Sick with a heavy head and chest cold

Sick for three days
A heavy head cold
a streaming nose
in bed
feverish
but strangely it is a blessing
I have listened to the crickets
and the rain
I have watched the night sky
steal its way
behind the dusk
behind the vast gum tree
outside my bedroom window

I have opened to the silence
and to the stillness in myself….
It takes sickness to shut
the chattering voices…
Inside

“Illnesses are the poor man’s travels”
said Charles-Louise Phillipe…
MG

I feel very nurtured by the readings that I am engaged in with first year students this semester. We have this wonderful new text book John E. Schwiebert’s Reading and Writing from Literature. Every page is filled with wisdom and delight. Amongst many things, especially powerful for me just now is Linda Hogan’s short essay “Waking up the Rake” which is filled with the grace of recognizing that whatever we do in life, wherever we work “is our altar”. By which she means that whatever we are given to do is a place where we can work with balance, with gratitude and with a sense of connection to our purpose. For her it is “raking” in the “Birds of Prey Rehabilitation Foundation”. A wonderful essay that one can apply to one’s own life and circumstances.
For second and third year students contemplating the teaching workforce in a year or so – put this book down as a “must have” it is a wonderful resource of the best “deep and meaningful” writing around….

This coming week second and third years are both embarking on library and art gallery visits…. please check Blackboard for the details on these visits if you have missed them.