Shiva's and Metta's Mother's Sutra

Oisin in Avoca - my son, the born clown. Daddy and Ghin take five minutes out of post-Christmas shopping. Victoria Square, the new mecca to consummerism. We've been there twice in the last two days for the sales. Mairead Maguire from the Peace People was at a Gaza Solidarity demo outside the City Hall. We ditched Marksys for the demo instead. She first met Oisin when he was Ghin's age and we've kept in touch through the years. When Oisin was five, he had a phone call conference with Vanunu, the man who exposed the Israeli weapons programme. It was really interesting the reaction we got from people in Belfast. There were a fair few hecklers because the Palestinian/Israeli conflict has been written over by the local one. The Nationalist/Republicans see the Unionists as settlers like the Zionists and the latter see the formers as terrorists. So we got a few older men shouting at us, what about the IRA then???!!!! I see their point though. However, i had never been heckled befo...

I did try writing yesterday. I also did try taking photos yesterday. The writing was interrupted by Ghin, the photos were left in the car and it was cold last night so i didn't get them. We spent yesterday shopping. At Victoria Square, then Royal Avenue. We went to Avoca, M&S, Okadi and Pumpkin Patch. The astute and observant will notice that they are all children shops and that's what we did; we shopped for the kids. Till now Ghin has lived on hand me downs and charity shop coutre. Oisin has gotten by with the occassional bought item from Primark. I thought, it's the sales. Surely we can be arsed to get out and so something about it. So we galvanised our arses and went out. Town was a riot of riots. However no one was throwing stones or running from CS Gas. Instead there were queues - queues to get into the 10,000 car strong Victoria centre parking basement (i exaggerate). A 50 metre queue to get into this place that sells teddy bears and their apparrel (i do not exagg...

They say that showing up everyday at the site of one's creativity is good enough. It's been only two days since i made a vow to keep this page updated. For those who do tune into it it it's going to be a bit more than just about the family and kids and the sutras learnt along the way. It will become more rambling now, and i make apologies. I will also have weirder photos, although you could say that they are weird enough. As you can see from the banner above, it's sort of moved up a gear. I'm also experimenting with gadgets and stuff on the site. So it will change every now and then. I might start putting newsfeeds on it. I think it might become my very own homepage. Last night, i was about to go to sleep, when i suddenly thought of a friend - i can't remember which one, sorry! - and then i thought of Lee Kuan Yew - honestly, i can't remember which friend it was. I say that because Lee Kuan Yew is not an immediate association which i make with my friends, al...

I am 38 years old now. I turned 38 about a week ago, exactly a week ago actually. We celebrated with a solstice party and i had a wonderful group of women around. I forget that the house is larger now and i can take moe women, so i will have more women the next time. This time of the year is always about excess, so when i said bring a dish, i should have remembered i was inviting women, not men who would show up with six tins of larger a one tube of pringles. We had parsnip and apple soup, chocolate cake, a massive and wonderful apple crumble, with apples grown in the chef's own garden, quinoa and belugar salad, box of Green and Blacks, a cheese platter, smoked salmon and wheaten bread - added to this my own beef and guiness stew, christmas cake and i restrained myself and did not make a starter, and good thing i didn't too. I did however make mulled cider. And there was some whiskey for those who wanted it alcoholic. We read poems and stories and attempted to light a wet log f...

Here are some more recent pictures of the boys. I'm painfully aware that i haven't been posting regularly at all to this page and that every now and then Ma makes the effort to look at it. So here are some of the boys. They have grown up so much. Ghin is quiet and serious - and Oisin is full of mischief and does not know when to stop. Chalk and cheese. Decorations this year - instead of the dead branches, i used greenery from the school. This was mostly because we didn't have time to either look for branches OR do the wreaths that the greenery was meant for. So on soltice day i said to Oisin, we'll just hang the branches from the wall and decorate them with the old decorations. It worked! And i think we'll replace it with branches over Easter and hang eggs from it then. The old decorations from last year. We made our own mativity scene to hang from the trees. Can you spot Joseph and one of the wisemen? Oisin has been put in charge of the hearth and we decorated the ...

Is it so terrible to want to be everything to your children when you ARE everything to them? I collected Ghin and Oisin from their various childcare places today and both of them were so sad. Ghin lept into my arms as if we were reunited at the gates of Auschwitz after a long and terrible ordeal and Oisin teared as he told me he had fallen down, with the same look on his face as a street urchin who had been surprised in the shadows. The three of us hugged each other on the poofy at Lara's house and cried as Lara said, stop it now, i can't take all of you crying all together. I knew that the world of work was a million miles from the world which i inhabited recently, but i had no idea it was in an entirely different universe which wasn't even parallel. I sat down for a marathon 4 hour meeting with the line manager and was directed to several places to do several things. One of these things was to read a several tomed document called "People on Reserves". It is prec...

It's midnight and my time as a full-time mom has been called. From today i start work again with the RSPB. While full-time working mom is something i have done before, i must say i am completely terrified. Simply because i have so enjoyed my life as full-time mom and i'm not quite sure how the transition is going to go. Over the past two years, since the start of this blog really, i have discovered and learnt so much. Here are some of the wonderful lessons that these past two years have brought me. I honour them and all the women, children and friends who have walked with me along the way. 1. I am no longer afraid of children. This may strike some as odd, but before i was full-time mom, i just didn't know how to relate to kids. Having spent these two years so immersed in them, they have taught me how wonderful it is to be a child. They have been so patient with me, allowing me to share their space, and at the school, the children have been especially generous allowing me to...