Gone Nanowrimo

Dear Readers,

 

I’ve gone nanowrimo for the month, there will be no blogging until December.

All the best to you fello nanowrimos out there, onward to 50,ooo words.

I am glad to be in the company of the Soul Fooders whilst doing this.

 

 

June

 

Unity’s Garden

(For reference and orientation to this character and her friends visit Unity Bell’s Cabin)

Unity and her friends stood at the entrance to the next cave. It was an ancient tree with a heart opening. They had a positive feeling about this cave.

Kiona went ahead and they could hear her exclaiming ‘ Oh I cannot believe the garden in here.’ They followed, and Armful of Tiger Lillies was singing the most uplifting tune inside Unity’s head.

‘In the garden of Thy heart plant naught but the rose of love’

Shruti was speechless, and seemed far less anxious than she had before. She was busily identifying all of the plants

‘hibiscus, ginger, roses….’

It did not make sense that so many kinds of flowers could exist so harmoniously in one space, but they did.

Then there were the birds. A bird no bigger than a butterfly flew over Unity’s shoulder. It had a black coloured head, and yellow jacketed body. It was delightful. She put her hand out and it flew over her.

Just as they were settling in they felt the sprinkling of rain – a rain which began to pelt down so they went to seek shelter in the garden.

‘Oh what I would give to always live in a garden like this,’ Unity said aloud.

Shruti sighed, ‘Yes it is just so beautiful the way it rambles, we can stay here awhile can’t we,’

The donkey’s were all delighted, even with the heavy rain. It was like being in a delightful dream.

It was then that they first came across Nature girl.

(to be continued)

For more of this adventure visit Unity’s Garden

Protected: Thankfulness Theme – Lesson 6 Book 3b combined with Indigenous

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Refuge

A shelter cannot withstand everything. Sometimes large waves come and they wash everything, or almost everything away.

Every time a large wave comes the people can only run as fast as they can to the mountains. If they are not fast enough, or do not hear the warnings quickly enough they are often lost. They may cling on for dear life, to anything they can grab.

They end up in the hungry mouth of the wave, which devours them like some ravenous dragon.

September 2009 the waves were precipitated by quakes, and they hit American Samoa, Samoa. Whole villages and families wiped out. In Indonesia there were quakes, and thousands of people were killed and missing. In both places people were displaced, homeless, weeping by the wreckage.

‘In Samoa there are no degrees of separation,’ said one reporter, everyone is connected to someone that went away.

I have never been in one of these waves. Although I have tried to live in the lands they come to and wanted to move to Fiji or to Hawaii and made attempts to do so. My heart is out there in the tropical islands. I’ve been as far as Kiribati- where for two weeks I had just a small taste of culture and challenges. My daughter loves learning Indonesian. She likes the culture and would like to travel there, as well as Japan one day.

People live along fault lines. They make their homes wherever they are born, and wherever history has led them to settle. They do not check the science and move to where it might be physically safest. Beside what is safe. Sometimes the places along the fault lines are the friendliest, kindest places you could live. You don’t choose where you are born, although you may travel far from the place you were born. You may end up traveling to the place where the fault lines are.

A nun has said she does not see these recent natural disasters as acts of God. You know nature just happens as it will. You make the best of it and do what you need to in such emergencies. A sensible woman of faith she made sure all in her care were as safe as possible.

Yet, there are acts of disaster made by humans. There are bigger waves toppling thousands upon thousands of people. Waves of materialism, civil war, despair, not caring about others and doing great injustice to others- these are just as scary, if not more scary than these disasters are. Sometimes the disasters bring these waves with them- looting, stealing and fraud.

Where is refuge? Refugees move in waves, into tent villages- they rebuild, or they move out. My heart is with the refugees as I see their children crying on the television.

How can I help? Perhaps I can give some spare money, even sacrifice a few things to give something to help those out. Yet, I have more than one wave to deal with. I must deal with those other waves, the ones I need to protect those I love from.

I want my children to care when things happen to others, whether it’s the neighbour, someone at school or someone overseas. I want them to see all of those near or far as part of their family. I want to create a family that is a refuge.

Our refuge is for those we love, and when it’s the whole world it’s for all those in it. Sometimes it is not always easy to welcome people in, they may take advantage and end up being so selfish, we must send them back out into the world, as the mother superior says to Maria in Sound of Music, ‘we are not a place to run away from your problems you must face them.’ So when we build a refuge it’s not a place to hide, but a place to build strength, and to grow.

Refuges provide shelter. The shelter may be a simple cave, a tent, a house, a caravan, or under the open stars in a swag. Yet as I have said a refuge is more than that. A refuge is a place to heal, to pray, to build up strength, to laugh and cry. It is a place we can pop in and out of. Perhaps the only long lasting refuges lie in faith, ethics and caring for others. We then build refuges that a wave can only temporarily knock down.

So today I think on refuges and refugees and how we need to shelter each other. It is not a time to reflect on what we have lost, but what we can give.

© June Perkins, 2009