Arrietty, the Borrower

Wagamama-ing, again...

Sunshine finally after three days of rain and coldness. Yesterday we just hung out Oisin and myself. It was lovely, i trested him to Wagamama and he was so grown up. I got myself a leather jacker from Oxfam and he told me i looked awful in it. Well not awful, just that it didn't suit me cos i wore bright things and the jacket made me look washed out. It's a compliment really if you think about it mom. I pouted.

He is so sweet. He loves sweet things too. He had a coconut dessert in Wagamama and THEN he had Maud's icecream. We got him some new pens and pencils. This is now yours Oisin i said to him. For your manga. Then he said maybe we could buy stuff every Saturday for the manga mom. Which i had to say yes to. I dont know if Oisin would have ever taken to drawing if he was in a mainstream school, but because they draw all day in Steiner, he has had no choice and he has become a really good artist. Yesterday he drew a birdman which he then titled, Gof of the Elements, with the bird head being air, the body animal or earth, the pincer water and the fire power he has Fire, of course. And then he had an element of Darkness as well.

The other day i heard him explaining to Ghin that everything had a spirit about it. Even forks and stones. They have spirits Ghin, so you have to be respectful to them. Now this is something which i would have grown up with - plants, knives, etc all these have spirits and therefore the world is inhabited by things which you need to look after and take into consideration. This is probably the root cause of my inability to go completely aetheist, or be very unhappy being atheist, however... i  was recently having a conversation about atheism with a friend on a beach and he was saying how much an atheist he was, and i said in a way it is a belief. He said that someone said to him that if it could be proved that there was a god would he stop being atheist, and he said yes. In which case you aren't really an atheist. You're agnostic.

Well you can hardly be an atheist in the face of evidence, he shrugged. I have no evidence of course, just a feeling in the gut, not that there is a god, but that we are not alone.

But then i was reviewing my notes for the class and Goethe says (yes we study some Goethe for the course):

"A man who has science and art has religion; a man who has neither had better have religion"

Poor old Goethe would be turning in his grave if he saw the human being's capacity to abuse the whole idea of religion. Form something sacred and infusing the world with a numinosity, to become the carapace which sheilds the rotten core of corruption and violence, and hatred, which we have come to perpetrate on each other.

We watched Arrietty, The Borrower, yesterday which was soo lovely. I cried at the end of it and Oisin and Ghin loved it too. A simple beautifully done tale... we all marvelled at the drawing and art, and laughed at the characterisations. I have to say that Studio Ghibli does a fab job all the time. Miyazawi has this wonderful ability to do enough. There is never a false note in what he does. Which is what we were all studying last week. That must be the essence of art - knowing when is enough. And that must be how we should live. Knowing when is enough.

I have endeavoured to eat our waty through the cupboards. Not buying stuff. The fridge is mostly empty which is great. I hate it when the fridge is stuffed to being unable to close. I went to St George's yesterday and got a few things here and there. I refilled the bottles of washing up liquid - all ten bottles. Got some refilled olive oil and then a pound of ground beef from Alan's, some eggs, and then some wonderful whiting fillets which i later made some great tempura with.

Oh yes Oisin told me, when i presented him with the tempura. I don't like fish. Ghin was of course all over the fish as soon as it came out going - you have to eat this Oisin it's really lovely. Eat it Oisin, i said, fish makes you smart. He then began munching on it and then declared that for fish it was quite nice, in fact it was quite nice. In fact it was delicious.

My son. Then i made some elderflower cordial - put too much citric acid so i'm gonna have to get more sugar. I need to get some butter, milk and snacks for school anyway - oh and flour to bake bread.

So, that's life yesterday. We went to bed after Ghin managed to whip Oisin's face with Peter's jumper during a bout of Naruto-ing.

I have to say that it has been a quiet peaceful week. Able to think and get my head in order. Not going to London was alright. It was a right - though painful at that time decision. It is strange how the paths we take, the decisions we make, the voices of angels we listen to - how they come and speak to us and how we can choose to listen and then say yes or no...

Finally, my Cath Kidston sewing kit arrived and i showed it to Oisin who expressed genuine deight at it as well. Oh let me see it, he said and admired it. It's really cool mom. Oisin can sew - they sew from the age of seven and then knit as well. In addition to other basic skills like make bread, woodwork, carve, sculpt, garden, etc... I think, these are important things. They are. And then these are the foundations which everything else is built on.