25 July, 2005

Lindeman's makes life more enjoyable

Many Monday greetings and blessings to my souls friends ! Here I am again , back from the country with a story to tell. I'm exhausted; have a dull headache, and feel bloated obviously paying the price for indulging in all the food and cpious anounts of wine. I'm still in a daze, but waking up slowly. Writing this helps. It is both a pleasure and a penance.

Plants on the balcony are soaked . Yellow leaves , sign of rotting from too much water. They need sun now and WARMTH . It is cool here now . Damp. Not nice for summer. Still , I am practising acceptance . I can be indoors without feeling guilty , I’ll walk around the lake later and feed the ducks later.

So....How was it ? What’s my weekend out in the county story ? Here’s gathering my thoughts ...Peaceful, dreamlike quality, rain , lush vegetation , woods are filled with blueberries , I was told by the only other passenger on the bus, a pensioner who was going out to her summer cottage for the week, her huge shopping trolley heavy and full of provisions since there are no shops there.

The journey out there is an adventure. After an hour or so on the big train which is just long enough, I get off at Katrineholm station, just as the rain starts to bucket down. This is followed by a half hour’s wait for the bus and chatting and exchanging stories with people also waiting and sheltering from the rain.

The bus driver drops me off right outside Anna- Stina’s cottage – they do that in the country – and there she is waiting for me in the rain, wrapped in a raincoat and wearing wellies ,holding a big brolly ( umbrella ) apologising about the rain , thunder and lightning. My travel companion , the only other passenger on the bus, has also told me about the dangers of lightning ...the time lightning struck her home, cutting cables and singeing the wood, cutting off their electricity supply and the tall tree that was sliced right down the middle .

Once inside the cottage, I see that a hot meal is there waiting; two glasses of wine already poured, candles lit . Oh the beauty of candlelight against all the rain. Peace and calm and then Lindeman’s bag in box wine – " Lindeman’s makes your day more enjoyable " written in cursive letters on this delightful box.

There is much listening to stories this weekend and everyone has a story . Nieces, Sara and Emma appear with their boyfriends, both called Andreas. Emma’s Andreas is dark and charismatic in a quiet way; beautiful eyes, well - balanced, sturdy, stable , grounded works with autistic children. Sara’s Andreas, by contrast is very tall blond and thin; a sharp, technical, practical, understanding, human, human being recently returned from three months in Sri Lanka where he’s been working on a road safety project part of a government programme. Theirs is a well- established relationship, whereas Emma and Andreas only met a month ago and still can’t keep their hands off each other. New love !

Sara, is an architect , wise, clever , serene and beautiful and also tall. She seems to hold herself back from time to time, consciously choosing when to open up and when to blossom. I imagine an overshadowed flower in the presence of her sister Emma’s bubbly exuberance. Emma works as a journalist, does reports and has her own column at the local newspaper. Sara seems to live in her sister Emma’s shadow, like Anna-Stina lives in her sister Ina’s shadow. My observations.

I am aware that I keep losing myself. Where am I ? I seem to disappear in the mass.. I don’t realise it at the time. I feel happy but it is not really ‘me’ . It is someone else being happy for me. Anna- Stina has picked a whole bowl of wild raspberries for me .. oh the divine taste and aroma of freshly picked wild raspberries as they melt in your mouth and the furriness touches the tongue .... Anna- Stina has really made an effort to make things enjoyable to compensate for the rain, the never ending rain.... we shall all go rusty soon .....

I’m drawn into Anna- Stina’s family stories the family that she both loves and hates and I do this willing. I allow myself to get lost. I have no demands. This has a consequence. " If you don’t choose, someone else will choose for you " This is true. There is something heavy about being entertained by someone who feels you need to be entertained. " i......I suppose you have to be eternally evidencing gratitude" as Valerie commented this morning.

Yes , I am caught up in the stories. Anna- Stina’s many stories from her anthroposophic world . These stories are extra potent and numerous right now as a direct result of a whole week of STORYTELLING AS A HEALING ART International Symposium that she attended in Järna- south of Stockholm.

http://www.healingstory.com/symposium/program.htm

But , when we were not talking , I'd sit out on the terrace and gaze out at the lake and at all the greenery, mesmerized by nature...and simply going with the flow. Oh and yes, there is " Lindemans...... always making the day more enjoyable as the slogan on the bag in box wine says. We thank Lindeman’s for that.

Also , Nature gracefully and pwerfully takes over. Paulo Coelho’s latest book " THE ZAHIR " is also great and full of stories.

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