Part 2 of 3; For this special time. Portal into Winter. Entering the dark. Embracing Love as the only story worth telling.

Live the love story. And wonder -  who writes it? This workshop is just another way of entering the same mystery; the presence of others that is all around us. The image is of The Diary of Samuel Pepys. 

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 I love explaining this. How I came to write memoir instead of fiction. it is because memoir is bearing witness to the fact you’re not in control but by telling the story you stay awake. You’re watching your life. So that’s what memoir is. And it’s a great therapy that I would recommend to everyone.

To practise the art of storytelling, and memoir, and bearing witness to your life, is a way of becoming very awake about your life and about the fact that you are in it but you’re not writing it.

So who writes your story. There's a big question.

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I need to tell you the news. I was in hospital. and maybe a bit of me wants to keep something like this private. But the thing is that what happens to us is our story. Someone else is writing it, and we're living it. And it's a very good practise to share what happens in your life with other people. It's a way of looking at your self from a distance.

And so let me share how I got into the hospital, what happened, and how all the people around me were healers. Hospital is so frightening, but it can be a place of great adventure and enlightenment.  I'm sending you love if you have any ailment this weekend, if you're in hospital, or worried about any health matter, whether it be body, mind or spirit. Warm wishes from the hills above Lough Allen.

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This podcast has some cuckoo stuff, and swallows, cats, rabbits and even Mr Putin. But the core of it is my desire to share with you this evening light. The fast falling darkness, coming this evening for the first time. Wintertime 2020. What a darkness. And we can avoid it. Or mark its' coming. Welcome in. Fear nothing. And expect in the silence to hear music. That's what Samhain is all about for me. And this evening begins my journey towards Samhain and into the month of November. A wonderful Celtic portal from Autumn to Winter. Here we go. Listen to it this evening if you can as the light fades, with a candle in the corner, or maybe the flickering fire, or listen to it any evening in the days to come. Warm wishes to you from the hills above Lough Allen. 

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I just finished recording a reading from my new book and I planned to put it on the podcast for Halloween. But since this is first weekend of lockdown I thought I'd begin Samhain now. We're here. We're in the portal of wintertime, at the threshold of the other realm, that haunts every darkness, and which is in the end the place where we find our joy. Happy Samhain. This is an extra podcast for this special time. And next weekend, when Halloween is really upon us, I hope to have a lot to tell you about my recent adventures. Thank you for subscribing to the podcast. I appreciate your company and support. We're having a dark winter this year, but I hope we will be able to find some beautiful moment, even in this dark now. 

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Two of my favourite memories. But where do people go. How impermanent is every moment. The past dissolves. All that is, is this moment. And since it's the first weekend of the winter lockdown, I've added an extra podcast which will be available at 3pm this afternoon. Thanks and have a great day.

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This week I'm sticking to stories from columns. Some of my favourites over the years. And reflecting on what is permanent, or is anything permanent. Memories are so much like falling leaves.  And I suppose when I read back or listen back on these stories, they give me an exquisite sense of nostalgia, a sense of the past that has dissolved. A sense that life is...... impermanent. And that's a kind of letting go. Every time I say to myself, here is a story of how real the world once was on a particular day, long ago, and yet all that happened and mattered in that moment is gone. it has dissolved. That's for me the nature of stories. They allow us let go. Each telling of a story is a deeper letting go of the past. Tell yourself stories in grief, because it allows the past to dissolve. Tell yourself stories in pain, because it allows the trauma to dissolve. Tell yourself stories because it allows you let go of everything for the sake of living now, in this moment. 

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I wanted to share these reflections which continue on from the previous podcast, because they are a way of showing you how I write; how the stories come from ordinary life, and how my emotions filter them, as they sustain me and then I retell them in books, columns or on this podcast. For me everything needs hope. So when I'm in shadow times, I cling to some trace of light. And I'm glad to say I am always haunted by love; the tenderness of heaven reaches into the darkest corner of our psyche. 

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The picture is of me and the singer Finbar Coady telling stories with Pavee Point many years ago. The podcast is the first half of a long chat with lots of stories to brighten your heart. or at least I hope it does. it brightens me to tell them, even if one or two are sad. The second half of this will come later, and the two haves make a single unit. Hope you like it.

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This is the podcast I put up yesterday; a reflection on Maureen Potter. Some people didn't succeed in downloading it. I know nothing about the technical side of things so I'm just repeating the download here, in the hope that everyone can access this one. Lovely Monday. Have a great Day. 

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