Male ballet and the soul

It has been a less than ordinary week. Or rather more than ordinary might be a more appropriate description. It certainly has not been ordinary, although I always wonder what constitutes an ordinary week anyway. The more life happens, the more it seems to be filled with odd little extras and unexpected great big tasks and decisions.

It was my mother's birthday this week. It is always a little challenging with my Mother as she is not always enthusiastic about celebrating her own birthday and she was somewhat reluctant to come home from work early because her family wanted to celebrate with her. This being said, we managed to convince her, and we went to see Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake, which was incredibly beautiful. So beautifully performed, and I am always reminded of how much I adore the 'story'. In fact, it was more than beautiful. There were some scenes which absolutely moved the soul. There is something about strength and beauty that when integrated, is something rather incredible to witness. We also took an evening to cook dinner and drink wine and celebrate as a family. It is important to do these things even though it seems like there is no time. There was time... and it was a really nice break.

My body has done a wonderful job at communicating with the rest of me in that I am not very well and even a weeks worth of antibiotics have not worked their magic yet... I suspect another GP visit is in order. However, despite that, the week has still resembled something of a chaotic jumble of research plans and ideas, essay writing, catching up on other client case notes and write ups, transcribing research interviews, and now my bedroom might be better described as a very disorganised holding room for piles of books and articles and papers. Oh, and empty coffee cups and bags and more books. On both sides of my bed...

I complain but it is in the spirit of love and choice.

I came across some words... There is no better way to describe what we do when we look at and explore the development of another human being. A lot of my reading this week has been around concepts of attachment, which fundamentally is about love and safety and how we relate to others. How we seek care. But I like these words - I am always drawn to the idea of the soul - it is, in some respects, more of who we are than any one defining part could be. When we talk about us being more than the sum of our parts, I think the soul is what we might mean...

'We are looking at the foundations of the human soul'
(H. Krystal)