Farewell to Sally

The memorial service for Sally will take place on Friday 22nd July at 2:00pm at Wellington Church, Glasgow. It will be streamed on the Wellington YouTube Channel. If coming, please wear bright clothing (at the request of the family, recognising Mum’s dress sense). You are welcome to join us afterwards in the church hall for light refreshments. We know that Mum had a vast network, please do pass this invitation on, and apologies if you had already been informed. With kind regards, Mark, Stephen & Jackie

The passing of Sally Beaumont on 9th June 2022 has left a sad echo in our sessions where we could count on her, even as she battled with her health, to contribute distilled and pithy wisdom in the form of her short pieces of writing. The family have been kind enough to give us her Mindfulness and Writing notebook and I include a pondering below. In the notebook there are attentive notes about our other writers' pieces and names...

Sally's memorial service is Friday 22 July at 2.00pm in Wellington Church, University Avenue.

And here is a moving obituary:  RIP Sally Beaumont - Positive Action in Housing (paih.org)

Sally always promised Cap'n Bev she'd send something in for the blog; here is the last entry in her notebook, dated 22nd April 2022

Last of the Light

by Sally Beaumont ~ inspired by Toby Litt's "Hare"

 

nothing to do

nothing without the awareness of truth 

but with the awareness 

nothing becomes everything 

the women, the men, the many 

displaying their age 

the slump, the grumping, the stumbling 

even the trumpeting of inanities 

helps us to settle in the here and now 

in the last of the light 

with love

Slow Ink session 25th June 2022

Today Adrienne introduced her bodyscan practice with the poem 

"Remade" by our very own

 Giovanna MacKenna's newly published anthology "How the Heart can Falter"

Bev took a writing prompt from the poem "Silverfish" by Charles Goodrich book "Insects of South Corvallis"

********************************************************

And now for some of 

YOUR WRITING:

Scratching and scraping

by Doreen Kelly

Scratching and scraping

Warning and wailing

Among but apart

Ravenous 

Moths

       chomp down on our treasures

People sleep

Overnight stillness

Each word

Marches to the page

She lets herself be free

Plagued

by Kay Ritchie

inspired by Giovanna Mackenna’s Remade & Charles Goodridge’s Silverfish

 

on Monday

one fly fluttered on the shutter

on Tuesday

two lay flat out on the floor

 

but there were more

on Wednesday

in the kitchen

one was floating in some water &

 

at night I got a fright

when off to bed I counted seven

one I killed

then filled with guilt

 

I pulled my duvet tight &

dreamt of fly revenge

testosteroned & furious

they dive-bombed from above

not furry fragrant bees

but mobile-headed   big-eyed bugs

that suck at dung & things that fester

though perhaps they also scratch out poems in the dust

 

while laying eggs that harvest maggots

on Thursday   when I woke

they’d congregated by the window

singing like an irate choir &

 

when I opened it   they flew

and now they’ve gone

and I’m alone &

hoping that they haven’t left a present

I scratch poems in the morning

by Cap'n Bev

from Scratching poems in the night – Charles Goodrich “Silverfish”

I scratch poems in the morning - night is no good to me. 

I must invest my best energy in the wash of words 

that clears greasy confusion from the slate of my brain. 

Just minutes at the page 

and the roar does dolls to hiss, hiss at last to still

with just the occasional drop of waning rain on which I can focus;

truly observe 

and possibly understand.

********************************************************************

Thanks to you all ...

... for your heartening feedback as always!

Aileen Paterson: morning everyone

Denise: Morning Aileen. Nice to see you.

Giovanna: Morning everyone, it's great to be here. I am actually at work so if I vanish please forgive me.

Giovanna: Bev, I was listening to Joelle Taylor read last night and her book - do you have it - is such a brilliant exploration of your pier of lesbians

Giovanna: Adrienne - thank you for your beautiful reading 🥰

Fenella: thank you so much, I really needed it, it was ACE!!

Kate: Beautiful Adrienne- thank you so much.  Sadly I need to slip away as I have another appointment at 11.30.  See you all in two weeks 😊

Jan: Thanks Adrienne.  Fantastic.

Jan: I really loved your poem Giovanna!

Giovanna: Thank you Jan 😊

Doreen: I thought it was 17

Lesley: I need to leave early too in about 15 mins, sorry!

Angie: I'm still here but I am keeping my phone and video off because its busy in my house with dance show and people keep interrupting.

Angie: wow lesley that was powerful

Giovanna: loved the mattress

Jo Saunders: I have unstable internet. Leaving video off.

Giovanna: love the “glide and bounce through life” 

Angie: yes I like the glide and bounce through life too Linda.

Giovanna: beautiful Cath

Angie: take care Cath

Angie: fab Sheila

Giovanna: Gorgeous Sheila

Doreen: Bev I have emailed it to you

Giovanna: Doreen - those ravenous moths, wow

Angie: I like the metaphor about the moths chomping on treasures Doreen

Angie: that's beautiful Aileen. I loved the way that you read it too.

Sheila Buchanan: Getting lost sounds magical Aileen

Angie: observational poetry Doreen

Karen: Chomp down on our treasures

Giovanna: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/m00162tm (this is Doreen’s “Caretakers” appearance on BBC radio 4)

Jo Saunders: I'm dropping out as screen and audio keep stopping. Bye, and thanks to you and Adrienne and all.

Giovanna: Jan - “thoughts shook loose, catching the light on good days”

Angie: I love the colours in that Jan

Angie: I love the rhythm in the poem Maggie

Giovanna: loved the element/firmament

Angie: spooky. when Bev said Pilot fish, I was footering with my pen and I read the word pilot on the pen as Bev said pilot.

Angie: that was lovely Denise

Angie: I agree Adrienne, alone in their company is something I love about trees too. fab poem Fenella

Karen: 💕

Angie: as always Giovanna amazing

Angie: wise words Bev

Giovanna: Bev - "the wash of words that cleans greasy confusion from my mind”

Angie: I agree about the Snatch poem. it's inspiring

Giovanna: Thanks Angie

Denise: Yes Bev - your poem was awash in rhythm and energy.

Maggie: Notably, Dylan writes, 'Some times I think there are no words/ but those to say what's true/ And there are no truths outside the Gates of Eden',

Angie: Karen I love how you can write when you wake through the night. I wake regularly at 2am and feel horrible. I wish that my inspiration wakes me up and hands me a pen.

Giovanna: Karen - I felt for the sleeplessness but loved the "swarm of words”

Angie: it's a great poem Karen

Angie: kay your fly poem is wonderful. I loved your wasp poem from last week too.

Giovanna: Thank you Bev, Adrienne and everyone! What a fabulous morning 😊

Maggie: Great news in our home - we have now found an adorable Shetland Sheepdog

Kay: wonderful everyone    thankyou  kx

Jan: Thanks all...great way to start the weekend x

Angie: thanks again for a lovely morning. have a most excellent weekend. hope to see you all soon. Happy New dog day Maggie.

Thanks to funders

Lapidus Scotland gratefully acknowledges the support of Glasgow City Health and Social Care Partnership's "Wellbeing for Longer in Glasgow Fund" (managed by Impact Funding Partners).

 

Slow Ink session 18th June 2022

Some stunning calligraphy from our Linda Sandeman - place your orders now!

At last we're back - Adrienne introduced the mindfulness session with the poem "I worried" by Mary Oliver and then moved into a gentle Mindfulness with the support of Breath practice.

Please remember you can access all of Adrienne's practices on the the link above.

Bev led writers into their timed writing with a prompt from "The story of a story" by Vasco Popa:

they said all sorts of things

Still looking for a link to share that one with you... more later as your pieces come in...

*****************************************************************

And now for some of 

YOUR WRITING:

Intoxication

by Kay Ritchie

(inspired by Mary Oliver’s I Worried & Vasco Popa’s The Story of a Story)

Paul, the volunteer, is on his knees

to tease the weeds from under lavender,

London pride & foxglove.  We meander,  

wonder at the poppies that explode onto

the path beside the iris and the lamb’s ears.

 

Paul points us to the pear tree,

tells us it is Scotland’s oldest &

each year so full of fruit

fermenting on each branch

that wasps are free

 

to guzzle till, chokeful, all boozy,  

bawdy, birlin’, stoatin’, so that

as day sags west he has to pick

their precious-patterned-woolly-jumpered bodies

to let them sleep it off in compost-comfort

 

till, next morning,

still hung over,

they try to fly, 

cantankerously,

singing into day.

They said all sorts of things 

by Cap'n Bev

Songs, stories and people of my past 

so selectively I store snippets like ribbons in a basket 

that I roll and plait, weave into my very own remembrance of reality, 

stitching sense into the fabric off my life 

with no more factual reason turn a magpie's nest 

that barely holds together its bottle tops and plastic wrappers.

What they said I hardly remember

and what they intended seems as remote to my comprehension 

as the smallest planet in a far off galaxy. 

I was not here

have yet to arrive... 

how strange it is, this being alive.

Hilarious limerick from Denise and Jo

There was a young lady from Ryde

who ate some green apples and died.

The apples fermented inside the lamented

and made cider inside 'er inside.

********************************************************************

Thanks to you all ...

... for your heartening feedback as always!

Aileen: Falkland estate

Aileen: https://falklandestate.co.uk/

Aileen: http://www.pillars.co.uk/

Aileen: good to see everyone

Giovanna: Thank you Bev for saying such lovely things. ❤️

Giovanna: http://themuseumoflossandrenewal.life/publications-and-editions/

Giovanna: I meant to say at the beginning, welcome to the new faces!

Kay: thankyou   beautiful to be back mindfully   kx

Jo: Thanks Bev and Adrienne.

Giovanna: Adrienne - “allow your mind to rest here, to be anchored here with your body as it breathes" I will absolutely keep this with me, thank you

Jo: Adrienne, who was the author of that lovely poem, please

Karen: So lovely to be back amongst writing friends, welcome everyone 💖

Bev: Mary Oliver, Jo

Sheila: Thanks Adrienne for the physical rest from the active mind….x

Denise: Lovely to be here. Haven't done any mindfulness for ages. So good.

Angie: That's brilliant Cath.  Well done.  You will be great in that role. x

Giovanna: Huge congratulations Cath! 👏🏽

Lesley: Amazing well done Cath! x

Helen: Thank you Adrienne, so much permission and presence, really needed that

Cath: Thank you

Bev: they said all sorts of things

Giovanna: Bex - "when stories break apart” “the centre does not hold”

Giovanna: I'm going to need to leave a little early today at 11.30, sorry for anyone I miss. X

Giovanna: Doreen - “now I dance and sing in the garden of my heaven”

Giovanna: Jo - “all I've done is learn to describe and introduce" I'd love to read your work Jo, where can I find it?

Bev: VAsko Popa

Doreen: thanks

Giovanna: Angie -  I loved the push and rhythm of this, I need to read it!

Giovanna: Sorry to leave this wonderful group, hoping to see you all next week.

Karen: I would read, but out of time.❤️

Doreen: Wow Jo (Beth)

Bex: sorry folks, I've got to go... thanks everybody

Sheila: Helen “tight garment of truth” 🙏

Susan: Thank you, all...each piece has been amazing...what a delightful couple of hours.

Kay: thankyou so much to everyone for a wonderful session   great to be back    x

Doreen: Is there someway we could come together to honour Sally on the blog someway?

Karen: God Bless, Sally 💖

Yvonne: RIP Sally ♥️

Yvonne: Thank you everyone for a wonderful morning xxx

Angie: Thank you for a wonderful morning.  See you all again soon. xx

 

Thanks to funders

Lapidus Scotland gratefully acknowledges the support of Glasgow City Health and Social Care Partnership's "Wellbeing for Longer in Glasgow Fund" (managed by Impact Funding Partners).

New course starts Saturday 18th June 2022

  

Please get in touch if you'd like to enrol - details and how to join here.

Slow Ink session 30th April 2022

 

Adrienne introduced her RAIN practice today with David Whyte's poem "The Journey" 

Bev led into the writing session with a poem by David Donnison:

IT’S NOT WHAT I SAID

by David Donnison

It’s not what I said but what I didn’t say

that lingers in the mind for long years after –

sets me coining blazing phrases

to celebrate a life changing day.

Emerging a at last from days of turbulence,

“It’s all right” you said . “I’m not going to leave you” -

and all I could offer was dumb relief

as the clouds rolled away.

The prompt comes from another of his books 

"It Takes a Lifetime to Become Yourself - Kay Carmichael"

Think you wrote a poem? The poem wrote you

POSTSCRIPT (this is where the prompt comes from)

from David Donnison's "Requiem" booklet for Kay Carmichael

Thought you wrote some poems?

You were wrong.

Powered by pain,

half scream, half song,

they kept your head to wind,

drove you through the storm.

The poems wrote you.

*****************************************************************

And now for some of 

YOUR WRITING:

Thoughts on writing

by Doreen Kelly

The system, loving families and a "well meaning education" instructs you to write formulaically. This formal formulaic fancy writing is required for forms and filing. But I discover poems and origins while "zooming" quietly and mindfully with Slow Ink writing through my relaxed arm.

Messy Guest

by Kay Ritchie

(inspired by Rumi’s The Guest House, David Donnison’s The Road to Wisdom & It’s Not What I Said)

you entered   made yourself at home

you didn’t knock or

ask to stay

just wouldn’t go away

you cooried in   deep in my core

bore down into my guts

inscribed your name on my womb

your game   to stick   with me   for life

arriving   never leaving &

I’ve been grieving ever since

the baggage which you brought

were pain & inflammation 

as you wrapped your fibrous arms

around each organ

held them tight

blocked out the light

I was yours   all yours

I couldn’t bear a child &

so we’ve lived our life

together  alone

but though you changed the way

things might have been

I’m used to you &

do believe you’ve taught me

better ways to live

to meditate

to eat

to pace

after all life’s not a race 

in search of who knows what

so  make yourself at home

you’re welcome my old friend

‘cause in the end

I won’t be leaving you

you won’t be leaving me

let’s be

The poem writes me

by Bev Schofield

If I could just arrive at the desk 

that knife edge between intention and acceptance

prise open the door with the tip of my pen

peep into the room of understanding…

What bliss to float for 

a minute 

an hour 

in the conviction that my effort is as nought

I need do nothing right.

Nothing.

But as the bath drains 

the weight of my body settles 

on my hips 

my shoulders 

and yes, eventually I must rise,

continue my absurd endeavour 

only now with the tiniest hope 

that I might be used in some infinitesimal way 

by the great good flow 

of this marvellous life and world 

of which I am apart

********************************************************************

Thanks to you all ...

... for your heartening feedback as always!

Fenella: stupendously good for me, thanks.

Denise: Very helpful, thank you.

Angie: Thank you I feel very relaxed now.

Sheila Buchanan: Thanks Adrienne that has helped.  See you in June xx

Bev: https://wordsfortheyear.com/2015/08/13/the-journey-by-david-whyte/

Bev: That's David Whyte's "Journey"

Sally: Checking that I remembered how to do this.

Sally: Sally checking again! altho the chat said “me”

Sally: Sally ,  Hurrah

Denise: Success, Sally - sent to everyone

Bex: Hi Sally, yes it's working and coming up as Sally for the rest of us!#

Jo Saunders: agree, Adrienne, about those who talk right through.  I also struggle with total silence. Yours strikes a nice balance

Sally: Sally   thanks Denise

Bev: Think you wrote a poem? The poem wrote you

Y: RAIN has always been one of my favourite practices and has helped me many times over the years. This morning has been so wonderful - thank you all for the words - so powerful and moving………..early arrival of visitors is tearing me away…..much love to all xxx

Kay: living our dying edited by larry butler and Sheila templeton

Doreen: The Survivor Guide to Non-Silence - the survivor arts community

Doreen: https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/1171463202/the-survivor-guide-to-non-silence

Kate: Sorry everyone I need to go, a delivery of wood has arrived for my husband - and he's not in! Thank you everyone for the inspiration over the last 6 sessions.  See y'all in June

Giovanna: thanks for the link Doreen, this pamphlet looks great

Angie: Thanks again and hope to see you all soon. xx

Giovanna: Huge thanks Bev and Adrienne for these wonderful, restorative, inspiring sessions. And to all you brilliant writers. I hope to see you in June 🧡

Kay: thankyou so much to everyone    wonderful

Margaret: thanks to everyone for such deep sharing.

Denise: Thanks so much to everyone.

Jo: Thanks all xxxxxx

Thanks to funders

Lapidus Scotland gratefully acknowledges the support of Glasgow City Health and Social Care Partnership's "Wellbeing for Longer in Glasgow Fund" (managed by Impact Funding Partners).

Slow Ink session 23th April 2022

Photo by Jan McCorkindale

Adrienne led a Noticing our attitude to the undercurrent practice, introducing it with Well of Grief David Whyte

Bev took a writing prompt from Keneth Steven's poem "Coracle":

slow fishponds and the deeper creeks

*****************************************************************

And now for some of 

YOUR WRITING:

Spring-time Desk

by Denise Steel

Melded into the water glass –

two green shapes

organic, shining.

Reflection makes

a lily pad

torn of stem

free-floating

life-shortened

sheered

of flowering

but present still

and pleasing –

inviting deeper

inviting finding?

Or else return

to the waterless glass

sat prosaic

on my spring-time desk.

(inspired by David Whyte’s The Well of Grief & Kenneth Steven’s Coracle)

by Kay Ritchie

we walk mindfully

blether beneath blowsy blossoms

branches boughed

weighed down with apple   cherry

cream   pink

we think Japan

plan a picnic

find an empty bench

guzzle delicious cakes from Delizique

an apple tart   a cherry frangipani

we talk politics   parties   power

a far-away war

gaze out across the gardens & the pond

where coots now nest in

towers of wood & weed

each island woven as 

defence against their enemies

petals fall like April showers &

we walk home

slow

through drifts   tender as snow

********************************************************************

Thanks to you all ...

... for your heartening feedback as always!

Doreen: Happy Blossom Day

Doreen: Blossom Watch Day (that should have been)

Doreen: https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/features/blossom-watch

Giovanna: Thanks Doreen

Kay: a perfect start to the weekend    thanks  x

Linda: The ‘calm’ app. Has 5, 10, 15 mins etc guided mindfulness meditations. X

Karen: Great mindfulness session- I was truly gone…x

Angie: I tend to find that I practice mindfulness between 3am and 4am in the morning because I wake up most nights at this time feeling anxious and the mindfulness helps to keep my noisy brain/emotions quiet.

Jo: doodling the date is an excellent mind settling exercise for me.

Giovanna: Thanks everyone, this is really helpful

Bev: slow fishponds and the deeper creeks

Karen: Thanks everyone, beautiful morning. Lots of love ❤️

Giovanna: Another gorgeous session, huge thanks Bev, Adrienne and everyone

Jan: Thank you, thank you everyone.

Jo: Thanks Bev, Adrienne and all

Angie: Thanks again  Have a great week everyone. xx

Kay: a wonderful session   thanks to everyone  kx

Y Ioan: Wonderful morning xxxx 

Thanks to funders

Lapidus Scotland gratefully acknowledges the support of Glasgow City Health and Social Care Partnership's "Wellbeing for Longer in Glasgow Fund" (managed by Impact Funding Partners).

Slow Ink session 16th April 2021

Today's exploration of tenderness took all of us in different directions, yielding some powerful insight.

Adrienne led a Loving Kindness practice, introducing it with "Your Soft Heart" by Nikita Gill

Bev took a writing prompt from the poem "Life In Whispers" by J Lynn:

most tender place

*****************************************************************

And now for some of 

YOUR WRITING:

(untitled)

by Bex Woodsford

Sometimes

   the smallest thing

the slightest show of kindness

And my heart breaks

    Stone cracks in two

and something emerges

feathers fluttering

    the tenderest of places

and a chance to begin again

(untitled)

by Doreen Kelly

My Love, you are obscured from my view. Sacred moments snatched thundering from us. Ever near darling but prevention is better than cure. Protection required. Masked, sprayed and sanitized. Long distance loving just now. Alone and longing for caressing cuddles. Oh how I miss thee. 

Let's hope we can party onwards through out the years to come if not during Covid times.

imagine 

by Kay Ritchie

(inspired by Nikita Gill’s Your Soft Heart & Jay Linn’s A Life in Whispers)

imagine

if Putin cared about the plight of bees

fought against the destruction of the planet

healed the wings of injured birds

to send them soaring high into the sky

instead of war planes

instead of rockets

imagine

if Putin’s heart was gentle, tender &

he treasured every petal on each flower

instead of sending brutal booted soldiers in

to trample on Ukraine

imagine

if Putin’s soul was soft

soft enough to love himself &

everyone around him

so he wanted only peace

no more cruel words & acts

no more suffering or rape

no destruction

no starvation

just compassion

imagine

Tomorrow we will begin the live

by Cath Hopkins

Tomorrow we will begin the live

with no more sticky handprints

upon the window panes.

With no more laughter

that echoes through each room.

And silence will be the only sound.

There will be no more tears and tantrums.

Or early morning wake up calls.

There will be no more sunshine smiles.

Or cuddles or baby shark.

No more curious fingers exploring.

Or love wrapped around us all.

And when tomorrow arrives.

I will hide the sorrow.

And when I pack your bag.

I will fill it full of love and memories.

I will hold you one last time,

with enough love to last you a lifetime.

And I will wave you goodbye with the hope,

That one day you will return to say hello.

********************************************************************

Thanks to you all ...

... for your heartening feedback as always!

Maggie: Burns shows great tenderness ( eg, 'To a Mountain daisy',

Kay: thankyou kx

Bev: most tender place

Giovanna: It’s been a great morning, sorry I have to go to work and miss the rest of your words. Thanks Bev and Adrienne 🧡

Sheila Buchanan: Such deep pieces this morning.  Thank you everyone

Doreen: I can't read today as Covid cough unpredictable

Doreen: Hugs Kate

Kate Lindsay: Thanks Doreen and hugs to you too.  Hope you feel better soon

Kay: thankyou so much everyone   kx

Doreen: Thanks

Margaret: Thanks for such deep an d tender words 

Thanks to funders

Lapidus Scotland gratefully acknowledges the support of Glasgow City Health and Social Care Partnership's "Wellbeing for Longer in Glasgow Fund" (managed by Impact Funding Partners).