This and that

This week has been much the same as last week, and the week before and the week before that!  Nonetheless it has had its more interesting moments, its small pleasures and its entertainment. I suppose this should be celebrated as the week in which I received my vaccine. Like so many others I was impressed by the efficiency of the system, the good hearted volunteers and the general spirit of bonhomie. I had a nice conversation with the lady who gave me my injection who told me how many over eighties had been in tears when they received theirs: just the relief I suppose. One old gentleman aged around 100 said she was the first person he had seen ‘in the flesh’ for a year. Can you imagine? 

The other event of this week has been the advertising of the two remaining kittens. It would seem that kittens are as much in demand as covid vaccinations. Despite what in pre-covid times might have seemed like an extortionate price, I had over 40 enquiries within 24 hours of posting the ad. Two lucky families are coming to view them through the window on Saturday. I feel very confident that the viewings will lead to sales, but if not there are another 38 people waiting. One of the lucky viewers achieved his viewing by writing what essentially was an essay on why he and his family would be worthy carers for the said kitten. It worked. Other folk just say they would like them. I even had an enquiry from someone in Guernsey! I have to say that whilst I will be sad to see them go they are now proving to be more of a handful as they charge around the house at top speed, attempt to climb the curtains, chew electric wires and occasionally leave unwanted deposits in hidden corners. It has been fun, but enough is enough!!

On a different note, I am studying again. Yes, those of you who know me well will recognise this as something of a feature. When I retired I signed up for an on-line MSc course in Consciousness and Transpersonal Psychology with the Alef Trust.   https://www.aleftrust.org  To say this was eye-opening and mind blowing would be an understatement. I am now returning to do their course in Transpersonal Coaching. Transpersonal Coaching goes a step beyond conventional coaching in that it acknowledges levels of reality beyond conditioning and personality. These levels can be accessed through various kinds of altered states of awareness and can lead to different kinds of knowing and understanding which can be liberating. What becomes interesting is the extent to which many of these ideas , now finding their way into this still rather fringe area of psychology, have deep roots in the various religious and spiritual traditions from across the world.

Hence I found myself at 11.00pm on Wednesday watching  ‘Retreat: Meditations from  a Monastery’ on BBC Four. This three-part series, first broadcast in 2017, visits three Benedictine monasteries in Britain. The first episode was filmed at Downside Abbey in Somerset, home to fourteen Benedictine monks. It was the most extraordinary television, not least because there was no speaking, no commentary, other than a few explanatory captions here and there, and no background music. You were just lead through a day in the monastery and what you experienced was the silence. I would not have thought that silence could be conveyed so effectively via television. It made me reflect on the difference between quiet and silence. Quiet is the absence of sound but silence has its own very powerful quality. It is very much a presence rather than an absence.  I kept telling myself to go to bed, but somehow I was held by the silence and had to keep watching.   https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09bdzpf