Journeys of a Pregnant Virgin

Although I hoped to write again last Sunday, I returned from Geneva later than expected that evening and then plunged into another busy week. Suddenly it's Friday afternoon and it occurs to me that this weekend is also shaping up to be quite full so I will write at least a few lines now, lest another week pass by without comment.

It was great to be in Geneva with David and Jana, Jonas and Hannah. I can also see the early promise of their little brother or sister in Jana's gently rounding outline (Jana and I say it's a girl). Both children informed me repeatedly that there is a baby growing in Mama's belly, and Hannah asks her Mama regularly, "How is your baby doing?" They are lovely kids, wide-eyed and alert, full of curiousity and mischief, and very affectionate. Hannah looks like a little gypsy with her soft brown curls and huge dark eyes. Although they speak German and English, their English is sometimes a literal translation from German and makes for some wonderfully amusing conversations. But I can also sense how utterly all-consuming and exhausting their care must be, and Jana and David are both working outside the home as well.

Highlight of the week was - no question about it - a four hour afternoon and evening expressive arts seminar in which we drew, coloured, wrote animal stories, painted some more, and finished off by writing haiku. After a particularly dense and theoretical lecture in the morning (also interesting but my brain hurt by the end) it was absolutely delightful to feel like a kid in a kindergarten class (I never went to kindergarten but they say it's never too late...) and to look around and see several seventy year old classmates equally engrossed. No one having to say anything insightful or intelligent - just lost in play. We could use a few more seminars like that around here!

Meanwhile, my inner work with dreams and movement is proceeding richly. It is so fascinating to explore different ways of working with dreams and observe what each brings by way of experience and insight. My respect for dreams continues to grow. What fascinating worlds we carry within us!

Perhaps I'll wrap up with three haiku, my first ever. These are a response to the second drawing I did, in which we were asked to compose a scene depicting our birth family as animals.

1.
Colour vibrates here
Around the creatures softly
One green field of peace.

2.
Water, mountains, trees
At home in this green heaven
You can move with joy.

3.
Trees on the skyline
Restore the weary creatures
No one feels alone.

I'm not sure about the sequence but this is the order in which they came to me - so be it.

Enough for now. It's time to run upstairs and help Marianne with the salad for a family dinner here before she and Nic (her boyfriend) leave for India in the morning, and I get the house to myself for the next two weeks. Until next time, peace and all good things to you who enter here.