Blue Mood Balm

A lot of this has been going on here in the UK mainly because of the strange weather - very very little sun, a lot of rain and clouds creating a feeling like summer was never going to arrive.

For a dreary and a dark mood day, use the strength of the ancient myrrh to release mind body and spirit.

Combine two drops each of chamomile, myrrh, rosemary and geranium oils with either four ounces of unscented body lotion or almond oil. Store in a corked pottery jar. Sit quietly in a room lit by only one blue candle, and rub the balm gently into your skin after a long bath. Say aloud:

Work they spell and nurse.

Blessed balm, banish my pain.

Harm to none and health to all.

I remember when..

I know I’ve not splattered my thoughts across the page before, not here anyway, but tonight I just felt like it.

Sometimes when I’m walking, alone with my thoughts I get such an all-pervasive feeling of nostalgia, its simply weird. There’s usually a trigger, some little thing I glimpse, that brings it on. It could be anything; an old crone wheeling her basket along, the cry of a lost gull, a lone weed clinging desperately to life in between two slabs of concrete. I’d love to be able to say that it triggers memory of my times as a heroic celtic warrior, sword in hand, as is the wont on certain pagan websites these days (no names mentioned) but in fact it just makes me maudlin and wont to wander into the nearest establishment for a pint.

I start thinking about the world around me, and all the things that are, or have changed, and it depresses me, makes me feel old. Not just granddad old, but I remember the Colosseum old.

Maybe it’s just because I’m a Taurean.

It’s the little things that really get to me. Little compared to my thoughts about religion or the death of nature anyway.

It’s things like manners. And good, old fashioned hospitality. Making someone feel welcome, fetching them a drink and offering a bite to eat. I pride myself in that I never knowingly let someone leave my table having not drunk or eaten their fill, or at the very least having being made to feel at home. Simple things. Things that bind people together, and turn strangers into friends, or neighbours.

And it’s not just at home either. People react with astonishment (and sometimes outright suspicion) if you actually pay attention to them. It’s just a matter of making that extra effort to actually care about their answer to “How’re you doing?”. To say please, thank you or sorry, to pick up something they’ve dropped. To hold a door open.

It’s not hard, it’s just that with all the distractions we’ve got leaping out at us, its all too easy to be distracted, to take the shortcut of sending a text instead of phoning, or taking the time to go see someone. Next time you find yourself ordering something at Starbucks, or signing for a parcel, look at the person you’re talking to. I’m not saying do the unblinking-stare-into-their-eyes-like-a-psycho-stalker move, just pay some attention. That’s a dinkum person behind that counter. Say thank you. Ask them how’re they’re doing – and listen to their reply, acknowledge it. You’ll be amazed.