My dear Dad died March 2011 and I took myself away for some quiet time, having discovered a wonderful priory in the New Forest run by a small order of nuns – www.dominicansistersofstjoseph.org. At the time there were just nine sisters (one in hospital) who would attend the four daily services and each time they would sing like a full choir of angels – a complete blessing to be present in their own delightful chapel. Plus for me the discovery of the book ‘Peter Calvay, The Prophet’ by Rayner Torkington which helped to facilitate yet another deeper level of my relationship with the divine through being immersed in this special loving spiritual environment at the Priory. The words ‘Christ has died, Christ is Risen, Christ will come again’ took on another meaning when I understood that the only way Christ will return is when we, as individuals, see that this is to be done in the form of Christ Consciousness, when we begin to align our own self and think and act as he did.
The end of that year I offered to lead another local charity group for the elderly, quite similar to the Contact the Elderly group but this one was weekly. There materialised a lovely surprise here when Peter who organised the transport for the meeting and I discovered we had been together in the same class for five years at our junior school and have resumed our friendship, neither of us had changed much that much!. With the leadership also came the book-keeping ‘hat’ as they didn’t have anyone to wear it. This part I found the most challenging, getting into quite a few knots, in between most weeks when trying to balance the books and which proved to be the main factor for me to resign after about 7 months. However, this was not before I had had the chance to fulfil my second life long wish by volunteering to do a tandem sky dive to raise funds for the charity. The first wish had been the ubiquitous tatoo – done a few years previous when I had God scribed on my shoulder in the form of the ‘ohm’ sanskit symbol.
The skydive was just such an amazing experience from the moment I said I was going to do it – I had firmly decided there was to be no room for silly fear – that the day was going to perfect, with sunshine all day and I was going to enjoy every moment of it.
The whole day was completely as I had asked – divinely led– on an airfield just outside Salisbury Sunday 27th May 2012was the most beautiful, sunny day. The Universe even arranged that my tandem sky-dive buddy was a kind & cuddly para-medic called Max. We went up to 10,000 feet flying over Stonehenge before we jumped, free falling to 6,000 before pulling the ripcord, even being allowed to take control of the yellow handle which manouevered the direction. I didn’t want the experience to end. It was totally exhilarating. I even remembered to honour the moment and say a huge thank you to the Universe whilst floating down under a beautiful rainbow coloured canopy. Magic. – TYG
So by now really feeling that ‘I Am’ a loved child of Godand all the evidence to support this was becoming more clear with each day, I felt inspired to look into how many times this message in the form of ‘I am that I am’ had been delivered throughout history. And I compiled a 5000 year chronicle which coincided with all the cycles, which were being talked about by so many, around this memorable December 21st2012. My chronicle was entwined with relevant symbolic events and based on the ‘I AM’ message – and all those who had understood the power of knowing this.
It was such an empowering exercise, seeing manifest before me the names of such incredible souls & influential thinkers and ethnic groups and times in history, all validating this Universal message. Especially the words from the Emerald Tablet allegedly written between 5,000 and 3,000 BC “As below, so above; and as above so below. With this knowledge alone you may work miracles”.
This too, may explain why I kept, and still have the catholic church bulletin dated 24th April 1988 wherein it’s front page reads “Saint Catherine of Siena (1347 – 1380) is famed for her spiritual writing. This is from one of her treatises;“Eternal Trinity, you are like a deep sea, in which the more I seek, the more I find; and the more I find, the more I seek you”. I think that when I first read those words, nearly 30 years ago now, they must have really resonated with me on such a deep level, because that seeking is what I have done ever since. TYG
I am sure you will agree that the Universe has really shown me it’s loving grace in this life time and guided me, and I believe this is why I have felt so naturally inclined to repay with the service that I have willingly carried out. Knowing that I had so much, it felt only right that I should share my abundance. There were times I felt quite guilty over this, eventually realising that there had to be an example of what life can be like when one has awareness and can live accordingly to manifest joy and abundance and I should not be guilty, humble yes, but to stand in this loving benevolence from the Divine, accepting and acknowledging that our outer life reflects where we are ‘at’ on this spiritual path, always remembering that what we give out we get back – the basic Law of Karma is always subtly precise.
The Universe has given me so many wonderful opportunities for precious time away, many blessed weekends spent at the B.K. Retreat Centre at Nuneham Courtenay and in 2013 found me responding to an advert in the Cygnus Review magazine which “offered an opportunity to heal deeply on your journey to enlightenment. All genuine truth seekers welcome” An amazing four days of personal revelations were spent here at www.cotswoldhealingretreat.co.uk see My coursework for the testimonial I left in Louisa’s visitors book. Amazing too, the synchronisity of finding the secondRayner Torkington book, Peter Calvay – Hermit, which was actually sitting, waiting for me on the book shelf in my bedroom. In this book, the personal challenge for me, was to look at my relationship with God and my own realisation that if I really wanted to cultivate this divine friendship, I must spend more sacred time with him/her, as one does with a true friend.
I think this is the right moment to explain in greater detail why this time away alone is so important for me. When I moved to Bournemouth in 2001, John lived in a tiny one bedroomed bunglow which was already full and very much in its original 1950’s condition . So when I joined him there was very little free space available for my own goods and chattels. We did renovate the bathroom two years ago, however in such a crowded space already, the upheaval was such that neither of us are eager to repeat it soon. Also my John spends very little time away from home – so some time by myself, in a clutter free environment is absolute bliss and so appreciated by my mind, body and soul. And the Universe has been so very, very generous. TYG. It has also worked both ways for John to have some space and peace within his own home, he too, has been very appreciative. He has also been fully understanding and supportive of my need for this respite, bless him.
When we first met in 1997 John said it would be wonderful if we could have 10 years together, and here we are 20 years later, with a unique blessed friendship that we know is divinely orchestrated. We are humbly only too aware of this amazing experience of our love, and often during the day when we give each other a hug, we will pause with awareness, and bring to mind all those whom we know who aren’t able to have a hug & consciously invite them into our embrace and share this loving moment.
Another set-back for my earth best friend John happened when his little kidney started to suffer and showed in a blood test that it wasn’t filtering as it should and needed some help. Now today, 3 years since his operation in 2014, his kidney has been assisted by a catheter fitted directly through his tummy into his bladder. John’s fortitude has once again seen him able to accept, adjust and adapt to this new bit of plumbing. However it has taken its’ toll on his energy levels and he has had to learn to pace himself accordingly – which he is the first to acknowledge he is not too good at.
It was John who suggested in 2015 that I should place an advert offering myself as a respite carer/companion in the Lady magazine. This proved to be a great success and for the next two years I had some interesting responses, resulting in about ten weeks worth of well paid assignments. The 90 year old mother of one of these responses was a founder member at Findhorn and the bedroom I was sleeping in had an amazing bookcase full of inspirational, spiritual books from the 1940/50’s. Once again, the Universe was kind selecting some really lovely clients who lived in some of the most beautiful English villages with chocolate box thatched cottages and names such as Great Bedwyn, East Cholderton, Malacca Farm just outside Guildford. There were some valuable lessons at this time when having to rely solely on myself, however knowing and using the help that was available from the divine source when I prayed.
Another test for John came just over a year ago when at the opticians he was diagnosed with cataracts in both eyes and age related macular degeneration AMD and told that he wasn’t safe to drive – what a blow. However, once again the Universe has been totally amazing and in this last year he has had cataract operations on both eyes on our wonderful NHS and went back to the same opticians 14 months later and has been told he can drive again. TYG – you are incredible and thank you for these continuing miracles.
Nearly finished ……………………………promise…