When you have nothing

The news and social media are full of people in war zones and disaster areas who have nothing left. Houses are demolished in some way or other and there is no water, food or heating. What do you do when you are at that point? The only way is up of course but that can take some time. It was good to see photos of men repairing the roof of their home. But what has happened in many areas is that people are coming together to help those in great need. The events and darkness around them is also full of light as many awake to the fact that certain things are essential for living while others are not.

Some governments are trying to do things which are inhumane and show a definite lack of compassion. But the people in general oppose these things and see the wider picture of how we must help each other if we are to survive as a race of humans. If we are to survive then we must learn to care for each other, to respect our differences and to share not only our knowledge but our food, homes and most of all our love.

There is nothing wrong with asking for help although I feel you should never have to ask. If you are in need of the basic things for living then they should be available from some source wherever you are. We should all be aware of what goes on around us so that we can see what is needed and where it is needed. During the second world war, people worked together to help others with housing, food and clothing. No-one was left to starve or without a place to sleep. The same applies now, we work together in some way to help those in need. Have compassion for others whatever their religion or colour. The most important thing about them is that they are human beings just like the rest of us and have the same requirements in life. We are all connected and from the same source so do not discriminate in any way.

Sorry if this seems to be a bit of a rant but recent headlines make me feel ashamed to be British.

Autumn Equinox thoughts

It is that time of the year, equal day and night and now the hours of daylight get smaller as the hours of darkness increase. Outside in the woods there is a noticeable change as the leaves fall from the trees and turn various hues of yellow, red and brown The mornings are cooler too but there is still a lot of warmth in the sun. There are still a few butterflies and dragonflies around but not so many.

But there are changes ahead and the events of the last couple of years are leading to shortages of food, clothing and petrol as well as other things. The pandemic left us with a lot of changes some of which are not very good. But how do we deal with shortages of items we need? Well, many people just panic buy and when the rest of us go shopping there is nothing left even though there was originally enough for all of us. The same is happening with petrol as people not only fill up their tanks but fill cans as well leaving none for those whose car use is essential. The media does not help as they scare monger. As soon as they say something will be scarce, people chase off to grab all they can see of that particular item. They do not consider anyone else. Our society can be very selfish at times making sure they have what they want and never mind anyone else.

I have noticed that when I go shopping nowadays, I can never get all the items I would like and sometimes I cannot get those items I actually need. Has the concept of sharing disappeared? Do we think we are more important than anyone else? I do not have a car and rely on a volunteer car service and my son to get shopping and go to the dentist. I have another dentist appointment early next month so hope my volunteer car service are still available.

So overall my thoughts are not exactly cheerful at this moment in time. I accept changes as I must but I do hope that we get to see a better world during the few years I have left on this planet. There needs to be a change in perception of what life should be like and how we live.

Friendship

We all have friends of one kind or another. Many of us have social media friends, some of whom we have never met. Are these people real friends or are they just people we know. I remember having childhood friends where we played together, did our homework together and went out together. There were no mobile phones or computers then so no social media. Some of these friendships have endured for many years. I also have many friends from when I belonged to groups and societies some of whom I still write to or send email to.

But what is friendship? I found a good definition on the internet which resonates with me. ‘  Friendship is a close association between two people marked by feelings of care, respect, admiration, concern, or even love. ‘ So how many of my ‘friends’ fit this definition? Some definitely do this while others are just names on a social media list.

For me a friend is some one with whom I can share things, outings, cups of tea, my deepest thoughts, my worries and they can share these things too as we support each other through the bad times and care for each other making sure all is well with each other.

So imagine having a meal with a friend one day and they get out their phone and start texting. How does that make you feel? Would you do the same or would you ask them to put their phone away? For me, friendship also includes respect and texting on your phone while out for a meal with a friend is not really acceptable. If it was an emergency that would be different. Also do you make plans to meet with a friend and then let them down as something better turned up for that day or you just didn’t feel like going? To me that also shows a lack of respect and respect is important.

Friends have to be cherished, especially the good friends. It’s like any relationship, you have to work at it to keep it strong and good. If you don’t then it will fall apart and both people lose out. Good friends are like a pot of gold, look after them and treat them right.

Friendship

I don’t know what happened but all my writing just disappeared so I shall start again.

If you use social media then you may have hundreds or even thousands of friends but are these really friends? At one time you could organise your social media friends into groups so I had a craft group, a healing group and a group of close friends. I’m not sure you can do this nowadays. But what is friendship?

I like this definition I found; ‘Friendship for most people is a combination of affection, loyalty, love, respect, and trust. The general traits of a friendship include similar interests, mutual respect and an attachment to each other, and in order to experience friendship, you need to have true friends.’ This definition represents how I feel about friendship.

For me it is important to be able to have deep discussion with my friends, to share with them my thoughts and feelings, to cry with them and laugh with them. I want to help them to achieve their goals and of course this all works vice versa.

So what about the other ‘friends’? Some of these might be people I see regularly but do not have that deep connection with them, others are just acquaintances. A true friendship can last many years even if you don’t see each other very often. I have friends I meet occasionally sometimes after many years but our conversations carry on as if we had only seen each other the previous day.

So I am grateful for those true friends that I have, with whom I share my feelings and thoughts on a regular basis. They have supported me and still do, through times of stress and upheaval. I hope I do the same for them.

For the highest good and more

This week has been a week of deep thought and a week of asking questions. Thank you to all those who responded. My first question was what do you think  healing for the highest good actually means. Aristotle stated this ‘Men generally agree that the highest good attainable by action is happiness,’.. Your responses were different from this because healing was part of what I asked. I don’t like to use the word ‘healer’ because if I am ‘giving’ Reiki healing energy to someone I am only the channel for the energy which does the healing together with the person receiving it. I don’t necessarily ‘send’ the energy either. I ask that it be sent to the person who has requested it for their highest good. Only they and their Higher Self know what that is and we have to trust that the healing energy goes where it is really needed.

This brings me to other thoughts. How is healing different from curing? One definition I found was this one ‘Curing means “eliminating all evidence of disease,” while healing means “becoming whole’. I like this quote because it helps me to explain to others why I still have my various diseases but I feel I am healed.

Another thought was about the belief that disease starts in our auric bodies before it manifests in the physical body, therefore healing energy may go to these auric bodies not the physical body first. So someone receiving healing energy for a physical complaint may not feel any better and if they don’t have the right understanding they may feel disappointed.

My last thought was about healing lists of which I am a member. We often ask for healing for a specific thing such as depression, anxiety, fractures, and other physical ailments.I am guilty of this yet I know that the healing energy will go where it is needed most and not necessarily where we expect it to go.

So there has been a lot of deep thinking and I hope this blog is not too complicated to read. I would love to read your comments on all of this. Many druids become interested and work with healing energies during their Ovate studies and there are many different ways of  using healing energy for yourself and others. This blog is a brief summary of my own thoughts on this and I know I have missed a lot of my thoughts out as I didn’t want the blog to be too long.

Just for today

I have decided quite recently to start working with Reiki again. I have missed my daily sessions and meditations with Reiki. The Reiki precepts are not only for Reiki but suitable for use every day whatever your beliefs.There are many versions of the precepts but this is the one I like:

Just for today I will let go of anger

Just for today I will let go of worry

Today I will count my blessings

Today I will do my work honestly

Today I will be kind to every living creature.

Some of these can be quite hard at times. I am not one to get angry at others or things that happen but I do worry and find this precept quite hard to deal with. Yet worrying doesn’t make sense and I know this. I try to change the things I can change and learn to live with those things I can’t change. I always count my blessings, doing this every night before I go to sleep. Looking at what you have puts things into perspective when you see those who don’t have anything not even water in some places. We are so lucky in the western world.

I am honest and always have been and that can cause me grief as I do tend to speak my mind but try to think first before opening my mouth! I also try to be kind to every living creature including the spiders I don’t like but in general I feel I do this.

After all the recent stress of moving house and having the new bathroom, then working with Reiki has helped me greatly. I am no longer stressed and feel much happier in myself. I always understood that Reiki was not just about helping others to heal but about healing yourself and becoming who you really are and this has certainly worked for me. I am now at the moment where I am going much deeper into Reiki and the meaning of the symbols and everything that goes with Reiki. I am also now feeling able to teach others Reiki again and this does not have to be done person to person but can be done over distance so if you are interested then do let me know.

My photo this week is a butterfly, a symbol of transformation.

 

Finding the way forward

It has been another busy week with offers of things to do but the best things were the walks in the local countryside. I love being out in nature and love to see the wildlife as I go. Today was a wonderful stroll and a look at different small paths that led away from the main path. Even found a tree to hug as well.

But some of the offers of things to do this week I will have to think about. Writing my latest book has reawakened the ‘spirit’ of search if you like to call it that. I want to look at some of the topics I studied in the past and see how much they have changed. I feel the need to do more ‘spiritual’ work than I have been doing. It is as if I have been taking a break and doing lots of other work like family history and local history. Maybe the time is now right to work more on other things like healing, astrology and so on. I need to get back into a different routine but also enjoy the daily walks which really do fill me with so much pleasure. It is good to have company too especially if my companions think the same way as I do. That is a bonus!

This week is going to be chaotic as my bathroom is going to be turned into a wet room. Tomorrow is the start of the work so I will be going out on a trip to one of my favourite places, Trentham. Hopefully the trip there will help me to make more decisions about my way forward.

How do you make decisions? Do you act intuitively like I generally do? Or do you think long and hard about things first?

Memories

It has been an interesting week with some stress at the end but a lot of memories have surfaced. While writing my new book I have been looking through old diaries and journals and keep finding things even though the book is finished apart from a few additions. The additions are because of what I keep remembering!

Just talking to others who have known me for some time brings other things I had forgotten to my mind again. Launde Abbey was one such time I had forgotten and yet I spent many days there walking in the woods and grounds and exploring all kinds of inner work. The old journals jogged my memory about books I had read that I felt had influenced me in some way. This has led to me buying some of these books again so I can look back at how they did influence me if that makes sense. One of the books was the Celestine Prophecy. I know this is fiction but even now I can see lots of food for thought in those books. I remember going through the Experiential Guide to these books and I now have another copy. The work still resonates and I hope it will bring back more memories for me to write about.

It is strange how one memory jogs another one and so on but that is what has been happening. I found another journal for 2001 with not a lot in it but what was there was interesting and brought back other memories. How can I write about all of these? I don’t think I can or the book will never be completely finished Talking to a friend last night she did say there could always be book 2, a follow up to this book. That is something I will have to think about. Do I remember enough to make another book as well as this one?

If you read this blog and you have met me either in the physical plane or elsewhere and have memories you would like to share then please do so and contact me. I am finding that writing this book is a deep emotional experience at times but I will get it finished soon.

Community living

As I now live in what is called a retirement village for the over 55’s I though I would write down my thoughts on this kind of living. This particular village is a complex of one and two bedroom flats. There are two annexes as well as the main building and I believe something like 285 flats in all. That is a large number and could mean around 400 people live in this complex. There is a shop open in the mornings for a couple of hours, a coffee bar open in the mornings for breakfast and a bar open in the evenings. These are run by people who live here. There is also a hairdressers, a charity shop, a games room, a computer suite, a laundry, as well as a small library. The corridors are wide and there are plenty of seats to sit on if you get tired walking somewhere. There are also two atriums where you can sit amongst the plants in comfort and entertain your friends. In the evenings and some afternoons there are quizzes, knit and natter groups, bingo and entertainment at the weekend. Various business people bring stalls at regular intervals so you can buy clothes, jewellery, handbags etc.

This means that you don’t actually have to leave the building at all and I suspect there are some that don’t. Does everyone get on together? Well, like any village there will always be those who complain about others and those who do not like where they live but in general everyone seems friendly.You can stay in your flat all day if you wish or you can go out on the bus to shop elsewhere and you can go for a walk in the small country park a few minutes walk away.

There are several thoughts that have crossed my mind about this kind of living. One is that it could be very easy to do nothing else except what is provided here. Would that make you an introverted person or perhaps dependent on what is provided here? Is this a good thing or not? For me it is fine as long as I can get out in the country park and to other places on the bus. I do wonder if my feelings will change if my mobility goes completely. Is it good to have people of this age range living together? If some residents have children and grandchildren and they visit then that keeps the family ties and the generations mingle together. I am lucky that I have found a few people here who also like the walk up to the pond and that is good. It is early days yet so more friends could be made in the future.

What are your thoughts on this type of housing complex for the over 55’s? Would you live in one when you get older? Are there better ways of living for the older person?

 

Repercussions

Many things that happen have repercussions most of which we don’t like or even expect. This last couple of weeks have brought about a large amount of repercussions after the tower block fire. I think that last week I said that misdoings were coming to light much sooner than before and that those who did the misdeeds would have to face up to what they had done.

The repercussions from the fire have shown how much our government and local councils really cared about us. They allowed buildings to be erected without the proper regulations to protect us. I generally keep politics out of my blog but this is enormous and has to be faced. Have you thought how people must feel if they live in a tower block or stay in a hotel or work in a hospital that does not have proper fire safety regulations adhered to during the building process and afterwards?

Any fire is traumatic when unexpected and this was a blaze not just a small fire. It has brought up anger as well as grief in those involved and it also is bringing up grief and anger which has been unresolved in others. But it is bringing to light the facts about the buildings too. Many people are scared to still be living in tower blocks in case there is a fire. It is going to take a long time to make people feel secure in their homes but it will also bring up many other unanswered questions about cuts to services and other things such as our health service.

Maybe it is awakening people to the fact that there are other ways of living where there is an equality and fairness in all dealings After such an event the local community come together to help each other but we should be helping each other all the time. How many more traumatic events do we need to wake everyone up to the fact that there is a better way to live?

We all managed during World War II and housing was found or built soon after the end of the war. What has changed in the last sixty years that we cannot find the way to deal with these events?