasons shall be sweet to thee Whether the summer clothe the general earth With greenness, or the redbreast sit and sing Betwixt the tufts of snow on the bare branch of mossy apple tree, while the nigh thatch smokes in the sun thaw; whether the eave drops fall Heard only in the trances of the blast, Or if the secret ministry of frost Shall hang them up in silent icicles Quietly shining in the quiet moon I felt the need to cheer us up so I read a passage from "Whatever makes you Happy" by william sutcliffe Carol Mat t's mother arrived out of the blue, a most unusual event,and Matt's rather nervously to hear what has brought her here. "Well" she said,allowing her body the slightest ...

Los Angeles I have been so sad all day I listened to some old favourite pieces of music and found it so powerful for evoking feelings and memories. I thought this passage from "simple abundance" on loss, was right for tonight May 22nd club. October 18 Loss as muse. Loss as character.Loss as Life. Sarah Ban Breathnach begins by talking about a group of woman who go off on a day trip by plane,sadly they never come back because the planne crashes. " If we are alive,we cannot escape loss.Loss is part of real life."Have you ever thought,when something dreadful happens,a moment ago things were not like this; let it be then and not now,anything but know?" the English novelist Mary Stewart asks."And you try and try to remake then,but you know you can't. So you hold try to hold the moment quite still and not let it move on and show itself." Today might be tough for you.You might not want the next moment to show itself,to reveal the twists and t...