What a Week…..
Its been an interesting week, hot, cool, muggy and then some, nah it was overwhelming. One night the evening was cool and then the next night it’s sweltering. Who had to go find an extra blanket over the last week or so having put some of your winter stuff in storage? Quite a few of my clients say they have suddenly put on weight for no real reason and the number of deaths seems excessive in my world and people are coming to see me with sorrow and loss in their lives. I guess you reach a certain age, careful with that phrasing, when your grandparents and parents are dying. Nothing reaches into your soul like touching the cold hands of a family member. There is a sense of changes imminent but as yet unviewed.

The economy is not that different. One report says it is doing well and levels of personal debt are decreasing, but small businesses are suffering because few people are spending, well let me tell you I’m not holding back on the spending. The macro economy is doing well, the small folks are in crisis…qui? The economic climate based on the perception of the observer is either thriving or doldrumic. Sounds like physics to me something about two related particles separate and inhabiting the same space. Ahhhhghhh.. And the scientists can’t even agree if they are particles or waves so they call them wave-particles, covering all their bases I guess. Double ahhhhhhghhhh.

Well I’m spending to keep the world afloat. First my dishwasher needs replacing, so ahoy dollars away, now my washing machine has clapped out and needs repairs, ahoy dollars away again and soon I’ll need to replace my car and here come the chorus…ahoy dollars away…

My mechanic rang me and asked me to come and see him, he’s a nice guy I’ve fancied him for years, but I felt like a school kid going up in front of the headmaster. The tone of his voice said something was up and I thought he would suggest I take better care of my car, I didn’t think he would tell me my beloved Beige, (yes my Toyota Corolla, 1979 model has a name, a personality and definitely does not like anyone else driving her) was about to go to the great garage in the sky….

A few years ago a girlfriend and I went to the Hordon Pavilion to see The Flaming Lips and our accompanying male was our designated driver. When he drove Beige’s speed gauge went berserk registering 120 when in fact we were going along at a sedate 50kph. It took a few days for that fit of Corolla pique to settle down. I don’t let other people drive beige, she doesn’t like it. So my mechanic felt he had to tell me in person that my car was on it’s last wheels, “I’m so sorry Maggi but Beige won’t pass her next check, you’ll have to retire her.” So off I’ll go soon and spend, spend, spend on a car. You see I’m doing my bit for the economy.

I guess we’re all stressed about money at the moment. Many of the people coming to see me are suffering from stress and anxiety related diseases. People are treating themselves, by self medicating with alcohol, overwork, chocolate or any plethora of addictive avoidance behaviours. Eventually they find their way to my door and by then the road back to health and being relaxed is paved with obstacles and they ain’t gold.

So pull your fingers out and be proactive drink more water, get my EasypH kit to regulate your blood and cell alkalinity as opposed to acidity. Yes alkalinity is good, translates into more energy, better moods, good health. You know what to do drink water and if in doubt have another glass of water and eat foods that are good for you. Get some fun exercise and ask for help. You know my number, and even where I live, don’t hesitate to call. You deserve to be helped to health, and I need to pay for my bloody washing machine. Fortunately I love what I do and my job is to help you find your way back to doing what you love and enjoying this incredible life you are experiencing…

I have been asked to write about trust…
My first thought was, ”What the f… do I know about trust?”
But being human and no longer in the first flush of youth, yeah, I’m good at understatement, I figure I have some experience of trust and of betrayal.
If death is the lever arm of life, then betrayal is the lever arm of trust.
What I mean by that, is that, knowing about death can galvanise you to live your life as fully as you can.
Mr Gibran asks, ”You would know the secret of death.
But how shall you find it unless you seek it in the heart of life?”

We exist in a world defined by duality, light and dark, up and down, hot and cold, male and female, no and yes. I now know that day follows night, the sun and warmth will return after a long cold winter. In more primitive times my people may have sacrificed a goat or a virgin to the sun gods to beg its return. Ignorance of the dance of the solar system made them fearful, mistrustful. Today it is spring, showery, grey and I have every trust that it will get warmer, that winter and summer are two sides of the same coin.

But maybe the request for me to write about trust was of a more personal nature and the request was really a probe into the mechanics of human relationships. In attempting to understand trust I read quite a few papers about financial trusts and on our personal reliance on another person.

A psychologist I spoke to believed that humans have a natural disposition to trust, are born trusting. The chemistry of trust is based on oxytocin, and like all chemistry within us varies from individual to individual. The psychologist has a small baby and is in the throes of oxytocin cascades and that may be causing her thoughts, for now, to fall under the sway of oxytocin chemical cascades as she bonds with her child. Oxytocin is the bonding hormone. So to trust another person you must generally have an experience of that person as reliable, you have mutual oxytocin events. So trust is learnt from experience. Hence the expression trust is earned.

Then there is the trust or otherwise between sexual partners. Betrayals, infidelities, jealousy, misplaced trust, disappointments, reconciliations and happy or unhappy outcomes drive the wheels of human behaviour, of literature, theatrical endeavours and music. I must admit I get sick of songs about co-dependant love.

So to trust. Are you any closer to understanding trust? The pundits, writing about reality, now tell us that we create our own reality and that what we have is what we resonate with and to change what we have or experience, we have to change our resonance. To resonate with trust we have to embrace betrayal, to fear a betrayal is to resonate with betrayal and thus attract it.

I don’t think I produce much oxytocin as trust of others does not come easily to me, but I do not fear betrayal, I have both betrayed and been betrayed and survived and prospered. The betrayals taught me compassion for my flaws and the all too human flaws of others. The betrayals taught me to trust myself and my intuition and to not betray myself to please another’s ideals or to meet their expectations. I learnt to listen to myself and trust my feelings. At times no doubt I will find that trust misplaced after some event or other, but I now know with a certainty that come from experience that I can trust myself to move towards a deeper love of life.

Vulnerability refers to the inability to withstand the effects of a hostile environment.
Vulnerability (the good side), though poorly perceived, actually cements relationships in the face of hardships. By accepting this character trait, one becomes aware of one’s limitations and resources. http://wellbeing.doctissimo.com/my-personality/express-yourself/the-positive-force-of-vulnerability.html

Star Trek: Enterprise S2 Ep6: Marauders
Ted Talks: Brene Brown: The Power of Vulnerability: http://www.ted.com/talks/brene_brown_on_vulnerability.html

Vulnerable? Nah just out in the open

I spent much of my early childhood, as I remember it, bewildered. I was loved, there is no doubt of that, but I was difficult. I had my fixations, my obsessions, certain songs completely overwhelmed me. I loved Fats Domino, Elvis Presley, Bo Diddley as well as Que Sera, Sera sung by Doris Day and Lita Rosa’s How much is That Doggie in the Window. I listened to the radio whenever I could. I loved to swim, then and only then I was alone.

I was raised in India so I lived in a noisy, crowded society. I remember the markets, the smells of spices, the hot curry’s, and most of all I remember Joseph, one of many people who looked after us. There were cooks, cleaners, nanny’s, drivers and laundry women. There was Joseph a tall man who held me tight when I had a tantrum. Joseph and my Ayah, my nanny if you like, listened, cleaned up after me, scolded me and laughed as I my eyes popped and I sweated after eating hot, hot curries. The more I gasped the more they laughed and the more I ate, to watch them smile. I still love hot, hot curries. I didn’t know the meaning of vulnerability as a child, little Memsab.

I had a tantrum when the guards at a gate wouldn’t let my Ayah accompany me to the swimming pool she had to wait outside, so I refused to go in. It didn’t have one iota of an effect on the general racism of the day but for a nanosecond I saw something wasn’t right, something wasn’t as I wanted it to be, something was really peculiar. Ayah, was my companion, and during that incident I remember her face, she was ashamed of me having a tantrum, maybe, but it was mixed with a resignation that I couldn’t understand at the time, and that, as I remember it, didn’t help my temper.

My parents decided to leave India and we boarded a liner to sail to Australia, The Strath Moore. I had no idea really what was happening and as the liner pulled away from the dock I saw all the people I love disappear, getting smaller and smaller. Joseph was waving frantically and pulling at his shirt, he looked distraught. My father standing beside me said, “He’s lost his shirts.” A butler, and that’s what he was, sort of, without a white shirt. I had a tingling of, a tiny sense of, his vulnerability. Shirt equalled job, no shirts, no work…All my young life I’d seen people starving on the streets, wan women begging with, tinier then they had any right to be, babies at their breasts. I knew that India was a cruel and exotic society. I felt for Joseph’s vulnerability, I really loved him.

In Australia, for the first time I was at the mercy of my middle class parents, what a lonely few years that was and as I progressed to adolescence I was alone, with words, books, music. In an culturally conservative and repressed society that was only just discovering self expression, anti-war sentiments and FJ Holdens.

The Beatles (She Loves You), Paul and Paula (Hey Paula) and The Four Seasons (Big Girls Don’t Cry) crackled from transistor radios. In fact at about this time I won a drawing competition. I won “A Hard Days Night” the Beatles LP from the TV Week. My drawing was published, my celebrity moment, I had it young.

In the 70’s Countdown, Molly Meldrum and Auntie Jack drove the cultural train and the Koorie Flag flew over Redfern. In this cultural context I swam on, mostly alone, feeling that vulnerability of the young, “Whaaatttt the f………. is really going on here? It gets covered up, swamped by anger, self righteousness. I learnt that an angry person is really, at heart, feeling vulnerable. I learnt to be safe being vulnerable as an artist. I learnt that emotional vulnerability can nearly kill you but I kept putting my foot back in the door of experience and love.

Love, death, birth, divorce, betrayal, marriage I’ve been there, done that and I am still vulnerable. I still seek out that trembling feeling as a shaft of light pierces my soul, and a barb of music exposes the meat of my spirit. Others’ suffering makes me feel compassion and then I touch my own powerlessness and anger. My suffering makes me shrink and then re engage with life with new insights. Vulnerability is a creative force that brings the arrogant to their knees on their road to Damascus.

Trans fatty acids are manufactured fats. They are used to keep sauces in suspension, they are emulsifiers, they improve the texture of food, i.e. smooth it out and they act as preservatives. Hydrogenation – the process of adding hydrogen gas under high pressure to liquid oils to turn them into solids at room temperature – increases the shelf life and flavour stability of foods containing polyunsaturated fats.

While trans fatty acids occur naturally in small quantities in dairy products and the meat of ruminant animals, the ones that are causing alarm are those created as a by-product of processing hydrogenated vegetable oils. Trans fats are found in their highest quantities in processed foods that contain large quantities of hydrogenated oils, such as ready-made cakes, chips, pastries, pies, chocolates, sweets and ice cream. Best avoided all together.

Good fats are those made by nature; bad fats are those made by man. That’s all you really need to know.

Simply put, your body uses fats to manufacture its arteries, if it uses natural fats the arteries are pliant, self repairing and flexible. If your body uses trans fats to manufacture arteries they are hard, inflexible, subject to ruptures and form clots and scar tissue, in other words atherosclerosis.

The beginnings of atherosclerosis have been found in infants fed from manufactured baby foods. I rest my case, stop eating junk food, it is killing you and your children and destroying the quality of life you will experience as an older adult.

Looking after your Heart

Coronary heart disease is the most common cause of death in Australia. It is also a major cause of disability, with many people reporting problems or needing assistance with daily activities.

The underlying cause of coronary heart disease is a slow build up of fatty deposits on the inner wall of the blood vessels that supply the heart muscle with blood (the coronary arteries). These fatty deposits gradually clog the arteries and reduce the flow of blood to the heart. This process, called atherosclerosis, begins when people are young and can be well advanced by middle age.

There is no single cause for coronary heart disease, but there are ‘risk factors’ that increase your chance of developing it.

There are ‘modifiable’ risk factors (ones that you can change), including:

• smoking – both active smoking and being exposed to second-hand smoke
• high blood cholesterol
• high blood pressure
• diabetes
• physical inactivity
• being overweight
• eating trans fatty acids (I will post some more information on this dangerous food)
• depression, social isolation and a lack of social support
  

There are also risk factors that you can’t change, such as being male, increasing age and having a family history of coronary heart disease.

While some of these risk factors (such as age and gender) can’t be changed, the good news is that there are many steps that you can take to reduce your risk of developing coronary heart disease.

Optimizing Your Cholesterol Levels, Naturally

75 percent of your cholesterol is produced by your liver, which is influenced by your insulin levels. Therefore, if you optimize your insulin level, you will automatically optimize your cholesterol. It follows, then, that primary recommendations for safely regulating your cholesterol have to do with modifying your diet and lifestyle:

• Optimize your vitamin D levels. Don’t disregard the extreme importance of appropriate sun exposure for normalizing your cholesterol levels and preventing heart disease.
• Reduce grains and sugars in your diet. Ideally, you’ll also want to  consume a good portion of your food raw
• Make sure you are getting plenty of high quality, animal-based omega-3 fatty acids. the best sources are cold water fish such as salmon, mackerel, tuna or sardines. They are also found in high quantities in flax seed, walnuts, soybeans or pumpkin seeds or flax seed oil, walnut oil, soybean oil or pumpkin seed oil. Canola oil is also a good source of omega-3s.
• Other heart-healthy foods include olive oil, coconut and coconut oil, organic raw dairy products and eggs, avocados, raw nuts and seeds, and organic grass-fed meats as appropriate for your nutritional type.
• Exercise daily. Make sure you add daily walking and interval training into your weekly routine. The interval training especially helps muscle development and improves your immunity
• Get some support for your ongoing emotional issues
• Don’t smoke
• Avoid excessive  alcohol intake
• Be sure to get plenty of good, restorative sleep

I don’t have that many chemical vices any more. That’s not to say that I have in the past been immune to mind altering experiences. These days maybe an espresso coffee, maybe a cuppa and occasionally Champagne with oysters. I acknowledge that my inner chemistry will affect the quality of my life’s experience.

I rarely drink black tea as the tannin in it tends to irritate my bladder and cause urinary urgency and I rarely drink fruit juices as the sugar content seems unnecessary. Some elderly people with incontinence, who have come to me for assistance, have benefited from giving up black tea completely and sticking to teas without tannins.

As you know I run most of my yoga classes out of Beyond the Ordinary, a Tea House and Healing Centre extraordinaire. Its proprietor Colleen Kennedy is a Tea Guru she comes up with amazing teas and tea blends and herb tea mixes that are curative for every conceivable ailment or discomfort. A gentle mild way to sooth and heal yourself. I will be running a course for pregnant women soon and Colleen has kindly agreed to suggest different teas for different stages of pregnancy.

A particular favourite of mine is Rose Hip and Hibiscus Tea, a blend that can help with fluid retention. When I do have black tea, I have it with milk as it can neutralise to some extent the effect of tannins and my fav is Colleen’s Organic Black Assam, a tea fit for princesses and rajas, with a subtle nutty earth flavour. But my current tea love is a non tannin, non caffeinated tea that has a rich full flavour and is perfect with milk, Colleen has dubbed it “Spring Honey Bee.” A mind altering experience is one in which by virtue of the experience you CHOOSE to alter your chemistry. A cup of tea, a quiet place, good company and a cuppa all contribute to a deep autonomic calming experience. The world is a better place for you if you allow yourself to make calming choices on a daily basis.

The pace of life is outrageously unhealthy today and leaves many of us frayed around the edges. When you are young it all seems so important, so compelling, but if you lose your peace of mind, and/or your health, all the racing about in the world will not help you to heal. It feels as if you will lose everything if you stop even for a moment, but often a rest, a mini break, a holiday is all you need to super cede your own expectations and fly above the milling tense hoards.

REDUCING STRESS
Eat well
You are what you eat, so eat foods rich in life force like plants, fruits, seeds, nuts, and whole grains. Limit refined sugar, fried foods, processed foods, and stimulants like caffeine and alcohol. Eat moderate amounts so the stomach has sufficient room to process what you’ve eaten.
For example, oranges, rich in vitamin C, reduce stress hormones and hormones
Drink ginger tea and add ginger to your food, it aids digestion and stops nausea
Pears relieves constipation
Yogurt with probiotics relieve intestinal infection and inflammation, you can also take a probiotic supplements to create a smooth intestinal movement
Vitamin B helps you reduce stress
Cut down if not cut out stimulating foods like coffee
Exercise
Stretch, walk, do weight resistant exercises, if you don’t use it you lose it… Exercise controls your appetite, and relaxes your body.
Meditate
It really keeps the irrits away, it really does work, calm yourself, and breathe easy. Steady calm, quiet breathing creates an anti-inflammatory gas mix in you body.
Give, be Generous
Most people only give and love while expecting something in return… that’s not called love; that’s called a contract! When you give freely, it takes the attention away from your ego, opens the heart and relaxes your spirit.
Good Company
There is strength in numbers. Let go of relationships that are toxic and surround yourself with like-minded people who will support you along your highest path. When you feel down, these relationships will support you so have strong social networks, have good folks around you.
Read
Study, read great literature, expand your knowledge, as with exercise if you don’t use it you lose it..

I did not think that I should put the word hate in the subject space so I didn’t, but the truth is, I hate acronyms. That’s not to say that, in the general parlance of my profession, I don’t use the dreaded initials. For example the AC joint is The acromioclavicular joint, it is a joint at the top of the shoulder. It is the junction between the acromion (part of the scapula that forms the highest point of the shoulder) and the clavicle. But I’d rather point to the offending part should I need to discuss its function.

This all came to mind when I sat happily watching Captain Janeway of Star Trek fame and an advertisement came on. It was for CPA. A course, where, if you so wished, you could become a fellow of this society. Gosh, I thought a course to train Communists now, what happened to the Revolution? …. Ahhh that’s The Communist Party of Australia for the uninitiated, your day will come you bourgeoisie ignoramus.

Now don’t immediately send me emails to enlightenment me as to just what CPA could stand for, I rather not know. I suspect that it will turn out to be rather boring. There is a story about a wise man, an enlightened man, no less, who, of course lived up some mountain, as far away from the rabble as possible I’ll warrant. Two men wanted to be enlightened, one was a cook and the other a dancer.

The two men were friends and decided to travel to meet the wise, albeit isolated, man to ask his guidance in their quest for enlightenment. Here I must comment, that these two blokes were already well on their way to being luminous men as the inner strength and control over their egos that they had already achieved is illustrated by their willingness to ask for directions. No doubt they travelled and with the good and bad guidance of the mountain dwellers finally found their way to the wise man’s house.

I like to think of this wise one as living in an eco friendly passive energy efficient house with a composting toilet etc and all the comforts of a sensible peaceful existence. Have you noticed that in most stories the way the Guru, the Troll, or Hermit or Death Lord goes about his /her daily existence is never revealed. What sort of house would Darth Vader have? I know, I know I digress but surely you wonder about the plumbing sometimes while watching a ripping yarn?

So the story, yes. The cook approached the wise man and asked for the Way to Enlightenment. The cook loved to impress people with his savoury recipes, the wise man told him to, ”Find the finest grain, and mill it till it is refined and from it bake bread.”
The cook immediately went off to search the world and looked and baked in vain for all his days, never satisfied with his bread.

The dancer who was a great dancer came also to the wise man’s study, and asked, “What is the way for me to find enlightenment?”
The wise man smiled and said, ”You must never dance again.”
The dancer looked aghast at him and said “I love to dance, this activity is the essence of who I am. If this is the price of enlightenment, no thank you.”
In that instance he became aware of who he was, he became aware of the dance around him of trees, of water of energy and he stood still, smiling at the wise man. His eyes filled with tears of gratitude.

Decisions

I was chatting to a friend in the telecommunications industry, he was talking about his work.
 “It’s made more difficult because my bosses won’t sign off jobs. They can’t make a decision, they won’t take responsibility just in case they’re wrong.”
“Damage control?” I asked.
“It’s risk assessment that I do, I research, do the legal work and I lay it out for them. I put the complex risks and benefits into charts and diagrams, positive and negative.”
“So no matter what they decide, there is always a risk they could get it wrong?”
“Yep, that’s the problem.”
“So it’s only possible to make a good informed decision not a perfect one?”
“That about sums it up.” He said.

Change, any change, is usually less than easy. Any change for good or bad starts with a decision to go in one direction as opposed to another.  There are many reasons that prevent change:

• You may not realise you can change, that you have choices.
• You may be so deeply embedded in your habits that change eludes you. For example cigarettes, relationships, personal grooming etc.
• It might be unsafe to change even if the change is in a healthy direction. Medication, abusive situations.
• You may not really want to change even though you know you ‘should.’ Alcohol, food habits, addictions.
• You may not have any idea how to start to change.
• The very idea of change is overwhelming, even though you’d like a different life it seems impossible.
  

The first step has to be a little one, then the next is equally little.  You can make small changes unrelated to your ‘issues’.  Just doing something different can help propel you into a proactive mindset.  The executives my friend works for are prevaricating just in case they make the wrong decision but in the end they risk losing valuable time and maybe even their salaried positions.  Decisions are inevitable, even the daily decision to drink a little more water, eat a little less pastry or more as the case may be are there for the making and not making a decision is a decision.

Bill was a fat accountant, a beer barrel of a man.  I hadn’t seen him for months.  He was a lovely, generous man but obese. One afternoon I saw him at the local coffee shop. He looked hot.  He was still a big man but he looked buff, fit and healthy, he had lost a lot of weight, mostly fat.  Gone was the jowly face, the 9 month pregnant paunch and the roly-poly walk.  I went up to Bill, exclaiming, ” It’s been ages Bill, you look great.” He told me he’d started to say no. No to the second beer, no to the second helping.  He’d been aided by a health scare and now he was the picture of health. Bill decided to say NO, simple as that, and he changed.

There are many negative circumstances that force change upon you:

• Financial crisis
• Emotional upheaval
• Health emergency
  

And equally as many possible positive change vectors:

• Travel
• Change in relationship status
• Moving
  

So no matter if you have change thrust upon you or make a choice to change the key is adaptation.  The degree of health you experience is directly related to the degree of adaptability you have in your body, mind and spirit. The expression roll with the punches,  means to to adjust to or adapt to difficult events as they happen.

So how do you do that?

• When confronted with difficulties don’t lose your good health habits, still exercise and eat well. Drink lots of water to maintain your blood alkalinity. In other words keep your chemistry balanced it’ll help your thought processes.
• When you can’t think clearly ask for help, a trusted family member or even better a trained councillor, financial advisor or health practitioner.
• Take your time to ferret out what will work for you and your circumstances. Don’t make purely emotional decisions.
• Make little changes every day.
• When your life is going well, take the time to strengthen your self and your future. Look at income protection insurance, seek a counsellor, do core strength work.
• Face your fears with meditation and take action.
• Take time to strengthen your friendships, they are your best insurance against sadness.
• Be honest with yourself
• Be loyal to your own best interests
  

Real life change is rare and yet when it comes, a really deep change of heart, no matter how it happens it will leave you with joyful tranquillity and sureness of your self, eventually.

Early morning yoga after a night of colourful dreams, sagas really. Busy night, waking, sleeping and dreaming another chapter in the saga, waking not sure if I was hallucinating, waking sleep, still it was colourful, full of esplanades and heros, sharp colours and horses.

It was a relief to get up and roll into the smooth actions of yoga. Still, I couldn’t still my thoughts. The dawn sky was muted and the sounds of the waking world filtered through. The buses, the green grocer guys in the shop across the road swapping ribald comments, the smell of dawn coffeeholics. The night’s machinations still rampant in my legs I stretched and flexed and twisted and held my breath out as I sunk into a forward bend.

The sounds of the street faded into the background and finally I stilled and felt steady. The pink day reasserted itself and I walked home. A child’s swing moved back and fourth in the lurid light, moved by some unseen force, the sky was a brilliant red. The dreams had been dragging at the edges of my mind had take on a gothic hue, the colour had faded from my memory and I remembered darker scenes, dark clouds, warring fractions. I looked across the street and saw a ghost. For a moment I was in the dream again. A little girl stood straight and still in a gateway flanked by high hedges, she was pale and stiller than a corpse. She seemed to be looking straight through me. Then a sound intervened and the little girl still looked like a ghost.

The coffee I then brewed was so welcome, warming the chill in my body. “When will I wake up?” I thought.

Later streaming the dream still I saw something that I dubbed, ’The Rose Gardeners.’ Now this title conjures all sorts of idyllic scenes, big red blousy flowers, long stems, summer scents, gentle people in dull colours with secateurs and trowels. Well it’s winter in my world now and although the sun was shining it’s cold and the roses are stumps of gnarled twigs. The rose garden was in a municipal park and the burly gardeners in fluro uniforms, squatting amongst the rose stumps. The title is incongruous, the lumbering men, the bareness of the garden and the stark pale sunshine outlining the men’s silhouettes. The dream continues.

The older I get the less real any of my experiences become…Thank god the ghostly girl has moved on to her shadowy school.

Of course of course it’s the Winter Solstice in the southern hemisphere, the shortest day. No wonder it’s cold. Tonight light a candle and maybe sip a wine or grape juice to welcome back the light of the sun that now is turning slowly towards us again. No wonder I’ve been seeing ghosts and imps and having saga dreams, strange musings and a feeling of dislocation, all that darkness. I tell you what I’ll be lighting a candle and drawing a big sigh of relief, this strange reality needs remedial work… or maybe just some sun…