The Rain in Spain…
Today is a very rainy day… But Spain needs rain and so when I said to Maricarmen and Pepe yesterday – as the first drops started to fall – that it was me – La Inglesa that had brought the rain; they were very happy… ‘Bring more…’ They said, ‘we need the rain…’
It fell from the sky in torrents all night long, and it is continuing now… it appears that my special ‘Inglesa rain bringing powers’, are working a treat…
Anadi and I went for a lovely watery run this morning… The ground was warm, and splashing through the puddles along the slick wet road was great fun; and as long as we remembered to avoid the white bits on the zebra crossings all was well… very slippy for bare feet, we discovered!
I have just been talking with Pablo, here in Casa Blanca, about my birthday party at the end of my run across Spain, and about the adventure itself… He expressed a mixture of awe… ‘Are you sure?’ – ‘Doesn’t it hurt?’ – ‘That is a lot of kilometres every day without shoes…’ As well as… ‘I am envious, I would like to be the person that did something like that…’
Tomorrow I am going to Granada for a press conference!
Fortunately Maricarmen’s husband Pepe is coming with me and he has translated my story into Spanish… Very exciting.
I am looking forward to being better at Spanish… But I am where I am on the road, and so it is… I will do my best with the Spanish press…!
Maricarmen says that essentially people want to communicate and so, of course, they end up speaking the language that is easiest…
This is so true, Pablo speaks fluent English, and so I never have an opportunity to practise my Spanish with him… Only with those that can’t speak English… and Maricarmen of course, who is teaching me
I was about to drive home after my Spanish lesson yesterday, and I was sitting in my car checking my phone… Suddenly I looked up and saw a coach ploughing into the side of me!
He was turning out of a parking space and hadn’t seen me at all… There was nothing I could do but wait for him to realise I was there, as he crushed the back of my car against the wall… I glanced up at him and saw immediately that although it was entirely his responsibility, he was going to shout at me…
Which he did…
In Spanish of course, and then he got even crosser when he found I was English….
Anyway… We managed… I didn’t feel upset, or react, but the trouble was I didn’t know the procedure… But he did, and so in the end he filled in the form about what happened… I called the car hire people who told me what to do, but he was already doing it – and I called Maricarmen, and Pepe came and talked calmly to the cross man…
Pepe, has practised aikido all of his adult life and it showed in his quietly spoken way with cross man
Then at the end of it all, the coach driver had relaxed and he smiled; and I said ‘it’s an interesting way to meet…’ In Spanish and he said he could think of better ways, and put his arm around me, now my friend… ? And I had learned a good lesson about ‘what to do in the case of an accident in España
Just as we were about to part, he pointed to my feet and said that it is illegal to drive barefoot in Spain… I do not know if this is true because the police who stopped me at the start of this year – when I had no lights on in a tunnel – didn’t say a word…
And I don’t own any shoes! Que sera sera…
As I drove away down the mountain, I suddenly felt upset for awhile… Not upset with what had happened, but upset at someone shouting at me…
As always, it provided a good opportunity to clear the feeling from my body, and when I got back to Almuñecar, Anadi and I went for cheesecake and cafe con leche by the sea!
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 have also worked in the lives of others as a guide, counsellor, healer and teacher for over 40 years.
I lived as a nomad for 6 years with my husband Anadi, but my inner voice brought me back to the UK in May 2019 and I have been living and working and running in London since then….
Julia Chi
Teacher of Life Skills
www.JuliaChiTaylor.com
www.BodhisattvaDiary.com
+44 (0)7908 239 464
