Shiva's and Metta's Mother's Sutra

Krisna and Arjuna - the call to live So my life is an experiment right? I mean all our lives are. What is the point of living a life which someone else has set out for you? Their idea of how your life should be. It is pointless. It is YOUR life, not THEIR life. But being experimental means taking risks and also being open to the results that come in. Sometimes i am not very good at either. No matter. However, at this time of the year, i am always filled with the old time religion. This is because i have just come back from Singapore, almost lost my mind in the melee, and therefore have managed to take some stock and go - well this is what i should do. Yesterday we had home made blackcurrant juice from blackcurrants in our garden, and we also potatoes i had harvested. The herbs all came from the garden - which i had hacked back and is now some way to becoming a sensible place again. And i have been busily working to tidy up in the house to create head space, because i can't ...

Some of the flowers i planted and rescued yesterday  Hindu Gods i got for Class Five One the most difficult things to get your head around in the Waldorf curriculum is the Human and Animal Main Lesson. I think it is because there is very little research done on it. Steiner said that Human Beings came from animals. Yes, of course everyone says - BUT not like you think. I told you that Waldorf training was like being on QI. So evolution is like this - the human spirit was around since the dawn of time. In order to become human as it were, it had to create its own body. In the process it created lots of different animals - beginning with fish, lizards and birds and finally mammals. I know this is what traditional evolution says as well. Well sort of. But the point is that all this while, we were moving towards the creation of a body which was right for our purpose on Earth and finally when we got to where we are we stopped. This was because other forms of life were too sp...

My go to image in my mind palace when the darkest days of winter come round.... Today i put the plans into action. More specifically my schedule which says i get up at 5 am and then write for two hours, play the piano at 7, get ready for school at 8. It is the showing up and writing that is the important thing. Then after that i head for school. At 3.30 pm i run, i clean the house at 5 and then cook dinner at 6. Then this evening i have an open slot cos it is Friday. I will chat about logistics to Peter. I have also dropped meat to twice a week - hopefully one by the end of the year - so i discovering lots of great vege recipes and then wine only at Christmas and Easter - and birthdays. Hopefully i am invited to lots of birthday parties! The other thing is sugar, Just one with my coffee. And no sugar otherwise - unless it is fruit. No dairy. Which is easy because i did not do dairy in Singapore. It is funny how something which you thought you really couldn't do without sudden...

It was back to school today and slowly working up to the opening of school itself. I can't believe it is less than two days since i've got back and already it feels like i have never left. It's been great getting into the swing of things again. I can't wait to start doing my blackboard drawings, telling stories, cooking, gardening ... and doing the new curriculum - well new to me.  I also cannot believe that this is the halfway point for me. I am now Class Four - and i have three years behind me. It was nice you know, in Singapore, i was asked if i would stay behind and be a Waldorf teacher. We need teachers here they told me. So, i think, if ever i needed to move back there would be a job waiting for me. I think it would be hard getting it up and running, but nevertheless... well... it is an exciting new frontier if i did go back when i complete my run here - that is if i would ever want to go back. There is TONNES to be done. I need to get the festivals a...

Oisin bought this for me on the plane. I saw this, and because i had no more watch and teachers need watches, i said, i will get this. My purse was in the overhead lockers, so Oisin said, hey mom i will pay for it first. Later when i tried to pay him back, he said, hey no worries. I got it. This is a present for you for the wonderful time we had in Singapore. My son. Sometimes i think, i did alright raising him. So far, so good. There is little doubt that i am an introvert/intravert. I desperately need alone time and i prefer having conversations with a few people, rather than a whole lot. As i grow older, i feel less and less of the need to pretend i enjoy that kind of busy buzz. I can do it, I mean when i was in my 20s and 30s if anyone said that i was the shy retiring sort, they would have been laughed out of the room, but really, the quiet life is the life for me. It is as if i tried it out and went - nah, i kinda like the person i really was. The book reading nerd who ra...

No cattle pens on Friday One of my biggest regrets was not going to Sentosa more often when i was in Singapore. And to be honest, i did visit it more often than most. But not nearly as often as i should have because now it is a complete mess. Well, except that those who think that turning a profit is not a mess. If someone has to design a place to drive me out of my mind, it would be the Sentosa of today. It is relentless - the noise, the people, the need for people to think they are to be entertained from point A to point Z. There is nowhere in Sentosa now, which is not the exclusive million dollar zone, where you can find silence.   Universal Studios You have to wonder why people go to places like Universal Studios. To have merchandise completely shoved in your face at all times. My sons are of course children, or borderline children, so of course they think it is great fun. But what about the hordes of Korean women in their 20s and 30s? What is their excuse? They wo...

There are a few final frontiers left really in pushing torwards a sustainable just world. People are instinctively gravitating towards it and those who have benefited from it are putting up a terrible fight. To have a just Earth, we need to get rid of the things which create the imbalances. Income inequality is one of them - the root of this is money. People think I have no money = I am poor = I have nothing. The other side of this equation is Money is everything = We will do everything we can for money. But the world is slowly discovering that there is a world beyond money - and it seems to me that the people who have the money are going through this weird meltdown which consists of punishing people who don't have the money by making them not have money and expecting things to work out well. In the meantime, they themselves have lost lots of money in the process and governments, for some unknown reason, perhaps they are being hypnotised, instead of saying, you said this dere...

Walking from Funan Centre to Botanic Gardens is an unimaginably long walk in Singapore even though it is probably less than three km. OK, five km. Whatever. It took me less than two hours. But i did this because i was DYING for a long walk. However, walking is a fantastic way to get lost, especially in the River Valley region of Singapore which has changed beyond all recognition. So here was a walk down memory lane... The Substation The Substation was one of my most favourite places, no question. But it seems to be a shadow of its former self. That's the thing about old places - they have become old places. And it was so sad to see the Substation with no cafe... and so closed up. Hopefully it actually is still a place where great performances and wonderful questions are still raised. There was an exhibition called Limpeh in it. About LKY. I thought it was a bit boring. Outside the Substation - a performance involving lots of speakers was about to take place. ...