Category: Books

London

Grace

During the Summer of 2019, I was sitting in Hanushka Coffee House on George St in Hastings with Dan (we call it the “book cafe” and they do amazing lattes and paninis and have shelves of books you can read) and was looking through one of their books with a page about Batemans (Jacobean house owned by Rudyard Kipling) and noticed this quote and liked it so much wrote it down on something I had to hand –

God gives all men all earth to love,
But, since man’s heart is small,
Ordains for each one spot shall prove
Beloved over all.

From “Sussex” by Rudyard Kipling

Later I noticed I had noted it down on a London Tube map and thought it was rather fitting – despite that I may not live there again and thinking that I prefer the countryside and seaside, perhaps London is my beloved over all ❤︎

Which spot of earth is beloved over all for you?

Colour Pencils

Grace

Been wanting to use some colour pencils that need sharpening for a while. They are chunkier than the standard size, I had a large size pencil sharpener for them but it got broken when the bag it was in got caught in my bicycle wheel when I was cycling to a yoga lesson through Toyama park and I hadn’t got around to getting a new one. This morning while removing flash cards from a yoga anatomy colouring book I suddenly and joyfully realized I could sharpen them with Dan’s penknife!

This pose is Janu Sirsasana – head to knee pose – a forward bend to help gently look forward to the coming year, yet still holding 2020 – a year that has stretched many of us beyond what we can bear.

The Unseen

Grace

While walking along Hastings beachfront with my nephew, I asked him “How do you know if the past and future exist if you can’t see them? Where are they?” and he replied “Don’t be such an idiot, Grace!! just because you can’t see something doesn’t mean it isn’t there!”

D’ye see, after allowing a little space for the light to spread, nothing resting?

Day into night, and through night into day the remote, Unseen

Eventually to be visited:

After being chased, through night, through darkness, successful in the end, the wind and sea allies;

Touching the heart

worked anew.

Made this poem using an exercise in a journal/ notebook called “THE STEAL LIKE AN ARTIST JOURNAL” by Austin Kleon. I love it! It seems to inspire and release creativity 🙂
#stealjournal

Perfect

Grace

While staying with my family in the UK this summer, I was rather taken with this translation of the Upanishads by Shree Purohit Swami and W. B. Yeats which I found on my stepdad’s book shelf. Especially the first few lines:

That is perfect. This is perfect. Perfect comes from perfect. Take perfect from perfect, the remainder is perfect.

May peace and peace and peace be everywhere.

Sometimes I find it hard to see perfection in everything, but never hard to see in my son Dan!

What do you see as perfect?