Holistic Adventures
10 May 2020
Sadie
This week has seen lots of speculation surrounding the end of lockdown. We have talked a lot about it, as we can’t see things changing much for us. This week we joined a zoom chat with leading experts on my type of leukaemia. The jury is still out as to whether our ‘immune responses’ will help or hinder us if we get the virus. One paper has already been written saying we are at greater risk of dying. The oncologist leading the Zoom discussion pointed out that the people in the study were all very elderly and had other serious health conditions such as diabetes, so you just don’t know. The only way for me to go back to normality is a vaccine (and believe me when I say I have read article after article in the last week, and not from fake sources). The chances of a vaccine working for me though is slim and if it is a live vaccine, I probably won’t be able to have it. Therefore, people like myself will be relying on the mass population to have the vaccine to restrict the spread of the disease. On Facebook I have been invited several times to sign a petition against enforced vaccinations. I agree that we all have a choice and should not be forced into anything. However, there is so much fake news that people believe. We haven’t even got a vaccine yet, but people are concerned that the mass rollout will include some nano chip in it to track our every move! The generation who was saved by vaccines now seem to object to them. If it hadn’t been for the mass roll out of TB and polio vaccines half of us wouldn’t be here today. I respect anyone who decides they don’t want a vaccine, but will these same people decide not to make use of 21st century medication and be a burden to the NHS if they subsequently catch Covid 19?
I believe in living as holistically as possible, and try to eat healthily and to keep physically, mentally and spiritually well. This whole debate has made me reflect on all the things that I got involved with when I was first diagnosed with cancer. Anyone who has had a cancer diagnosis will know that you latch on to any glimmer of a cure and will spend any amount of money on trying to get better. Some things worked; some didn’t; other things make me smile to this day. I am lucky enough to have a partner in crime who encourages me with my holistic life called Dee. We have another friend called Lois, but she is sensible enough not to get involved in some on the things Dee and I get carried along with. This is a reflection of a few of those things that did not work so well!
Day 49 - Monday
Dee and I have had a fair few hoots along our spiritual journey. On a few occasions we visited a lady who had spent many years in India and had taken on an Indian Spirit name. In the car on the way back from sessions at her house, Dee and I would use words like ‘profound’,‘ life changing’ and ‘deep spiritual connection’. On one sunny Sunday after I had been stuck in the attic with a bunch of mad women for the afternoon, I admitted to Dee that I really didn’t get it, and wouldn’t be spending my money going again. We both howled with laughter and admitted that neither of us had ever understood a word that was said. On this particular occasion not only had we paid to attend and taken an expensive shared lunch but we were forced to buy the lady’s book. The book was in English, but must have been written under the influence of hallucinogenic substances, as it made no sense whatsoever. The other women were virtually fornicating over the lady, telling her how honoured they were to hold the book. Apparently, the energy they were getting from the book was burning their hands. I admitted that it made no sense to me, so was encouraged to hold it to my chest and let the words resonate with my DNA!!! During the session the only man there (who ticked all the boxes : black, gay and rather fat) got wedged in his plastic chair. Dee and I had to stifle the giggles when it took everyone’s help to get him released. At the time we were staring at a bedroom door with a scarf-tied round the frame. After what seemed like hours, we had to describe what we felt and what it meant to us. One lady said it represented the 50 miscarriages she had had (it turned out she was a complete fruit cake and an attention seeker). Another said it represented her womb and yet another fell on the floor sobbing as she told us about the light coming through the door calling her to another land. I was feeling very stressed and had no idea what to say, so blurted out that it was a portal to a new life and the vibrant scarf symbolised rebirth. I couldn’t look at Dee, for fear of losing it, but apparently, I was on the cusp of moving to a new dimension. The book must have resonated with my DNA, after all!!!!
Day 50 - Tuesday
I absolutely love reiki, which is an energy healing. The practitioner lays hands on (or off) your body and directs energy/healing/love to where it needs to go. On one occasion a lady who had no idea about my diagnosis bought me a rainbow silk scarf, because she felt I needed it. The rainbow had always been my symbol of hope throughout my treatment. That session was fantastic and I felt great afterwards.
Sadly, it isn’t always like that. Dee and I got invited to a reiki share not far from where we lived. It was held by a coven of women in their early sixties. For some strange reason we all had to wear blue. Everyone seemed to nod and quietly whisper about the importance of it all. Dee and I were utterly clueless, but must have looked as if we understood with our hushed tones and our nods of the head. You can always tell the reiki practitioners who are in it for the money as they make a real show of the ‘secret symbols’ given at initiation ceremonies. They are so secret they are available free all over the internet, but apparently, they don’t work unless you get them from a person with a direct lineage from some little Japanese man centuries ago. We had already been asked if we wanted to go through the initiation ceremony, which cost around the £300 mark!!! On this occasion there was a lot of ritual going on, and Dee and I were told off several times for not placing our hands in the correct place. The session went on for hours and hours with strange chanting. We all took it in turns to hop on the bed and have the rest lay on hands. There was some jostling for positions when it came to laying hands on the only man present. Dee and I were relegated to a shin each, thank goodness. I swear it wasn’t just hands that were moving under the blankets. Dee and I were beside ourselves trying to stifle hysterical laughter. As if our day couldn’t get any worse, the afternoon session wasn’t anything holistic but the token man and his female groupies playing the ukulele. It was rather reminiscent of Randy Lal and his hareem in ‘Carry on up the Khyber’. Needless to say, we didn’t get invited back, but I did get an email to ask if Jules wanted to go round and play an instrument or two!!!!
Day 51 - Wednesday
Every few days a lovely lady called Julie posts an online meditation in the absence of her regular meditation class. She also helps run ‘Green spirit’, a group of people based near us in Yorkshire, who think we should care for the earth more than we do, and who celebrate the seasons and a few of our pagan festivals. In December we celebrated the winter solstice by watching the sun rise and walking through a beautiful labyrinth.
The first time I went to the group, I persuaded my sister that she needed to come with me. I have never seen someone so far out of their comfort zone and she practically sat on my lap for the whole time. We planted seeds outside and sang songs. We came up with poetry and blessed Mother Earth for her abundance and goodness. Ruthy (my sister) had a bit of a wobble when they talked about believing in giants and fairies. It was so far off her Richter scale of normality that her mouth dropped open and her eyes looked like saucers of disbelief! Then came the storyteller. He told us that on May Eve the sexuality of life and the earth is at its peak. Abundant fertility, on all levels, was the central theme. The Maiden goddess has reached her fullness. The Young Oak King falls in love with her and wins her hand. The union is consummated and the May Queen becomes pregnant. ‘For this is the night of the Greenwood Marriage. It is about sexuality and sensuality, passion, vitality and joy. And about conception. A brilliant moment in the Wheel of the Year to bring ideas, hopes and dreams into action. And have some fun.....’. At this point Ruthy was convinced we were about to get involved in an orgy, and was heading for the door. I have never seen anyone quite so uncomfortable in my life, even when all it turned out to be was an orgy of overstuffing ourselves on a beautiful tea!!!!
Day 52 - Thursday
I have been to quite a few gong-healing baths. No, it is not some bath product you can buy over the counter at Boots the Chemist!! It is where you wrap up warm in a blanket and listen to someone playing gongs, drums, huge crystal bowls and wind chimes. The sound when you go to a live session is amazing. Usually you are given crystals to hold or place on your body. At last I have a holistic dog. Patch loves being covered in crystals, and not even Tetley’s barking from next door wakes him from his meditative state. You can see him in the attached photo!
A few years ago, Dee and I decided that we would have a mini holistic break in Bewdley. We got there on a very wet December afternoon and had yet to organise with the guy what ‘therapy’ we would like. He was very keen on past life regression, but I wanted the gong bath. It turned out we were staying in an apartment within his house. There was no lock on the door and the door itself had big holes in it. He spent ages showing us round the ‘apartment’ before taking us up to the attic to his therapy room. He was keen to start right away but there was no way I was going for any treatment with this guy in his dingey attic. He really did give us both the creeps! I am not sure whether the place was haunted, but I have never stayed in a place which had such a negative feeling and where you were constantly looking over your shoulder (but perhaps that had to do with there being no lock on the door). It was a good job Wetherspoons was over the road, so we could decamp there and make use of their toilet facilities. After a very bad night sleep on a flea ridden bed settee our friend Guru Graham arrived. He agreed that there was a lot of bad energy in the place! Our holistic retreat was abandoned. Instead we went for a bacon butty in the cafe with Graham and his wife. As I remember is was a fabulous bacon butty!!!
Day 52 - Friday
Several years ago, when we were moored in Portsmouth, I got involved in a holistic group. After a few evening sessions I got asked to join the inner sanctum and to come along for mid-week sessions. We spent the day talking about Atlantis — the "lost" island often idealised as an utopian society. Thousands of books are devoted to Atlantis. People have lost fortunes and, in some cases, even their lives looking for it. The lady leading the course was looking to set up a ‘community of like-minded people’, where we could live and work together, until the time came when we could move to Atlantis together. After a few weeks of ignoring her phone calls, she arrived at the boat... she had had a rethink. She was ready to give up her rented accommodation, and to set sail with us, in the direction of Atlantis... forget the compass she had found a crystal to guide us on our way!!
Day 53 Saturday
I truly believe that laughter is one of the best medicines. Last night, Jules and I sat down in front of the roaring fire pit with a glass of wine and read through this latest blog like we always do. We have had a real laugh with this one. Jules has never asked how much I have spent on these fascinating holistic adventures. He just slowly shakes his head, and asks me to remember what happened last time, when I tell him about our next proposed scheme. As for Dee, she now lives in Wales.... but it doesn’t stop us FaceTiming each other and reminiscing on adventures past. Here is to many more of them together!!,