I have been waiting as many of us are now for the guidelines to change so we can get back to normal. Or at very least start to focus on some other important issues that are being pushed to the side.

“When the finely tuned balance among the different parts of bodies breaks down, the individual creature can die. A cancerous tumor, for example, is born when one batch of cells no longer cooperates with others. By dividing endlessly, or by failing to die properly, these cells can destroy the necessary balance that makes a living individual person. Cancers break the rules that allow cells to cooperate with one another. Like bullies who break cooperative societies, cancers behave in their own best interest until they kill their larger community, the human body.”
― Neil Shubin, Your Inner Fish: A Journey Into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body

It is a show of how much life has changed that even something as simple as a kids birthday has three pages of guidelines about it. Let alone going on a retreat, which has become a “no go” under current government guidance.

I am not against it, I am just controlled by it. I have no way to start again until they change it and I cannot do anything about. In a very strange way it is the ultimate in mindfulness, it forces me to just be. To sit with what is, not what I wish for or want, just what is. I can thrash around like a fish caught in a net trying this thing and that, but nothing can get around the fundamental facts. I have no way to make residential retreat business work under current Government rules.

It is a strange and lovely thing to have been able to do what I love for so long. I never thought I was taking it for granted, but this has made me realise that I did. I so long for the time when I can offer my retreaters the chance to forget all this and heal together while getting excited about tomorrow and our part in it again.

However, one thing I am is a determined fish, ready to evolve, and to run retreats that are possible within the current guidelines. The planning phase is over, and I’ll soon be releasing details of my new events.

Watch this space…

Life Is Movement

Life flows when you move; it is movement that connects intent and action. The sedentary life is one in which the two become split, disconnected. When you sit for long periods doing mental work, you develop the habit of following a train of thought without expressing what is in your mind through action. This is useful to an extent—it allows for reflection and discrimination before you take action. But it has its drawbacks. Physical immobility risks breaking the link of spontaneity that makes the shift from thought to action a natural, flowing one. Then it becomes difficult to engage joyfully in the process of moving toward your goals and fulfilling your ambitions.” ^{Rudolph Ballentine}

Much love and hugs to all.

Nova