I will I will I will...

It's a full moon! Hurrah! Not that I'd have noticed unless Moondreamer had told me about it!

Thank you Moondreamer!

So - I love a full moon, and tonight is particularly crisp so should get a good view from here. When I lived in Spain I used to move through time, from one full moon to the next, and I'd make a wish. And 9 times out of 10 it came true... so I know what tonight's wish will be. And I bet you know too!

Just popping a piece of Green & Black's Organic Milk Chocolate into my mouth. Loverly! And ethical too.

So, today has been quite good. Still low on energy but able to get out to the shops and buy berries. Tons of berries. Blue, Rasp, Black and Straw. Yum Yum.

Then I came back and started painting, but got tired and never finished it. I was trying to do a Mandala, having been inspired watching a film called Kundun, about the life of the 14th Dalai Lama. Stunning cinema, I have to say, and very moving - a Scorcese job. I thought how lucky I am to have some of his books sitting on my shelf, and how I should re-read them, and I looked up the Tibetan sand paintings that they showed being done so painstakingly (and then erased?! Ah! Transience - you see - nothing lasts.) I found a beautiful website on my travels, filled with the most gorgeous Mandalas for health. You can see them here if you have a chance (choose Mandalas in the centre and follow the gallery - look at those under Health to start with). I am trying to do one, and will let you know how I get on (well, first attempt today is crap, so will share tomorrow's attempt if it's even marginally better!).


A Writerly Note on Journalling and Journals - because this blog is not just about the cancer - ha ha!

On the writing front, the novel is coming on once again. I've not been writing in my private diary as much since blogging, I've realised. The blog has become is a kind of public diary, after all. And I've been anal enough to print out the entries once the comments have settled, so I have record of it now too. But I still journal.

And journalling is crucial to a writer, I believe. I tell my writing students they must keep a journal, and jot down ideas, keep sentences, collect words, snippets, images, whatever comes by. A journal allows you to treasure it all for later use. And like a fine wine, journals can brew and mature over time.

Which is why I spent the morning (in bed waiting for the anti-nausea tabs to kick in) reading over chapter outlines and notes I'd made and long since forgotten about. Little gems lay on the back pages, hidden away. A heading for a story I'd discarded as rubbish at the time, that now, now seems perfect. I also found myself inspired by myself, which is lovely when you feel a project is flagging because it's been so long since it's inception.

My novel is a labour of love, and so it will take time. And that's okay. It is also a work of gratitude, to say thank you to a whole heap of people who first met me when I was very broken in every way possible. It is a thank you, and a thank you of such immense importance, that I couldn't forgive myself if I didn't make this tiny little endeavour to show them all... (When the novel is written you will know what I mean by all of this - I promise).

So this is a note - a promise of completion - to;

The Novel Racers - who I joined last January and still haven't caught up with!
My PhD Supervisors (the poor poor people!) - who WILL get their successful candidate eventually
The NRG - who I WILL be meeting with as soon as I am well enough
My family - who have been waiting for this writer to get cracking since I was 3
And last but not least - ME!


Oh. And I booked a riding lesson tomorrow - jumping no less - so very excited about that too!

Must be the full moon! X