Each Person's Voice Can Be Heard...
Last night was Friday night party night again; I found myself looking forward to it in yoga… ‘That wasn’t very “in the moment” Anadi laughed...‘ I know – I think it’s because I had some mythical idea that after Rodja’s session I was going to yoga to lie down and recover; and it was quite hard work! In a good ‘hip opening’ way… But I found myself looking forward to sitting by the sea with the music playing drinking a beer’!
Later we were doing just that... The music is everywhere and lends itself to everyone dancing in the street… And last night especially so, because, on Sunday, it is 'Independence Day' here in St Lucia... The fun was just beginning…!
They are celebrating independence from us – Britain… It feels fitting to be here now - being embraced by the St Lucian people as we are - and to join in their celebrating…
I don’t really feel part of any system now; the planet is our home… We have found our own independence and way of living which embraces humanity, the planet, relationship, love, peace and the experience of human inclusiveness and kindness.
As a child I fought against rules; I fought for my independence... It did feel a bit like fighting then, but on reflection, I can see that the rules and the disciplines simply gave me something to stretch my emotional and mental muscles on; a place for me to discover what resonated and what did not.
If rules are to be put in place for any group of people, it works best if the self esteem of all concerned is high... If a person is heard and valued; seen and understood, they tend to respond to this. 'Practices’ rather than rules can then be put in place... Practices that support, encourage and develop rather than restrict…
If each day we take time to listen to one another and to engage in authentic dialogue; if we validate one another and stretch to get into the shoes of another; if we seek to inhabit their world, then healing can happen interaction by interaction.
Each person’s independence, each person's unique individual voice can be heard and given expression…
We walked home from the party; I still had to 'publish’ my blog and then put it on Facebook... We had got so late getting out, earlier, that I left it to do later…!
And then there was trouble with the internet…
We tried many things; Anadi even tried ‘logging directly into the database’ but ‘computer said no'!
So at midnight we put a computer in a rucksack, ran down the stairs and out into the streets again. They were alive with people and cars and buses and zooming motorbikes... Four friends on four bikes were doing very fast, very noisy laps, which took then round and round through Gros Islet.
We ran through them all, out onto the main road and jogged down to café Ole… it was, of course, all closed up. We came and sat on the decking, published and facebooked my blog, and then walked home to bed having enjoyed our midnight 'run'…!
This morning we ran our route to pigeon island. We left, quite visible, water bottles under a tree which we knew we would pass a few times. We planned to cover 6 miles and include faster 2 minute stretches... Gulps of water would be welcome…
As we ran off, I looked back at the inviting bottles...! ‘If anyone really wants our water; they can have it' I said…
At the end of our run we approached the tree to see a dog had Anadi’s bottle between his paws and was wrestling with the top… he got it off and was then struggling to actually drink the water.
Anadi took the bottle from him, cupped his hands and gradually poured the water into this improvised bowl from which the dog lapped gratefully from until all of the water was gone…!
There was a man sitting in a car beside us, looking on…
'Smart dog’ he said…
