Stormy Seas

It has been a somewhat torrid few weeks and hence the stunning blog silence.

My 84 year old - and generally extremely feisty (aka stroppy) - mother, started complaining of heart palpitations and generally not feeling too well. Since she's one of those "difficult" patients, the doctor didn't take her too seriously and diagnosed gastric reflux... Well, two weeks later there I was calling in the paramedics and rushing her off to the trauma unit - with pneumonia and a minor heart attack. Let it not be said that she does things in half measures. Anyway, a few days in Intensive Care and a few more days in hospital and she was back home. But we won't even go there. Suffice it to say, she is on the mend.

I, on the other hand, am somewhat stressed out and have been obliged to try and slow down. I keep forgetting that I have limitations which need respecting or I will end up flat on my back or my face. Which means other than running around like the proverbial blue-arsed fly for my mother, not much has got done. I can't even remember when I last looked at my writing or did anything remotely writerly. Actually, come to think of it, I get the distinct impression I'm in dire need of some R&R. Since that is in very short supply at present, I thought I'd just take you with me on a virtual trip to one of Cape Town's fishing harbours in the very beautiful suburb of Hout Bay - maybe next week, I'll even manage to get there in person.

Reflections

Bob-bob-bobbing along...

Immortalised...

La-la-la-laaaa...cough-cough... la la laaaaaaa.....

Reflections II

Dread-locked cool dude

Zimbabwean roadside bead vendors

The best gelateria in town - the real and genuine article! A good way to end any day.

The Door Home...?

The darkness crept closer, enfolding me in inky arms. It pressed down against me. I couldn't... couldn't fight it off.
My life force was ebbing away - ebbing, seeping from me as though something had pulled my plug and I was emptying myself of that which kept me alive.
Fear sprang through the darkness - clutched at me, strangling me with terror.
I wanted to push it away... but I was devoid of strength.
There was no choice... but to accept. I was dying.
And in that moment of acceptance came clarity and peace.
The absolute nothingness of the dark lightened just a little... to a twilight... dim, filtered light, grey, watchful...
I was standing on a giant chess board... rough stone, cracked and worn beneath my feet. To my right, a towering stone wall - a fortress perhaps. To my left, the black silhouettes of spiring firs - marching up an infinite peak. Behind me... I don't know. Life, I suppose.
And ahead of me... A vast door set within another wall of stone.
I stood in the monochromatic gloom, looking, without comprehension... wondering...
Where was I?
I could not go back, could not even turn around to see from whence I'd come. The forest was forbidding, though the trees were strangely observant, almost protective. They seemed to represent some aspect of the life I was leaving behind.
I faced the door and advanced. It was what I was meant to do. Intuitively, I knew that.
The door swung open - just a fraction.
Light spilled out. White-golden luminance... shining so brightly I could hardly bear to look at it. But I wanted it. Oh yes, I wanted that light. I knew what it was. It was home.
The door - the portal between worlds.
The door opened further and I moved closer to it, reaching out with my innermost core to the brilliance that flooded through it.
They talk of the white light when they talk of near death experiences, don't they...? So... this was it... only there was no tunnel, just the chess board... the remnant of the game of life...
The fear left me. I surrendered. I wasn't losing my life. I was returning to it. Returning to the soul pool. Returning to the source of all created things. Oh yes. I wanted to go home. Please. Let me come home. My life force, the very last drops of it, trickled away... Calm descended upon me... total tranquility...
I... was... going... home...
A jolt surged through me. Then another. And another.
The life force pulsed into my being. The doorway began to close. No!
Not yet. Not my time. Not now...
I felt sensation return to my limbs.
I held the light in my heart, in my mind's eye - and slept.

What is death, after all, the beginning or the end? We've made it into something it's not - or have we? Which is the illusion... death? Or life?



(Both images used in this post were duly nicked off the internet and I am grateful that they serve my words so well - to the creators, whoever you are, thank you.)