London Therapy Part Four

Kew Gardens has to be one of the most therapeutic places in London. The last time we went was on a lovely sunny summers day in June. Our outing was enhanced by the presence of a range of Dale Chihuly glass sculptures.

City Visions

I travelled all over Europe in my late teens and early twenties from Glasgow, Dublin and Amsterdam across to Stockholm, Helsinki and Moscow, down to Belgrade, Athens and Istanbul and West to Florence, Madrid and Lisbon. My play 'Another day, another place' takes in many of the countries I visited. Below are descriptions of five of my favourite European cities excluding London.

When I last visited Berlin I had to go through Checkpoint Charley to get from the West to the East of the city. I remember the shiny new buildings in the west, surrounding the bombed out cathedral, the subway station, the Recistag, Potsdamer Platz and the Berlin Wall and the grand old buildings in East Berlin. It must have changed so much since I visited in 1988, it would be fascinating to return and see how it is as a unified city once more.

One memorable highlight of my visit to Copenhagen was Christiania, the liberal hippie camp, which had many crafty market stalls, I remember buying a very rude t-shirt I had previously seen being worn by the dancer Michael Clark. I also enjoyed the Danish beer on offer and a walk by the sea to view the small statue of Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid. Wonderful, wonderful Copenhagen, indeed, it must be the Hygge.

Moscow was very different from any place I had been before, possibly more so in the late 1980s when I got to visit it. The subway was the most beautiful I've seen, shining underground halls and plush trains, I don't know if this is any different now. I also walked around red square which boasts the Kremlin and the multicoloured onion domes of St Basil's church. When I was there there was a queue to visit Lenin's tomb. The shops were also sophisticated and quite Westernised.

I have very fond memories of Prague which I visited in the mid-1990s with my husband. I remember sitting in a grand square full of tall pastel coloured buildings watching the ornate astronomical clock chime. It was a bit like being in a Miyasaki film. We enjoyed walking across the King Charles bridge to the castle. We also watched a small production of Faust, bought wooden toys for a future child and enjoyed a dish of Czech goulash.

I first visited Paris when I was twenty and have now visited it five times. The Eurostar has made the connection between London and Paris quick and easy. I have visited many touristy sites in Paris; Montmatre, Sacre Coer, Notre Dame, The Louvre, Champs Elysie, Arc de Triomphe, Eifel Tower; as well as the more unusual Museem D'Orsay, a transformed railway station, and Pere Lachaise Cemetery, where Jim Morrison is buried. On my last visit, in 2015, I enjoyed a walk along the Sane and a first hand view of the Euro Disney fireworks. On a future visit to the city I might venture into the catacombs.

Virtuous cards and scenters

I began my virtue project in 2007, back then it was part of my WebFlowers project. I started with the seven contrary virtues; Humility, Generosity, Chastity, Temperence, Patience, Kindness, Diligence. These virtues are contrary to the seven deadly sins; Pride, Greed, Lust, Gluttony, Anger, Envy, Sloth. When I started developing ALF Creations @ the Star Heart Cafe I wanted very much to incorporate the virtues into my arts, crafts, and writing.

My virtuous cards include the Star Heart Virtues : Grace, Peace, Love, Hope, Joy and Faith and the manly virtues; Valiant, Loyal and Earnest. The first four virtue haiku cards I created as part of my 'typographical challenge' are Humility, Kindness, Patience and Diligence.

My virtuous scenters include my lavender star hearts and virtuous flowers which are inspired by these words from St Paul.

'Clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Forgive as the lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love.' Colossians 3:12-14

The Six by Six Book Challenge

To help me cope with life better I decided to develop my newly rediscovered joy of fiction reading into a small challenge to read six books in six months. The first six by six book challenge ran from January to June 2019. Here are the reviews of the six books I read.
 

Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami

This book is mostly about the growing pains of a fifteen year old boy, Kafka Tamura, as he runs away from home, in a vague attempt to grow up and find himself. The book features quite a bit of death, sex and violence, but also a library, poetic visions, music and art, as we follow Kafka's journey towards manhood as well as the poignant journey of a strange old man called Nakata, who can talk to cats and knows a lot of weird stuff, even though he's quite backward and childlike. This is the first fiction book I have read for over a year, it didn't disappoint; it was mostly sheer escapism.

The Guest Cat by Takashi Hiraide

This is a sweet book. You get to know a bit about the Japanese economy and housing crisis of the late 1980s and early 1990s, as well as how a small cat can come to mean so much to an aloof, literary couple. The book was poignant rather than happy, it had a touch of sadness about it, as the march of technology and big business rides roughshod over a dwindling amount of city green spaces. It was also a quick read, it only took a week out of my life.

The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend by Katarina Bivald


I got on well with this book, which is interesting as the main character is always going on about preferring books to people. The story concerns a young Swedish woman who arrives in an American small town, Broken Wheel, and almost inadvertently opens a book shop. The book features many soothing descriptions of everyday life and many quirky characters. The book has a happy enough ending and I felt it was a very comforting read.

This book will save your life by A.M. Homes

I found this book a little difficult in places, it was a bit fast paced and mad. I think its madness and weirdness were partly to do with its Los Angeles setting. Towards the end of the book I started understanding it more and began to get its message. The protagonist's life starts off clean and orderly and by the end of it it is messy and unpredictable, he is, almost literally, in the middle of an ocean in a rowing boat with no oars, but he also, finally, realises that the meaning of his life lies in being useful to others, not cutting himself off and being totally self-absorbed.

The reader on the 6.27 by Jean-Paul Didierlaurent

This is a sweet, down-to-earth story that concerns a worker in a book pulping factory who falls in love with a lavatory attendant, whose diary he finds on a memory stick left on his commuter train. The story contains many intriguing characters. The hero entertains his fellow commuters by reading pages salvaged from the books he pulps, before reading pages from the lavatory attendant's diary to his rapt audience. His main companions are his goldfish and an ex-factory-worker who lost his legs to the book pulping machine. I found the book to be strangely heart-warming.

A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki

This book has been promoted as a mood boosting book, but I think there is a lot in it that is quite sad and disturbing. It concerns a woman in a remote town in Canada who finds the diary of a Japanese girl washed up with the debris of a tsunami. The Japanese girl is living a troubled life in a small flat in Tokyo with her suicidal father and her overworked mother, she is having a terrible time in school but finds some strength from an old Buddhist nun and the memory of her kamikaze pilot son. The book did have much that was wise and insightful in it and left me with a lot to think about.

 

The Six by Six Book Challenge for January to June 2019 has proved so useful that I hope to pursue another Six by Six Book Challenge for July to December 2019. The books I hope to read, maybe in this or another order, are.

1. We have always lived in the castle by Shirley Jackson

2. Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion

3. The Hoarder by Jess Kidd

4. Wabi-Sabi by Francesc Miralles

5. Life of Pi by Yann Martel

6. The mindful path to self compassion by C.K. Germer

6 new-ish therapy books for 2019

In the light of changing moods and time restraints I revised my list of therapy books I intend to read for this year. The descriptions of them are below.

The Happy Kitchen by Rachel Kelly, London, short Books, 2017

Wellbeing and therapy are never far from my mind so it made sense to me to acquire a wellbeing cookbook. This book has interesting information on mineral and vitamin supplements which I am very keen on. The author explains how healthy eating helped with her depression. At the back is a helpful section on mindful eating.

Living beautifully with uncertainty and change by Pema Chodran, Boulder, Shambhala, 2012

I find Pema Chodron's Buddhist wisdom strangely comforting, it is about embracing our fears, our uncertainty, the imperfection and impermanence of life, it warns about clinging to false certainties, because really, no none really knows.

We're all mad here by Claire Eastham, London, Jessica Kingsley, 2017

This book appears on many mental health help lists and I thought it would be good for me to read to further help my family. The chapters offering advice to caregivers and also on how to make your own plan for healing and recovery were the ones I found most useful.

The Mindfulness Journal by Corinne Sweet, London, Boxtree, 2014

I thought this book would be a small, sweet book to dip into now and then, it was actually a lot more in depth and instructional than that and I found myself reading the whole of it with great interest. It has great advice on using mindfulness to get through everyday life in a much more meaningful and relaxing way.

Mindful crafting by Sarah Samuel, London, Leaping Hare Press, 2018

I was not sure what to expect of this book, I knew it wasn't a picture book so was wondering what it had to say. I found it full of wise words about how important craft and creativity are to our wellbeing, regardless of how good we are. Mindful crafting explains how to go with the flow, to not be scared of making mistakes, how to create from the soul not for the ego. The book ends with an important chapter on the value of crafting in the face of anonymous mass production.

The mindful path to self-compassion by C.K. Germer, New York, Guilford Press, 2009

This is a bigger book than my other therapy books for the year. I may get around to reading it, but I am really enjoying mood boosting fiction atm. I decided to leave the Wise Heart by Jack Kornfield for another year.