An all too brief stay in Turkey in September 2011. What an absolutely wonderful place. Caroline and I, and Tilly (her daughter) and her friend Oly stayed in Calis, near Fethiye in the Mugla province. The weather was amazing, the coast and countryside were fantastic, the 3000+ years of  history visible in ruins everywhere was truly awe inspiring, and the geographical features, such as the Saklikent Gorge, spectacular. 

However what made it such a beautiful place for us were the people. The Turkish people are the most friendly, most caring, most interested and interesting people I have ever had the joy of encountering.

So, I just want to say, ‘teşekkür ederim’. Thank you to the people of Turkey.  May you always be blessed, may you always share in my dharma.

x bhavatu sabbe mangalum x

Some of the time that I’ve been away has been well spent at ‘the plot’ – a piece of land allotted by Merton Council to Caroline some 15 months ago (while I was away in NZ for 3 months). The plot (20A) lies in amongst a lot of other plots of communal land, collectively known as the Phipps Bridge allotment. Very British, as you’ll know if you’ve happened to see  ’Another Year’. Well that’s Caroline and I – off to the plot at least once a week, easily spending up to four or five hours pottering away -  planting, weeding, landscaping, harvesting, weeding, building, tipping, trimming, weeding … an endless wonderfully meditative cycle.

I’ve loved it. I’ve loved watching it grow, become, change. I loved getting my hands dirty: eating fresh beans, potatoes, beetroot, onions, courgettes, strawberries, blackberries, blueberries and raspberries; building fences and clearing land. I never would have known that I would have loved this gardening lark so much.

Once again, my lady gardener has planted a seed within me, has nurtured and nourished it, and I have experienced the benefit, the blooming beauty and the wonder of being something other than that which I thought I could be. Thank you darling Caroline. Thank you for all the joy and the laughter, the times of toil and the times of rest, the sitting and sharing, the planning and the production, the planting and the reaping. I love you. I love us. I love who I am with you.

x bhavatu sabbe mangalum x

Some days are easier than others. Like today, today I don’t have cancer, I haven’t driven my car into a tree and I haven’t been shot in the head by a band of teenage girls. Today is an easy day.

Then there’s those other days, not just easy days but bloody great inspirational days, days when …

….. all the parts of the puzzle look like they fit . These days, those days, thank god there’s days like this.

On days like this life seems to have a capital ‘L’. In fact all of it is in CAPITALS. LIFE IS GREAT. We live for days like this. Wait, slow down …. read that again …. we LIVE for days like this – and on days like this we REALISE that. We know why we are alive, we know why we are here, we know the purpose and the meaning of life – or …

                                                          ….we don’t know it and we just don’t care, because simply being here is more than enough. Days like this. Ah yes, glorious, god given, beautiful and bedazzling, uplifting and enlivening days like this. I love em. In fact I don’t even need a whole day, just a moment – a moment like this. One of those is enough to spark me up for a while.

Like yesterday I found myself standing in the kitchen at the residential home for the mentally unwell where I just happened to be working yakking away to this Jamaican Brit about New Zealand and Brixton, sons and daughters, girlfriends and the importance of having a smile on your face. A moment like this, so full of energy, full of goodwill, full of connection, communion and synergy is for me what it’s all about.

Just thought I’d share that with you … and may yours days always be days like this. May you feel the wonder, joy and synergy of life in every moment. May you feel the swell of gratitude and the beat of belonging in your heart. May you always share in my dharma.

 x bhavatu sabbe mangalum x

I seems to have gone as quickly as it came, as quickly as it lasted.

Come, been, gone.  Come, be, go.  Kum, by, ya.  Oh lord, kumbaya

It has been about a week and I think I’m almost over it, although there remains a lingering after taste, one that will probably stay as long as I am seeking work as a EFL teacher.  Lots of applications out there, and I’m now starting to get responses and rejections back.  At least with the rejections that’s the end of it, the rest tell me that if I want to progress my application further then I need to fill out further applications.  Ye gods!  Only in the UK I tell you.  16 pages of information to fill in to maybe, maybe get appointed to a 2 week teaching gig!  What’s that about? Arghhhhh! They’re MAD about application forms, chocka full of inane questions: what kindergarten did you go to and what was the name of the kid who sat next to you on the mat ? Name three interests you have that involve balls and rings? Arghhhhhh!!! Lord, give me strength!

Anyway time to stop resisting, knuckle down and do it, although I must admit I feel, every now and again, the chill of a familiar wind on the nape of my neck.  Knowing that I have turned down teaching work here in NZ  to once again put myself at the mercy of  potential UK employers …  causes those not so fine hairs on the back of my neck to stand up and take notice.

Anywho, that will be as it is – regardless of what the future holds, the recent past was an intense experience, filled with some hugely magical, inspiring and enlivening moments. What made it so, were the people.

‘He aha te mea nui o te ao?
He tangata, he tangata, he tangata’

‘What is the most important thing in the world?
It is people, it is people , it is people.’

So thanks to my fellow CELTA students:

Sophie, for you fantastic laughter, your lust for life

Karen, for your quiet strength and yet unfathomed depth

Lewis, for your gentleness and dryness, for being British

Merv, for your determination and resilence

Linda, for your self belief, honesty and quiet calmness

And thank you all the teachers and the students – one and the same – without you none of this would have been possible, so thanks Kaye and Jeanette, thanks Natsuki, Masumi, In Sung, Nassem, Rachel, Kristen, Naere, Joo Jung, Oat, Jin Ah, Soo, and all the rest of you. You are ALL wonderful. Thank you one and all. May you all be blessed, may you all be happy, may you all always share in my dharma. 

x bhavatu sabbe mangalum x

Last day. Tomorrow is a traveling day. I’ve booked my ticket back on the Intercity coach leaving Wellsford at 4 and arriving SkyCity at 5.30. An hour and a half trip, that doesn’t seem so long any more, I’ve made much longer trips on buses and trains just getting across London. Maybe I’ll celebrate my return to the city with a little flutter at the casino?

Another glorious day here, the rain has passed and the earth looks just a little bit greener because of it. I did as much as I could on my CELTA work this morning and put it away. It has come to 20 pages so far so I am glad I came here to do it, I can’t imagine getting it done so comprehensively and so quickly if I had not had this quiet and distraction-free environment. Thanks again Jim. Mate, you make my heart sore/soar, you really are an inspiration to me.

Today is a day of thanksgiving. To stand and appreciate all that is here. The sun that has shined so often and the shadows and dappled light it has cast. The grass underneath my feet, places where I have sat or lain upon it and rested. This wonderful dwelling that is Jim’s gift to me, one I will never forget, and one that is so much Jim. It is a comfortable place my friend, full of dharma and love. A place that welcomes contemplation and creativity. It is a home, a sanctuary, a refuge and a retreat. It is shelter from the storm.

I have cleaned and swept, wiped and vacuumed. It didn’t take long, its not a big place after all. It has been a quiet day, contemplative in a relaxed and easy way. I have simply meandered through the day, tiding here and there, getting a little bit more ready to leave.

It has been a most wonderful retreat. More meaningful I feel than I am currently aware of. I know I am leaving something here, something I feel I no longer need to carry with me. A little bit of the future perhaps or maybe just some restlessness that no longer serves. Leaving it here for others who visit to pick up and play with. It would be nice to come back with Caroline and share this retreat and spend more time in the sand. I would like that, exploring Sand Island with Cari.

There is little left for me to do now. Pack and leave. I am all but ready.

day six ….

x bhavatu sabbe mangalum x