The National Gallery was a series of rooms with very, very tall ceilings. The walls, lined with paintings from the Dutch Masters. We sat in the third gallery from the front where the stage was. During the evening, singers would appear in different parts of the hall. Some were behind us. Others were in a room behind the stage, as well as on stage. Coupled with the signature of John's work, his extending of the sound, enhanced the experience that went deeper and deeper as the vision unfolded.
Sting read the text, which empowered the body of the music. We were teleported into heaven and the Angels joined in the choir. My eyes drifted from one painting to the next. The colors, enhanced with each note. The prose accentuated with the sound of Sting's voice. So distinctive to me, having watched many interviews on telly over the years. Elizabeth would smile from time to time. I felt honored to be sharing this event with her.
Just when we thought the evening had drawn to an end, John spoke to us. He looked at Sting and said that they had a surprise for him. During rehearsals, they realized that he was more than a rock star with a guitar. That he, also, had been classically trained. So they conspired and had "Fields of Gold" transcribed, to sing it on this night. My mouth dropped, amazed for that is one of my favorite songs by Sting. There he stood, flushed deep within his heart when they began to sing. The audience held in the unexpected beauty of the moment as they sang together for the encore. I know the lyrics by heart. What happened to me transformed all those years of Rock 'n' Roll. They became sacred.
***
Then the world stood still again. The "Heart" of the World had died. Princess Diana left the world to make her final journey to the Divine. On 6 September 1997, her funeral was held in Westminster Abbey, London. Three million people gathered, held in their common grief and loss. Two Hundred nations watched as the Dean commended Diana's soul to enter the Kingdom of Heaven,
"Where grief and misery are banished,
and
Light and Joy evermore abide."
The Welsh Guards shouldered the coffin, led by the ivory cross, as they marched down the nave, to the deeply moving "Song for Athene,"composed by John Tavener. The Orthodox Funeral Service moved ceremoniously. Heads were bowed, row after row. Tears fell upon the floor as she passed by. The Lilies on the top of the coffin spread their scent and beauty as the procession went slowly forward. Bobbing gracefully with each step holding the space for us to grieve as the lyrics and the choir's angelic voices filled the Abbey.(2) Many others and I watched motionless in front of our tellies at home. Breathless as the song touched our hearts with the reality. She is gone. For one minute, the nation honored her with Silence. For one minute, the world honored her with silence. The "Heart" of "Hearts" had passed on. Now John has joined her.
CHAPTER 70
TALKING WITH ANIMALS
1992
Lily was asked to speak at a conference in Phoenix, Arizona. The focus was to be on the Multi-Faith and Inter-Dimensional aspects of Life. I decided to go with her again on her journey to the States. Vicky Lord, wife of Jon Lord of Deep Purple, would be traveling with us. Vicky, her sister, Jackie Paice, and I often went on adventures with Lily together around the world. It was quite a vision; Lily, everyone's grandmother, walking along joyfully through the airports with three Rock 'n' Roll wives, blonde, radiant, and assured. Being on the road, we found so familiar. This time it was on a quest to help humanity.
At the conference, we met Samantha and Stan Khury who worked with animals. Samantha had a particular technique, which really inspired me to learn more. After her talk, I realized that I wasn't far away from doing her technique. Her therapy developed a doorway, a silent language, a common connection with the animal Kingdom, the place where all creation is one. She communicated with animals through visualizing pictures. In fact, before humans started to use the spoken language, we also communicated through pictures, inner pictures.
Between the lectures and in the evenings, we spent many hours together, deepening our understanding of this process. She shared many stories to exemplify how she successfully solved many issues between animal and man. One of my favorites was a woman in Boston, having trouble with her cat. It was not using its cat litter box and was leaving little piles all over the living room. When Samantha visited her, she recalls entering a Victorian style home; it was as if she was walking into an old movie with the anticipation of being greeted by Humphrey Bogart in the next room. The entrance hall was huge and grand with marble floors and a crystal chandelier. Everything was covered with white cloths: the chairs, the tables, and the paintings on the wall. There was a feeling of the past and the present was asleep.
The woman, her name I have forgotten, came out from a room on the side of the hall into which she led Samantha. Her precious cat took to Sam's lap as they discussed the current problem and sipped on tea. The next step was to be alone with the cat, whose name I have also since forgotten. Let's call her Honey. Sam and Honey wandered into another room next door to be private. This room also seemed to hold the past; days gone by, for the same white cloths covered the furniture.
Samantha held Honey in herlap and gently stroked herlong fur. In this process, she begins to calm her own inner world first. Animals are very aware of our state of being, whether nervous or calm. She then filled her heart with Love but not overpowering. The next step is to create pictures or a movie. Sam pictured Honey making a mess on the floor. She pictured her mistress not being very happy. She then pictured Honey going in her cat litter box with her mistress being happier. She waited patiently for pictures to come back.
What she saw was the house full of lights and flowers. There was a party and many were there. Honey's mistress was walking down the stairs in a beautiful dress, radiant, full of joy. Then Sam received additional pictures, consistent of the house closing down. The curtains drawn, holding back the sunlight. Her mistress withdrew and hid in her room. On some occasions, she would sit in the sitting room in a slump. It was the only room, which allowed some sunlight.
The next pictures showed Honey not using the cat litter box, stomping about indignant. The movie went on. Animated at last, angrily, Honey's mistress would get up from her chair. Samantha went back into the sitting room and shared the story. She asked if it made any sense. The woman burst into tears. The evening of the party was the night before her wedding. Her fiancé had a fatal car crash on the way. Her world went dead. Her heart's joy was stolen as she went into shock. The house shut down. No one was to visit. The woman and Honey sat in the shadows of what went before.
Samantha and the woman both concluded that Honey was most likely worried. However, the secret to change Honey's behavior is to have her mistress come alive and act as she did before Honey quit using the cat litter box. It worked. Six months later Samantha received a Polaroid of Honey sitting on her mistress's lap very happy. The room filled with flowers and the cloths removed from the furniture. Honey was using the cat litter again and her mistress had returned to the land of the living.
My second most favorite story took Samantha to a ranch in Virginia that bred thoroughbred race horses. They had a two-year- old filly that was not eating and were very concerned. The horse was in its stable when Samantha approached her. She began her pictures. She visualized a series of images that told the story of the horse not eating and her owners being worried. She waited. Images like a movie came back. She saw the horse happy, running freely in the field. The next image came as a dark stable, no room to run free. Then the filly was forced to run on a hard track pulling a trap. She was not happy with her life and did not want to eat. She did not see why she had to anymore. Samantha related the story to her owners. She suggested that perhaps there could be a compromise. Maybe they could make a deal, allowing her to run free again for some of the time. Instead of being on such an extreme training schedule, they should slowly introduce her to a different future. They agreed to try it, hoping that it would get her to eat. They did not want to lose one of their valued breeding horses. But how would they know?
Samantha returned to the horse and relayed images of the deal. She showed images of how one day she would fly like the wind. Other days she had to be trained which meant pulling the trap. Her owners agreed to let her into the field each day, but she had to eat. The only way for them to know that the horse agreed to the deal would be if she ate some food. So Samantha thought of images, of her eating from Sam's hand in front of them on cue. It was successful and the horse and its owner lived happily ever after as far as Samantha was aware.
Over the years, Samantha, Stan and I have met up often. It has been many years since our last meeting and she was involved with a very huge challenge. Apparently, the bears in a particular Alaskan town were giving some problems to the community. Of course, it was the bears being the problem, not the fact that the humans built their homes across their normal migratory path to the river when the salmon were in season. The first year, the bears passed by the smells of the barbecues and the trash. The next year, they took to raiding the bins on their way to catch their next meal of salmon. (It was easier.) Then the problem got worse when the bears took to entering the houses, following the smell of the sausages frying in the pan. Guess who is coming to dinner? The community was ready to get their rifles and shoot all bears that violated the safety of the town. It was THEIR TOWN, not the bears, despite their building on the path to the river. The Forestry Department called in Samantha to help because they feared for the survival of the bears. The plan was to catch one of the bears and have her speak to them about a compromise.
Somehow, Sam was to communicate that humans could be rather narrow-minded sometimes. She offered a proposal of how the bears might be the wiser and work with the humans. The Forestry commission offered that they would guarantee a safe new route to the river through the forest. This new route would prevent the humans from shooting them if they agreed.
Samantha was nervous since it was the most complicated project yet. They were to put a tracking device on the bear and wait until the next season. Time has passed and I can not say what happened for my own life became very focused on other matters. I do know she does have a website. I shall attempt to make contact again. It is interesting how life's cycles can go in and out of relationships from before and then start again. After being in Arizona with her, I returned home and told the children of my discoveries.
We had acquired a new puppy named Joe. He was another white Alsatian, cuddly and innocent. His paws were big and his left ear flopped. He was in the habit of taking the kids shoes and hiding them. We panicked often that he would destroy them in his teething fever. It was Sunday evening and we were washing the dishes, when Clare came in crying that she couldn't find her other new shoe for school.
I turned and looked at Joe. He was sitting there looking up at us as though he was watching a tennis match. I knelt down to him and began to do Samantha's technique with a Ginger twist. I went inwards and made myself a pool of calm. I added the color of blue. Then I filled my heart with Love and added pink. I then made a movie of Clare missing her shoe. I had him be the hero, coming back in the room with the shoe making Clare and me happy. He kept nodding at me with his big brown eyes, licking me from time to time. Nothing happened.
Oh well, it didn't work this time, shrugging my shoulders as the thought ran through my mind, "I am a novice, back to the drawing board." The girls finished the dishes and I went over to the studio. About an hour later, they came running over shouting with glee that Joe had brought the shoe into the kitchen. "It worked Mummy! It worked! AND he didn't chew it!" My abilities increased with time and Samantha's advice for when we left the animals at home worked beyond words, literally.
She said to visualize yourself walking out the door showing the time, where the sun or moon was in the sky. Visualize the passage of the sun and the moon as many days as you are to be gone. At the end of the story, show them getting a reward the moment you are to walk back in the door. Also, if you are away for some time, show them who will be coming in to feed them. If you have a cat and a dog give them both something to do. For instance, the dog checks the doors and the cat can check the windows. They both check on each other. It is important for you to give them something to do so they don't get bored. Speaking to them in their language in this way helps them not to worry. They know they are safe and when you will return.
My final story to share about Samantha is so precious. I went to their home in California to discover that it is a sanctuary for birds especially the ill and abused. They had a conservatory where the birds were free to fly and even go into the house.
What was very special and sweet is that Samantha had a little bird, a little robin, with whom she would travel around the world on her lecture tours. What was amazing and sweet was that he did not travel with her in a cage. Unbelievable as it might seem, he traveled in her pocket. Samantha said she would silently whisper to him within her thoughts to be quiet and stay still. Even on the plane, even all the way to London, little RJ (the name she called him) would be in her pocket, unbeknownst to the stewardess and all of her fellow passengers. The story brings a smile to my face each time I remember it.
These stories I share with you still touch me deeply with hope. They confirm to me that Humanity's hearts are pure. The love in both Stan and Sam's hearts filled the room wherever they went. Their eyes shone with the golden light of Goodness. I feel so honored to have shared time together. I learned so much. For me, we are together any time I see the birds in the sky and hold a cat or look into the eyes of a dog or a horse. Bless you, wherever you are today.
CHAPTER 71
A DOLPHIN EXPERIENCE
SAN DIEGO
1988
What seems like many years ago, a voice spoke to me in a dream that said, "You must meet the Dalai Lama!" It was avery powerful directive, which left me wondering, "How?" It wasn't long before my question was answered. With the morning post, I received an invitation to a luncheon where I would meet the Dalai Lama and by chance, Horace Dobbs, the founder of International Dolphin Watch. This meeting inspired the beginning of a process, which led me to seek the "Magic of the Dolphins" a few years later. Before this experience of meeting with dolphins was to occur, a deep friendship developed between Horace, my four children and me. We looked forward to receiving each new book he published about dolphins, which he very kindly sent to us. The reading of his adventures at bedtime took us all on journeys into this magical world for some time, while the dream of swimming with a dolphin was building in our hearts.
I was working part time with Lily at the clinic and she needed a companion to go with her to San Diego for a conference. David and I were living separately. So I volunteered. It was a three-day lecture and workshop with some time off to sightsee. Everyone called her "grandmother" and I could understand why as the days passed. The conference primarily focused on inspiring us to take responsibility for our actions, feelings and thoughts to restore Peace on Earth as caretakers.
Lily brought in the aspect of healing through color and love. I made sure she had her food and drinks because it was not easy for her to walk. In between lectures, we saw patients. We worked together as a team. Everyone thought she had the healing energy of the Angels. She also had a heart of gold. Her wisdom and love inspired everyone. It was during this time in San Diego when I met a woman named Elizabeth Fortune, a facilitator of Dolphin Swims. I remembered the healing power of dolphins and spoke to Elizabeth seeking her advice.
As it turned out, Elizabeth worked out of the Bahamas during the winter months and I was planning to visit my mother in Florida with the children at Christmas. The coincidence was a major indication for me to book a "Dolphin Experience" with her pronto! In the remaining days of the seminar, our mornings were free, so Elizabeth suggested I should take this opportunity to begin my relationship with the dolphins at the San Diego Sea World.
On the first day, we went to one of the outdoor feeding pools, which had the female dolphins and was open to the public. Lily came with us and sat on a bench nearby, as she c
ould not stand for long. She loved to be in the gentle sunshine of California and the scent of the flowers. Elizabeth led me to the edge of the pool where the dolphins were. As they swam by, one of the females studied me with one eye as she passed. Each time as she circled, coming closer, Elizabeth would introduce me to her by name. It seemed to me that she was listening and checking me out. After a while, the dolphin slowed down and nearly stopped on the ledge by the wall where we were standing. At this point Elizabeth encouraged me to touch her. The sensation was like touching warm wet silk. The moment passed as she swam away, but then she would return. A special moment occurred next. On her next circle, she stopped right in front of me. My stroking hand came to rest at a point on her side, allowing a deeper moment of contact. And as we did so, my hand seemed to activate with healing energy and was healing something within her body. Time stood still as the heat of my hand increased. The dolphin just stayed and stayed. Eventually, a passing stranger interrupted the silence and she swam away.
To this day, I still feel the moment of having received the honor to have a mammal allow me to heal her. For I was a novice in training at the time and this experience of trust went deep into my heart empowering my self-confidence. Its essence left me with the feeling that I had graduated into another dimension of Life's Great Healing Adventure.
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