We are now just into our third year 'down-under' and are still being thrown by the seasons. It has certainly been summer in the past few months; so little rain since October, (much to the dairy farmers' distress); but thoughts of Easter bunnies, chicks and daffodils, as some leaves begin to dry and turn on the trees; this is incongruous to the northern hemisphere mind.
On the other hand, acclimatising is going well. Rupert is beginning to wear shorts almost as often as a real Kiwi. Will his knees be ready for winter, we ask? He's making his presence felt on the music scene, and now has his own website
With a son fast becoming Birmingham's independent weblogger extraordinair , and a daughter nagging me to return to the weblog and upload more photos on flickr, here I am tapping again.
So, what am I up to after two years in New Zealand? Well, I certainly no longer live to work, and I am not sure that I work to live either. Maybe I am becoming practised in the art of simply being, a somewhat bold, and, on reflection, naive title I gave to a yoga workshop in Winchester a few years ago. Naive, in that I am now just beginning to understand what it might mean. And just as I think I've got it, it vanishes.
Indulging in shoulds and should nots, labelling as retired, semi-retired, part-time, responding to personal or the imagined expectations of others: all of this brings frustrations, doubts, disappointment. 'You are the world' is the title of a liitle book of talks by J Krishnamurti,. It lies on the yoga room floor and occasionally is opened at random. I like that title and I like his face on the cover. Anything I experience is only as I choose to perceive it. That's why some days I know I am exactly where I am supposed to be, (or, more simply, where I really am) and other days the inventive mind asks its relentless questions.