This is a sort of ‘annual letter’ (except that I haven’t written one for more than ten years).
Thanks to all those of you who keep me on your mailing lists and let me know how things are going in all corners of the world. I really do appreciate hearing from you.
2005 was mainly a year of change. Though very pressured at times, it was a less difficult year than 2004, at least in terms of work. (2004 had a job that simply carried on and on and on, until in the end I could hardly believe I’d ever actually finish it. In the end it took nearly a year, finishing in May 2005.)
Anyway, back to ’05. At the beginning of the year I was still living in Braehead House, Kenilworth, which was a retirement home for single Anglican clergy. I rented the attic (two floors up), which had a sunroof on either side and stunning views over the Cape Flats and in fact most of the way round from Constantiaberg to the back of Table Mountain above Kirstenbosch. (The short bit in between was obscured by my own roof.) A condition of my moving in there, some ten years earlier, was that I was not to interfere with the community – which suited me fine. But as the old men grew older, and some died or moved out, I found myself drawn into an unofficial caregiving role when the last two became frailer. Eventually we employed night nurses, then full-time nurses. When only one ‘Father’ was left, it was clearly not sustainable to keep a huge old house running with a staff of seven (including the nurses) for just one person. The decision was made to move Fr David to another home down the road. (P.S. He died in May '08.)
Braehead remained with the Anglican Church but became the Provincial Aids office, and I was no longer able to stay in the attic. Fortunately I had bought a flat in Plumstead two years earlier – and was allowed to stay on at Braehead, with renovations going on all around me, until my tenant’s lease ran out in March ’05.
My long-suffering sister Sav and nephew Tony helped me move, along with a few friends (thanks again!). It was all rather chaotic, as I was still trying to finish the everlasting book. After only one or two nights in the new flat I went on retreat for a week – a sorely needed retreat, with my usual retreat director, Sr Liz O.P., a woman of infinite grace and patience. That was followed immediately by a labyrinth retreat and workshop at the cathedral (St George’s). I had been quite involved in the labyrinth project there: we now have a beautiful Chartres-style labyrinth paved into the courtyard next to the cathedral. Those of you in Cape Town, go take a walk there sometime. It’s open whenever the cathedral is. The workshop was a training for labyrinth facilitators, led by Lauren Artress of Grace Cathedral, San Francisco, who heads up a worldwide labyrinth project (
www.veriditas.net).
Sometime I’ll get round to writing an article or two about labyrinths and post it here.
Later in the year I went to visit two teachers at a high school in Pietermaritzburg to chat about possibilities for a labyrinth there. On a previous visit to KZN I’d stumbled across a lovely labyrinth in mosaic and blue ceramic at Koinonia in the Valley of a Thousand Hills. The first one I ever walked was the Frazers’ one at Barrydale – have been back there several times, with friends.
Soon after that I got to do a midlife course – I think it was called ‘Midlife Connections’.
That was great – I just wished we’d had more time to spend on it. Like a week. It was good material, well facilitated, with a lovely group of people.
Talking of ‘group’, my community group continues and has now been running almost 14 years, meeting once a week (except for school holidays). We are now five women, two of the original eight having moved out of reasonable regular travelling distance (and one to New Zealand, quite a while back). It is a huge privilege being able to share the ups & downs of the journey with the same group of people on a regular basis over such a long time. (The group started off in one of Sergio Milandri’s ‘Foundations in Christian Spirituality’ courses back on 1992. Participants could choose to continue in a community group after the course. Sergio continues to teach and lead workshops on spiritual formation - see
www.relating.com for current info.)
I didn’t travel much last year – just two weekends away. The first was to attend the Tutus’ golden wedding in Orlando, Soweto, in July, which also gave me a chance to see my brother Leon & Yvonne, his wife (who have since moved to Holland). The Tutus’ party was a wonderful celebration of marriage and friendship – a great gathering of so many people from all over the world. It was good to see friends and family as well as many of the former Bishopscourt staff. Mpho, the youngest daughter, is a priest in the States and took the ‘renewal of vows’ part of the service. When she got to the bit about ‘For better , for worse’, Mrs T merrily rephrased that to ‘For better and better!’
The other trip was to KZN, to the 30-year reunion of my matric class at Hermannsburg School. I went with some trepidation, knowing it would all be so very German – and I’d spoken very little German since leaving school, and especially since my Dad died (almost 9 years ago). But we had a great time – about two-thirds of the matric class gathered, and the initial strangeness of trying to recognise old familiar faces behind wrinkles and grey hair soon melted away in a sea of reminiscences, tall tales and raucous laughter. The highlight for me was the Saturday night when we sang around the braai fire and stayed chatting late into the night. I really miss that singing. The whole weekend had an extraordinary sense of acceptance and belonging – the differences that may have mattered at school mattered no more, and we could empathise with what others had been through and celebrate achievements. Am looking forward to the school’s sesquicentenary in April – again there’ll be a braai followed by singing. To any HMB-ers reading this – get yourselves there!
On that same trip I was able to visit my godmother in Wartburg and catch up on some family news. I was hoping to see her again later in the year, along with my mother’s other sister, but that holiday fell though because of work pressure. Maybe there’ll be a gathering of the clan in March this year, when Tante Linda turns 80.
Back in Cape Town, change continued as I bought a cute little laptop, which soon became my main computer (I still have to complete the move – much of the data remains on the old machine, which makes life a bit chaotic at times), got a Vodacom 3G (wireless) connection and changed my e-mail addresses. The wireless has its pros and cons … in retrospect I might have done better going for ADSL, but I got so annoyed at Telkom that I didn’t want to give them any more business. The 3G system may improve as Vodacom’s coverage improves – I seem to be on the edge of the area they cover, and usually get only GPRS (much slower) or no network at all, which can be very frustrating.
The laptop is part of a dream of becoming mobile so that I can travel and write — possibly do some travel writing; otherwise do e‑business from wherever I am. I’m getting really tired of editing, especially long editing jobs, i.e. a whole book at a time. My brain struggles to hold that much information – is this old age creeping up?
I mentioned e-business – that has taken up a lot of my spare time (and money). Starting from total ignorance, I’ve learnt a lot but not nearly enough. Only one of the businesses I’ve explored is turning a (tiny) profit so far, but this year I plan to focus, get rid of the clutter of information overload and see whether I can free some of my time from editing to try writing more. Also want to learn website design at last – it’s been on the back burner for years.
Spare time has been in short supply this past year, one way and another, but I’ve managed to hike almost every weekend, even if it was only on the mountain above Kirstenbosch. I’ve discovered that a lot of tourists (and locals) hear about the route up Skeleton and think that if they follow that path they’ll end up at the cable station. What the guidebooks don’t mention is that from the top of Skeleton it’s another two hours or so before they get to the top of Table Mountain – and that there are many ways to get lost en route! So if I have nothing else planned I enjoy wandering up there and seeing whether anyone’s got lost – or is about to. Depending on the time available and people’s level of fitness (and appropriate clothing, water etc) I have sometimes joined them in the trip to the top or suggested a different route down. I recently got a digital camera (also part of the travel writing dream) and have been taking lots of pics — of flowers, trees, landscapes, occasionally people I meet. Some of these are up on my Shutterfly photo website – e-mail me for the address if you’re interested.
Study-wise, I’ll continue my English major this year (am still halfway through English II with UNISA) and add a module or two in tour guiding - just the basic and Western Cape parts. Will see later whether I want to do more, and maybe go for accreditation as a tour or field guide. So far it’s just for interest. (And it ties in with travel dreams.)
2005 was the year I decided to take the CANSA Shavaton challenge and have my head shaved. (Ironically, my hair was about the longest it’s been since school.) It was an interesting experience, and quite thought-provoking. My mother got cancer when she was my age, and several of my friends have cancer now, so it wasn’t an entirely frivolous decision. Reactions from strangers were quite interesting – many clearly assumed I was ill and treated me with polite sympathy. One woman in a shopping mall stopped to tell me about her own recovery from cancer. By now (two months later) my hair no longer looks shaved, just very short. Soon I’ll have to unpack all the hair stuff again – shampoo, brushes, hair-dryer etc. Meanwhile I’m really enjoying being able to go to gym, shower and leave without the schlep of washing, conditioning and drying my hair each time.
Family-wise, we seem to be a particularly mobile bunch. I mentioned Leon & Yvonne in Holland; Woody & Sally have been in Hong Kong for about 18 months now. Sav is settled into a fisherman’s cottage in Kalk Bay, and we undertake occasional ‘excursions’ together, the last few being to Sedgefield and Tulbagh (twice – long story!) And I’m enjoying my pleasant flat in Plumstead. Living alone while working from home can become quite a solitary existence, so one of my intentions for this year is to involve myself in more social and church things lest I become a total hermit.
This has predictably become a tome… and I see it’s a lot more about what I want to do this year than what happened last year. That’s what happens when annual letters are written in the new year. Now it’s well past pumpkin time – and this is the year I’m supposed to get to bed by 11pm!
