Manjula used to catch me napping.
Now Jony’s done it.
Or am I meditating?
Life is such a challenge.
Perfecting Sleep
Grief and grieving
I have to say something about this….. but I’m not ready to yet, beyond the following…
… I’ve just had helpful discussions with my sons. It’s critical to be heard.
Other friends have fedback that they’ve recently seen a real difference in me.
“Grief is not one thing, and it is not linear. It looks and feels different for everyone, and it can hit you at any point – even months or years after the fact.” From this article in the Guardian Newspaper.
In my view it keeps coming in waves.
The Guardian feature writer Emine Saner reports on the acceptance of grief as a medical condition
I don’t recognise this, but as I say — it’s different for everyone.
There is the risk of ‘pathologising” ie to ‘label’ things unhelpfully and somehow blame the individual.
But back to the first point, I believe grief after we lose someone is always with us, as I’ve said before it’s a new life-long-friend that we have to learn to live with for the rest of our lives.
We don’t get over it, yes it changes particularly through the process of grieving but it remains with us.
I say again .. we don’t ‘get over it’ and such statements can be at the very least unhelpful.
I understand however that there are some situations when the raw roughness of grief can be absolutely debilitating. At times it has been for me.
I have however valued the opportunity to share my feelings online and directly with friends. To celebrate Manjula and shout about her from the virtual treetops. That helped.
To reiterate … the bottom line is that this situation is unique for everyone and we all deal with it differently.
and … It never goes away.
More later.
WOMAD.
The world music festival in south England
There’s a group of us that meets and camps together each year. Sharing cooking and news of our lives, supporting each other.
WOMAD 2023
We’ve lost two from our group that’s MAnjula and Peter but they’re still in all our hearts.
‘Til later…
Wales
South West Wales, a wonderful location, where we spent our annual camping holiday for many year.
Ramsey from Whitesands
Gale force wind and rain then sunny Unpredictable British weather. Normal camping and holidays in the U.K.
Parks, people and other things in London
Another update for friends in India, showing similarities and differences, same and different.
Back home in Mysore
What’sapp between Ani and I
Sowbaghya is in charge, looking after the house and menagerie while I’m away.
So here, from a few years ago, are the two beauties together
Meet Emma and her beautiful home
Emma is a very very good friend, we met when working for Business in the Community.
Emma and I explored Kerala together after she visited Mysore
On first impressions you might think she’s very posh. Quickly you’ll realise as I did that she is one of the most down-to-earth, warm hearted and compassionate, caring people you can meet.
Teenage work
Reading an article and it’s photographs are flashing me back to work in the 1970s while still at school and later, the gap year before attending university.
I worked in a different location to the one featured in the article but similar situations in the steel city of Sheffield.
One crazy job, from age 17, was when the electric arc furnaces — creating steel — were switched off for the weekend. We’d climb on top of cranes that tipped scrap into the furnace then carried molten steel to be poured into giant moulds.
We’d clip our safety harness on to the structure, then walk along narrow gantries to brush the dust that had accumulated during the week, shovel it into bags to be carried down.
Here’s a photo of a similar crane in the Turbine Hall of the Tate Art gallery in London, formerly a power station.
It was still really hot, even though the furnace was shut-down and always dusty. By the end of the shift, the dust had worked it’s way through two layers of protective clothing and ingrained into our skin. With sooty faces and light patches (Hanuman style) around our mouth and nose showing the masks did have some protective effect.
Footnote.
It provided insights into how others live that I value to this day. Men and women often working twelve hours, sometimes seven days a week.
It was my first opportunity to supervise a small team.
Next stop Bristol
Sally in Bristol.
Sally first visited us at Mysore Bed and Breakfast, years ago. She now leads textile tours of India.
Exploring the city, finding magic, public arts and engineering innovations.
Meeting Ruth
Ruth visited us at Mysore Bed and Breakfast over the years.
I’m visiting her again in Bath in England. Ruth is a poet and the last time she came to Mysore to collect material for her latest book
Last night I attended a reading of her poetry.
Me and MYCycle 