Independently Together
Jamie is drawing, Anadi is on his computer and I am writing…
Companionable silence; all of us looking forward to our anniversary feast…
Today we ran across the island to Xlendi… We even intended a dip in the sea on arrival, but the swell was huge against the rocks, the waves crashing on the beach and we decided against a headline of ‘Couple die in dangerous ‘derring do’ on their wedding anniversary…’
Instead we went for breakfast…
Two years married!
Having made our way back ‘home’ by bus, we lay on our bed after a post run lovely hot bath, and we chatted about marriage and relationship; we talked about how in our own ways we have exhibited where we find committed relationship a challenge…
Me by continually leaping with enthusiasm into, and then out of it again… And Anadi by essentially staying out of it…!
We are opposite sides of the same energy…
Freedom being the a watch word for both of us, and an inner knowing that for us, our true freedom will emerge from learning to truly be free individually and together…
‘We’re working it out’ Anadi said, ‘Yes’ I agreed… ‘We’re working it out…’
We are both aware that we happen to life, rather than life happening to us, that we are creating the world as we go, and so being ‘married’ together is something that has come from the inside out, and here we are…!
Journeying together, opening our hearts to one another, but being mindful of living our own lives, in the way Kahil Gibram writes…
‘Give your hearts, but not into each other’s keeping.
For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts.
And stand together yet not too near together:
For the pillars of the temple stand apart,
And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other’s shadow’.
Jamie and Anadi have practised Chi Gong together every day since we arrived, and the other day after their session was complete, they were chatting… Anadi said to me that Jamie had commented on how he really ‘got’ our lifestyle, that we are living our life, this is it… That Anadi is doing his work, and I am doing mine, and that we are not in one another’s pockets…
‘Not that it would matter if you were…’ He continued… ‘Why do you say that?’ Anadi had enquired…
‘Because you are both independent ‘ he had replied….
Yesterday we did swim in the sea… We bought pizza from the beautiful old fashioned bakery in Nadur and then drove as near to San Blas Bay as we could… There is a steep steep road to get to the beach.
We parked our car and made our way down to the nearly deserted beach, and into the freezing cold sea!
Delicious pizza our reward…!
Jamie has revealed his drawing to us…
An image of us on the rocks by the sea on Pigeon Island St Lucia, exactly two years ago today…
I have been running all of my life – it feels I was born to run. In the running step I experienced freedom and my true expression. I came to see that I needed to ‘get out of the way of myself’ and let my energy flow through the running step; allow it to express itself in the dance and the motion of running. I ran for England and GB for some years. My first international was in 1979, a three mile cross country race; and I continued to run at international level until 1993. Two of my best results were first place in the Dublin City Marathon in 1985 and 7th place woman, 3rd British woman in the 1986 London Marathon in a time of 2.36.31, which gained me selection for the Commonwealth Games.
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Email : juliachitaylor@gmail.com
