Shiva's and Metta's Mother's Sutra

Today was beach day - we went to the beach and created this sandcastle extravaganza. We had clifftop dwellings, a real village which had been visited with a church, we had a house with a swimming pool, we had crabs and scalop shells... the beach is full of wonders. And then we went back to the base and had, after cooking pizza, an Easter egg hunt... it was sunny and warm and dry.  I could write reams about the importance of outdoor play, but being in the real is one of the most vital things about engaging in deep play. I have met children who are addicted to games and they are like heroin addicts looking for their next fix, I have seen children crumble at the slightest hurdle - they have no resilience. Play enables a child to be in the real, inhabit their bodies and then to develop a good relationship with failure.  After that I came back and myself and Ghin went to the club... and had dinner at Little Wing after......

The past four days have been a blur... Tuesday was planning and Wednesday, Thursday and Friday was execution. These things are exhausting beyond measure. It was this morning when I began this and now it is 3 pm. I did have a 3 hour break in between where I made a pan of popcorn. But the work I now do is just so fulfilling it is... well... people give money, I give my time and I give it very consciously so that I can lead a good life. I rarely give to charity because I am against it on principal - the last thing I gave money for was for Palestine. On this day, we went to the waterfall and after that we came back and played around and had bannock. The kids just wanted to be with each other the break so we didn't do an awful lot by way of craft although I did work with children who wanted to do whittling.  It did rain at the start, but that was the only rain we had for those three days, which if you ...

No drinking since the 25th of December, running everyday since the holidays began, stretching. No dieting. AT ALL. I have lost another dress size. Another whole section of my wardrobe is becoming accessible to be again... Truth is I will never have to buy another scrap of clothing again. Oh yes, I have also begun playing the piano everyday. And now I can play it at ANYTIME - because I am the only person in the house now. It used to be something in deeply cherished in the past when the boys were tiny, that I just WISHED I had some ME time. And I have survived the madness and I have all the ME time possible. Yesterday someone wanted to come and visit and I said, er no. No. this is my place and my space and I am NOT having someone else in here without good reason. Especially someone I don't really know. But this is me now.  Will I ever drink again? I don't know. I genuinely don't. The feeling which I used to enjoy when I drank I don't want to have anymore. I...

My third birthday I think My dad in his 20s Ma and Pa in the 30s/ 40s The launch of the InfoMap... an age ago Yesterday was a good day. I rearranged the backroom, I cleaned the hallway and the table there, I began cleaning the garage and took things which would have been in the house in there and I have decided how to garage will be rearranged - today. I have decided how it will go.  Half of the garage is Forest School, the other third is stuff from the old house and memento things. I have a few items of furniture I could not part with - an old dressing table and a men's shirts cupboard. I know where I'm going to locate these as well. So all that's going to be done this morning. Then I went for my run and I was super strong after complaining about it yesterday. I was able to run the 5 km in just over 40 mins which is about 5 minutes off the usual timing. I wasn't able to stretch and I missed that. Ghin and I ha...

It is hard to stay focused when Gaza still takes place. Even now I am in tears as I write. Almost 45,000 people are dead with nearly a third of that children. The Western media is despicable and quite quite stupid. Like actually stupid OR very evil. I think possibly both. Quite often people who appear evil are just stupid because they cannot string two bits of information available and look to figures of authority to tell them what's correct. It is a kind of very poor glamour which these assholes use. And these people aren't intelligent either. What they are is greedy and bloodthirsty. The entire war in Gaza is being driven by people who want to make money and people who get a kick out of killing and torturing people. I have come to the conclusion that there are people who actually do that naturally. Laws were made for these people because they just have this thing inside them. You can't really educate it out of them. So you have to create laws. Still though I...

Earth Elemental Fire elemental Water elemental Air elemental Earth elemental Fire elemental Air elemental Water elemental AI is really amazing. I mean it is fantastic. I don't understand people who say I hate AI and then they use the Internet. The Internet is exactly the same as AI. Now the writing for AI is dismal. It really is awful. Text to word speech dreadful. But the art - that is something else. It is basic - true, but also it is pretty damn good. I am happy with it. Does not mean I won't be drawing or doing art myself or loving the therapeutic benefits of art - which is the entire point, but for results, it is hard to beat AI for a finished product. And it isn't a competition between AI and us. AI will never be us. Never. And I am so certain of my own humanity that I don't even worry about AI. Also if you develop your own ability to think, you will never h...

Yesterday... more Forest School. And I went for my run. I hoovered the house and tidied everything away. Gentle and floaty and chilled. I am glad I went nowhere and did nothing. I am so delighted. I managed to run 5 km - but had to slow down for a short while. At the end I did speed up. But I did 5 km and felt great. After that I stretched. It feels like I am back. I also played around with AI... which is in the next post... But yes, I finally got round to doing piano again and I have decided I will do the Hanon studies which I love so much. The repetitiveness is very relaxing. I think i'm there with piano now. Just had a lovely conversation with Oisin.