Love/Connection Tag

18 Sep

Posted at 20:53h in Sarah's Journal by

I have learned to look beyond the wallpaper at the care home. This wing – built in 1975 was last decorated when wallpaper borders were in fashion. It is a place outside time, where aesthetics are not the priority. “Is this real?” my friend asks regularly. I find it hard to answer this question. Yes in a practical sense, but perhaps not if all life is illusiary, philosophically speaking. He has sometimes asked me to describe the wallpaper as a way to gauge whether we share the same reality. What matters here is doing what’s needed, kindness, but mainly being. Our society values doing. I come here, witness how when doing is stripped away, being, kindness and love take centre stage.

12 Sep

Posted at 21:47h in Sarah's Journal by

I celebrate the love of these two beings – mother and daughter. Love that connects them, and reflects back to me. I feel passionate about the need for appreciation between generations, for the things we each have to offer the other. I know some awesome young people that bring me hope. I see their gifts are not always appreciated and I wonder how I can bring the best of myself to them as I learn to be an elder.

08 Sep

Posted at 17:29h in Sarah's Journal by

I am so used to being the person who looks after that on days when the tables turn, I can feel really awkward. Two gold finches were drinking at the bird bath and seagulls squawarking overhead. A pigeon landed in our garden. Three pink toes on each foot are healthy and whole, unlike the pigeons I saw waiting at Denmark Hill station. This and other tokens of love add to my feeling special. I am given some of my favourite things by people I love.

01 Aug

Posted at 14:30h in Sarah's Journal by

The dictionary seems inadequate in its description of the powerful energy which moves, holds, energizes, soothes and glues us together. It’s absence may be the driving force in our lives. However, such an important thing as love is hard to define. It may only be in the face of something’s loss that we can recognise love’s true shape. For me, love is connection plus meaning, and the seed of compassion. It is a towering force, yet hard to see – visible in the casual touch of a hand, an unmasked glance, a beating heart.