Past Lives

When we arrived at the jousting field of Hever Castle, the air of excitement and anticipation was palpable. It had both Greg and I caught up in the moment, grinning with delight.

Hey Ya!

You'd think that as a sleep physiology technician, I'd understand how important sleep is to the body.
Nah ah. I can be as obliviously thick-headed as the next.

There was a stage pre-2011 that I'd do anything up to 55 hours a week of shifts.


I wanted the money, the unit needed the man-power (or maybe I should say 'woman-power' as most of us are of the female persuasion), combined with the passion I have for my job, the great people that I work with and the pleasure I get from helping others, all made for (and still does at times) a lethal cocktail of 'yeah sure, can do'.

My body hinted with little things, but I ignored it - I was on a mission to be the best completely reliable  we-can't-do-without-you-type-of-person.

"You don't wanna listen, you silly woman," it muttered into my I'm not listening ears, "it's time to REALLY get your attention."

Greg's day in London

I have a love/hate relationship with London after having lived and worked there for 5 years. It was rather a shock after Cape Town's beautiful gentle energy - like sticking your finger in an electrical socket. I might venture there once a year, but mostly avoid it if I can...although when I do, I really enjoy it.

To infection or not to infection

It all started with Yoga Nidra on Thursday last week.

She asked us, as usual, to come up with a mantra that we’d repeat three times during the course of the Nidra. Of course I was prepared - I'm always prepared - but in the throes of the Nidra, a different one popped into my mind.



“I am a mentor.”

Eh? Where did that come from?

If I’d actually had a chance to make the decision, I’d never have gone with that. So, I tried to change it but it kept popping into my head, even while I was chanting another one.

Talk about persistent.

My body responded with a little resistance. I didn't go into my usual deeply lucid state. I kept wanting to move bringing me out of the relaxed state - which indicated to me that I'd rather not release the resistance.

Anyways, I didn’t think much of it for the rest of the day.

That evening as I took a perambulation (don’t you love that word) around the neighbourhood, was when I'd noticed that my kidney on the right hand side was hurting. I dismissed it - as I do. But again the persistence - that night was uncomfortable and difficult to sleep.

The following morning I had a whole day of clinical trials to get through from 8 – 5. I felt off throughout the whole day, but you just get on with it, don’t you? I was very careful about what I drank and ate that day hoping it would help. Frankly, Friday night was horrifically painful not only in the kidney but in the head too.

Borde Hill

Borde Hill - "Borde Hill Garden is nestled in 200 acres of English Heritage listed Sussex parkland and woodland, with wonderful views across the Sussex Weald and the magnificent Ouse Valley. The garden is home to a nationally important collection of rare shrubs, champion trees and exotic plants."

Zoe Kors: 6 Ways to Have Radically Intimate Sex

I came across this article today -


Zoe Kors: 6 Ways to Have Radically Intimate Sex

“Sometimes I get real lonely sleeping with you.” ~ Haruki Murakami, A Wild Sheep Chase

 

We want intimacy and avoid sex. Or we fear intimacy and crave sex.

 

Stop wasting time and effort

I had a very bizarre experience the other night at work. I was trying to settle a patient on a respiratory machine but he was fighting it.

Finally at 1 o'clock in the morning, full of despair, I sat looking at the screen, wandering what I could/should be doing, when I suddenly noticed something very odd. On closer inspection there seemed to be, what I thought was a woman wearing a pale bodysuit of some kind, crouched next to the bed. The infrared light makes everyone on camera look rather anonymous, so I couldn't be sure.

'She' looked up at the camera, with - what looked like - an agonised expression on her face.

Puzzled, I asked my colleague if she could see something on the screen.

"What?" she asked and stared at the screen in silence before saying, "Are you talking about those dust particles floating around?"

Um...no I wasn't. Those we'd been seeing for ages and they weren't dust particles...but that's another story.

I gathered from her response she couldn't see what I was seeing.

YouTube: Why I stopped watching porn: Ran Gavrieli at TEDxJaffa 2013

He explains this so much better than I can. This invades our life in every way whether we realise it or not.

It reminds me of a book I purchased on a whim many years ago called Centerfold Syndrome - How men can overcome objectification and achieve intimacy with women by Gary R Brooks. Very very interesting. I reckon his work has been undervalued...probably because it doesn't suit the commercial world. Distortion of the beautiful act of lovemaking is a money making industry.

But...we have all been complicit in allowing this. We sure have hit the bottom of the barrel when it comes to degradation of both sexes. Ah well, onwards and upwards, eh?

Extract:

"...In the latter half of this century (20th), however, this component of men's sexuality has been so exploited, distorted, and outrageously exaggerated that the emotional and sexual health of most contemporary men has been seriously compromised."

It is up to us as individuals to decide whether to support this industry in its many forms or not. I leave you to draw your own conclusions.