SPIRITUAL LOVE | Grace And Flow

My head aches. The all-too-familiar sensation of heaviness and compression pervades down the left side of my skull. The usual pain throbs from the top left of my neck making my occiput tender to touch. Tension knots my shoulders. My spine feels rigid, my sacrum bruised, a dull sensation penetrates down my left leg. I’ve had a relaxing evening, a hot steaming bath, rubbed in some anti-inflammatory lotion to my aching muscles and taken some ibuprofen. This is my third night of enduring pain and I know that until I get myself to an osteopath, and allow myself to rest, sleep will be hard to come by.

It’s the beginning of the summer holidays for my five-year-old son, Theo. We’ve driven north out of London to the haven of my cousin’s farm. For me and my animal-loving son it’s a place of dreams. A menagerie of rare-breed farm animals set amongst fields of burgeoning fruit trees and bushes, and of vegetables ripe for the picking.

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My warm-hearted cousin and her generous husband fill our bellies with delicious home cooking from fresh farm produce and seamlessly enjoin us in the best of the farm chores. We feed the piglets, collect eggs from the hens, pet the horses, play with the dogs. We fill punnets of rich juicy fruit from the laden cherry trees, blissfully savouring the taste as we go. We happily unburden the strawberry bed of plump ripe berries and untangle aprons over tea in the farm cafe. We coo over their ten-month-old son, smiling at his chubby cheeks and his huge endearing eyes. It’s a happy day of catching up and enjoying being, and I’m pleased that I’ve distracted myself from the pain. I enjoy a glass of wine for dinner. I feel it go to my head, as my voice becomes louder than usual, my conversation too free.

This is my third night of sleeplessness, and with each ensuing night the physical pain becomes harder to bear, my emotions more fragile, my composure more on edge. Let’s face it, I’m wired. Thoughts race through my mind as I frantically try to think myself out of this unbecoming situation. After over two decades of grappling with this pain, it angers me that I’m unable to manage it more gracefully, that I don’t know myself better than to allow myself to get into this situation again. This anger fuels the thoughts that race around my head, the blocked energy that stifles my body. I pull out my phone and listen to an inspiring talk, hoping the loving teachings of my spiritual teacher will ease my pain. They don’t.

By morning I’m so brain dead I feel like a zombie. Today I have to drive home to London. It’s only around a two-hour drive but it feels reckless on so little sleep. My son awakes early full of joy. I’m glad of the distraction but have little energy for play. I guiltily set him up on the iPad so I can treat myself to another soak in the bath. We come down for breakfast and I attempt to make tea for everyone…but I’m so tired and on edge that I can’t remember all the different tea requests. There’s only four of us! My head hurts with the huge effort it takes to think and do anything. Theo is lovingly swept out to join in with the morning chores whilst I go up to pack and make an effort to cry. I’m not good at crying. It’s not one of those things that comes easily to me. But I sense a need to release some of this emotion and try to encourage the tears to roll down my cheeks. My cousin pops in and we share a hug.

I potter over to the farm shop to stock up on food for the coming week. Farm shops are one of my favourite places to browse, and this is a great one. I choose some lovingly home-cooked meals, meat from their hand-reared animals and fresh home grown veggies. I pick out some treats for us and presents for others. I add these to some of the fruit we had picked the day before. It’s more than I would usually buy but I’m too tired to choose and I love to support this family business.

My cousin’s husband is at the counter and asks how I am. How to explain that nothing is really the matter though everything seems to be bothering me. I’m so fed up with not being able to manage my long-term chronic pain. Will I ever learn how to cope with it better? I feel disheartened by having a husband who works all hours at building his company, leaving little time for play. I feel lost after giving up my job to raise our son. Gone is the daily gratification of being good at a job that supports those with mental health problems, the comradery of being part of a passionate and talented team and of course the monthly pay cheque that goes with it. I feel misplaced and outmanoeuvred by moving to a different area of London, reluctantly swapping a much loved traipsing ground with a supportive community for somewhere that feels alien, yet where we can afford a terraced house and garden near a good school for our son. I feel worn down by managing extensive renovations whilst living in a building site and nurturing a toddler, with little support at hand and no one I know well close by. I’ve somehow lost me in the process. Tears well in my eyes as I fail to articulate what feels true. My words tumble out in a haze of fatigue and pent-up emotion.

As I start the car to leave, my phone rings. It’s my husband, Tim. He lovingly asks how I am and I don’t need to say much for him to know my state. We’ve been here so many times before. He encourages me to book into my osteopath as soon as I can. Then he tells me he’s had another dizzy spell. He collapsed on the pavement in central London and his colleague helped him into a taxi home. I know it must be bad. He’s due to present at an important meeting up north today and little would tear him away from that. Over the last few months his dizzy spells have been becoming more prominent, rising from occasional spells which he’s always had to episodes that happen multiple times a day. I encourage him to go to the doctor but there’s no way he can manage the ten minute walk to the surgery. He decides to call a cab to take him there.

This emergency is exactly what I need to pull myself together for the drive home. Tim is laid out on the sofa as we arrive. The doctor wanted him to go straight to hospital but he can’t face the bright lights and bustle of a busy Accident and Emergency department. He’ll wait until tomorrow. Typically he’d prefer to be at home to make sure I am okay. I make him tea, unpack our bags and look after our son, stepping into a new zone of energy I didn’t know I had. Despite the delicious food I’ve bought, Tim doesn’t feel like eating much. He looks grey, his slim frame shivering despite the summer warmth. When I come down from putting Theo to bed I catch him struggling to heat up some soup. He can’t stand without holding onto something. I sit him down and gently help him to his dinner.

After another night of little sleep, I go to the osteopath and feel an instant release as my joints are manipulated back into place. But I’m still fragile. I know it’ll take a while for the headache to release and to regain my energy after the gruelling few nights. Tim is laid out on our bed. He can’t stand without feeling dizzy. Our son regales us both with his effortless sense of play. It’s early afternoon by the time Tim takes a taxi to hospital. I’d like to drive him but we both know it would aggravate my neck, and one of us needs to be on form to look after Theo. We know it will be a wait but expect him back before nightfall.

In the early hours of the evening, he calls me. The doctors want to keep him in hospital overnight. They’re concerned that he has a large insect bite on his leg from a recent weekend trip to the New Forest and think he may have Lyme disease. They need to do a spinal tap, also known as a lumbar puncture, a diagnostic procedure which takes fluid from the spine in the lower back through a hollow needle, as well as various other tests to assess what is going on. I’m just in the process of putting our son to bed, and we decide it will be less disruptive for Theo if I stay at home. He calls his sister who’s able to come in to hospital, bring him a change of clothes and be there for him. We’re both surprised at the turn of events, but also pleased that after a life time of dizzy spells, they are finally being taken seriously. Perhaps we’ll have a reason for them soon.

To be continued…..

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The biting wind burns my cheeks, butterflies dance in my tummy and adrenaline courses through my veins as I dig in my edges to stop and catch my breath. I’ve just made my way down the beginning of Le Grand Couloir, one of the most notorious black runs in the heart of The Three Valleys in France; the largest ski area in the world. I’ve attempted to snow plough down the initial stretch, a narrow ridge flanked by two equally hair raising drops on either side. My legs ache from maintaining the huge pizza slice shape of a wide snow plough. My upper body is twisted upwards to face the mountain in an effort to waylay the descent, and ensure that the ensuing fall is more likely to be up than down.

Le Grand Couloir is a piste that strikes fear into the heart of many skiers and boarders, and I am no exception. The clue is in the name as to the nature of this slope: Having completed the approach, a narrow, steep and ungroomed corridor of moguls stretches out before me. The only way is down. I take a deep breath and, clutching my poles, horizontally traverse the slope as far as I can. Being ungroomed, the moguls are the size of small minivans and I end up clumsily side slipping over them to avoid turning. When I finally steel myself for the inevitable turn I find myself lurching clumsily from one mogul to the next, my legs aching from trying desperately to regain control before beginning the whole fiasco again.

I used to prefer the smoother blue, green and red runs, where I could cruise along the crisp white snow, taking in the stunning alpine vistas and enjoying the clean mountain air. Or I’d glide down pretty alpine paths, surrounded by snow-clad pine trees and the hush of deep winter – or simply enjoy the adrenaline rush of speed. Black runs are hard work, a challenge to overcome the fear and an affront to my technique.

I take a break where I join the red run Combe Saulire and look back to admire the steep, seemingly indominatable narrow couloir of moguls I have finally descended. My legs shake like jelly from the exertion. I know I will feel the aches in my body later. But I am elated that I’ve actually made it. This elation ignites in me a passion for skiing Le Grand Couloir and its like, but also a desire to descend these challenging runs with more elegance and grace. I recognise I need a teacher to help me improve my technique and ski moguls with more aplomb.

The next time this fiendishly difficult black run stretches out before me I’m apprehensive but full of hope that my instructor will impart some insights to help my descent become slightly more elegant. He suggests that I look at the mogul field and follow the way that water would go. I survey the piste in front of me and see the first few turns in my mind’s eye that the water would take. I proceed to take my turns as I imagined, my skis now pointing downhill, my turns closer together. I only do a couple of turns before coming to a halt but soon realise that it’s easier to keep the flow going, no matter how slow. I find myself enjoying the challenge of following the flow of water and begin to approach my turns with joyful anticipation rather than apprehension.

The imagery of this technique is enormously useful to me; not only for skiing, but also in life. Instead of water, I think of love. What way would love choose? Of course I recognise that ‘I’ don’t know what way love would choose. That is a ridiculous suggestion, for ‘I’ am not love. I acknowledge that I am a jumble of emotional, mental, physical and soul bodies, all vying for attention.

But I do aspire to be love.

I am so graced to feel this divine presence inside me which is love, and when I ask my inner Beloved the way, well, the way often becomes clear. Or at least less hazy. I make it sound easy, but I don’t find it so. I have a terrible tendency to forget to ask, and then my mind attempts to choose the ‘right’ way and I find myself in a pickle of indecision. But I so love it when I do remember and the ‘true’ way becomes more apparent. Much like taking a smoother turn on a black run, it’s an easier ride.

Often when I ask, an obvious way doesn’t appear. This can be frustrating. I’m coming to learn that, much like snow melt blocked by a rock may have to wait for a greater volume of water to join it before bursting over the top or having the force to go round; I need to reach in to my Beloved and connect with more love for the way to appear.

A tingle of excitement shivers through my body as I survey the corridor of moguls that is Le Grand Couloir. I breathe deeply and ask my inner Beloved to help me see and feel the flow as I descend. Seeing the first turn ahead of me in my mind’s eye I glide slowly towards my chosen mogul and complete my turn as smoothly as possible. I have an idea of where my second turn will be but I recognise that this may change as I try to keep the flow. I’m loving the sense of fluidity, the feeling of being fully present to the needs of the current movement, yet primed for the next. My heart bursts with gratitude for being gifted the opportunity to feel this awesome sensation.

Now, I’m not deluded. My technique has vast room for improvement and I’m still far from being a pro. I aspire to ski with so much more grace and flow. However I do feel my style is becoming more fluid, my movements a touch more graceful and that using this imagery, I continue to improve.

As the pull of gravity lures water down that black mogul field, into rivulets, streams and rivers towards the sea, my Beloved is also luring me. I am beginning to find that when I partake in this game of catching the love and following the flow, this black mogul field called life, becomes so much more fun.

P.S. If you enjoyed reading this post, I’d so love it if you left a comment to share what resonated with you (or didn’t) and/ or any experience of your own inspired by this essay. My intention is that this blog becomes an interactive experience. I look forward to hearing your feedback. Thank you!