Finding my way

In one of my previous blog posts I described Headlessness. It is something that has changed my life. This is a quiet time at the moment; for me anyway. Gareth is fully engaged in preparing the Hymer for our soon-to-be-happening trip to Italy. For my part I have been on a magical mystery tour of ideas. Judy’s U3A group, Youniverse, has opened lots of new doors and opportunities for learning. I am meeting lots of new and interesting people, all of whom, like me, now have sufficient time (and life experience) to seek answers to those big questions: “What’s it all about?”, “Why am I here?”, “What’s my purpose?”, “Who am I?”

If you watched the Royal Wedding you may have listened to the sermon. It hit me like a bolt of lightening when I watched it on iPlayer. What the minister was saying about Love and its power to heal everything is the message that is coming through loud and clear in all of my readings and associations. Someone/something is trying to get through to me! (If I turn on the radio now and “All we need is love”……. Well! That would seal it!)

No, I didn’t turn on the radio, but it is true that I am on some sort of journey. The journey probably began during the time when Gareth and I lost all four parents, as well as a close aunt of mine, in a very short space of a time. They went down like dominoes. I don’t know whether it’s a privilege to have seen death at close hand, but there’s nothing like seeing that last breath leave and the stillness that follows. Of course, a peaceful death isn’t everyone’s fate and listening to bereaved, heart-breaking accounts of the Grenfell Tower disaster last night raises more huge questions. 

So, where am I on this little soul search of mine? Well, I am certain that there’s more to life than meets the eye, and the directive “Be excellent to each other” (from the film “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure”) means exactly what the Royal Wedding minister was saying (worth another listen, I reckon). The imperative appears to be that our egos are an obstacle in being excellent to each other. To be truly selfless is a real challenge, for me anyway. I know that there are selfless souls doing excellent work in the world and without them we would all be in purgatory. I must try to be more like them.

In terms of how things/I have changed as a result of my meanderings, synchronicity is a real feature! I have experienced synchronicity at other times in my life and I am realising that the more aware I am of it the more frequently it occurs. Ok, you scientists, if you’re reading this (and you’ve probably ditched it by now) we can debate it if you like. My father was a Philosopher of Science and nothing in his work precludes the things I am discovering.

Numinosity is also a feature that is occurring more frequently but I’m not going to fall into the trap of giving its source a name; there are so many possibles, and I don’t want to be labelled as belonging to any religion.  

So that’s where I am. Amongst the books I’ve read recently are the”Tao Te Ching”, “The Child Within Us Lives” by William Samuel, “The Swan in the Evening” by Rosamond Lehmann, and I regularly return to Douglas Harding’s book “On Having No Head - Zen and the Rediscovery of the Obvious”. Each is a very differently presented view of the same thing; knowledge of being part of a universal consciousness, and how to live accordingly.

My next blog is likely to be about our very down-to-earth journey in the Hymer, telling you about my navigationally challenged efforts to find our way around and the inevitable fall-outs, dogs, weather, campsite shocks and delights, etc., but I have wondered whether I should use Hymer to promote my evangelical message of Love to the World by painting “Love and Peace” on Gareth’s nice shiny bodywork (the camper’s bodywork I mean) with big daisies and a smile. Somehow I don’t think the captain would be impressed.

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