Out of India

The man left India but India has not left the man. It remains with him in a way that one can't really know I guess until one has been there, but the video footage K has taken gives a little taste. Needless to say we are looking forward to visiting the mountain all together one day.


VERY nice to have him home. My lovely man. Beau is radiant.

Knitting more scarves and starting on a pair of socks. Will post link to sock pattern next post.
Haven't started the doll. Quite an art it seems and I think I need some guidance!

Up the Mountain

Beau in bed early, house is kind of tidy, my head is full of snot, Laura Viers CD playing, bed beckons. The days are moving fast, punctuated by meals and visits and shopping and sleep time routine. In between there are songs and drawing and cubbies and dress ups and cake baking and baths and park visits and many many cuddles. He misses his Dad very much as do I but we are having a great time. The other night we went out to dinner the two of us, something we haven't done before.

K is st his mountain feeling very fortunate and happy to be where Ramana spent most of his life. He has met a couple of other like minded Westerners with whom he can share his experience and also receive advice as to where to stay and what's happening around the town. Tonight a friend was taking him to see Om Amma, a woman who spends a great deal of time in Shamanic Trance and gives individual healings. I'm hoping he will take some photos that I can post. Whenever we speak on the phone I can hear peacocks yelping and not much else. It must be one of the few quiet places in India, especially at this time of year.

Rhythm

Beau, Flash and I finding our rhythm together, walking, gardening, visiting friends, planning a little journey of our own, chatting with K via Skype a little each day....




K in Pondicherry now and can finally sleep. Has had ear pain from flight and drugs to alleviate have kept him awake for 72 hours. Now your adventure can truly begin my lovely!

Back to the Beach and a farewell for now

I was very fortunate to spend some of Thursday afternoon in this very cosy construction......

.....wherein role play (i'm the mama, YOU'RE the baby now. go to sleep) earned me a 15 minute power nap. Bliss.

Our Friday afternoon; from this......






......to this, in the blink of an eye. This went down very well with fish and chips and a beer followed by a good run down a small hill.

And today, Saturday, a family day at St Andrews followed by a very un-elaborate but somehow intimate and appropriate farewell to K, who is now on a plane to Chennai via Perth. And my love you will be reading this soon enough, this blog-come-letter. Handy thing. What did we do before the internet? We waited patiently for post cards and handwritten letters and at least week old photographs. It's strange to think that 17 years ago when I left for Europe, there was no email. And now we can talk face to face from a mountain in India. Love it.

skeleton woman begs for audience

What an autumn this is. Shedding more than leaves around here. Autumn has got me all topsy turvy. My head has been full to overflowing. Let go let go let go is my mantra. I hold my drawing pen and hover over white paper. We talk about where to go after winter. Freedom brings fears. Let go let go let go. She's in the cave putting new flesh on rattling rattling telling me to stay with it and watch and wait. Don't bolt. There's a winter yet and then a spring. Life is living us all whatever move we make.
This is the bit I always forget. Whenever I have big decisions to make (at least they always seem big) I feel like I have to do everything I can to bring a good outcome. And along the way there are many people to please and many factors to consider. Exhausting. Something good happened at Amma's feet. A pause long enough to show us what it might be like to just be.

So I'm feeling very emotional and open. Beau and I have spent many days at home talking, making things, dancing and singing, walking in between rain showers. We all spent last weekend driving around the country looking at property which was great research but rather exhausting. It was a little charged for me with the feeling that we have to buy a house now. I've been holding a vision of a family home, a place where we put down roots, unpack completely, and where our kids love to come back to years from now. Lurking beneath that has been the feeling that it's wrong to wish for it, a kind of spiritual guilt that I adopted somewhere along the way to fit in with my conditioning! So I'm again reminded that true freedom is of the mind and that it doesn't matter to pure awareness what we do or where we go. The most important thing is to BE present and aware and then whatever we do is the right thing.

K is planning a trip to India to sit at Arunachala where Ramana Maharshi spent most of his life. Perhaps we will all visit there together some time. K has never been out of the country and given that we are hoping to have another baby, this may be his last chance for a while. More importantly it's something he needs to do, he is compelled, which is a beautiful thing.

I've started a short course Writing and Illustrating a Children's story book. Something I've wanted to do for a long time.

Beau is watching Charlotte's Web, gorgeous story, and shaking off the last bit of a temperature from the weekend. Another slow day at home for us. Yay.

Flash aahahh

In a tiny house there's not much space to swing a small terrier (see below) however when the beloved son says 'mama let's do some painting just right now' anything can be moved and squeezed in to satisfy such a glorious invitation. I know it's not just artist parents that get all misty eyed and proud when their kids take interest in such pursuits. One tries not to push it. Just leave a few things lying here and there. Take up a crayon now and then, draw something so cool they have to watch....
So finally a little spot for Beau to cut (today it was his hair...) and glue and paint and draw etc.



One scarf almost ready for wear. And new needles, and yummy wool begging to be turned into booties. I never thought wool would make such a sexy subject matter. I'm sure I'm not the only freak who thinks so.

Have you met Flash? Dear Flash my 'first born' turns 11 this year. He is almost as sprightly as the day I saved him from life in a dark garage at the Arts Market in WA. I'd been down south to find me a red cloud kelpie the week before that with no luck and then come home this day, my house mate and I with two yapping, traumatised terriers, and never looked back. Flash has traveled the land with me, boats, vans, cars, trains and aeroplane. Dorothy and Toto only slightly more feral we have been. Flash has almost had me beaten up, has won us friends and has had more freedom than any being I know. And to my heart's delight both Step Father and two legged son love him as much as I. Happy birthday my precious furry friend.