Catching up on writing, creativity, Buddhism and life in general

Well hasn’t it been an interesting time over the past two or three years! 

It feels like a period of time has been lost, because of the pandemic – and yet it has also been a very busy time. There have been some quite radical changes in our life through this period, which is probably true for many people. In this post—my first since 2020—I offer a sketch of these changes.

My husband, Ngakpa ’ö-Dzin, retired from full-time employment in May 2019. It is quite an adjustment to move from being at home alone all day, five days a week, to almost never being at home alone. The transition has been gradual and creative and we are both enjoying having so much time together.

Because of the pandemic, physical attendance at Aro Ling Cardiff had to cease. We changed our weekly meditation group to a virtual meeting on Zoom. This has been most successful. For two years we included a short teaching as part of the meeting and these have been posted to YouTube. No longer needing premises for Aro Ling Cardiff created the unexpected benefit of being able to offer this space to our son to live when life became difficult for him during the pandemic. 

Battlecry of Freedom—my book about Mind Training (bLo sByong – Lojong—was published in 2019, and has been well received. It is published as a paperback and an e-book at Lulu, and available in all the usual channels, such as Amazon, Kindle, Barnes & Noble, and so on. I also created slogan cards, which can be purchased at makeplayingcards.com.

My next book, Travelling at the Speed of Mind, will hopefully be published by the end of the year.

 

 

 

As ever, I have continued with craft work, making items for myself, the home, and also for our grandchildren. The pictures are of the blankets I made for them last Christmas.

I have bought a knitting machine and a peg loom, and recently learned a new technique: fingerloop braiding. I’ll leave that for another post.

I did not continue with the Art Journalling for several years, having rather lost my inspiration. I also stopped tangling. However I have recently revived this interest and am enjoying drawing again.

 

Another new venture is the creation of my store at RedBubble. I’m not expecting to earn anything from it, but it is such fun to see my artwork on all sorts of items, such as mugs, T-shirts, scarves, bags, and so on. They will make nice presents if nothing else.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’ll stop here because this is getting quite long. I hope you have safely come through the pandemic and any other crises – such as Brexit in the UK. To finish, here are the details of our weekly meditation group which will start again on September 12th, marking the end of our summer break.

Monday Meditations.
7 - 8:30 pm on Zoom (UK time) every Monday.
Zoom meeting ID: 85249620913; Passcode: 640389.
Do join us for silent sitting and yogic song, with a short teaching in the middle.

The meetings are hosted by Ngakma Nor’dzin and Ngakpa ’ö-Dzin, an ordained teaching couple of the Aro gTér Lineage. They dedicate their time to practice, teaching, the Aro gTér Lineage, and working with their students. Ngakma Nor’dzin is an award winning author. Her books are: Spacious Passion, Relaxing into Meditation, Battlecry of Freedom, and Illusory Advice (co-authored with Ngakpa ’ö-Dzin).