Happy Christmas

May your lives be blest!

John O

Goddess Waters

There are so many gushing waters here.

Invigorating the fields and terraces

and giving the base for Life here

in the drier periods of summer.

More on this watering soon!

John

The wisdom of the body....

When I look at something like this

and see mountain and sea views like this

and meet dragons on a mountain path in the sunset

then I know that physical wisdom is also Divine....

How awesome and how easy!

John O

PS May the GREEN go with you!

Spring in the Fall

The birds are singing.

The grass is a verdant green

The mountains are spectacular

... after the torrential rains

... and the thunderstorms

... and the wind

... and the birdsong

from birds resting during their migration

especially when the sun shines

after rain and storms

this place is AWESOME!

Here there are "two" springs, one now

and then one just after winter.

And spring is my favourite time of year!

What a wonderful gift!

More soon

John

What is Truth?

Sometimes in life
there are choices which
test one's inner courage
to be able to go beyond
whichever current paradigm
one had become comfortable with.

For me, in days gone by, I felt held
in the security and hope of the Christian faith -
a faith which I had not just been brought up in,
but which I had actively made my "baseline."
Admittedly I had huge doses of rebellion,
especially around matters of physicality -
how we express ourselves in the body through
sensuality, sexuality, "appropriate" relationships,
our attitude towards money and giving to charity,
and the way Christians embrace the "need for war"
(especially at this time of year) in what seems a
total contradiction of what Jesus is recorded as
having taught in the Sermon on the Mount -
but most of me accepted the traditionally "received"
and taught Truth as being near-enough God's
and therefore good enough to be mine as well.
(It helps to believe the "Company Mission" if
one is going to be working for the company -
in my case over 22 years as an organist/music director
in various versions of the church in N Europe.)

When total chaos enters one's life, "self-evident" truth

is often one of the first casualties, and the ensuing

emptiness is not easily integrated into whatever is

suddenly being experienced. When this "happened" to me

I hated and loathed it - it took me a very long time to learn

to begin to accept and honour the emptiness within!

But perhaps the most challenging thing for me to feel

was the notion that I had actively chosen to

go through the wormholes of existence - that this hell
was not something which I was a victim of, but rather

the stockpot I had myself put together in order to find

ways of living which resonated better with who I am.

More challenging still was really to be able to feel that

these new ways, these new paradigms of existence and belief

were not cosmic absolutes, but merely waystages on

an unending journey of Divine co-creation through me

with everything that exists (as the Matrix films showed.)

It's still challenging and this seems to get stronger.

Why? Probably because being the absolute chooser

doesn't engender  any lasting "outside" feeling of

"God-given" security - and my cosmic-home-seeking

inner child has resisted choosing insecurity for a long time!

So, here I am on the island of Crete, as someone who

is perceived as an "alternative therapist/healer" and

probably someone who believes in new-age maxims like

"Everything is all one" or "It's all the same" or

"Inner Peace and Joy and Ease are the only way" or

"What you resist persists" or  "Love is all there is" or

"There is nothing outside you - it's all within " etc.

I haven't really deeply questioned these assumptions -

I may have complained about their over-simplification, but,

(a bit like earlier in my life not questioning the parts of the

New Testament which didn't impinge on my personal life,)

I had never been brought face to face with anything where

my life course seemed to depend on my willingness or not

to live these tenets in action, AND how much I really believe

that they are "right" for the situation I now find myself in?

And the question comes ...

What do I now choose?
and

If I choose one particular form of action,
what meaning do I consciously invest in this process?
Is there a sacred path involved for me which
may look from the outside as "less-than-holy"?

More soon.

Blessings

John

 

Back into the lands of forgotten time

Today (after coffee, of course!)

we walked from the village of Souda

- a place surrounded by mountains -

up a dried-up river bed which is part

of the European footpaths network

and up to a high plain, where we found

this ancient tree.

and then on to the next valley overlooking

the ancient ruins of Lessos.

The rains of the past few days

have brought out the mountain flowers -

they are amazing!

 

.. nestled in crevices and spreading colour everywhere.

We returned to Souda for lunch

just avoiding the next downpour!

With all the sun interspersed with rain

there were rainbows everywhere.

 

Rainbows have a habit of telling me where "home" is to be

Was this a sign?

Blessings

John

PS Yes, lunch!

 

Singing to the pilgrims

Some of you may have walked long pilgrim distances

along tracks to sites like Compostela de Santiago.

Journeys of the soul which can give unexpected gifts.

Late this afternoon, three of us decided to walk

up the mountain, past two minute churches

and visit the cave of the Holy Fathers.

We're talking 3 km here, not

hundreds and hundreds of miles.

We didn't take the map (which also serves

as a menu at the local Alpha-Kafenion!)

since we felt we knew the way.

Oh, how we were misguided!

The further from home we got,

the less certain we were of where we were

despite the rather rusty signposts

to the cave we were seeking,

seeming to point to at least

2 different directions at once!

Finally at one point where the signpost could be seen as

pointing anywhere from straight on to straight up (to Heaven?)

I asked my inner voice "Where now?"

"Straight on!" it said, and so "on" we walked.
Very doubtfully - we were supposed to be going
up and here we were going decidedly down!

A local man was walking towards us, walking stick in hand.

We understood he was asking us where we were going.

"Caves?" "Yes!" we said, and he walked with us

back from where we had come, and then

walked with us up the track where the signpost

really pointed. I wondered,

"Why did my voice say Straight on!?"

I caught a few words - "It's late in the afternoon!"

and then after a while he stopped and pointed

his stick at the winding path we should now follow -

a kind of labyrinth up the mountain-side

through gorse and wild flowers and

multi-coloured bits of stone and rock.

We thanked him and he was about to go -

I was still holding his hand -

when he began to sing a pilgrim song.

I felt tears welling up inside as the music

of hundreds of years of orthodox tradition

were sung to me face to face from this old man.

(I learned later that he is the local "kantor."

Now I understood why we were sent

straight on!)

We never quite made it to the caves.

We were too late in the afternoon,

and there were too many newly-erected fences

to keep the sheep and goats out.

(Were we the sheep and goats?)

We would have been walking long past

nightfall.

But the man's song has stayed with me,

filling my bones with music passed down

from age to age and now sung to me.

We arrived back in the village

and the cafe was full of people celebrating.

Ouzo has seldom tasted so good!

Blessings

John

The view over the Lybian Sea

I admit it.

There are many days to tell stories about...

and I haven't written them here, yet...

yes, they are half-written, and

yes, they'll be here in a few days' time.

But to show the beauty now, here's a view

from where I'm sitting, drinking mountain tea

and listening to birdsong, goats and dogs...

A bright blue sky, 20 degrees (C!) or so

and a sense of wonderful peace.

And now it's time to go down the windy road

and do some shopping - groceries and things...

(and maybe watch the gang playing beach volleyball)

And when the practical is done,

then come the reflections...

I'll keep you posted!

John

PS Lunch!

 

There were the trucks with the food and the landing staff....

... but where was the plane?

.....note the bits of wheels on the tarmac!

My mother taught me to arrive extra early
when the occasion was extra important.

I thought catching the plane was extra important,
and anyway the winds were cold in Montreal,
so I caught an earlier train to Dorval,
(where one gets the air connect bus)
and found myself unexpectedly in a short but deep conversation
with a fellow traveller who was going to witness
a member of his family doing a Vision Quest.
It was something new for him,
and he was open and really excited.
We had shared a little about
what happens when a very controlling society
breaks down and people rebel against the
spiritual and religious paradigms which
have held the old society together -
how the spiritual depth can so easily
be thrown out with
the conservatively religious bathwater!
He was so obviously saddened by
the lack of ensuing depth in life!
It was refreshing to talk about deep spirituality
with a total stranger.

At the airport, we bid each other blessed journeys.
I was very early. I was through the gate
in a matter of minutes - no line-up, no queue at all!
They had written at least 3 hours early
on the e-ticket - I was four-and-a-half!
I didn't hurry, but eventually found a corner
to watch the gate and see the plane arrive and dock.

It seemed like an eternity as I sat there.
After a long while, others slowly joined me.
I hadn't looked at the time  but it seemed late.
Looking round I saw I was surrounded by passengers
waiting in the waiting space, but no plane came.

Airport trucks arrived, the baggage came,
waiting for the other passengers to arrive
but no plane.

And we are still here, still waiting...


This journey is obviously very very important.
I wonder why!

John

The signpost ....

......says it all!

And here, in Nova Scotia,

somehow we have managed to manifest snow tonight!

Just before the morning of leaving ......

Snowflakes are so fascinating ....

especially from behind the window

of a train.

Or high up in the mountains

above the olive groves,

far, far away.

Who knows what the night will bring?

Perhaps it will be like Ireland.

Watering the night away.

J

Welcome!

This is where you can read about my pilgrimage in Europe and in Crete 2009/2010.

Watch this space!