(Rest in)Peace

21/04/2008 by Aileen.

It’s so peaceful. I usually spend Monday mornings rushing round the house doing housework, but I’ve stopped to do a bit more of my Website report. The door’s open into the garden and I can hear a thrush, wrens and dunnocks singing. A few minutes ago I saw a few goldfinches - not enogh for a charm I believe - and rushed for my camera. By the time I got it they had gone. I’m listening out for the kingfisher, which Ihaven’t heard this year.

It was very distracting during my meditation. I felt like I was in a woodland glade, and it would have been easy to say, ‘Just relax and listen to the bird song instead.’ But meditation, contrtary to popular belief, is hard work. It takes discipline.

I was quite stressed last week and cried twice. Once was too silly for words. Then on Friday there was a news item about a man who died in the street, and no one had helped him. My dad had a heart attack and died in Victoria Street, London, in 1984. I was crying for him. We found out that he had been coming back from sisiting his brother in Norfolk, and had got off the bus a little before Victoria Coach Station. Maybe he wanted money from the bank, or to pop into the cathedral, or knew he wasn’t feeling well. A shop keeper said a passerby asked if he was alright, and he said he would be in a minute. He had a little cut on his head where he had fallen.

Kevin came round to tell me, but I was out with friends at Wimbledon Theatre watching Children of a Lesser God. When I came in John told me our dad had died and I said, ‘You’re joking!’ which was not the sort of response John had expected! I was just so shocked.

Posted in family, birds, Open University | Print | No Comments »