I have always made a point of moving forward, remembering the past but not going back to it, in a way like drawing a line in the sand and stepping over it. And yet I have to admit there could be times when its necessary to go back.
The family have had a stressful week, it started with my daughter crashing her car into the back of one in front, she was shaken but unhurt and in each case the air bags were not deployed so its unlikely any lasting problems will occur.
And that came after my grandson has a major autistic outburst, and since then its been a little odd.
So today I have spent, reading stories, singing action songs, drawing pictures and doing all I could to keep my youngest grand daughter entertained :-(
I'm afraid all my efforts were not good enough and the little over-active soul drained me of energy. But that's children for you.
My mind has also been else where today, my family buried my Uncle Peter today down in England and we were unable to travel down and attend the ceremony, sing him off etc But my brother went with my sister in law, so at least this branch of the family were represented.
My Uncle not only was a member of the RAF in his youth, he was a glider pilot and instructor, he was a young 80 when he took his last flight. He was a very interesting man.
So shall I be 'going back'? I have to go back to the South of England, I now have to go visit my cousin and pay my respects to my Uncle, and I have a list of folks I wish to hug.
"I will rise, I will go back,
To the White and silver shore.
I will have courage,
As the sun does rising and setting.
At birth and death, the gift of life is precious,
Soul-life streaming down the strand.
I will go as the sea in its turning,
I will rise, I will go back, I will rise.
(from Caitlain Matthews prayer for Courage to Re-encounter situations, Places or People which have shaken confidence.)
Thursday 31 May 2012
Saturday 26 May 2012
Saying it with flowers.
I love flowers, most of them, I've always associated some with funerals and some with different times of the year. Finding the right flowers is not easy, how to express ourselves, what healing can be achieved with the choice of flowers?
In Victorian times they had a whole language of flowers, sending little posies to each other with hidden meanings. Naturally red roses were for love, white for purity, yellow for a true friend, pink for affection. And even now we use rose petals at times for Rites of Passage....White for a Naming Ceremony, Red for a Marriage and Yellow for a Rite of Passing......going to the Summerlands, where the Sun is always shinning.
Forget me nots were sent to those left behind when our Hero's went to war and now its common to grow them in remembrance of a loved one. But be warned if you think its a good idea to grown them in your garden....they grow like weeds and will be popping up all over the place.
I wonder how many other people pick flowers for friends and lovers without thinking, and in the hope that its something they might like? Lilies will always remind me of Easter growing up as a child and seeing the beautiful pure white flower displays with the huge Arum Lilies in church. They were meant to stand for what? Life after death perhaps.
But there are some very beautiful coloured lilies which have so many different meanings depending on their colours.
Flowers for a Rite of Passing can help those left behind, give them a sense of the feeling the person has for their dear one? Although its clear they have to be cut in order to be used....but they are grown especially for this.
Flowers to give someone when they are unwell is also full of meaning, something that smells refreshing? Light colours, maybe the rose is a nice one to choose.
And the marigold which does not smell very nice has so many different healing properties, and the petals can be used in place of saffron, the oil of the flowers will soothe and heal burns and sore skin.
And the healing power of love, the oldest cure in the World, nothing like the deep rich red or the rose, although the smell has all but gone on cut flowers now so perhaps if we could grown some and then pick them from our gardens or window boxes?
And the most important? A Peace Rose......creamy in its purity and then turning pink and then red with love.
This week we shall be saying it with flowers!
In Victorian times they had a whole language of flowers, sending little posies to each other with hidden meanings. Naturally red roses were for love, white for purity, yellow for a true friend, pink for affection. And even now we use rose petals at times for Rites of Passage....White for a Naming Ceremony, Red for a Marriage and Yellow for a Rite of Passing......going to the Summerlands, where the Sun is always shinning.
Forget me nots were sent to those left behind when our Hero's went to war and now its common to grow them in remembrance of a loved one. But be warned if you think its a good idea to grown them in your garden....they grow like weeds and will be popping up all over the place.
I wonder how many other people pick flowers for friends and lovers without thinking, and in the hope that its something they might like? Lilies will always remind me of Easter growing up as a child and seeing the beautiful pure white flower displays with the huge Arum Lilies in church. They were meant to stand for what? Life after death perhaps.
But there are some very beautiful coloured lilies which have so many different meanings depending on their colours.
Flowers for a Rite of Passing can help those left behind, give them a sense of the feeling the person has for their dear one? Although its clear they have to be cut in order to be used....but they are grown especially for this.
Flowers to give someone when they are unwell is also full of meaning, something that smells refreshing? Light colours, maybe the rose is a nice one to choose.
And the marigold which does not smell very nice has so many different healing properties, and the petals can be used in place of saffron, the oil of the flowers will soothe and heal burns and sore skin.
And the healing power of love, the oldest cure in the World, nothing like the deep rich red or the rose, although the smell has all but gone on cut flowers now so perhaps if we could grown some and then pick them from our gardens or window boxes?
And the most important? A Peace Rose......creamy in its purity and then turning pink and then red with love.
This week we shall be saying it with flowers!
Tuesday 22 May 2012
The Dowsers Gift
My Uncle was a lovely man, although I met him late in life. Through researching family history I found my mother's siblings and re-united them, they had not been together since my mother was a baby and left with an aunt. But that's a whole other story and I'm saving that for a book one day.
Uncle was many things and one of them was a dowser, he was very sensitive and could feel lay lines and find things on a map. He kept most of this to himself and just went and helped whoever needed his help, the police, members of the general public who had seen things and folks looking for something. As far as I know, although he was good at finding water and water ways, his gift was his ability to make people feel so much better by dowsing and explaining something to them.
Uncle was in the RAF in the war, in fact both of my Uncle's were RAF, but this one was an engineer. So there is a great connection to aircraft and to all the varied engineering that goes along with it.
I live in Scotland and most of the blood family live in England so I don't see them very often and I had no idea he was so ill, so its come as a shock to learn that he left this World for the next just as the eclipse took place.
So his 'healing' has taken place but what of the close family, all running from one appointment to another trying to get everything organised. Such a lot to do and so many people to see that its not until all of this is over that the cold facts fall into place.
Uncle could dowse with anything, he was using a piece of string tied to a pen top when I last saw him do some investigating, its not about the equipment its the gift that is the important thing.
All of us have different gifts, yours might be playing music, or singing. It could be sewing or making a tapestry piece, or simply learning to repair and mend old things. But to my mind Uncle's gift was his sensitive nature, and being able to use this to help others. It may not have been 'acceptable' in some parts of the family, but he never did anyone any harm, he just wanted to help and he did!
Although I found him late in life, I did find him, love him and I feel for my cousins.
Rest well Uncle, you like many other hero's deserve a peaceful sleep for now!
Uncle was many things and one of them was a dowser, he was very sensitive and could feel lay lines and find things on a map. He kept most of this to himself and just went and helped whoever needed his help, the police, members of the general public who had seen things and folks looking for something. As far as I know, although he was good at finding water and water ways, his gift was his ability to make people feel so much better by dowsing and explaining something to them.
Uncle was in the RAF in the war, in fact both of my Uncle's were RAF, but this one was an engineer. So there is a great connection to aircraft and to all the varied engineering that goes along with it.
I live in Scotland and most of the blood family live in England so I don't see them very often and I had no idea he was so ill, so its come as a shock to learn that he left this World for the next just as the eclipse took place.
So his 'healing' has taken place but what of the close family, all running from one appointment to another trying to get everything organised. Such a lot to do and so many people to see that its not until all of this is over that the cold facts fall into place.
Uncle could dowse with anything, he was using a piece of string tied to a pen top when I last saw him do some investigating, its not about the equipment its the gift that is the important thing.
All of us have different gifts, yours might be playing music, or singing. It could be sewing or making a tapestry piece, or simply learning to repair and mend old things. But to my mind Uncle's gift was his sensitive nature, and being able to use this to help others. It may not have been 'acceptable' in some parts of the family, but he never did anyone any harm, he just wanted to help and he did!
Although I found him late in life, I did find him, love him and I feel for my cousins.
Rest well Uncle, you like many other hero's deserve a peaceful sleep for now!
Monday 21 May 2012
What a difference a day makes!
Yesterday I had such a wonderful time with my friend and her terminally ill husband, singing and laughing, finding songs that none of us had sung for many years, going back to the Troggs and 'Wild Thing' which is also used in one of Omina's songs.
Today, although the weather is beautiful and spring is coming into her own here in Glasgow, the picture could not be more different.
My friend's husband is in hospital, unable to bear any weight at all now on one of his legs, in a great deal of pain which the hospital are dealing with, filling him with morphine and other drugs.
Life, is all about living, taking each day at a time, one step in front of the other from tiny children all the way through to our wise years when there must be some days when its difficult for some to put one step in front of the other and such a day has come for him.
Healing has many different threads, physical hands on healing, all kinds of creams and different ointments, rubs, massage, lots of strapping and even plaster casts are needed at times.
Then there is the spiritual healing, the prayers, emotions, energies and all that those of a spiritual mind set will say, send and give for another.
And yet there is another healing that many of us find very difficult to talk about, and that is a final healing, when we leave this body our spirit inhabits and move on to where ever you understand the next place to be, heaven, the summerlands, the halls of the ancestors just to name a few ways top perceive life after death. But this is just as important a healing as any other, maybe more so.
For those with faith, with a knowledge of a spiritual path that teaches that this is not the end, that there is indeed life after death, our loved ones need to arrive in this new place in a stage of peaceful healing. Ready to meet with those who are there waiting to meet us, so how can we help here? If its possible at all to help.
I would like to think that prayers, candles lit sending thoughts, energies being sent would all help make a person who will soon be in the next place feel better. Arrive better rested, pain free and comfortable with their time.
So I'm not going to stop singing, nor stop sending my prayers and thoughts to this family, or indeed to any family that ask me to do so, because I think it does make a difference.
So sing, love, laugh and celebrate life, as we do gathered together, as many of us are taught to do. Because I feel that life is worth the celebration and the song, all the way over to the next place.
Today, although the weather is beautiful and spring is coming into her own here in Glasgow, the picture could not be more different.
My friend's husband is in hospital, unable to bear any weight at all now on one of his legs, in a great deal of pain which the hospital are dealing with, filling him with morphine and other drugs.
Life, is all about living, taking each day at a time, one step in front of the other from tiny children all the way through to our wise years when there must be some days when its difficult for some to put one step in front of the other and such a day has come for him.
Healing has many different threads, physical hands on healing, all kinds of creams and different ointments, rubs, massage, lots of strapping and even plaster casts are needed at times.
Then there is the spiritual healing, the prayers, emotions, energies and all that those of a spiritual mind set will say, send and give for another.
And yet there is another healing that many of us find very difficult to talk about, and that is a final healing, when we leave this body our spirit inhabits and move on to where ever you understand the next place to be, heaven, the summerlands, the halls of the ancestors just to name a few ways top perceive life after death. But this is just as important a healing as any other, maybe more so.
For those with faith, with a knowledge of a spiritual path that teaches that this is not the end, that there is indeed life after death, our loved ones need to arrive in this new place in a stage of peaceful healing. Ready to meet with those who are there waiting to meet us, so how can we help here? If its possible at all to help.
I would like to think that prayers, candles lit sending thoughts, energies being sent would all help make a person who will soon be in the next place feel better. Arrive better rested, pain free and comfortable with their time.
So I'm not going to stop singing, nor stop sending my prayers and thoughts to this family, or indeed to any family that ask me to do so, because I think it does make a difference.
So sing, love, laugh and celebrate life, as we do gathered together, as many of us are taught to do. Because I feel that life is worth the celebration and the song, all the way over to the next place.
Sunday 20 May 2012
Music All the Way.
I spent this afternoon visiting a friend and her husband, he has cancer and wanted to meet us. I've known this good friend since I came to live in Glasgow in 2001 and over the years we have all got close, life came between us all for a time and then in the last couple of years we all got back together. In all the years I've sung, chanted, meditated and ate and drank with my pal, I never exchanged more than a brief work with her hubby.
Now I realise how much I've missed! He's musical you see, been a professional musician all his life and I love singing, and music.
But this afternoon we had such fun, five of us sat in their sitting room, four of us around a hospital bed with him playing and singing along with us all!
Now that is how to live, all the way, music, laughter, song and chatter. So I set off this afternoon to visit a dying man and ended up having the greatest of times with a man who was living his music for as long as he could and that really is the way to live, each day at a time without a care for tomorrow, because there may not be many tomorrows left.
Is the glass half empty or is it half full.......his is certainly half full, cheers mate, here's to plenty more songs and lots more music.
Now I realise how much I've missed! He's musical you see, been a professional musician all his life and I love singing, and music.
But this afternoon we had such fun, five of us sat in their sitting room, four of us around a hospital bed with him playing and singing along with us all!
Now that is how to live, all the way, music, laughter, song and chatter. So I set off this afternoon to visit a dying man and ended up having the greatest of times with a man who was living his music for as long as he could and that really is the way to live, each day at a time without a care for tomorrow, because there may not be many tomorrows left.
Is the glass half empty or is it half full.......his is certainly half full, cheers mate, here's to plenty more songs and lots more music.
Saturday 19 May 2012
A Ceremony for Every Occasion
This has been the big development so far, a totally different kind of thing from anything I have done so far and being dyslexic I'm pleased that I have managed to come up with the kind of book I was asked for, something that anyone can use to help plan their Pagan Ceremonies without having to depend on others.
Its a little book you can use as is, or you can use it as a template and tweak it to suit.
It will take you through the whole year, each festival of the wheel of the year and then some rites of passage, ending with the rites of passing we all have to deal with in our lives.
My next book is already written, the artwork is all done, I had a contract for it some time ago but as yet I have no date when it will be eventually printed.
"Let's Talk About Pagan Festivals" is a book for children, small children with notes for parents, teachers and guardians. This one has things to do and colouring pages for the little ones.
I hope to have news soon as to when this is going to be available.
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Healing Creams, Lotions and Potions:
Its been another important thing I have been working on and now have the first workshop under my best with twenty folks who can mix, blend and prepare healing creams, butters and gels.
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