lughnasadh

Lughnasadh

On February 2^nd the Celtic festival of Lughnasadh is recognised in the southern hemisphere. At Lughnasadh, the Wheel of the Year begins to change from growing time to harvest time. The subtle changes of the waning sun that happened at Summer Solstice become more evident as the balance of day and night seem to shift more dramatically. The slight seasonal variations in weather, and the declining arc of the sun, are other pointers of this shift. This is the time of the first harvests. At this celebration we give thanks to the Earth for its bounty and beauty.  In times past, celebrations typically centred on the assurance of a plentiful harvest season and the celebration of the beginning of the harvest cycle.

Lughnasadh is a time of individual reflection and harvest, of our actions and deeds, events and experiences, our gains and losses. It’s a chance for us to get rid of blocks and fix what’s wrong before the cycle of the year ends and winter is upon us.

A great meditation for this celebration is purely and simply conscious eating…being mindful of and grateful for the food you share. Most of all, as you feast and give thanks for your bountiful table; I encourage you to consider what promise and commitment you might give to the sacred land itself that makes possible your abundance?

Being....

Poor little blog, left to keep itself company for sol long! There has been so much writing going on for other publications and so much life rushing me around that this little space in my heart has been neglected! I have a New Year’s resolution to keep, “time to do the little seemingly unimportant things that give me a warm fuzzy feeling inside.” So here I am, answering my own call and writing my blog again, writing ‘just because’ and for no other rhyme, reason or deadline.  The other warm fuzzies are getting back to a little song writing, playing my djembe, spending time doing a large and very difficult puzzle, and sitting quietly in the garden watching nature! These are my things, they have no purpose other than to please me, and sometimes in the busy “doing” of life we forget that it’s ok to just enjoy the journey! We feel we must be achieving, completing, building, purposefully doing or just plain working!! But life is also just itself, life, and there are so many things we lose along the way when we forget to just be, and being is such a pleasant activity!

And really, I teach meditation these days, (which is a purposeful warm fuzzy!!) and such things as “just being” are pertinent with regard to mindfulness, because one of the main ideas that motivates the practice of mindfulness is the idea of ‘doing’ less, and ‘being’ more. Moreover, from the perspective of ‘being,’ so much of what passes for productive activity looks hyperactive, hubristic and pointless.

Lao Tzu said, “Search your heart and see. The way to do is to be.” So I am being….and right now I am being in the writing of this blog and it feels good!

Those who know me, know how much I love the writing of Kafka (especially “The Castle”) and it is Kafka who said, “You do not need to leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. Do not even listen, simply wait, be quiet, still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked, it has no choice, and it will roll in ecstasy at your feet.”

He is saying that as individuals and collectively we are missing out because we tend to do too much of what we see as purposeful activity. There is some gentle irony in the fact that those who most value ‘getting stuff done’ are often not so much unwilling, but rather unable to sit still. The one thing they can’t do, is to just be.  So this year I aim to “be” and in so doing, to enjoy some idle nourishing moments….and play with the poor little blog! Come join me!!

Java

Its been a while since since I have blogged but life has been busy and is continuing in this vein seems my lot in the latter half of 2014!! ( I notice hubby has not completed his Journal of French travel yet either so I am obviously not alone in this!)

I am now on my merry way to the UK where I am guest guiding on a Sacred Sights tour and in the interim have had the opportunity to visit my youngest daughter in Java where she is currently studying at Gadjah Mada University in Jogjakarta. Hubby and I had a whirlwind week with her trying to fit in all her many favourite places....and it was wonderful!

Jojakarta is a city I am sure better described by my daughter,  as it would definitely take months of living there to understand its nuances, take in its overwhelming bussi-ness and find the little gems that adequately expose its big heart. But we were lucky to have her knowledge guide us and what I saw I really loved!

I loved the city itself which at first hits you like a ten ton truck going very fast! Its full of people all going somewhere - (mostly on Scooters and Motor bikes), little warungs with tantalizing food smells and along side these some pretty majestic buildings towering into the sky... the air is hot and thick and above it all looms the impressive and brooding Volcanic Mt Merapi...with its ever present reminder of the fragility of life.

I loved the friendly people, the soft gentle voices, the way my daughter slips into this world effortlessly.
I loved the food, a vegetarian paradise of tempeh and exotic fruits! I struggled with the obvious poverty in places and the toilets were a challenge at first because they prefer water and washing to paper which is actually quite a sound thing but largely unfamiliar to me. However I think I have that down pat now!

We took a jeep up Mt Merapi at dawn and with the Full moon going down on one side of us and the sun rising on the other it was quite a magical moment. Smoke wafted out of its volatile peak and we drank sweet coffee in the cool morning....feeling as if we had been transported to another time. Our guide was quiet and didn't say much when we stalled almost vertical on the rocky mountain side.....quite matter of factly he just suggested we get out and walk now...phew....I had visions of that little red jeep rolling into a backward flip and all of us bouncing like poppets under it!

We did dawn in Borobudur at the top of the Buddhist temple there and enjoyed some of the best food and hospitality I have ever enjoyed anywhere at my daughters friends place Rumah Dharma ( if you ever travel to Java this is a must stay, see and do  !) The next day we were taken to  The Hidden Temple...and truly if someone didn't take you there you would never find it! Our guide was very helpful and very knowledgeable and very good at holding back his amusement at my challenged attempts to climb delicately through rice paddy terraces as they snaked their way up the hills.....which we did for nearly two hours in mid day heat....argh...all well and good but when i saw the 800 steps or so that still had to be dealt with when I finally got to the end of the rice paddies I nearly gave the temple a miss!!!! Glad I didn't though as it was beautiful and peaceful and the whole experience was culturally such a buzz ....to be in a village setting and see the farming techniques etc. was a memorable experience.

We spent a day relaxing on a typically tropical beach, shopped in Marlioborough st. and in the big shopping malls, saw batiks being created, drank Luwak coffee, and in a beautiful night to remember saw the Pramadan Ballet performing  Ram and Sita's story from the Ramayana, under the stars and moon and framed by the Pramadan Temple....... exquisite.

By day we walked through the Pramadan temple itself and saw my daughter's University which was beyond my imaginings...its huge and daunting and a town unto itself! Hubby braved the back of her scooter and came back white faced! We swam together in our hotel pool and we tried to pack as much time into our limited time as was humanly possible!! So many good eats, so much stimulation, so many stories.....I will be back!!!!

Michael...heading to Carcassonne

I may be back in the great Ausland again but I  am determined to complete my French travel journey here....and laboriously transfer my journal to blog!

from Biarritz we headed just down the road to St Jean de Luz. We decided to take a little detour and head over the Spanish border to San Sebastian first. It is an amazingly beautiful bay but is too much of a big city for me!
Finally heading back to st Jean de Luz I was surprised to find our hotel easily!! Certainly it was a rather hair raising assent and Bev gets the passenger yellow jersey for directions under duress!! The the parking, a neat 30 point turn between 2 cars, a wall and the hotel! This was accompanied by the lady from the hotel giving Bev a shoulder massage to relieve stress and me inhaling sufficiently to get out of the car! What a view! A Beautiful bay stretching to the horizon and wrapping itself around the marina, all beneath the foothills of the Pyrenees. The hotel stands high on a hill overlooking all of this! Not a lot of English folk here and pretty much no english spoken but folk are still very helpful!!
On day two we walked and walked and walked along the coast to a sea wall and castle. Well worth the walk and on the way home we were entertained by tight rope walkers over a small bay...walking cliff to cliff.

We spent the morning before heading to Carcasonne doing a look-see drive of the coast stretching from Hossegor to the Spanish border. What an amazing set up of reef and beach breaks!! From the scenic Biarritz long board wave to the giant soft waves of Guethary. I'd live here in a heart beat, just have to learn French! When there is no surf there is inspiration on many levels everywhere. Also you get to hang with crazy basques!!
Driving to Carcasonne went well except for our now usual drive off the motorway, endangering of our lives and the creep back on to the motorway!! Carcasonne walled city is a marvel of history, but the modern city is disappointing. Grey and personality-less.
We were up at five am the next day for a hectic drive to Nice to catch the ferry to Corsica!

A salute to France and the Icing on the cake.....

From Bastia we caught an early morning ferry back to Nice and the inevitable though not well anticipated,  wanted end to our French adventure....the ferry was a lovely calm sail across the Mediterranean, of course the weather was typically gorgeous and we gained some colour languishing pool-side with cold drinks in hand! Arriving some 6 hours later in the harbour at Nice more beauteous coastline reared before us! Nice is without a doubt pretty, its pink cliffs lined with icing on the cake buildings of elaborate and ornate design present a larger than life picture. But just like icing Nice can seem too much, too sweet, too much trying to impress! Our Hotel was perhaps the grandest looking of our trip and whilst grateful for its easy access and multitudinous parking spaces  we certainly enjoyed the humbler more rustic abodes of our stay  a wee bit more! But we made the most of a day in Nice and walked the Promenade, took pictures of the glorious views and finally ate Gnocchi at a little Italian restaurant overlooking the sea.

Then, next day we made our slightly sobered way to the domestic airport for our flight back to Charles de Gaul Airport and the long haul home to Brisbane. We successfully returned our Trojan of a hire car and felt as if we had lost an important limb! Our plane was delayed, we sat in the stuffy domestic airport for too long and spirits sagged.....the domestic staff of Air France were brusque and matronly in their attitude and did nothing to appease this!  In fact of all the time spent in France and of all the folk we begged for help with direction needs and of all the lovely hand signal part English, part French conversations we enjoyed,  the Air France check in Lady was the only individual I did not feel at ease with! I am being kind, she was a bit of a b#@$ and was not impressed with the Etihad sticker still on my suitcase,the fact that we had not sorted our boarding passes via the too few available computers first or my peculiar brand of French!

At Charles de Gaul the plane was also delayed  so after much waiting around  we eventually began the trip home.....although France could so easily be home, sigh ...it was such a magical place for us overall and the people by and large were fantastic!! So many smiles go to the lady who drove in front of us to the Chalet at St Emilion, the waiter at la terrace on the Champs de Mars whose sense of humour made breakfast so much more, the guys at Hotel Splendid Tour de Eiffel and their warmth and patience with our small bit of French, the wonderful hosts at Ciboure and Algajola neither of whom spoke any English but all of whom we some how conversed with  happily, and whose big raucous laughter I can still feel in a warm place in my belly, the very very helpful and vegetarian accommodating staff at the Le Muton Blanc Mont st Michel whose directions made getting to Carnac the easiest leg of our road trip, the reception staff at Biarritz and their broad smiles and the  help with hiring a surf board and the lovely young guy who hired it to Mike every day and with whom we connected straight away,  the Lovely lady from Beziers we met at Rodin's Musee, the man at Carcasonne who gave us unexpected 5am brekky and directions,  the guys at the road stop who brought our Frites out because we were too stupid to wait for them... the taxi driver Lady who went so far out of her way to sort out the Hire car for us and help us carry our too much baggage...... and the list goes on and on  .....! I officially love France and the very different but sensory pulling Corsica!

And now normal life.........Yamba is a gem sparkling and surrounded by a delightful amount of water.....but oh the predictable....first job rearrange the furniture ha ha !!!