TALK at San Jose

I am pleased to say that my Talk on the 8th of March at the Church of San José went very well.

There were more than 50 people and many came forward to tell me how much they had enjoyed it. The title of the talk was ‘Pathways for Peace – The Tale, the Dialogue and …what else?’ There is a video of it which I intend to upload on Youtube. Why? First, it is in a way some kind of legacy, especially for my grand-children. Second because it brings up issues that I consider food for thought. Third, it is a means of contributing to peace in the world, especially when considering that ‘peace plan from heaven’ as historian W T Walsh called it: the message given to three little shepherds at Fatima in Portugal, by the ‘Lady made of Light’. This was supported by that powerful ‘miracle of the sun’ seen by more than 70 000 people.

   This talk is based on my intervention presented in Portugal in October 2013, at the ‘Migrant Women Worldwide’ Conference which I have previously spoken about.

   I must confess that at the end of the talk, I forgot to ask if there were any questions, which was a pity indeed. Well, I am sure there will be another occasion to do so in the near future.

  Thanks again to Carol Watkinson for the very well done power point presentation.

WORKING! A heavy translation! NO TIME TO WRITE! Perhaps  next week I can tell a few stories. I have had a nice visitor in my lounge: a monkey delighted with some sweets, looking at me and not affraid at all! I feel sorry for the guys!
Also, went yesterday to an interesting inter-faith talk, the speaker was a turkish muslim. It was wonderful what he said about Dialogue... it starts with dialogue with oneself... and you must apply 'hosgoru' , no easy translation in English, but it basically means, 'looking at the other under a good light!' Food for thought!  As to Islam... not at all what you see in the newspapers and he showed an interesting piece on the Virgin Mary and Jesus...in the'Book'..., the Quran.

Quick update!

The synchronicity we can experience is amazing! Carol Watkinson is kindly finishing the ppt she offered me  (her idea and labour of love, as she calls it! Praise God for generous souls!)
It will accompany my presenttion of the intervention I did in Lisbon ( with some addititions). And guess what? I had forgotten two important events. How did I remember them? I received an email sent to me in 2013, about reporting the news of the meeting in april 2013, between Literary Tourism students and Portuguese writers. How did it come back after nearly a year, and appeared on my screen 'I don't know!'...only God knows! But because of that I remembered two events that I should have included in the ppt,, which was that meeting and also the President of Portugal's invitation to his reception in Pretoria in July 2012, when I went with my son Mario Manuel! What do you say?
Lots more to come, but I am very busy at present with some urgent translations!... Besides the odd migraine!
Love to you all, kind readers and friends!

Biancia´s 18th Birthday

We had a lovely tea with the family and Bianca at 'Green with Envy' restaurant to celebrate her 18th on the 12th of December. Sr. Agnesfrom Marian Hill was also present. I offerd Bianca the ring I took with me to Portugal, which was 'present' when I read my 'intervention' titled Pathways to Peace at the Conference on Worldwide Migrant Women. So, she laughed when I said that I was not giving her a 'book', but a 'story'...

 

Baby Joshua

Im hereby introducing you to little Joshua! One day old! Mommy is looking good too! Praise the Lord! Luke and Luisa are so proud of him and so loving!

Post Lisbon Conference Update

I am back!
I survived railway strikes and other dramas. Good news, the World Wide Migrant Women Conference in Lisbon on the 24th and 25th of October was a success. Thanks to Dr. Jose Cesario and Dr Manuel Aguiar, Dr Rita Gomes and the leader of our literary panel, Dr Maria Beatriz Rocha Trindade and others, including all the participants from countries all over the world, such as Brazil and Lebanon.
   The feedback that I received for my intervention, 'Pathways to Peace - the tale, dialogue... and what else?' was very positive: 'excellent', 'brilliant', were some of the comments.
Other good news: I´m the happy granny of my sixth grandchild, Joshua (´Bringer of Truth´). A tiny and content bundle of joy. My daughter is well after some upheavels and my son, who was quite ill, is now on the path to recovery. Hopefully, my heart will soon settle too.
  More later...

Continuing the story of my life....so far!

Not much news today- still sorting out papers and updating filing. My move to Dawncliffe more than a year ago followed by ‘the flood’ has taken its toll. By flood I mean the burst washing machine pipe that caused water to flow and in a few minutes cover all the floors of my small cottage with at least 10 cm high of water. When I woke up at 5.00 am to a funny glu-glu sound, as I got out of bed my little feet were greeted with a bath of cold water! Yes, I did wake up quite quickly!

    The cause? Extremely high water pressure and a burst rubber pipe. O, well the other problem was that as I had just moved in, I still had books and papers in boxes on the floor! Can you imagine the rigmaral? Four days later I still had papers hanging on the washing line, held by some surprised pegs never imagining being used to dry paper! Then it was the filing back everything… which as you can imagine was done in a bit of a rough shoddy manner.  

   So now I have to go carefully through papers and re-organize the whole thing.

   Anyway the light is starting to shine at the end of the tunnel and hopefully in a week’s time ‘all will be well’ and I can concentrate in creating my new book of poems, perhaps including some  stories and some quick stroke style of drawings.

   Wish me luck!

    I went yesterday to the book launch of Sarita Mathur’s ‘Once again love – Reconnecting with the heart’. I was impressed. She seems genuine and her poetry based on her experience after an unexpected depression, is inspirational.

  I was reminded of a book by Stephanie Dowrick, ‘The Universal Heart’ which I found helpful to sort out uneasy relationships.

  ‘Till next time… Be good!

   One of recent limelights was to have gone on a visit to the Marianhill Convent with Ruth, my daughter’s sister-in-law who still calls me ‘mamazina’ an anglicized manner of sying ‘mamazinha’ which in Portuguese means ‘mommy’. And more… like the inauguration of the remembrance wall there, for the German community (who started Marian Hill) …Gaby, my daughter-in-law was the one who had the idea methinks…more about it later.