The Hectic Attic

Have you ever met someone, and from that first moment you knew there was something special about them?

When a friendship was formed quickly and easily, and from the start you felt like this person knew you better than anyone ever could. You may have just met an Anam Cara.

Anam Cara is the Gaelic term for a soul friend. It is much more than just a regular friendship – the Anam Cara friendship is deep and transcendent. An Anam Cara knows your thoughts, your feelings, your past and your present sometimes better than you do.

The meaning of Anam cara is Soul Friend – Anam = Soul and Cara = Friend. An Anam cara offers spiritual direction. This includes the invitation to the awakening of your emotional body/mind/soul.

At one time or another we have all felt lonely or isolated. We have all had times were we felt misunderstood; standing on the outside looking in, just longing to belong. The Anam Cara eases that feeling of loneliness and isolation. Our Anam Cara understands us at a deep, spiritual level, and reminds us that we are never alone. They provide shelter from the storm and a light in the darkest of places.

Our Anam Cara is not necessarily our spouse, or partner (though they can be). Frequently our Anam Cara fills the role of a best friend and confidant. An Anam Cara may be a life time friend, who appears to us in childhood and stays with us throughout the years. Or they may appear later in life to accompany us on our journey. They may stay for years, or go out with the tide. However long they stay, their presence is a gift and a blessing.

And just as we are blessed by this relationship, so they are blessed too, because we, also, are an Anam Cara.

A Friendship Blessing
From the book “Anam Cara” By John O’Donohue

May you be blessed with good friends.
May you learn to be a good friend to yourself.
May you be able to journey to that place in your soul where there is great love, warmth, feeling, and forgiveness.
May this change you.
May it transfigure that which is negative, distant, or cold in you.
May you be brought in to the real passion, kinship, and affinity of belonging.
May you treasure your friends.
May you be good to them and may you be there for them;
May they bring you all the blessings, challenges, truth, and light that you need for your journey.
May you never be isolated.
May you always be in the gentle nest of belonging with your anam cara.

Today, when I woke up my Attic was being Hectic again (people say I think too much).
What I had in mind was “The Allegory of the Cave” by the philosopher Plato…

My own shadow

I don’t want to be long but I will remind you:

Plato imagines a group of people who have lived in a cave all of their lives, facing a blank wall. The people watch shadows projected on the wall by things passing in front of a fire behind them, and begin to ascribe forms to these shadows. According to Plato, the shadows are as close as the prisoners get to seeing reality. He then explains how the philosopher is like a prisoner who is freed from the cave and comes to understand that the shadows on the wall are not constitutive of reality at all, as he can perceive the true form of reality rather than the mere shadows seen by the prisoners.

Well, what does it have to do with my day yesterday?
After a long time struggling with myself,(and now I came to realize It’s been years), I was willing to see life in it’s true colors. Enough of forms and shadows.
Of course, sometime we need a little help to let the chains loose, and I really have to thank a person for this.
When we me meet people, we never know why we did so, or how long they will stay in our lives… loves, friends. family and even enemies… But we know for sure, that, IF the paths crossed at some point, there IS something to be shared, taught and learned…

So, now, starting to step out of my cave, into the light, a poem came to be…

Do not forget that you
have a heart in your chest,
and those who are with you
have a heart too.

Do not forget,
that everything is a mad race,
reaching the goal is not insignificant,
but you do not stop feeling.

I do not say you’re forgetful
don’t forget this:
nothing is running but time,
and it eventually wins, how mean can it be…

Do not forget you,
and the many things you enjoy,
do not exaggerate in working and looking…
but above all

DO NOT FORGET TO LIVE!

Aline Light Martins

PS: thank YOU for yesterday!

Of love and land – by Aline Martins

From which races, I am, was and will be?
Which colours and creeds, which luck?
How many lifes lived and will live?

Died and will die of how many deaths?
How many loves and dreams and hopes
How much faith, how much pain
I was Mum and Dad, of how many children?
how many torments, and horrors?

How many children have I cried, in so many wars?
How many children have I raised and was happy?
How many bodies, how many waters, how many lands
did I touch, kissed, love and was root?

And how many times yet, to give me?
How many lives still to be reborn?
How many mouths, yet to be kissed?
How many deaths, yet to die?

Yet, conformed, I sing the song
The march, the mission, the pain that screams
And I got butterflies by my side
Made, like me, of Love and Land! …

I had many many bad experiences in my birthdays: deaths, arguments, loneliness… So, I had no hope for a special birthday.

I spent most of my day being greeted by my friends on line (while in PJs, still in bed). Got a single phone call. And thought my dinner with friends was going to be only my brother and I. I have to say I have not enjoyed knowing some people didn’t go to my dinner because they were going to watch Harry Potter, but now I know where I can find my friends.
I had a simple, small and very happy dinner with my Brother and some friends.
Good Japanese food, lots of laugh, some pictures.

(Thank you Andre, Mariana, Sabino, Beto and Hiro)

Oh! Yes… there is a Stereo in the Attic.

My father still has many LPs and I lived years encountering Stairway to Heaven several times a week in my life.
The song that popped into my head at my birthday this year was a catchy little tune: Over the Hills and Far Away. It evokes a certain yearning for the open road of life that appeals to me. We never know exactly where the path ahead will lead, but, if we let them, our dreams and imagination can help guide our steps and give that final destination a more pleasing shape.

Over the Hills and Far Away by Led Zeppelin
Hey lady, you got the love I need
Maybe more than enough
Oh darlin’ darlin’, darlin’
Walk a while with me
Oh, you’ve got so much, so much, so much
Many have I loved
Many times been bitten
Many times I’ve gazed
Along the open road
Many times I’ve lied
Many times I’ve listened
Many times I’ve wondered
How much there is to know
Many dreams come true
And some have silver linings
I live for my dreams
And a pocketful of gold
Mellow is the man
Who knows what he’s been missing
Many many men
Can’t see the open road
Many is a Word
That only leaves you guessing
Guessing ’bout a thing oh…
I really ought to know, oh…
you know I should…

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