My dear Friends
Autmn leaves have been falling in abundance here. Outside is a real carpet of reds and golds. Taking a walk through the grounds is a real delight adn oftern there are four or five of us. The grounds are extensive, with wooden blocks as 'play' areas designed for walking or climbing.
Recovery is a slow processs but there are hopeful signs, with strength returning day by day. The regular round of meals helps and the food is good.I guess there will be a real improvent very soon.
Bye for now
Sister Gila
Sunday, 25 October 2009
Tuesday, 20 October 2009
Creative wrting
My dear Friend
Life goes on here, with the end not yet in sight. Participated in a creative wrtitng class this morning and wrote some poems about colours and the autumn. This afternoon we had an art class with some modelling clay, not that I am very creative with it but it is fun.
The population keeps changing with new people coming and going always room for Friendship.
Bye for now
Sister Gila
Life goes on here, with the end not yet in sight. Participated in a creative wrtitng class this morning and wrote some poems about colours and the autumn. This afternoon we had an art class with some modelling clay, not that I am very creative with it but it is fun.
The population keeps changing with new people coming and going always room for Friendship.
Bye for now
Sister Gila
Thursday, 15 October 2009
Friends
My dear Friends
One of the most comforting things at the moment is the capacity for Friendship amongst the people here, obviuosly to greater or lesser degrees. There is mainly a kind of camaraderie amongst the patients,usually in the garden round the smokers table! But people look out for each other and that helps the staff too.
One of my greatest friends was an English Muslim, with whom I used to pray sometimes in the day or evening. He was a a bright exuberatnt chap, now gone from the ward and missed by me .One fo the great things he did was to bring in his guitar and we would spend hours playing and singing together.The other patients seemed to enjoy it too. Now the guitar has gone , but at least there is a piano.
Bye for now
Sister Gila
One of the most comforting things at the moment is the capacity for Friendship amongst the people here, obviuosly to greater or lesser degrees. There is mainly a kind of camaraderie amongst the patients,usually in the garden round the smokers table! But people look out for each other and that helps the staff too.
One of my greatest friends was an English Muslim, with whom I used to pray sometimes in the day or evening. He was a a bright exuberatnt chap, now gone from the ward and missed by me .One fo the great things he did was to bring in his guitar and we would spend hours playing and singing together.The other patients seemed to enjoy it too. Now the guitar has gone , but at least there is a piano.
Bye for now
Sister Gila
Tuesday, 13 October 2009
Walking in the countryside
My dear Friends
I have passed the weekend successfully in my new surroundings. Yesterday we went for a lovely walk in the grounds and saw the nature. I had several visitors over the weekend including my Christian 'brother' James who is also my Hebrew student.
One of the patients also suggested that we go to Jerusalem together in the month of November, to make a pilgrimage.
More later
Sister Gila
I have passed the weekend successfully in my new surroundings. Yesterday we went for a lovely walk in the grounds and saw the nature. I had several visitors over the weekend including my Christian 'brother' James who is also my Hebrew student.
One of the patients also suggested that we go to Jerusalem together in the month of November, to make a pilgrimage.
More later
Sister Gila
Friday, 9 October 2009
Change of plan
My dear Friends
Sometimes things do not go quite according to plan. I have suffered a slight nervous breakdown and am in a hospital on the outskirts of Cambridge. Even here there are large grounds and an expanse of sky, and plenty of activites to do during the day, such as drawing, painting and making music. Today someone brought in a guitar and I sang all the old songs, folk and Jewish and of the sixties.
I will give you an update as the days go on.
Always Shalom
Sister Gila
Sometimes things do not go quite according to plan. I have suffered a slight nervous breakdown and am in a hospital on the outskirts of Cambridge. Even here there are large grounds and an expanse of sky, and plenty of activites to do during the day, such as drawing, painting and making music. Today someone brought in a guitar and I sang all the old songs, folk and Jewish and of the sixties.
I will give you an update as the days go on.
Always Shalom
Sister Gila
Tuesday, 29 September 2009
Back home
My dear Friends
I have now been back for more than a week.Here in Cambridge the sun is shining and I am sitting in the UL, which is the university library. I am going to write up the second part of my little book, which as you know was published three years ago. The book goes from 1999 which is when I finished the last part. It is taking a little more time than the last one, but if I persever I am sure it will be finished.
Here the university term is beginning again, and I have an invitation to one of the colleges for dinner. I will also be returning to my own college, Lucy Cavendish, a woman's college, where I studied Hebrew between 1988 and 1992. It was a beautiful experience.
I have started teaching some Hebrew and some things about the festivals to a group of Christians in Cambourne, a village outside Cambridge. It has been the Jewish festivals of the New Year and the Day of Atonement and it is coming up to the Feast of Tabernacles. All these I celebrated in my Jewish childhood and they are beautiful feasts.
Till next time
Shalom from
Sister Gila
I have now been back for more than a week.Here in Cambridge the sun is shining and I am sitting in the UL, which is the university library. I am going to write up the second part of my little book, which as you know was published three years ago. The book goes from 1999 which is when I finished the last part. It is taking a little more time than the last one, but if I persever I am sure it will be finished.
Here the university term is beginning again, and I have an invitation to one of the colleges for dinner. I will also be returning to my own college, Lucy Cavendish, a woman's college, where I studied Hebrew between 1988 and 1992. It was a beautiful experience.
I have started teaching some Hebrew and some things about the festivals to a group of Christians in Cambourne, a village outside Cambridge. It has been the Jewish festivals of the New Year and the Day of Atonement and it is coming up to the Feast of Tabernacles. All these I celebrated in my Jewish childhood and they are beautiful feasts.
Till next time
Shalom from
Sister Gila
Wednesday, 23 September 2009
Ireland
My dear Friends
This time last week I was in the air above Dublin and flying back to Stansted. I had been in the Republic for a week and had an absolutely wonderful time! I had been to Co Galway before, three times in fact, but this was the first time I was in the south-east. Of course the whole thing was made better because I went to an old friend, a Religious Sister, Sr Christina, whom I had known over the years in her little community in Cambridge. So we go back a long way...
The place of their community is called Ferns, and is a village on the Dublin -Wexford road which takes about two hours to get to by bus. I had not realisd it is an old monastic foundation, dating back to the first Bishop, St Aidan, who live around 635AD. His traces were everywhere and I had the feeling he was following me around...
I spent the week in a little hermitage in the grounds of the monastery, praying, cooking, thinking, writing, and in between going to the mountains and the sea. I got rather fond of my little hermitage, fully equipped with its own kitchen, bedroom cum sitting room and bathroom. and the garden faced on to a famous hill whose name escapes me, anyway I couldn't pronounce the Gaelic which is delightfully everywhere.
I explored the castle with the help of Connor, one of the staff at the visitor centre, which was opened by Mary Macaleese, the President of Ireland. Several women of the village of Ferns got together and made 26 tapestries depicting the history of Ferns up to the Norman Invasion and the Vikings. I used to drop in for tea there and chat and felt sad to leave them even after only a week.
More tomorrow
Shalom from
Sister Gila
This time last week I was in the air above Dublin and flying back to Stansted. I had been in the Republic for a week and had an absolutely wonderful time! I had been to Co Galway before, three times in fact, but this was the first time I was in the south-east. Of course the whole thing was made better because I went to an old friend, a Religious Sister, Sr Christina, whom I had known over the years in her little community in Cambridge. So we go back a long way...
The place of their community is called Ferns, and is a village on the Dublin -Wexford road which takes about two hours to get to by bus. I had not realisd it is an old monastic foundation, dating back to the first Bishop, St Aidan, who live around 635AD. His traces were everywhere and I had the feeling he was following me around...
I spent the week in a little hermitage in the grounds of the monastery, praying, cooking, thinking, writing, and in between going to the mountains and the sea. I got rather fond of my little hermitage, fully equipped with its own kitchen, bedroom cum sitting room and bathroom. and the garden faced on to a famous hill whose name escapes me, anyway I couldn't pronounce the Gaelic which is delightfully everywhere.
I explored the castle with the help of Connor, one of the staff at the visitor centre, which was opened by Mary Macaleese, the President of Ireland. Several women of the village of Ferns got together and made 26 tapestries depicting the history of Ferns up to the Norman Invasion and the Vikings. I used to drop in for tea there and chat and felt sad to leave them even after only a week.
More tomorrow
Shalom from
Sister Gila
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