Back from belle Paris, my first visit to the City of Lights. We travelled via Eurostar and were suitably impressed with St. Pancras International. We ate at Le Pain Quotidienne, as if we were starting our French affair already.
Our hotel in Paris was right outside Gare du Nord for easy access and being relatively close to the 17th arrondissement for my next morning ‘special’ appointment. The day started off nicely, the sun was shining and our destination that morning saw us being buzzed into a passageway through a courtyard, which was slightly reminiscent of India, and finding a lovely little clinic at the end with a pretty little bench outside with flowers. Very different to London, immediately.
Showing posts with label healing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label healing. Show all posts
Monday, 3 May 2010
Thursday, 11 March 2010
'Sacred Hearts' by Sarah Dunant exceeds expectations
I finished reading this book a couple of weeks back and have yet to write a review of my thoughts. So here it will be.
I picked up the book courtesy of the raving compliments the panel from the TV Book Club lavished it with, otherwise it would never have been a book I would have read. The only pulling theme was the idea of sisterhood.
Needless to say, I was entranced from the first few chapters. Sarah Dunant brilliantly weaves a tapestry of the details of convent life without feeling you have necessarily slipped back in time. You appear to be immediately there, within the confined space of this place and whether this in part due to the fact that it is written in the present tense, it achieves the engaging hook.
What's more, I love a book that promises more than it lets on. As Dunant commented herself, the skeletal premise is based around whether or not the new novice to the convent, Serafina, will escape or succumb to accepting being a nun for life. Dunant never allows us to stray far from the turmoil and shocking injustice that Serafina feels at being tricked into the life of the nun; it's not thrown in our faces and the details emerge slowly with only implied hints, yet it underlines the days that roll on by as the novice comes out of her rage; it seeps through the seemingly impenetrable wall of the convent.
The highlight of the book is encompassed in the character of Sister Zuana, the dispensary mistress who unconsciously forms a bond with Serafina, whom she is charged to look after initially. The details of the various healing concoctions and methods of the time, (being 1500s Italy) are meticulously outlined with the same vigour the sister herself employs in her work. Her characters also highlights the dilemma between religion and science and consequently, the humanity that is needed to heal, versus the reserve the life of a nun requires.
The rest of the nuns are as brilliantly painted and there's a sense of madness in the more senior ones, all individual in their own bizarre natures. Despite the camaraderie shown at times, you get a sense that the place is still not inducive to the stability of mind or spirit. Essentially it's a power play that rules the comings and goings.
Lastly, the book's last hundred or so pages are simply riveting. There is a brilliant twist, (though I do not like to use this word)- rather a character defies our expectations, so much so that I was cheering at the book at various intervals. Thank god I was reading it alone otherwise I would have received rather strange looks. The ending is just as brilliant and supremely clever in a Shakespearean stroke of genius (quite literally!)
All this without missing the presence of a male character.
RATING: 9/10 stars.
I picked up the book courtesy of the raving compliments the panel from the TV Book Club lavished it with, otherwise it would never have been a book I would have read. The only pulling theme was the idea of sisterhood.
Needless to say, I was entranced from the first few chapters. Sarah Dunant brilliantly weaves a tapestry of the details of convent life without feeling you have necessarily slipped back in time. You appear to be immediately there, within the confined space of this place and whether this in part due to the fact that it is written in the present tense, it achieves the engaging hook.
What's more, I love a book that promises more than it lets on. As Dunant commented herself, the skeletal premise is based around whether or not the new novice to the convent, Serafina, will escape or succumb to accepting being a nun for life. Dunant never allows us to stray far from the turmoil and shocking injustice that Serafina feels at being tricked into the life of the nun; it's not thrown in our faces and the details emerge slowly with only implied hints, yet it underlines the days that roll on by as the novice comes out of her rage; it seeps through the seemingly impenetrable wall of the convent.
The highlight of the book is encompassed in the character of Sister Zuana, the dispensary mistress who unconsciously forms a bond with Serafina, whom she is charged to look after initially. The details of the various healing concoctions and methods of the time, (being 1500s Italy) are meticulously outlined with the same vigour the sister herself employs in her work. Her characters also highlights the dilemma between religion and science and consequently, the humanity that is needed to heal, versus the reserve the life of a nun requires.
The rest of the nuns are as brilliantly painted and there's a sense of madness in the more senior ones, all individual in their own bizarre natures. Despite the camaraderie shown at times, you get a sense that the place is still not inducive to the stability of mind or spirit. Essentially it's a power play that rules the comings and goings.
Lastly, the book's last hundred or so pages are simply riveting. There is a brilliant twist, (though I do not like to use this word)- rather a character defies our expectations, so much so that I was cheering at the book at various intervals. Thank god I was reading it alone otherwise I would have received rather strange looks. The ending is just as brilliant and supremely clever in a Shakespearean stroke of genius (quite literally!)
All this without missing the presence of a male character.
RATING: 9/10 stars.
Tuesday, 5 May 2009
Belief systems
The energy workshops I've been going to with mum have asked us all to look at belief systems we've all inherited into our being over the years and how many have become redundant and hold no purpose and so are holding us back from 'moving' into the life we truly want.
1. that you cannot be weak.
today i thought of this one:
2. that life has to be fair.
in a bizarre way i am thankful for the hours spent here in the surgery which keep me away from home. not looking forward to not having a kitchen for the next couple of weeks what with everything now being the dining room. crazeeeeeee
1. that you cannot be weak.
today i thought of this one:
2. that life has to be fair.
in a bizarre way i am thankful for the hours spent here in the surgery which keep me away from home. not looking forward to not having a kitchen for the next couple of weeks what with everything now being the dining room. crazeeeeeee
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