I mentioned in last week’s post that I was attending a workshop held by my friend Tamlyn. There were 5 of us there so a nice size group without feeling like you were ‘performing’ for a crowd and could not be vulnerable.
Now I am going to go down the rabbit hole of the meaning behind me saying ‘performing’ instead of just existing? That is another show Jerry! Lord knows that I have enough trauma to fill about 70 years worth of ‘shows’.
I digress.
One of the women I had never met and she asked me was I Irish. I often get this and no one ever believes me so it was good to have witnesses!
I am always amazed by my friend’s skills because I just know her as my pal Tam that I talk nonsense with and laugh like loons! The workshop was on Trauma & Healing and Tam did a presentation and chat session and then she showed us the techniques she uses on herself to do healing.
In the presentation Tamlyn told us about our nervous system and how we respond to and ‘store’ trauma. Tamlyn also clarified a lot of terminology that I know I had misunderstood and based on other attendee’s faces they did too. Some of this information gave me a lot of comfort, and some of it triggered me badly, particularly about generational trauma and the knowledge that my children were born with the ‘energy’ from the traumas I had experienced during my pregnancy.
It was all really educational and insightful if you depersonalised it (and I guess even if you did not!).
To do the healing portion of the workshop, Tam asked us to try and tap into her energy so I simply closed my eyes and said silently in my head ‘ancestors please help me tap into Tamlyn’s energy’ and poof, my upper back started hurting, about where my thoracic joins my lumbar area. I asked Tam if her back was hurting and she said yes but in a different area, her lower back. To me it felt more like my kidneys but as a novice tapper in wtf do I know?!
Tamlyn talked us through the entire experience and the symptoms that she told us were happening in her body, I also felt in mine, just a heartbeat before the words left her mouth so I know it was not suggestion. My nose tickled like I was repressing a huge sneeze, my lungs closed up and almost felt like they shrunk and I struggled to take in a full inhalation of air.
Then when Tam went in to do the actual healing her words about her trauma triggered my own trauma of a similar nature to play out in my own head. The words she said to her inner child seemed to reassure my own inner child as I repeated them silently to my self (sic intended).
That was the first time I actually tapped into someone else’s ‘body’. I do have an ability to ‘feel’ injuries that most people cannot, I learned that in my sports massage training. Knots felt like solid rocks under my hand, meanwhile even the teacher could only find the injuries via the patient guiding them to the pain.
I am now feeling excited to try and encourage and enhance these skills. I am just not sure how to do that!
After Norm collected me from the workshop we chilled at home for a few hours then I went with him when he went to take Finn to the dog park. I walked laps around the track while Norm and Finn played ball. Then we popped into The Butcher’s Mermaid for takeaways and headed home. I was exhausted and I fell asleep early as the workshop took it out of me as did my walk. I slept like the dead (well, the early rising dead as I was awake at 5am as usual).
We had a lovely lazy Sunday and a long lie in until 7. Norm brought me a few coffees in bed while I played games and chilled. I got up and watched an episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race Global All Stars, then went to hang out at the back of the house as it was out of the wind and do a bit of gardening.
Later that afternoon Norm came home and thrust a strange dog into my arms and ran back out. On his way out I asked ‘who is this??’ and Norm said ‘he found him on the street’ and ‘he thinks he knows who it belongs to’.
I do not mind his constant ‘animal rescues’ but half the time the owners are annoyed, not thankful. They feel judged that their dog is roaming the streets or their dog was never missing in the first place. He always involves me in his dog thievery. I looked at the dog’s tag, saw his name was Oreo and the other side contained the number of the owner. I rang Norm and asked him to come back and collect the dog. It was quivering and terrified. He came and collected it and popped it across the road where it lives. *Sigh*
Later on, to make up for the drama he fixed my fairy where the swing had broken. Isn’t she adorable?
That afternoon I moved the contents of 2 small pots which had been growing for years into the big pot where we had just removed the buddleia. They now have lots of room to grow and the small pots have a new fresh set of clippings.
Norm cooked dinner for us on Sunday which was lovely. He went away on Monday and he was trying hard to make up brownie points as it is a lot to manage the house, the animals and work all on my own. As a token of his appreciation I was served a gorgeous fillet steak, salad, fried halloumi and chips. He even got ice cream for dessert!
Norm flew in the afternoon on Monday. I was sad to see him go but I knew I would cope. Shortly after he left I managed to inadvertently kick my toe against the planters around the fairy garden. Now I cannot bend my toe and it is very sore. Drama 1.
He messaged me from the plane taking him to the historic town of Tanga, on the coast of Tanzania and sent this photo. I thought he was in a bus! I would not be happy in such a tiny plane.
On Tuesday I had delivery of some of the things I had ordered for the garden. I adore these little bumblebees and placed them all on a big plant in the Peace Garden. They are a bit big for the fairy garden, they might scare the little fairies.
I ordered these little owl planters and used one to repot the plant where the metal planter had disintegrated completely. I think it is cute since it is a fake bird in a fake cage.
The other owl is bright red (which was not expected) so I just added some plant clippings into him and made a little tableaux of red bits and pieces.
I also bought a new bird feeder which holds fruit or peanuts. I popped an apple on one side and a few orange segments in the other.
I also received a planter shaped like a crescent moon. It looks lovely but was a challenge to plant! The dirt kept tumbling from the top curve. I had to really smash the dirt in and then the plants in. I hope they all take. I put a lot of cascading plants in. I think it looks lovely already and if the plants all take off it will look amazing!
I also bought some fairy lights to go on the trees at the back. I thought I was buying 3 sets of lights as I have 3 trees, however I mistakenly bought 3 sets of 3 and now have 9 of them to distribute. Our back garden could potentially be spotted by satellite at night.
On Wednesday evening Tamlyn came for an early dinner. It was a really hot day so we struggled to find a place to hang out where we were not blinded or scorching. Later it cooled off and was lovely so we sat out until Finn became too annoying.
Caitlin asked me to come and work at her house on Thursday to help her with Bree if needed, but we were just too busy for me to take the time to drive there and get set up for work. Having a new baby can be very tiring and I really wish I could take time off of work to be there to help her, especially once Wes goes back to work on Monday and she is on her own. Tomorrow Bree will be a month old already!
Work has been really stressful as I was pulled onto an urgent piece of work with poorly defined requirements and unrealistic delivery time expectations. But we are making progress, it has just been very intense with late hours. I finished late on Friday and had a splitting head.
On Friday Norm flew back from Tanzania, again starting out his journey on a tiny plane! I love that this pic looks like it was taken in the 1970’s because this plane looks like it was born then and maybe should have remained there. #SizeMattersSomeTimes
My son Trevor drove down to Cape Town with his Dad last night so that they can finally meet Bree. They arrived late and he only got to mine after 10:30 but he is the same as I am and we were up early even though we went to bed so late.
He is away now to Caitlin’s as today is the only full day he is here. I am going to put up the millions of fairy lights today and see how they look tonight. I also have some gardening to do and the bird feeders to all fill and that is enough excitement for me today thank you very much.
I hope you all have a brilliant weekend and week ahead. Until next time, Kisses from the Kitten xoxoxox
Kitten in the City 