At Home last Weekend Me: Can you wipe up please AN HOUR LATER Me: Sweetie, the wiping up needs doing AN HOUR LATER Me: Come on, I need you to wipe up and put away the dishes AN HOUR LATER Me: OK, I’m getting cranky now, I’ve got better things to do than nag you all weekend AN HOUR LATER Me: Put the washing up away, or there’ll be no dinner!
Let’s imagine 200 of you bone&silver Blog readers want to live with me in a community (and why wouldn’t you). How would we make that work? And more importantly, what would we do when it wasn’t working? Carol Perry is co-founder of Dharmanada Community, established for over 40 years- they have dinner together 5 nights a week, and grow 70-80% of their own food, including running a dairy and making their own butter and cheese! She is a dispute mediator and mindful communication teacher, plus cute and fun to listen to. She ended up travelling Australia doing Conflict Resolution presentations and mediations, right up to the corporate world. So she knows her stuff; she could help us out. What happens when we get triggered? We’ve learnt about arguing before here on bone&silver haven’t we? We lose all our intentions for harmonious, cooperative living, and just want to be Right. She started her presentation by saying the most wonderful thing: “My first Invitation to you all is that all the parts of you are Welcome, and I have all the …
6.30 am now in Australia. This morning is Day Seven: a walk on the actual land, meeting under the giant fig tree. Last night was the Farewell Talent Night- not because we’re losing our talents, but because the Intensive is finishing. Seven days, 9-5, plus nightly optional activities… plus our real lives/work/families/blogs etc on top of that. MY BRAIN IS FRIED. And yes, I’m shouting a little bit there. So I’m pausing for a couple of days to recalibrate, then will write about the remaining days. Because, of course, The Blog Must Go On. But not at the expense of my sanity, which I’m sure you support. In gratitude for the Pause Button when I need it, and much love, G xO
If you’ve missed what’s going on, please read about Day One here. After a huge day of study, I’m a bit exhausted as I blog this. But, I have had an Empathy Bath! Do you know what that is? Well, I’ll tell you later… First, we have to do the 9am Check in. So we all arrive, to sit in our wooden chair circle, then rather than ask how we’re feeling, the facilitator sends us out into the bush to find a plant that embodies how we’re doing today. Fine. I was awake till 1.30, and so was ’17’; we have no idea why we couldn’t sleep (an overstimulating dahl and rice?). The cat also escaped, so wanted to come in at 5am (by the way, there’s a No Pets policy at the proposed Eco Village, so I’ll be happily bringing that up with him real soon). We overslept, then the tradesman arrived at 8.15 as we were cranking up for that final 10-minute frenzy before actually leaving home… Anyway, everyone returned to the sacred …
Hello All, time for the final part, yay. It’s Fiction, so feel free to skip this post if that’s not yer thing! This piece won tiny accolades in several small writing competitions here in Australia, although it’s a few years old now. PART ONE is here, and PART TWO here, so please read first. A few readers commented that they’d prefer a longer read, to sink into it, so I decided to post a long one, rather than make it another two posts… I hope you enjoy it, and thanks so much for reading! In gratitude for words, G xO “Roadside”- Final part ‘I can’t believe we have to find a way to live through this.’ She pulls at leaves that want to tickle her shoulder. ‘And I am a nightmare.’ A twig is snapped. ’You don’t deserve this.’ A cluster of leaves is wrenched and dropped, with fresh tears. Around their homemade seat, the plants in her garden push back attempts to contain them. A palette of colours ramble. Daisies nudge native grasses, …
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