San Shan

Hello. I have just had my three year post cancer review and all was good. Somehow I found this immensely helpful and spent some time planning an imaginary survivor's tattoo for my upper arm. I felt really "STRONG!!!", as my 3yo nephew Orion says after a fall when he gets up and brushes himself and makes big muscles. . .

In my mind my tattoo image showed the three mountains of the three really difficult challenges life has brought me- sketched as three peaks in a row. It also echoed the zigzag on the right side of Maeve's crest- which she said was 'the boundary between the two worlds'. Right.

This weekend was the annual Imagery Festival in Numinbah Valley which Frank coordinates. It was drenched in sunshine and particularly lovely (see http://deepimagery.com.au/ for more pics). I ran a children's tissue paper collage workshop and the lovely Min agreed to do some calligraphy for the mural we co-created. Imagine my surprise when my very image appeared under her brush- she had chosen the ancient (~1200-500 BC) da zhuan form of the 'mountain' pictograph to depict the mountains which frame Numinbah!

It was wonderful to have quite a few children at the Festival, and I found myself hanging out with them even when i didn't 'have' to. I also did some deep personal work and re-connected with a memory of myself when I was 7 or so and with my family on the granite bank of a creek. One of my little brothers made as if to head for the edge, and I spontaneously and gently rescued him. I more deeply understood this essential part of my being.

One of the girls reminded me of Maeve. I so loved being with her, and I felt a wave of the old grief when we got back home.

By the way, over this last year we have moved from Brisbane to the northern NSW coast, at Ballina, where we are doing up an old house and thoroughly enjoying the river and more simple way of life. Maeve had been here- had swum at the pool and played on Shelly's Beach, and she would have loved to have lived in a place where so many outdoor adventures are possible. So I have no sense of leaving her behind- more one of finding her. Our family life in Ballina is recorded by Tara and me every Monday on the www.taralouise.wordpress.com blog. Bye for now, Robyn