May Day

Wednesday

I was lucky enough to get a ZOOM yoga class with Rajiv Chanchani this morning,  over 5000 miles and a dodgy pipe.  I can’t begin to explain the quality of Rajiv’s understanding and teaching which goes way beyond a ‘what goes where’ approach.  So I will just tell you that in his chat following the class, he said that we all put on a mask: someone asks us how we are, we say ‘fine’, but what is actually going on is a seething mass of emotions, motivations, hopes, wishes, sensations.  It is actually a battlefield.  Anyone who has even a passing interest in techniques like IFS (internal Family Systems) will know exactly what he means.  Probably you all do. 

Of course this time is a bit of an emotional rollercoaster.  It is sobering to hear the numbers of dead coming in from the UK.  So far no one we know personally has died, but there are ‘once removed’ people, musicians, scientists, doctors whose names really bring it home.  Of course it feels a little unreal to us, insulated as we are. 

What it has done is instil a sense of our own mortality, and of a limited time left on this planet.



Thursday

There are some juicy things out there on the Internet.  I just found this film on Royal Academy - looks like a real delight and makes me pine for my iMac 27 inch screen or a retina MacBook screen.  We will limp through with the old MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2010), practically an antique but it’s alive and well, with a few thousand miles and several mishaps under its little MacBelt. 


There’s a somewhat celebratory mood around at the moment.  The weather is continually changeable this Spring, but to quote Joni ‘ the wind is in from Africa’ bringing heat and dust with it.  (Sorry I'm sure some of you are fed up of Joni appearing on album challenges.)

1 May
Hooray, hooray the first of May...

Well in Crete there is a tradition of picking wild flowers and making garlands or wreaths  (στφανια) so I went out this morning with two neighbours, Despoina and Shehina. We collected armfuls. 

The pics don't really do the flowers justice, Normally I wouldn't pick wildflowers but the first of may is an exception.  Making the wreath was really absorbing, listened to a couple of podcasts and snipped and wove away.  

Currently listening to podcasts:
Rabbit Hole
New Statesman

Coming soon: Monday - Lockdown loosens!