Interview by Reluctant Nomad

Okay the rules of this particular game are that if you would like to have similarly well-researched and probing questions you ask Reluctant Nomad to interview you ;-). No? Ow, that hurt... okay this is his second and he's already got another to do so perhaps we'd better stick to the real rules...

If you want to risk me interviewing you just leave a comment after this posting and I'll be glad to do so. The full rules are at the bottom after my answers.

I'm most impressed by Reluctant Nomad's summing up of me and his questions. The only quibble I'd have is that he describes me as "a strong believer" in synchronicity. I don't believe - I experience and I play and I find them wonderfully useful and fun. But then that really is a quibble since I'm aware that the role of belief comes in when we are called on to give credence to what others say about their experiences. Also I may not have always been sufficiently careful in my language so may have easily given the impression that its only on the level of belief rather than the much more involved one of experience! ;-)

Question 1: You love seeing faces in things. And you have always been very sensitive about texture and how things feel. You also love colour and, at times, you’ve arranged your books according to the colour of their spines. If someone were to ask you for a preference, would you pick shape, texture, colour?

It would depend on my mood at the moment of the question. And maybe it also depends on the nature of what I'm doing.... right now I'm in word mode as I answer these questions and colour seems to be the strongest pull.

But whilst looking for a picture to illustrate this with I went into shape preference...

Question 2: You are a trained practitioner in flower essences and you talk of morning glory being a power plant that claimed you with great strength. Besides being a very beautiful plant, the morning glory is a powerful psychotropic. Many artists are very open to experiencing as much of the world as possible. Have you ever taken mind-altering substances? If not, why not? If you have, do you still take them?

(The photo is of Honeysuckle - I've yet to take any macros of drops of water on Morning Glories.)

I've never eaten morning glory or used any of the other shamanic plants in chemical form. I have a very strong reaction to the energies of these things (I experience this; its up to you whether or not you believe me! ;-). I have had problems with even the simplest of all medicines (e.g. aspirin gives me hives) so have neither need nor wish to explore them that way. I also dislike the sensation of being drunk... I seek greater awareness not less.

And incidentally having worked with people who have used various "recreational" drugs I've found their energy fields to be full of holes! Not recommended.

When I was doing the flower essence training (with Sue and Simon Lilly) one weekend we were exploring journeying to plants, usually with the aid of drum beats and sometimes through special poses too (like yoga only specific to the plants) but I was flat on my back and unable to move before we had officially started journeying to meet a particular plant - there was no way I could take up the pose that was specified... that one was the Beech tree, very domineering. When I tune in I feel these things very strongly.

In the case of the morning glories I was growing some from seed that year and once they had germinated I felt this "taken over" reaction which resulted in the enamel I showed for IF - strength.

At the same time I did this enamel.




I had looked for my enamels last week when I was doing the MMM with the labyrinth in it but had not found them. After realising I'd like to use other plant enamels to illustrate this question I immediately found them (and discovered that the labyrinth one was too unclear to have been useful). I'd forgotten making this nut one and am not sure which plant inspired it but, as observed, I do love synchronicities... on the right is a strange "nut-case" that I found on Monday when out looking for nesting wooden dolls, for this week's MMM.

Question 3: You met Jim, your husband, between your two bouts of M.E. the second of which first affected you in 1996. So you will have known him from your mid-thirties, if not before, years in which many women choose to have children. You make no mention of children yet you strike me as a person who would make a very good mother and, in fact, would like to have had children. Am I right in thinking this of you? If so, why have you not had any?

We have no children. We would have welcomed them if they'd come. But they haven't. We do have eight nephews and one niece plus lots of friends with children. In many ways, given the exhaustion aspect of M.E., this has probably been the best solution - children that we can hand back to their parents when tired out.

Question 4: You read various ‘fortune-telling cards’, to use a rather inexact term and you have read books on dream interpretation. Many of these have different ways of interepreting signs and information based on keys, principles, and methods laid down over time. But, as I understand it, to be a good reader, much of your power is reliant on your intuition and an ability to open yourself to external influences. Do you think that if you were able to simultaneously read various types of cards (eg Tarot, Dream cards) or simultaneously apply different dream interpetation techniques to a dream you’d had, you’d land up wth conflicting interpretations? How would you interpret/handle that? Alternatively, if you believe they would not conflict with each other, how would you explain that?

So how many questions is this? I can count you know.... ;-)

I frequently use many different packs of cards and work with both cards and dreams. Of course there are contradictions - most books give contradicitons just in explaining one card. Such contradictions are handy in that they push one to use one's intuition to select which, if any, of the given suggestions fits best.

Dreams - I've found that the symbols in dreams are ones which are personal. So although one may look to other people or other resources for suggestions or help in interpreting a dream in the end it is up to you to personally feel whether or not an interpretation rings true for you. This is not found quickly but requires time for the body to adjust around the idea. One particularly good book on this is:

Let Your Body Interpret Your Dreams (amazon.co.uk / amazon.com)

Cards - I play with cards a lot. I've had other people tell me that I do good readings... I rely on intuition a great deal. I use my body's responses to check that I have received and interpreted my intuition appropriately (with muscle testing on a balanced body - sorry about the jargon explaining would take another post which I may do some day... it was part of my Health Kinesiology training though in that it is not used for reading cards but bodies) but most of all I do listen to my intuition.

I used to rely on my intuition to do my maths homework so I don't regard the use of my intution as at all separate from my previous interests or work ;-).

And just for clarity, I don't use cards to "predict the future" but to help me explore things.

And of course this is a wonderfully well-timed question as I've now accepted the challenge of designing my own set of cards and have just posted the first one.

Question 5: Many people, especially artists, are very receptive to music and, given a bit of encouragement, will be very passionate about their likes in music. Yet, in your blog, you make no mention of music even though Jim is the bass player of the Macaroni Penguins, your favourite band, and you talk of your much greater than average ability to hear high pitched sounds. Why?

I love to dance to but not talk about music.

Question 6: Unless my research is flawed, it would appear that Jim is a very keen climber and cyclist, activities that your ME would preclude you from. Is this difficult or are they activities that don’t interest you?

You are right. For anyone interested in lists of climbs, walks and cycle rides see Jim's website. He also has a photo gallery - including this one that I took of him at the top of staircase at Sennen in Cornwall, UK. I climbed it too that holiday (1995) but I don't think there are any photographs to show that it wasn't such a doddle for me...

I don't miss climbing (though Jim would love it if I was able to climb with him) but I do wish I could cycle and walk more.

He goes on holiday without me when dedicating himself to climbing and mountain walks. But then I go off on courses like the flower essence one mentioned above or art ones. We can both be quite independent, as well as companionable.

---

Thank you for asking such great questions!

---

For those of you who may want to be interviewed in this fashion, here are the Official Interview Games Rules:

* If you want to participate, leave a comment below saying, "interview me".
* I will respond by asking you five questions - each person's will be different.
* You will update your journal/blog with the answers to the questions.
* You will include this explanation and an offer to interview others in the same post.
* When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.