Morning rainbows are a great way to start the day . . . but more on them later, 'cause I want to begin with the usual health update. Mum is reasonably stable and relatively free from any sort of consistent suffering, though she is quite fragile, needs oxygen every now and then, and has had a few angina attacks recently after waking from scary dreams in which she is being chased. Her right leg (the amputated one) was very painful for some reason last Sunday night (30th May), so she had a dose of Ordine (liquid morphine) to ease it (and so had a great sleep as well), but then the next day (Monday 31st) she vomited several times throughout the day as her body attempted to get rid of the morphine.
The same thing used to happen for the first few days of going on, or increasing, her pain patches, as the body is simply not used to it, and so like a lot of the drugs she takes, it always seems to always be a case of weighing up the pros and cons (side effects) of each of them. I put an anti-itch lotion (Animine lotion, with 1% menthol added by the chemist – an old recipe that Dad used to have made up for himself) on her back every night to ease an itchiness which we presume is a side effect of one of the drugs. It always gets worse whenever she goes onto a course of antibiotics for bladder infections, or the like, which happens from time to time.
Still, her suffering is a lot less than when I first came up here, when she had painful ulcers on her remaining foot and was on pain patches to deal with that, and she still has plenty to live for with an abundance of love of friends and family in her world, and lots of interesting conversations/topics on the ABC radio. She does need to rest for a lot of the time, but refuses to have a TV in her bedroom, and she still enjoys getting her hair washed and set at her hairdressers most Wednesday mornings.
Whenever I take her to the doctors for a warfarin level blood test, she also enjoys going for a coffee at the local coffee shop after it, and then to check out if Millers (a dress shop next door to the coffee shop) have any new items of clothing she might like. She even buys some occasionally. Ok, now on to some of the interesting things in our world since the last update. One was a visit by one of Mum's old (yes, old as in age, but also in terms of length of time they have been friends LOL!) friends, Pauline Gilbey (below, with Mum) the Saturday before last (22nd May).
On the afternoon of the same day, we went out to the farm (for a few hours anyway) for a "Boob's Off" party. My brother Phil's wife Shellie goes into hospital tomorrow (2nd June) for an operation to have her second breast removed after the first was removed last year due to breast cancer, and this party was one of the ways she is dealing with the loss . . . sort of looking it square in the eye, not hiding the problem away somewhere, and making as light of the situation as possible. As you can see (below) she had a little help with this . . .
There was even a beautifully made & iced cake made for the occasion . . .
The following day (Sunday 23rd), I took Mum out to the 80th birthday party of another of her friends Lorna Jackson, who is the wife of an old (as in from a long time ago) boyfriend of hers, George. Mum is the one in the wheelchair on the right in the pic below, and you can just see George over to the left reading out the tribute he had written for Lorna to celebrate her birthday . . .
Speaking of birthdays, Shellie had hers last Friday (28th May) and Mum and I took her, and her mum Alison, and her friend Paula, and her son Harley, and DJ, Harley's friend, to a birthday lunch at the International Club the following day. Phil was working and couldn't make it, but everyone seemed to enjoy the food and the company.
And now finally . . . I get to the morning rainbows. Mum's room gets sunlight in the morning, so I have hung my faceted crystal ball in there near the dooray to catch the sunlight as it streams in in the morning and do what it does best - refract it into the room and create little rainbows all over the walls and ceiling. I took a quick video of them one morning, and here it is . . .
And one last thing . . . for those who did not see the winner of the European Song Contest, it's Lena, representing Germany, with "Satellite". It's a bit of a crazy/quirky love song, but this 19 year old German girl sings in English and has the weirdest accent. It's kinda cute, and probably was that "X" factor that resulted in her winning the competition. Enjoy . . . and blessings to all . . .
Yep, I sure am . . . but more on that in a minute LOL! I just noticed it's almost been two months since the last update, and I can hardly believe it. Time seems to be moving soooooo quickly these days, but I'm also happy to say that it has been a case of "no news being good news", particularly in terms of Mum's health. She is cruising along really well, with very little discomfort in her world at all, despite still feeling pretty weak generally and still needing oxygen at times after she exerts herself a little. So all's good there :)
"Ok, ok, who is it that I'm in love with", I bet you've been wondering LOL! Well . . . let me tell you about her . . . she's beeeaautifullll!!!! . . . she's absolutely exquisite . . . she's just about as deep as they come . . . with a thirst-quenching cool clarity that sort of evokes inner peace and tranquility just being in her presence. She is truly a perfect example of the archetypal femminine . . . and she's a little bluey-green in colour too :) No . . . she's not Naytiri out of the movie Avatar, but rather . . . she's a lake . . . Lake Eacham, to be precise LOL! Had you going there, didn't I :)
It's funny, you know, she's been there, just 15 minutes away from Atherton, for all the two years I have lived here, but I never really saw her, nor appreciated how extraordinary she is. That was until a friend, Lesa, took me out there one day for a walk around her (3 km) followed by a very refreshing swim in her crystal clear waters. I remember thinking as I walked "Wow this track is so beautiful that I can even imagine jogging around it every now and then without finding the exercise boring", and later as we relaxed in the soothing water I knew there could be no better way to cool off after a run than to bathe in this water. It was literally only days later that I began to see this wonderful lady as regularly as possible, and begin to find myself "in love" with her :) Thankfully, getting away for a couple of hours in the afternoon works fine with Mum, so it's a win/win for everyone :)
Anyway, I went there one morning, and using my phone, I made a few videos of her to share with you. The first one (above) begins at the top (the right side looking at the lake) of the main swimming area at one end, and heads a little way up the circuit track that I jog on. The second one (below) begins at the left side looking at the lake above the main swimming area and moves down the boat ramp a little way before heading over to one of the entry points (into the water) of the main swimming area.
The third one, below, heads down a track to the left of the boat ramp to the pontoon, and you get to look back at the swimming area from there. One of my favourite things to do is to paddle a couple of hundred metres out into the middle of the lake on a noodle (one of those brightly coloured foam plastic flotation devices that look like a giant straw and work brilliantly in keeping my head above water without any effort on my part LOL!) and just take her all in. It's a very meditative, and relaxing, and calming, experience, and it fills me to overflowing with gratitude for just being right there, right then, in such a fabulously beautiful place.
So . . . if you have one of those "100 things to do before I die" lists, make sure you add a swim in Lake Eacham to it . . . 'cause it's definately something I'd love to share with YOU . . . sometime in our future :)
Well, an update is definately due, but there is not a huge amount to share, due to things cruising along pretty smoothly all round. But firstly, 'cause I have not done it yet, I want to wish each and every one of you the most fabulous Twenty Ten imaginable. May you be filled to overflowing with unconditional love for yourself & others, and may you be blessed with everything you would like to experience here in 3D . . . and more :)
I know we (North Queensland) have been in the news a bit with two cyclones dancing around each other, then with each other, then around each other once more before transforming into rain depressions pouring copious quantities of H2O onto the land, and keeping the weather forcasters on their toes, but honestly, Atherton has not really felt much of them at all, and it has felt no different to any other wet season to me. On the positive side, EVERYTHING IS GREEN AGAIN! Woooooo hoooooo LOL!
Healthwise, Mum is fairly stable, and her complaints (headaches every now and then, and her amputated leg playing up from time to time), have been well outweighed by her enjoyment of life here in 3D. The 12th of January (the anniversary of Dad leaving his body) did bring up memories and provided an opportunity to grieve his passing a bit more, and at Mum's request we submitted an "In Memoriam" classified into the Cairns post, which I have included here . . .
One highlight since the last update was the Hannam's & Moore's visit. Here they are with Mum below, and Mum got to meet Maximo Moore for the first time. Maximo is the one biting furiously on her Mum Rosie's finger (teething no doubt). Peeking around between Rosie & Rosie's husband, Tom (Moore) is Rosie's Mum, Patsy, with her husband Chris (Hannam) looming happily (he does enjoy being a grandfather) above. Now was that confusing, or what LOL! Hopefully not too much so :)
And thats about it for this update. Thanks for reading . . . you make submitting updates worthwhile LOL! And thanks for being you, cause this world would simply not be the same without you in it :)
For those of you who have not heard me speak of this before, we (all of humanity) are about to experience an unprecedented shift in consciousness. Despite the passion, enthusiasm, and gratitude with which I usually celebrate and share the news of this shift, few are able to express the enormity of it as eloquently as David Wilcock, and when I recently found this video of him sharing just a little of what it will entail, it was immediately a "must share" for me . . . so here it is.
OK, I have lots of pics (and a video) to share in this update, but I'll start with a quick health report. I say quick, 'cause Mum is going pretty well and there is not much to say really. Her leg seems to be gradually improving, and its hard to know if its due to the new medication she is on to help improve leg circulation, or the Tiger Balm massage I give it each night . . . or maybe even the growls and other non-verbal utterances I encourage her to make as I gradually massage a little deeper as well. If the underlying cause of the problem (as many new age thinkers believe) was too many years of stuffing feelings down into her legs, then she is definitely un-stuffing quite well LOL!
OK, where do I start . . . how about with the video. It will mean that the rest will not be in chronological order, but I'm sure that will not be too confusing for anyone :) OK, this video is a minute or so of Christmas lunch out at Phil & Shellie's (my brother & sister-in-law) place. They had invited several families to join the party, and had somehow managed to fit us all in happily seated around a long table winding from their kitchen into their lounge room. Shellie's home made bon-bons (custom made for each of us) were a hit, and, despite the heat, it was a very enjoyable occasion.
And seeing as I am on Christmas day, I may as well share the pics from then as well. I mentioned Shellie's custom made bon-bons . . . well here's what Mum found in hers . . . a massive diamond ring! I found a little rainbow slinky in mine, so much gratitude to you Phil & Shellie . . .
Also worth a pic and a mention was Alison's (Shellie's mum) trifle. Now doesn't that look delicious . . . mmmmmmmmmmm . . . much gratitude to you, Alison . . .
Still on the Christmas theme, and here are some of Mum's Christmas Cards. I had strung up two strands of cord from one side of her room to the other to hang them all on, but it simply wasn't enough to handle them all, and we ended up with pretty well two layers of cards on the top cord LOL! She finds the writing and sending them all a bit tiring, but receiving, opening, reading, and sharing a little in the lives of all those who send them to her makes it all worthwhile :) Much gratitude to all who bless Mums life with your cards . . .
OK, I want to jump back in time a little, to when I went and stayed overnight at some friends of mine outside of Ravenshoe, Bob & Cheryl Matthews. It was while my brother Peter came up to help out when I had injured my shoulder. I know it was only one night away, but I thoroughly enjoyed it, and Bob did take me down to their creek before heading for home the next day. Now this creek is important, because Bob has been dropping off water for Mum & I for about a year now, and this is where it comes from. It comes out of the mountains untouched by sprays and stuff like that, and we are very grateful to have such water to drink every day.
Without going into the whole story, I began to "put out" for a source of really good living water after watching the DVD "Water The Great Mystery" and becoming more aware of the difference between H2O and H2O, where despite both being H2O, water also has a memory and a structure, and water that is treated and chlorinated and fluridated, etc, to death and pumped out through kilometers of metal pipes into our homes, is actually VERY different to water that dances and bubbles over rocks down a mountain stream and is simply alive and energizing . . . and it's not rocket science to work out which is the best water for us LOL! And so, after a conversation about the DVD and the nature of water with Bob one day, it turned out he was happy to bring containers of it with him whenever he came into Atherton and drop them off right at our door.
How blessed are we!!! I took this pic of Bob at the creek. Despite it being the lowest it has been for many years due to a bit of a drought up here on the Tablelands, it was still great to see where it comes from, and appreciate the gift that it is in our lives :) Much gratitude to you, Bob & Cheryl . . .
Here's a pretty amazing story, and as it has a touch of the miraculous, I thought it was worth sharing. I was working in the kitchen on lunch one morning quite recently, and when I opened the fridge door to get something, out flew this little dragon fly! LOL! I have no idea how he got in there, but I think it took him a little while to warm up (or maybe he just liked me), as I was easily able to coax him onto my land when he landed and take him outside, where he sat there for ages before he flew off. Long enough to pull out my phone and take this pic. He was sooooooo beautiful, and made that morning extra special for me. Much gratitude to you, my little dragonfly friend . . .
Almost done :) I did want to share these pics of Sonia's farewell. Sonia is one of the first friends I made up here, and if you have been following this Blog from the beginning might remember me mentioning her way back in one of the first updates, as she was the manager of Mystic Body Mind Soul, the local "new age" shop, that hosted a fortnightly DVD night, and played such a big part in me connecting with most of the like-mined people living in this neck of the woods. Anyway, Sonia had an on-going battle with depression, and took her own life just before Christmas. On Sunday (3rd January), family and friends gathered at Lake Tinaroo, a place she loved to spend time at, to say our goodbyes. The top half of the pic is where friends and family laughed and cried and shared memories of Sonia, and the bottom is of the lake shore where we walked to see her ashes scattered into the water she loved so much, and throw flowers for her into the water. Much gratitude to you Sonia, and for the irreplaceable role you played in my unfolding . . .
Later that same day, I got a call from an old friend Loren who was driving through Atherton and hoping to catch up, so I went and spent some time with her and her family in a local park. I took the extra fruity fruitcake I had bought for Christmas (but that Mum didn't like), hoping they would take it with them (or at least eat some of it), but sadly, I missed out on both counts, and it's still sitting on the bench downstairs waiting for someone to take it home. Anyway, here's a pic of Loren and her family (and I hope the names are spelled right) . . . Matthew and Stephen from the left at the top, then Tracy-Lynne, Loren, and her husband Michael from the left at the bottom. Much gratitude to all the MacKellar family for sharing your picnic blanket, great stories, and wonderful smiles with me . . .
That's it . . . we made it to the end, and as it seems like this turned into a bit of a gratitude thing, then I reckon it's fitting to say "Much gratitude to YOU too, my friends", for being YOU so perfectly in my world, and for all the love and positive energy you send our way. Blessings, and In Lak'ech to you and everyone and everything in your world . . .
