Time of change ...... again !!

***

Hallow'een sunset Giza

***

***

The Great Pyramid

***

***

The nearest you'll get to Laurence of Arabia here

a rather dishy Policeman

on his trusty Camel

***

***

Cairo Adventure

***

Third trip to Cairo ..... staying with two different friends; one in Nasr City northern Cairo &

in southern cairo near to the Giza Pyramids.

Woooo Hooo sounds very romantic doesn't it. And I guess it has it's moments, mostly though, it is the hugest noisiest most polluted city have ever stayed near. Probably the equal of smoking 160 woodbines a day. Had to stop my 5 cigs a day; couldn't get my breath, felt like a lost soul with consumption!

My arabic is rudimentary Luxor, completely unhelpful in Cairo. Maps are rare and not that easy to follow. Taxi drivers drive like lunatics just to get from A-B, if they didn't no one would get anywhere. There are few road rules, whoever has their nose first gets right of way, so it is a lot of 6 laned pushing and shoving. The occasional traffic policemen stands well away, chatting to his mates. Every 10 mins he strides out and stops 6 lanes to let another lot through.

Luckily companions write and speak arabic, I am given a card with my address on ensuring how ever lost i am I can flag down a cab and reach home! Feel like Paddington bear and wonder if I need a name tag. All very unsettling.

One can only prepare a certain amount, if you are an ENFP as I am, you can only prepare on the hoof as the situation becomes clear. So it with a sense of chaos I land in my first week, after 1 day i am alone in Nasr city with two gorgeous persian cats to look after.

I locate the fine cake shop, stock up with food from a local metro supermarket and find there is a Harry Potter film on the tv. Have no tv and haven't had one for years, could be am the last person on the planet to watch HP's first film! Ollie and Lulabelle stretch out lazily and we snuggle up to enjoy :))

***

Back In Egypt

LOL

Home

:)

Cygnets in Scotland

Adorable aren't they

Graceful

Elegant

Stopped by their lake in Scotland
in a Rose scented garden

Time to sit

Reflect

Smooth the cobwebs

Unique Lives

***

Every one alive has a unique day, every day, seen from their own perspective in their own

unique way.

***

My days have come constants

Eating, Sleeping & Meditation.

***

My journey of meditation with Universal Energy began formally in 1995.

It has continued, no matter what, every single day since.

It touches everything.

***

The creative uses of meditation are endless & unimaginable, until you try them.

***

For me, it's an anchor, a foundation, grounding, balancing, informing.

Loving & nurturing, engaging & energising my journey.

It's space, from the cacophany of the planet.

***

A graceful, peaceful hammock in a timeless silence

***

Insight & sublime detachment

***

Finding E

****

She said ......she hated me growing inside of her,

she gave birth to me,

fell in love with me,

then had to say goodbye ............

I was a few weeks old.

My entire life changed, destined or just happened? Who can know? But, it did happen. Perhaps it is only near the near the end of life, maybe in old age, we can truly reflect on it's true big picture and say, this or that event, time, person was good for me or someone else or not?

The way I see my life changes as I age & experience more, slotting in the new information with the awareness of my right here & now and the "been there a while".

A sign of ageing maybe, that the here & now seems to matter more than back then or tomorrow.

There was a time when the past & the future consumed me.

Before I met her mostly.

The way we are is unique, as is what happened in my life & to me after we met.

I learned to be truly grateful for all the lessons that my life experience has gifted me.

I came to know my blessings.

Learned more facets of the diamond of truth.

It was a rich time, a mirror close up, technicolour wham bam.

A jumble of too much, not enough, release & expectations, laughter and tears, frustration & sadness, anger & pain, fun & girly, real and unreal.

Surreal.

Genes can be expressed in taste in music, your same curtains, your introspections on life, your sense of fun & issues.

On the exterior, we were acutely different, yet astonishingly, to me and my colleagues some of whom were psychologists who also struggled with my view of our likeness, I seemed so like her underneath, the me I knew so well & few others knew.

I began to realise that i wasn't only this person my parents had raised, there was more of me that hadn't been brought out so far & there she was being some of it.

Your Mother has a unique smell, her aroma, it is stored in your memory.

As i cast my eyes onto her face in the seconds after we met again, after 30yrs, we fell into a hug .. an embrace, a reconnection, it lasted for for a long time, we both wept silent tears, rivers of them; her smell was intoxicating and so familiar I felt peaceful & safe. That I have no words to tell how that felt, may tell you, it was a profoundly transcending experience ie beyond the capacity of my mind to process.

It seems that way.

I had never any memory of feeling safe, except that one buried in time, back before we went separate ways.

Life could only change from our meeting.

Both of our lives.

For better or worse?

Only time can tell.

Je ne regret rien today.

Travelling

packing ....spent my life doing a lot of that lol, I moved over a hundred times!

This time holiday packing, not done much of that.

That's a weird thing, packing to go on holiday to the UK, where I was born & had a life for 51 years, until that is, I came to Egypt for a summer break.

Now I go to the UK for my summer break.

Upside down Universe, my life always been a bit upside down.

Started a full time degree at 50yrs of age, took a gap year at 51 & dropped out in favour of voluntary work at 52. All of these I could have done aged 18, 19 & 20.

It's been a jumbled up crazy path, though i wouldn't change any of it because maybe wouldn't be in the marvellous space I am today. Though it does feel as though however my path unfolded, there was destined or fated to be a lenghty chapter in Egypt.

The moment I stepped off a plane onto Egyptian sand, there was a strangely new yet completely familiar sense of mmmm is this home?

If like me, you never really felt at home, settled anywhere, that is an odd sensation to experience; especially when you have landed in the Sinai Desert.

It is inexplicable, excepting to say, perhaps it could have been a number or places across the world that could have gripped me that way,

so hungry I was for sanctuary, peace & a totally new chapter.

Needed to touch my soul to ancient roots, to breathe life into my broken spirit,

to nourish the semi demolished temple ruins of my body & find my heart food & sun & air to pump some life into me once more.

massive change, from the western world to the african arabic egypt ....

without solid friends here, you wouldn't survive easily

nothing much you have learned in the west will help you here

its a sideways world

Ancient, Modern

Biblical, Internet.

Now, a holiday, in the west.

Adventure on ...tally ho.... yalla beena

As my friend Mustapha says

all engines running

Loving it :))

***

Meditation

***

For me ... it's been a gift ....

***

gets me through ..

the strife of life

***

Helps me to

LOVE

***

Compassionate, non-judgemental kindness helps too :))

***

Meditation unveiled a wider panorama for me, as if my huge small world moved away slightly and a new broader vista emerged as if revealed by rolling mists.

***

For me it's a home to roost, to switch off and plug in to the matrix of unfolding knowledge and experience. The home or Ashram of the inner heart, linking all who resonate and share the journey. It's a space of safety, of peace, calm, love, of beautiful hues, of light hearted insights and time to just BE in bliss.

***

It is my hold on sanity

***

My heartfirst love for the peaceful radiant home within.

***