Walking with my Goddess: Rhythms and Circles

I hope you've all had a good week?
I thought I'd start by sharing this beautiful photo of the rose we planted in our front garden in memory of my lovely Mum in Law that has bloomed so spectacularly this week. It's a rose bush called Darcey Bussell - and it is the same as we have in her final resting place over looking the Deer Park - she would have loved reading this blog, enjoyed hearing about my journey and frequent trips to Avalon too. Next lifetime maybe Wendy x x
It's been a hectic week work wise and apart from my daily practise of calling Goddess in, I've struggled to find time to do anything particularly Goddess inspired. A nagging voice has been telling me that I haven't been dancing as She had asked me to do when She took my hands in a meditation journey. Not really my thing, that gene is one my Mum passed straight to my Performing Acts Student Daughter and my Discovery Circle Sisters will know that it has reduced me to tears in the past! So I really was hoping that in Her infinite wisdom, She had let me off or forgotten - Like that was going to happen, especially when I'm working with a Lover and Warrior energy.
Last week, on 3 separate occasions 5 Rhythms by Gabrielle Roth was mentioned to me. I'd never heard of her or her work before and I would like to think that I know a divine subtle hint when I see or hear one, so duly ordered a copy to have a listen to.... and it arrived within 24 hours, what are the odds of that without paying a premium rate?

Endless Wave Volume 1

So I did what any normal person would do, listened to it in my car a few times and put it back in the case. I was planning to get down to the allotment and take lots of pictures Saturday but wasn't feeling too great, so had to give it a miss, funnily enough I didn't feel too much like dancing either! I was laying in bed this morning, thinking about this weeks blog, rhythms and circles running round my head, plans of resorting to talking about my clowder (3 or more - I qualify with 4) of cats if necessary!
Knowing that everyone else would be out or asleep I steeled myself for a quiet spot of awkward wooden dancing action in secret with the blinds down. Foolish me!
Within minutes of being up, I had a wonderful surprise phone call from my lovely friend Tracey, who I first met as a babysitter for my children 20 years ago, who then became a wonderful friend before moving to Leicester to get married, had a family of her own and to top it all we discovered early this year that we are distant cousins through both our Mother lines! So a long tea infused morning followed with the added joy of her 2 of her 4 beautiful children - the other 2 at home with Daddy, Emily who took a shine to one of my crystals (that's my girl!!) and for the first time baby Lucy, even our son Dan who's 20 and the original babysittee got up for a cuddle! So after a long chat about what I was up to in Glastonbury and in blog world, I was left reconsidering rhythms, circles and cycles, my children looking after and playing with hers, family connections and if our great, great ,great grandfather's wives who would have been sisters in law could have any idea that the family would still be so close over 120 years later - by choice!
Well after that kind of joy, I simply had to banish my son from downstairs on pain of never,ever having a lift anywhere, ever again (Mark and Sophie were already out) to do my thing in the kitchen and after exacting a promise that he wouldn't come down and laugh, I belligerently pressed play on the CD player and surrendered myself to Gabrielle's CD .... Body Parts, Flowing, Staccato, Chaos (it was truly that alright) Lyrical and Stillness.
After subconsciously listening for Dan to sneak down the stairs, video me and bribe me for all eternity, (which of course he didn't) I actually let go and just went with the music, dancing all through the downstairs, a bit breathless but happily enjoying myself, slightly alarming Lola, one of my cats as I careered into the lounge doing my best tribal inspired spine and knee manoeuvres, but she just yawned and covered her eyes before going back to sleep, so blase.... What a journey! Now I really know what a circle sister meant when she said it was a danced meditational prayer - every emotion and feeling was there: fear, anger, love, sensuality, happiness, concern, exhilaration, relaxation, satisfaction, fulfilment, peace - you name it! I can honestly say it was amazing and I will be doing it again, so be warned!

Elen Sentier's Celtic Chakra from her book
of the same name copied from
http://www.giftsfromthepath.com

So, 5 Rhythms taught me a few lessons... I can believe or not, Twerk - (yes really!!), my knees and hips click - A LOT, but mainly I learnt that when you let go of fear, and believe me I made myself dance with my eyes open in front of the mirror in the lounge and felt fear! Yes I saw an overweight sweaty 44 year old woman less than gracefully bumping around, but I also saw someone laughing and having fun, enjoying and surprised at what their body can do!
I decided to treat myself to a well deserved good long soak with full lotion and potion after session. After alarming and disgruntling another cat George, (this house is full of them) with unusual naked leg and bending postures to rub in lots of moisturiser I decided to thank my body for all that it did and that it all still works by working through my Chakras using the Celtic method as described by Elen Sentier in her book The Celtic Chakras. This involves working round them anticlockwise or widdershins from the Heart to the solar plexus, back up to the throat and so on, ending up at the Brow, where I gave thanks for all that I am, all that I have been and all that I will yet be. George obviously enjoyed this and felt the same, as he decided to vigorously have a groom for a full 30 seconds before turning his back on me and snoring. Mercifully there are no photos of any of this!

However I do have plenty of photos to share with you,as this evening whilst dinner was cooking, I did manage to drag Mark out after his mini scooter run this morning (he has a Vespa) and walk the land around us, taking this beautiful picture of some wild grass that looks remarkably corn like to me in the horse field just down the road.

The horses had moved fields and first I thought
they had gone altogether, but we found this lovely family group, the foal on the left is the one I showed you last month and the one on the left is a new addition. I loved that fact that they both felt happy enough in our presence to nuzzle their Mums for a feed, the older Mares in the field were a bit concerned but soon realised that we were just passing through and harmless.

I had never noticed the blossom on a blackberry bush before, just the the fruit and the brambles. These ones pictured to the left were open but there were hundreds of bobbled buds where the fruit will come in a couple of months, reminding me that nature needs all aspects of the wheel just like we do with Goddess to encompass every stage, emotion and fear, will it bloom, will it be pollinated, will it bear fruit? A life cycle in a year. No fear on the pollination front, the air was busy with the busy drone of bees flitting from flower to flower, especially important after my visit to the bee hives of Avalon last week.

I couldn't get a decent picture of them on the blossom but in what was the corn field - which is now we realised full of broad bean plants, I managed to take this close up of a hard working bee. Seriously that's a huge field, if you buy broad beans this year and they are from Kent, I'll bet they are form my Lane!

I'll leave you with a couple of pictures of the fields where we walk and here's hoping you enjoy the views as much as we do...

Have a Truly Blessed Week and dance like only your cats are watching!