AofA's Hot To Trot Talking Points
Every Friday
Lots of people said they wished they’d been on this bus. It took 50 days.
‘Did you know that between 1957 and 1976, there was a regular bus service between London and Calcutta, India? The 32,700km (I like the metric system, sorry), the 50-day, 2-way bus route is the longest in the world.
The bus had sleeping berths and even a kitchen! You could travel with food and accommodation for just £145. The bus would stop at tourist attractions and for shopping in Vienna, Istanbul and Iran.
The bus journey took passengers from the UK to Belgium, West Germany, Austria, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Northern India.’
There was a debate about this one. And whether this is a truism. Personally, I love how 0’Donahue expresses it.
'Each one of us is alone in the world. It takes great courage to meet the full force of your aloneness. Most of the activity in society is subconsciously designed to quell the voice crying in the wilderness within you. The mystic Thomas a Kempis said that when you go out into the world, you return having lost some of yourself. Until you learn to inhabit your aloneness, the lonely distraction and noise of society will seduce you into false belonging, with which you will only become empty and weary. When you face your aloneness, something begins to happen. Gradually, the sense of bleakness changes into a sense of true belonging. This is a slow and open-ended transition but it is utterly vital in order to come into rhythm with your own individuality. In a sense this is the endless task of finding your true home within your life. It is not narcissistic, for as soon as you rest in the house of your own heart, doors and windows begin to open outwards to the world. No longer on the run from your aloneness, your connections with others become real and creative. You no longer need to covertly scrape affirmation from others or from projects outside yourself. This is slow work; it takes years to bring your mind home.’
JOHN O'DONOHUE
Excerpt from the book, Eternal Echoes
Ordering Info: https://johnodonohue.com/store
Connemara Cottage, Ireland
Photo: © Ann Cahill
We learnt not only is the fabulous Judy Dench 90, but she played a snail when she was at Prep School!
Member Ruth Fox asked if this was a poem or not. We decided it was.
Sometimes a kind of dialogue takes place between two aspects of mind.
‘Is this a poem? I don’t know. It just came out of me. And there was a third voice. The one that stepped forth to respond to a heartfelt plea.
When I read it back later I got a lump in my throat and tears in my eyes when I got to the last lines. Perhaps because it moved me I am sharing it.
I believe life is glorious. Mysterious. An unknown adventure. Full of experiences. Joy. Beauty. Boredom. Sadness. Pain. But low vibe preoccupations can blind me to the glory!!!
So I am sharing …
LIFE REVIEW
I let my life slip through my fingers like fine dry sand…
acceptance
I had many dreams I never pursued…
acceptance
I failed over and over again…
acceptance
I did not take best care of my body…
acceptance
I behaved badly…
acceptance
I have less time left than has gone before…
acceptance
I disallowed myself (and others) SO much…
acceptance
I did not learn what I could have learned…
acceptance
HOW? How can I accept all that??
Let go, Dear One. Let go.
Let go of all but Love.
Be free, my love, be free and revel in the glory of it all.’
I asked the group whether they had planned for getting older in terms of their housing. Some had moved into modern accessible houses with future physical compromise in mind, others were Over 50 and had moved too soon into safe housing and were bored. Others like me are still thinking what would be my ideal solution. Got to start somewhere.
Meg Lee Chin and the Temple of Ideas plus the Curious Club are hosting another of their fabulous, intimate, joyful evenings on Monday Dec 16th between 5 and 8. Do book a ticket. It’s free but you have to have a ticket. It was brilliant last time.