It's been raining today but the sky has cleared now. The clouds are moving quickly in their bright white and the sky is a clear blue.
We're going to London this weekend to visit friends and babysit their three boys so I'll be back on Sunday afternoon. Happy Friday to you and wishing you a lovely couple of days!
Thank you for all the mischief we've been up to together.
Thank you for all the laughs we've had.
Thank you for helping me through difficult times.
Thank you for allowing me to help you through difficult times.
Thank you for all the long hugs.
Thank you for being there when I had no one else to talk to.
Thank you for understanding what it's like.
Thank you for being simple like me.
Thank you for small unexpected presents.
Thank you for smiling lots and singing in the kitchen.
Thank you for all the dancing we've done.
Thank you for singing with me over the garden work.
Thank you for making the hours pass quickly.
Thank you for all the suppers you've cooked me, it was delicious.
Thank you for letting me cook for you, it was my pleasure entirely.
Thank you for inspiring me and being inspired together.
Thank you for all the times we've sat up late together giggling.
Thank you for wanting to spend time with me.
Thank you for making me laugh.
Thank you for making me cry.
Thank you for all the walks we've been on.
Thank you for being honest with me.
Thank you for letting me be honest with you.
Thank you for accepting all the feelings I've thrown your way.
Thank you for trusting me with your feelings.
Thank you for being who you are.
Thank you for going on this adventure with me.
Thank you for exploring together with me.
Thank you for touching me like you have.
Thank you for being the first real best girl friend I have ever had.
Thank you for loving me.
Thank you for letting me love you.
Goodbye. For now. We'll meet again crazy girl...
For my Friend who is leaving soon:
There are many guises for intelligence.
One part of you is gliding in a high windstream,
while your more ordinary notions
take little steps and peck at the ground.
Conventional knowledge is death
to our souls, and it is not really ours.
It's laid on. Yet we keep saying
that we find "rest" in these "beliefs".
We must become ignorant
of what we've been taught,
and be, instead, bewildered.
Run from what's profitable and comfortable.
If you drink those liqueurs, you'll spill
the springwater of your real life.
Distrust anyone who praises you.
Give your investment money,
and the interest on the capital,
to those who are actually destitute.
Forget safety.
Live where you fear to live.
Destroy your reputation.
Be notorious.
I have tried prudent planning
long enough. From now
on, I'll be mad.
Rumi : Part of A Spider Playing in the House
I did it again. It wasn't exactly planned to come out this way, but I like it. It looks a bit like a 1920's haircut. Except it's not as neat around the back where the curls do as they please. I like that too, unruly curls. My hair needs a bit of life and letting loose, like me. I'll show you a picture of the back later, couldn't get a good angle on my own. My best friend Eli cut it again, she's amazing! She has only ever cut two women's hair, one with curly hair and then me with straight and curly. I trust her and besides it's far nicer to sit in our front garden than in front of a mirror. Her rate is very reasonable too - I cook her supper.
She has lovely hair herself. Well, all of her is lovely really.
This was a college weekend which means I went to my acupuncture college in Reading for both days. Saturday classes from 9.30 until 19.30 and Sunday 9.30 to 17.00. This time I set myself the challenge to take some pictures in the breaks - that's a bit scary, I don't like being seen hoisting a camera out of my bag. I think it's good for me though, go on - be brave! Lose your image!
So, the green door is one of two doors in a grand tall building with pillars right opposite the college building. See, I'm making an attempt to find redeeming features in buildings, even though I still find them boring.
Reading is a pleasant enough place - it has a canal, a river, old fancy buildings, quiet high street and a green church yard close to the college.
This is my college - The College of Integrated Chinese Medicine. Named so because it teaches both Traditional Chinese Medicine and Five Element style. More on that some other time.
It's actually both those buildings you see, and they're delightful inside - stairwells going up this way and that and small corridors to get lost in. It's an old residential building with fancy carpentry and adorned ceilings, which I couldn't get pics of this time, but next time we're in that kind of classroom I promise.
This is the view from the classroom we were in this time, I like sitting by the window.
I've just got to show you my favourite bookshop all time - it's Waterstone's on the high street. It's got two floors, a magnificent ceiling, stained glass windows, so many sections I haven't seen them all yet and I love the stairs going up and the circular bannisters in the middle. I could spend so much time in there if only the lunch break was longer than an hour...
I'm going to leave you with this funny little miniature church that is on one of the turrets of the church I mentioned. Isn't it sweet? And mind you - I never say that about churches.
By the way, if you want to see all the pictures I took of Reading and college - look here. Have a lovely week!
You should thank your gods
if they force you to go
where no footprints
are to trust ahead.
You should thank your gods,
if all shame they make yours
You’ll have to seek refuge
a little further in.
That which all the world condemns
can sometimes fare quite well.
Free as a bird were many,
won their own soul.
He who is forced into wilderness
sees all with newborn eyes,
and gratefully tastes
life’s bread and salt.
You should thank your gods,
when they break away your shell.
Truth and core
will be your only choice.
Karin Boye
To lose the home that is the soul and wander far
and then be unable to reach anything else,
and find that one has forgotten all that truth is
and think that one is made of lies alone
and feel sick with oneself and hate one -
yes that is easy, yes that is quite easy.
Sorrow is easy, but joy is proud and challenging,
for joy is the simplest of all.
But the one, who seeks a home to know,
must not believe, that it is anywhere -
he must wander homeless for some time;
and one who is of lies and wishes to heal
he must hate himself until he knows
from truth, that which others are given for free.
What is the worth of grieving so for that?
Wait, my heart, and have patience!
Karin Boye
Dance, when you're broken open.
Dance, if you've torn the bandage off.
Dance in the middle of fighting.
Dance in your blood.
Dance, when you're perfectly free.
Rumi
"You know how it is. Sometimes
we plan a trip to one place,
but something takes us to another.
When a horse is being broken, the trainer
pulls it in many different directions,
so the horse will come to know
what it is to be ridden.
The most beautiful and alert horse is one
completely attuned to the rider.
God fixes a passionate desire in you,
and then disappoints you.
God does that a hundred times!
God breaks the wings of one intention
and then gives you another,
cuts the ropes of contriving,
so you'll remember your dependence.
But sometimes, your plans work out!
You feel fulfilled and in control.
That's because, if you were always failing,
you might give up. But remember,
it is by failures that lovers
stay aware of how they're loved.
Failure is the key
to the kingdom within.
Your prayer should be, "Break the legs
of what I want to happen. Humiliate
my desire. Eat me like candy.
It's spring, and finally
I have no will."
* part of one of my favourite Rumi poems : Desire and the Importance of Failing - Translated by Coleman Barks *
Sunday had to be spent over my studies so I thought I might as well make myself comfortable. I did manage to get quite a bit of work done, but it was so marvellously warm and lying out on the grass in the sun without truly lapping it up is a shame.
I was listening to Arcade Fire (Ocean of Noise, Intervention and Neon Bible), Mason Jennings (on recommendation from my brother and I love it - listen to East of Eden or Stars Shine Quietly, but they're all great), Nina Simone (never fails to get my reluctant study brain going - Love Me or Leave Me has the most amazing piano improvisation and I've Got Life is obviously just brilliant) and Phoenix (another recommendation by my brother - Long Distance Call is my favourite, it reminds me of the four years I spent with my boyfriend making 4hr+ phone calls between Sweden and Britain). Speaking of him - look what he took and emailed me:
My pencil case. :) Sent with the subject line: Heart Shaped Pens for You, My Love. :D I love him...
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