... and several months later
04/10/07 10:43
It has been several months that I have
placed any thoughts down on paper or virtual paper. We have had an
extraordinary busy time, going to the UK for a gathering of our
spiritual community Subud - 50 years since it arrived in Europe
from the Dutch East Indies or Java. Sadness tinged our joy as we
reconnected with a myriad friends from the past - those we knew
when we lived in England - and the recognition and powerful
testament to their inner life, to see all those people who have
gone forwards through trials and tribulations, emerging at the
present time, wiser, maturer, developed and qualitatively deeper
and stronger. Their faiths often tested in life's constant grind,
but who have emerged stalwart and intact.
We managed to fly off to Kenya for a brief, and well earned holiday; a quick 8 days which went far too fast. However it was fantastic, as we stayed in an Italian resort three quarters empty, on the coast in Melindi. We managed a small and rather fast excursion with another couple into Tsavo, a wonderful low treed, river filled, desert savannah filled with animals. We managed to see lion, and hippo - one of which we found out in the bush, and surprised by us, went charging parallel to us, and then, turning, made a threat as if our jeep was the target. However the hippo re orientated itself and to our relief went galloping off with its small legs back into the bush and towards the river, where they normally stay submerged most of the day.
The people on the west coast of Kenya are mostly Muslim with a large Christian population with the interior peoples away from the coast a mix of indigenous faiths. There appeared to be no unrest or disquiet and the population were very fluid and mixed, socializing easily amongst ethnic groups. We managed to wander into the back streets of Melindi and thus, wondering through the real parts of town away from the tourist shops, we saw life in the Muslim quarters. We were comfortably received and acknowledged, and felt as if we made contact with what is real rather than us watching a town go through its normal business, like movie goers.
On the last day we went though Mombasa which was a large city and went into the old town and predominant Muslim quarters again. A chaotic constant movement reined, in the busy frenetic market of colour, noise, shouting vendors, throngs of women shoppers - ramadan was coming up, and they were all buying new clothes for the fast and the consequent feasting.
Unfortunately in the evening prior to flying out, I must have eaten some food unfamiliar - well that's the official line - and got Mombasa tummy for the next six days on returning to the UK. But when I worked with it with Janet March, one of our assistants in the Being Human series in the UK, we got that deep in my digestive 'core' was secreted a manipulative, secretive, dangerous aspect of the dark feminine. I needed to void or release it - hence the 'trots' but in reality it was an aspect within myself which i needed to get rid of. It was conjured up, or brought into being as we sat on the beach watching the local population walk by. The beauty, the lithe and muscular men's bodies, the flowing robes, the dark shapes of woman in hijab, evocatively drawing me into their mystery - must have been the trigger for this dark and manipulative force to rise up within me; for I certainly was tossed around mentally with these mysterious dark images – unknown largely – of a human being. The treatment stopped the runs immediately.
So life returns, and we are back here in the States, having just officiated at Beata and Michael Alexander's wedding. It was held on the slopes of Mount Hood, our glorious isolated magnificent mountain - one of a chain of volcanoes straddling the earth as if pustules emerging from a north-south vein of magma hidden deep in the earth. Michael, James Robertshaw and I were in dress kilts for the wedding, and with the rest of the party, gathered in the Mazama Lodge. The wedding was preformed by both Alicia and I, with readings and songs by various people. We were all piped in, and then the men followed by the women sang to each other - a truly jpyous and uplifting start to the wedding ceremony. It was truly wonderful, with its solemnity broken by laughter as we forgot things like the bouquet, or lines or wondered who was about to 'do' their thing or what prayer's were about to be given. The laughter truly made it 'their' occasion as they have brought laughter, fun and companionship to our lives since we have been in the States. Beata is one of our teachers of CFD, and Michael has been a pal of ours for the last twenty years.
So here I am, having a further 4 days with the wedding party down at Oceanside on the coast of Oregon. Tomorrow, is back to reality again in terms of work, but this reality of being with friends, enjoying the beauty of Oregon, rain or shine, wind or mist has been marvelous.
We managed to fly off to Kenya for a brief, and well earned holiday; a quick 8 days which went far too fast. However it was fantastic, as we stayed in an Italian resort three quarters empty, on the coast in Melindi. We managed a small and rather fast excursion with another couple into Tsavo, a wonderful low treed, river filled, desert savannah filled with animals. We managed to see lion, and hippo - one of which we found out in the bush, and surprised by us, went charging parallel to us, and then, turning, made a threat as if our jeep was the target. However the hippo re orientated itself and to our relief went galloping off with its small legs back into the bush and towards the river, where they normally stay submerged most of the day.
The people on the west coast of Kenya are mostly Muslim with a large Christian population with the interior peoples away from the coast a mix of indigenous faiths. There appeared to be no unrest or disquiet and the population were very fluid and mixed, socializing easily amongst ethnic groups. We managed to wander into the back streets of Melindi and thus, wondering through the real parts of town away from the tourist shops, we saw life in the Muslim quarters. We were comfortably received and acknowledged, and felt as if we made contact with what is real rather than us watching a town go through its normal business, like movie goers.
On the last day we went though Mombasa which was a large city and went into the old town and predominant Muslim quarters again. A chaotic constant movement reined, in the busy frenetic market of colour, noise, shouting vendors, throngs of women shoppers - ramadan was coming up, and they were all buying new clothes for the fast and the consequent feasting.
Unfortunately in the evening prior to flying out, I must have eaten some food unfamiliar - well that's the official line - and got Mombasa tummy for the next six days on returning to the UK. But when I worked with it with Janet March, one of our assistants in the Being Human series in the UK, we got that deep in my digestive 'core' was secreted a manipulative, secretive, dangerous aspect of the dark feminine. I needed to void or release it - hence the 'trots' but in reality it was an aspect within myself which i needed to get rid of. It was conjured up, or brought into being as we sat on the beach watching the local population walk by. The beauty, the lithe and muscular men's bodies, the flowing robes, the dark shapes of woman in hijab, evocatively drawing me into their mystery - must have been the trigger for this dark and manipulative force to rise up within me; for I certainly was tossed around mentally with these mysterious dark images – unknown largely – of a human being. The treatment stopped the runs immediately.
So life returns, and we are back here in the States, having just officiated at Beata and Michael Alexander's wedding. It was held on the slopes of Mount Hood, our glorious isolated magnificent mountain - one of a chain of volcanoes straddling the earth as if pustules emerging from a north-south vein of magma hidden deep in the earth. Michael, James Robertshaw and I were in dress kilts for the wedding, and with the rest of the party, gathered in the Mazama Lodge. The wedding was preformed by both Alicia and I, with readings and songs by various people. We were all piped in, and then the men followed by the women sang to each other - a truly jpyous and uplifting start to the wedding ceremony. It was truly wonderful, with its solemnity broken by laughter as we forgot things like the bouquet, or lines or wondered who was about to 'do' their thing or what prayer's were about to be given. The laughter truly made it 'their' occasion as they have brought laughter, fun and companionship to our lives since we have been in the States. Beata is one of our teachers of CFD, and Michael has been a pal of ours for the last twenty years.
So here I am, having a further 4 days with the wedding party down at Oceanside on the coast of Oregon. Tomorrow, is back to reality again in terms of work, but this reality of being with friends, enjoying the beauty of Oregon, rain or shine, wind or mist has been marvelous.
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