2017

Another New Year's Eve and the regular early night planned ... the lure of alcohol fuelled revelries resisted and new neighbours hopefully quiet ... the holiday cottage next door but one is occupied, so a wild party is yet possible ...

The year has an interim feel ... mostly spent in Stanhope as the long running inheritance saga finally bears fruit with attendant paperwork ... proposed Camino postponed as cottage purchase dragged on, though a month in the sun with Susie, sandwiched with The Barn retreat and the wonderful work week at Brockwood Park, extended by ten days, provided nourishment for mind, body and soul ... next year's work week already booked and a Camino or two anticipated as the status of the cottage on Railway Terrace resolves into the Retreat House previously planned on Front Street and the first retreatant booked for Tuesday ... meanwhile the library is growing, new shelves a priority ...

Since walking with the pack curtails study, this house based year has enabled plenty of reading and a spacious routine, including occasional minibus driving with the elders ... service in the community being an essential element of life, alongside fresh air, good food, exercise and the always seductive solitude ... if a resolution is needed for next year, maybe more interaction with fellow human beings is it ... and maybe the Retreat House is a step in that direction ...

The occasional reminder from FB of thoughts and events over the past five years suggests that most of the time has been deepening rather than expanding ... maybe old encrusted brain cells are content with the current version of reality ... maybe the formless philosophy, integrated into a life embodying compassion, simplicity and patience is the pathless path to the truth or even the Truth ... and whether that's right or not, what is clear is that FB recalls more about me than the conventional memory bank does ...

Happy New Year, dear reader(s), and thanks for your attention!

Boxing Day ...

Boxing Day dawns brighter after yesterday's rather drizzly weather and a long walk over the fells inspires a festive edition of Wear and Dao for any readers still hoping for inspiration or entertainment after a patchy period ... it is the pilgrimages that provide the juiciest material and it is the next pilgrimage that is a current focus ... the Via de la Plata calling ...

As for the Christmas season, it is passed pleasantly enough with a combination of visits with daughters and friends, and  trips with the elders, including a Nativity performed by the local junior school children, 9 Lessons and Carols at the cathedral in Durham, assisted shopping and several Christmas lunches, including the rather special one on Christmas Day in the church hall yesterday, inspired by a local teenager who wondered what folks wanting company were doing ... Ruth and her family are still organising the event three years on ...

Special thanks to Jennie for a wonderful linguistic addition with "vague 'un" to describe folks aspiring to a plant based diet though without taking it too seriously ... sounds familiar, though mammal flesh has been avoided for nearly thirty years without noticeable negative effects ... dairy products currently reduced due to the interesting discovery that official regulations specify how much blood and pus is permitted ... ethical concerns on animal welfare add weight, though maybe as a secondary layer to be truthful ... the initial impulse to avoid corpse eating was due to the routine use of antibiotics in animal husbandry ...

Reading material, possibly perversely, is the Autobiography of a Yogi by Yogananda and the weightier Introduction to Buddhism by Peter Harvey, sometime Reader in Buddhist Studies at the University of Sunderland ... the more familiar Christian story no longer resonating, though Yogananda, having decamped to California in 1920, includes many biblical references in his work ... neither Hinduism nor Buddhism calling strongly, though both offer interesting insights ... current thinking maintains the formless path or non-path, the very attempt to organise systems around religious insight identified as problematical ... 

The conclusion to recent musings on the purpose of the newly acquired cottage on the edge of Stanhope seems to be to try to transcend the perils of property by offering it as a Retreat through the "A Place to Be" network and see what transpires ... the more sensible AirBnB option remains, and of course family and friends are always welcome ...

Anchor or Base?

The editor writes to enquire about the lack of blogging, musing on whether the settled life has turned into Groundhog Day... prompting a report on progress as the mind wrestles with the consequences of property ownership ... the mundane details of furnishing from scratch, the slightly more interesting designing of the necessary upgrades ... the insight gleaned from managing a never extinguished coal fire to maintain the cosiness, which is an experience to be learned from though not necessarily every winter ... bearing in mind that winter in Stanhope is longer than in the Algarve (the focus of occasional thoughts for the New Year) ...

On a philosophical level it is noted that the concept of property ownership has made little impression, since "mine" infers a "me", an entity fundamentally non-existent, as described in several previous posts and a great liberation as the concept is embodied in daily life ...

The metaphors employed to tell the story to interested friends and neighbours include anchor holding "me" in place, versus base for exploration ... anchor in boat terminology is, of course, a temporary feature anyway ... and having a base to return to, whilst limiting the freedom experienced in the past three years, need not be a constraint to more wandering ... the cottage is being set up anyway with two bedrooms for guests (via AirBnB or whatever) and a micro bedroom for returning explorers ... all managed by a friend in the village, who is also taking care of the renovations ... symptoms of vitamin D3 deficiency have been noted and sunshine is prescribed, along with walking and talking with pilgrims ... Seville to Santiago over six weeks sounds appealing...

Meanwhile, regular readers may have noted the big idea for a Retreat House in Stanhope has fallen away ... though the house is still for sale and the vision lurking in the field of possibility, the collective energy has not yet gathered ... let's see ... anyway, the cottage may be a mini-retreat ... the library is growing ... 

Daily life, not yet Groundhog Day, passes peacefully, with occasional driving with Wheels to Meals, lots of walking the fells, plenty of reading (mostly Daniel Borstin's wonderful "The Discoverers, A History of Man's Search to Know His World and Himself"... man, his and himself, of course, clumsily including the other gender, although women are thin on the ground, whether through bias or a feature of roles throughout these ages territory dodged by this blogger, conditioned by feminist views in relationships professional and domestic ...) ... the mid-winter light festival approaches, celebrated here with a paradoxical partnership of Christian mythology and Mammon indulgence ... all observed wryly ... the solstice and the return to longer days more important for me, whoever that is ...