tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7960060657339262513.post1649660617903591579..comments2023-10-02T21:42:57.764+08:00Comments on a mermaid in the attic: Meditations on home....A mermaid in the attichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01139858546037879539noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7960060657339262513.post-8994734091654838212012-07-23T17:20:08.311+08:002012-07-23T17:20:08.311+08:00Beautifully written with some wonderful reflection...Beautifully written with some wonderful reflections on 'home'. Well done from this Aussie living in the UK.Sheridan Voyseyhttp://sheridanvoysey.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7960060657339262513.post-59174343920922887882011-06-29T18:38:34.089+08:002011-06-29T18:38:34.089+08:00Hi Christina, as you can see i am very behind in m...Hi Christina, as you can see i am very behind in my catching up lol. <br /><br />I loved this post, beautifully written, your words go very deep. For so many years i too felt just as you describe, that i was never quite in the right place, (or in the right time). You have reminded me just how blessed i am to have finally "found" my place. When i moved here to the south west of scotland, aged 32, it was very emotive, a huge coming home for me. The land, the colours, the history all sang there song & welcomed me home, even though i had never lived here. It felt like i known it all before. <br /><br />I wonder if it is the magic in our bones from long ago ancestors? I do think with your amazing ability to create such moving writings that you will find your harmony.<br /><br />x x xRuthie Reddenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09544345949078281235noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7960060657339262513.post-19979285313600268582011-06-01T06:39:11.987+08:002011-06-01T06:39:11.987+08:00Dear Mermaid, I'm moved by this post and all t...Dear Mermaid, I'm moved by this post and all the comments. I'm a descendant of English/Scottish settlers, living in the Pacific Northwest of the USA. As a shamanic practitioner, I practice awareness of the spirits around me, but I've felt the local spirits are a bit standoffish. Who can blame them? But I do believe we can approach them in humility and seek to work with them. Also, local spirits in many places over the world now have been neglected for long years and have grown distant. It takes time and great patience to cultivate a relationship and draw them out again. Read books by Michael Harner, Sandra Ingerman, Frank McEown, RJ Stewart, David Spangler, to name a few, about working with your local spirits. And then just sit quietly in natural places and seek their companionship. I don't think we have to live as exiles; indeed, nostaligia is simply the result of not being connected to where we are. With compassion and love, the local spirits and even the local natives will sense your sincerity in time and respond postively. I do believe this.Ramona Daniel Gaulthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11523493939625087227noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7960060657339262513.post-3766442868599256782011-05-29T09:38:37.954+08:002011-05-29T09:38:37.954+08:00I know exactly how you feel, being a daughter of B...I know exactly how you feel, being a daughter of British immigrants myself. My childhood memories are bound up with images of the English woodlands of long ago. The feeling of not really belonging is a strange one, often contemplated by me. I returned to England when I was younger yet found a curious 'homesickness' for the dry desolation of the bush. I married a Spaniard so now my children have inherited this sense of rootlessness. We are like plants growing in the air. We inhabit the bridge that crosses the land.elfmothernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7960060657339262513.post-13990341991811610422011-05-25T05:37:43.401+08:002011-05-25T05:37:43.401+08:00Im late but I saw that I would need a quiet moment...Im late but I saw that I would need a quiet moment to process this. I too live in a land out of sync with the dominant world and we too have been told all our lives we are invaders of these lands and have done nothing but wreck things since we came here. Its hard to live somewhere that my family has been living for nearly 200 years and still not feel welcome. I dont know how to be anywhere else either, I tried, I travelled the world but ended back here where I started. I feel its my duty to live here and carry on my families heritage. I can imagine to have a close heritage to another country must be even harder. How long have you family been in Australia? I have no emotional ties to any other country. I find all I can do is make my own little world and try to exist the best I can within that. And fake snow! haha has to be one of my pet hates, people are still painting that stuff! At least there are some good Xmas books out for our kids about celebrating down under. I always write on American blogs that they have no idea how lucky they are that their festivals just flow effortlessly with the seasons, it must be a wonderful feeling. As for the natives to our lands and how we have placed our selves in their worlds, we are taught from pre school that we are multi cultural (my daughter is part maori)and learn maori songs, colour counting and history so that everyone is connected, but it still dosent stop the constant fighting about what was done 150 years ago. I would love that to stop so we all can just be and move forward together!!! sweet dreams!!<br /><br />Much love to you Christina and much understanding on how you feel<br /><br />xxx<br />shereeRaven Moon Magichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14974930102676300356noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7960060657339262513.post-80830779203589499502011-05-24T21:49:51.459+08:002011-05-24T21:49:51.459+08:00A lovely post!
As time goes by, I begin to think ...A lovely post!<br /><br />As time goes by, I begin to think that home is a constantly shifting thing (of course, that may also be because I, myself, am always shifting). Growing up in Canada, and not being native, I have thought a lot about the things you wrote about in your post. I used to be very preoccupied with Ireland and Germany, the places where my family is from. But now I find every place so interesting. I think I could live anywhere... I want to live everywhere. I would love to get to know as many facets of the earth as I can, and see what emerges in my own self to reflect them. And I think that home is something which is internal as well. <br /><br />I hope you will forgive me for writing altogether too much. At least you can take the (perhaps small) comfort that your post is very thought provoking!yew tree nightshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14159879472613574800noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7960060657339262513.post-31656721445096559312011-05-21T06:12:54.962+08:002011-05-21T06:12:54.962+08:00Interesting thoughts, and something I too have alw...Interesting thoughts, and something I too have always felt (living in America). <br /><br />I've got the all five parts of the film above loading currently to watch with supper tonight.<br /><br />Blessings :)Tiffany D. Davidsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07709739637831945313noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7960060657339262513.post-13886405485559208912011-05-20T20:56:05.009+08:002011-05-20T20:56:05.009+08:00Thank you for a thoughtful and beautifully written...Thank you for a thoughtful and beautifully written post. The idea of "home" is one that's fascinated me for years. I love the idea of the landscape of your ancestors singing in your blood. (I've experienced that each time I have visited Britain: it just feels like home, even though I was born and raised in Canada.) <br /><br />Lovely, lovely post.Lynnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01674923395134039554noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7960060657339262513.post-51765298367891043332011-05-20T03:55:38.907+08:002011-05-20T03:55:38.907+08:00Talking about feelings of displacement... next tim...Talking about feelings of displacement... next time you're in Kings Park could you listen to Gija Jumulu and tell us what that grand old boab tree has to say about the move?Mo Crowhttp://www.bluecatheaven.com.aunoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7960060657339262513.post-90820438192918406302011-05-20T03:20:38.898+08:002011-05-20T03:20:38.898+08:00Beautiful, powerful writing Christina - you ARE su...Beautiful, powerful writing Christina - you ARE surely a writer! I've been navigating these themes as I work more and more with my ancestors - all from Europe and the British Isles. The deeper I go into working with them, the more I feel I want to be in the Celtic lands. I know a pilgrimage is needed, hope sooner than later. <br /><br />Oh I could write volumes on this as a white person in a land where the land whispers the stories of the indigenous ancestors here so loudly to me. The issue of appropriation is something, for sure - as is the issue of displacement from ancestral lands. There is a good book I just read about this, from a Celtic perspective -"The Spiral of Memory & Belonging" Frank MacEowen - with some useful techniques for working with ancestors and one's feelings of displacement. Maybe its not as much of a split for me living in the Eastern Woodlands as the mosses, stones and mists are surely akin to the British Isles, not as stark a contrast to living down under! I can only imagine what that does to the psyche.... <br /><br />Thanks for this evocative post!Valeriannahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02621130622153365184noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7960060657339262513.post-75523386142613399412011-05-20T03:11:55.235+08:002011-05-20T03:11:55.235+08:00I love your big heart Christina, you shine in all ...I love your big heart Christina, you shine in all your art, words & song!<br />the songlines are all around us...<br />have a look at Aña Wojak's performance honoring them here in the Sydney Botanic Gardens when she was artist in residence, one of the most profound performances I have ever witnessed <br />http://anawojak.wordpress.com/Mo Crowhttp://www.bluecatheaven.com.aunoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7960060657339262513.post-72525126473739212072011-05-19T23:31:44.910+08:002011-05-19T23:31:44.910+08:00Many of the first European settlers in Australia w...Many of the first European settlers in Australia were brought there against their will, transported. Themes of exile, loss, grief, and the challenge of a new unknown land run through your early history. Study the land, and write about finding a home in an unhomely place, where nothing is like the home you were forced to leave. As you say, write about what you know: That sense of displacement, of coming to terms with a world that is backwards.WOLhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03775462248193876148noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7960060657339262513.post-53981565941342820702011-05-19T23:15:21.211+08:002011-05-19T23:15:21.211+08:00Beautifully written, and I empathise, truly I do. ...Beautifully written, and I empathise, truly I do. As a multicultural woman, I'm not really sure if I'll ever be allowed by arbitrary laws or people's prejudices to be "at home" anywhere I go. People tell me here got "get orf home." I wonder where that is, exactly.<br /><br />But I have always wanted to be in England, and even though its politics make me want to tear my hair out, I adore this place - I love what it IS, not what other people try to force it to be. It takes a bit of courage sometimes to go against the accepted grain and approach a place with what your heart tells you, even if other people don't appreciate your skin-tone. My bones know this country, whether my kinky hair and accent says so to other folks who live here. And that is what matters.<br /><br />Let the land speak to you and it gives you every right to say what you have to say. Sure, you're going to get some shift for that, but if you look through the myths and stories of every single culture on earth, there is a common thread. There are fairies in Africa, vampires in Saskatchewan, and witches living under hills in Japan. I did exactly that kind of blending when I wrote Lon'Aite - Dark Huntress and Wendigo and Baba-Yaga. It can be done because people have done it already; that common thread weaves through all stories, and must have done for a reason, surely?<br /><br />You'll do it. Don't let anyone tell you different.Oya's Daughterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01184649716540468970noreply@blogger.com