Embracing the ordinary (and staying alive to the extraordinary)

Cradle of civilisation means the place where civilisation began to flourish. Civilisation was able to thrive because it had what it needed. One answer on Wiki answers to the question: "What does Cradle of civilisation mean?" I have been thinking about this for quite a few days. But it has been a conscious continuation of subconscious leanings I've had for years ... Allow me to explain: On a recent, very lovely, trip to Kew Gardens, I overheard 4 remarks addressed to children that made my toes curl and my insides broil. "Don't run!" was the first, shouted after a little girl who had taken off down the path, with Mousy tucked safely under her arm. She had places to be and sights to explore with her friend. Grandpa wasn't going fast enough. The path was smooth and visibility clear. I so badly wanted to ask: "why not?". In this wide open space that invites running, exploring, undoing the chains and restrains of ci

"Our shadow self is any part of ourselves or our institutions that we try to hide or deny because it seems socially unacceptable." Richard Rohr  It has been a longer gap since the last blog than I'd like to have. But sometimes life happens in mysterious ways. There have been a few planned an unplanned trips and it has left me with a lot of home type stuff to catch up on. We have also added to our Animal Kingdom by the addition of a small puppy (read: sleepless nights, housetraining disasters, planning adjustments) and in other happy news, the escapee turtle found its way back, right into the cage, which I had dismantled and moved by about 100m! One of many little home type jobs to catch up on, is the weeding of the rather large flower bed. On Friday, Timmy and I decided to tackle the task. I was occupied with the spreading of some wood chippings and asked Timmy to start. He did many trips to the compost bin with large hand-fulls of weeds, but no discernible prog