Altered books and visual journaling (edited 20/03/2016)

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Scan277Scan276Scan275Edited journal entry

In search of family…..

Father used to often tell me a story about his early years in Australia in the late 1950s. He described difficult living conditions on a farm in Queensland perhaps ….,, the lack of clean water, the poor sanitation conditions and accommodation, but above all the unbearable heat and the mosquitoes. He usually concluded that he had left that place for Sydney and that he had never looked back. My initial pity for what he had been through was usually followed by some physical discomfort, tightening of my chest, nausea or onset of mild dyspnoea. Sometimes I wondered about who or what he had left behind, but could not sustain those thoughts long enough to ask him more questions. As I grew up, I paid less and less attention to his stories. Members of the family were always telling me stories which weighed heavily down on me, and in any case, the present was already demanding too much of my energy leaving little space for me to pay adequate attention to what was communicated to me……

Altered books and visual journaling (continued)

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Scan274A blessing for one who is exhausted by John O’Donohue from ‘Blessings’

When the rhythm of the heart becomes hectic,
Time takes on the strain until it breaks;
Then all the unattended stress falls in
On the mind like an endless, increasing weight,

The light in the mind becomes dim.
Things you could take in your stride before
Now become laborsome events of will.

Weariness invades your spirit.
Gravity begins falling inside you,
Dragging down every bone.

The tide you never valued has gone out.
And you are marooned on unsure ground.
Something within you has closed down;
And you cannot push yourself back to life.

You have been forced to enter empty time.
The desire that drove you has relinquished.
There is nothing else to do now but rest
And patiently learn to receive the self
You have forsaken for the race of days.

At first your thinking will darken
And sadness take over like listless weather.
The flow of unwept tears will frighten you.

You have travelled too fast over false ground;
Now your soul has come to take you back.

Take refuge in your senses, open up
To all the small miracles you rushed through.

Become inclined to watch the way of rain
When it falls slow and free.

Imitate the habit of twilight,
Taking time to open the well of colour
That fostered the brightness of day.

Draw alongside the silence of stone
Until its calmness can claim you.
Be excessively gentle with yourself.

Stay clear of those vexed in spirit.
Learn to linger around someone of ease
Who feels they have all the time in the world.

Gradually, you will return to yourself,
Having learned a new respect for your heart
And the joy that dwells far within slow time

Altered books and visual journaling (continued)

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Scan273While drinking coffee and eating cookies… this morning I leafed through a children’s book on Einstein, written by Liu Si-yuan and Li Lian-bu, illustrated by Giuliano Ferri and translated into Greek by Vaggelis Hiliopoulos, where I found the interesting quote below by Einstein :

‘If my theory of relativity is proven successful, Germany will claim me as a German and France will declare me a citizen of the world. Should my theory prove untrue, France will say that I am a German, and Germany will declare that I am a Jew’