Planet Creature and After Maeve

Planet Creature and After Maeve

Back on Track

I haven't written for some time. I need to report that I am extremely well, and that my 2- year cancer check was clear. Actually i have lots of things to say and I've been storing them up, but the first thing of importance was to share this picture of me taken in Xidi, one of the Unesco listed ancient villages in Anhui province in China, taken by my friend Fiona Reilly (http://nanchanglu.blogspot.com/).
Adventuring and exploring- places, cultures, languages, textiles, people- have been major pleasures for who-I-am, and I guess this was the first pleasure-only trip I have undertaken on my own since Maeve died. The photo for me contains the beauty of the Moon Pool, the steam rising off the noodle soup, the extraordinary feng shui of the thousand year old courtyard, the trance of calligraphic exercises, the vibrancy of peach blossom and running streams, and the pleasure of sharing with Fiona and Matt and their fine daughters.
A colleague also lost a child this year, and it was reported to me that he was nearly "back on track". But what on earth does this mean? Back on what track- the career path? the mortgage schedule? Keeping up appointments and commitments, the yearly round? One of the greatest psychological hurdles for me in recovery from cancer was the dread of slotting seamlessly back into the daily grind and losing sight of "all I had learned", the deep quiet sacred places I had touched in these last years. And anyhow, after such major life events, who had I become? Could it be possible for me to move fully in this world, honouring everything that is within me? I hope so. :)