TIME OUT! - LET'S JUST STOP FOR A MOMENT

When I was younger older people would always be saying things such as 'Doesn't time fly?' I never thought it did then, time was just something that was around, I now think that my life was so blissfully unstructred by time tables that time didn't fly. Now say, thirty to forty years on, I think time is 'flying' but the worrying thing is that it is not just older people saying this, I hear people all over saying this, I see people on writing in their blogs, 'where has this week gone to?' and even my daughter in her early twenties thinks time flashes by. I bet there is not one of you out there who will not agree that Christmas seems months and months ago.

I am seriously begining to wonder what is wrong with time. Has it really speeded up? Are we so focused on the future and things that are to come that we have lost the capacity to enjoy and relish the present moment? I know we can't ignore time, most of us have places to be and to be doing something at certain times. It is our societies that have speeded up time, and we have no option, if we don't want to be homeless and penniless but to go along with this crazy speeding up. No wonder, there is so much stress and unhappiness.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to ignore time for a day or two, it's an experiment I want to try some time soon. Yes, I know we will have a rough idea because of day and night, but I sometimes think if that was what our bodies could tune into time would slow down. The faster we try to cram more and more into our days the faster time goes. Even with things like meditation, we tend to slot it into the schedule, twenty minutes here, ten minutes there.

I am working on ideas of how to slow down time, at least for a little part of my life. I am thinking of some ideas that might help us achieve that. If any of you have any ideas, leave a comment, I am going to make a sidebar badge, and when I post it any of you can take it and put it on your sidebars if you wish to join with me and try to slow down time.

Friday, was a wonderful day, I had just settled down with a cup of coffee when the mail lady knocked. A box was there for me all the way from Gemma in Arizona, containing two healing spirit dolls. One was for the Hello Dolly Swap we are both involved in and the other was for a private swap we did as a practice for Hello Dolly.



First out of the box was the Green Man, this was the personal swap that Gemma and I did. [his photograph heads up this posting], the photopraph of the back of him and his words of wisdom are below. I was so pleased with the Green Man, a particular favourite of mine, I have a roundel of him that protects my garden. Also included was this wonderful Native American poem about the Green Man as tree, and I am sure you will agree that the sentiments in this poem are so pertinent to what I was talking about above and the world today.



The writing on the back of the Green Man doll says TO THEE AND TREE FOR NEW GROWTH AND HONORING ROOTS.




The Sprit Healing doll is a Zuni Kachina, and it wears a Zuni mask and has Zuni fetishes, of hare, yellow bird and turquoise leaf, and corn and shells used in rituals tied around the waist. I was thrilled to see Hare as one of the fetishes, as it is an animal that means a lot to me. Again there is a very sage poem to go with this Kachina which I have reproduced below. Both of these dolls have the most wonderful musky smoky fragrance eminating from them and the first evening I put them on my bedside table and went to sleep with this wonderful smell wafting by me and around me. I am perfectly serious when I say that I had the best night's sleep for weeks that night and I put that down to the dolls by the bedside and their healing powers.



A couple of weeks ago I received a Wise Woman doll from Robyn, and with all my computer problems etc, I am very much afraid that I never really got to talk about this doll or post a photograph of it. Well, I am making up for that now. I call this doll Meg, after a poem I vaguely remember at school about a gypsy called Meg Merilees. She sits on my artroom table and sends me out good vibes whilst I am creating. She also has much healing within her and she keeps my workroom calm. She has a very serene face but at times she also reminds me of myself with the woven bag she carries containing two healing semi-precious stones and a stick wand.



I now have three beautiful spirit dolls to soothe me when I work and to soothe me when I sleep. It is lovely to see my collection of art dolls growing like this. Thank you so much Robyn and Gemma, your dolls have touched my spirit.

I have had a lovely weekend, jotting down some creative ideas and although I don't really watch much television there is a programme I love, I don't know if anyone knows it, it is called 'Rosemary and Thyme' and is about two women who run a gardening business but also go around solving murders. A body always turns up in the shrubbery sooner or later. Well one channel had a weekend dedicated to this programme, so I had fun dipping in and out of different episodes, sunshine, beautiful gardens and a little sleuthing on the side what better way to spend a rainy weekend?