Dear friends and fellow bloggers, the writing gods have withdrawn their inspiration from me, and have made it clear that this is a moment for Hestia, the goddess of peace and replenishment, solitude and silence to make her entrance.
So for now, it is a hiatus – an interruption. I shall follow you all from afar, knowing that you too will come and go in the rhythms of life; and lacking all inspiration myself at the moment, I will share and sign off with words from an inspirational poet, Rabindranath Tagore. It is our golden autumn here in the southern hemisphere, and this is how it was in Bengal a hundred years ago when Tagore was writing:
Autumn
Today the peace of autumn pervades the world.
In the radiant noon, silent and motionless, the wide stillness rests like a tired bird spreading over the deserted fields to all horizons its wings of golden green.
Today the thin thread of the river flows without song, leaving no mark on its sandy banks.
The many distant villages bask in the sun with eyes closed in idle and languid slumber.
In the stillness I hear every blade of grass, in every speck of dust, in every part of my own body, in the visible and invisible worlds, in the planets, the sun, and the stars, the joyous dance of the atoms through endless time – the myriad murmuring waves of Rhythm surrounding Thy throne.
valeriedavies 
How lovely to see your face on my blog today! I’ve missed you and when I find time will come back to read some I missed. Hope all is well with you and that your rest is proving productive. With love, Sally xx
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Dear Sally, thank you so much for your lovely message – sorry to have taken so long to get back to you… find it really hard to write anything at all at the moment… much going on, and care-giving my 85 year old husband soaks up my energies … but I continue to read and enjoy your beautiful things, though I’m staying below the radar these days !
Your summer looks lovely… and your grand children adorable !
Much love, Valerie
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I send you love in this care giving role – it takes so much love and energy, it doesn’t leave much for oneself does it? Just know that you too are loved! Thank you for your lovely comments. I shall continue to think about you often and be pleased to know that you are calling in and enjoying my words and pictures. Much love to you and yours, Sally xx
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Thinking of you and your beautiful writing, Valerie, and sending warm wishes your way. x Josna
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Josna, how lovely to find your sweet message, I so appreciate it, good friend. So much I can’t write about, but a turbulent inner life, and much pre-occupation looking after my 85 year old husband… that’s life !!
Hope all is well with you, love Valerie
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Planning on coming back to us soon? Hope all is okay!
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How lovely of you to take the time to contact me – I so appreciate it, thank you…its hard to ex[lain what’s going on that prevents e from writing at the moment… suffice to say that care-giving my 85 year old husband takes my energies at the moment. very best wishes to you, good friend.
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I am so sorry to hear your husband is ill. Please take care of yourself while you’re away from good ole Blog-ville!! 😉
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Thank you, good friend… I really appreciate your message
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Dear Alarna,
Dreadful that I’ve taken so long to get back to you… I find it almost impossible to write a word at the moment… so much going on, and my energies soaked up looking after my 85 year old husband…
Thank you for your lovely message and even noticing it was my birthday… am keeping below the radar at the moment, but still read your thoughtful provocative posts,
Much love, Valerie
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Enjoy and when inspiration comes to relay your thoughts and inspiration to us all I will enjoy you once again… take good care of yourself x Barbara x
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Hi Valerie, I came across your blog just today, and now I’m reading my way backwards through it all with great delight. Thank you so much for creating something so enjoyable and so inspiring. My reading of it began with trying to find your blog about Winston Churchill. I myself am 73 and just starting on a project about him which I hope will keep my brain from atrophying for at least a few more years. I still can’t decide if it should be the draft of a book, or instead a regular blog. Both will require countless copyright approvals, which is somewhat daunting. Meanwhile I sincerely hope that you and your husband are well. How fortunate he is to have you!
Nick Boothby
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Dear Nick,
What a lovely surprise to find your friendly appreciative message.Thank you so much, I thought it was lovely of you to write… so we are both admirers of Winston Churchill are we? I hope you enjoy your project which ever way you decide to go ! And thank you so much for your good wishes – best wishes to you and yours, Valerie
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Dear Valerie,
Best wishes to you and your husband. I have just been rebrowsing my wife’s copy of the Dragon and am moved to thank you for your wonderful gift with words of great sensibility and inspiration whether relating moments of connection in your garden, coffee with friends, care for childhood or worlds at war. Your love of life shines bright enough to rekindle dying embers in an old closed heart – enough to make eyes water at more times than I care to admit. I have been the fortunate but grumpy recipient of loving care from a good wife. Grumpy perhaps because acceptance of diminishing abilities comes harder with a male ego. Be content to know that, in contrast to personal discomforts and the constant barrage of worldly bad news media, your arthritic fingers have brought much healing balm to grateful minds and hearts. And the words will be there for others when we are not.
Thank you, Paul
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Dear Paul,
Thank you so much for the beautiful words you have written to me, and your lovely thoughts . I was so touched that you should find the pleasure you describe, and it’s so validating when someone writes as appreciatively as you have done. I am very grateful.
Thank you, thank you…your heart doesn’t sound either old or closed,,,
I wish you and your ‘good wife’ the very best, and thank you again, Valerie
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as I wander about the night, I stopped here within my thoughts in flight…
Life has taken many turns as this earth seems to be shifting in fast forward…
I just wanted you to know I was thinking about you and I miss your wonderful thought-filling stories…
I hope all is well in your neck of the woods…Tak Care…You Matter…
)0(
maryrose
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Dear Mary Rose,
Thank you for your lovely visit and loving thoughts, iT was so lovely to find this message, and to feel that one of my old friends had not for gotten me. Yes, this earth is indeed shifting in fast forward, and I know that many of us, like you too, are having to deal with many things… and that’s how it is with me… clearing up the old, and preparing for the new… not always easy, but getting there, step by step.
So good to hear from you, kindred spirits never really lose touch,
love Valerie
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Best wishes and blessings to you and your husband, Valerie!
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Dear Shirley,
How lovely to hear from you and to feel remembered.- you have always been such a friend – thank you for your thoughts… I’m in a bit of a limbo at the moment, … but one day at a time.
I hope all is well with you. and life is good,
Love Valerie
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Yes, one day at a time, is a good way to live no matter what life hands you.
Love, Shirley
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I miss your beautiful posts, but I hear you, Valerie!
In fact, I have taken some time-out, myself, which is the reason for me coming back to your blog so late.
I hope you are good to yourself and enjoying your blogging-free time.
Much love,
Steffi
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Just checking in, Valerie, and taking a moment to let you know you’re on my mind and to wish you all the best in 2015! xoxoM
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Same here Valerie. Hope all is well and all the best!
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Great to hear from you and am replying via e-mail
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Lovely to hear from you Margarita, am writing to catch up !
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Great to hear from you….Getting my messages mixed up… but have replied by e-mail !
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Thank you, Valerie, for Tagore’s gentle poem of solitude. I hope you’re enjoying your hiatus and can appreciate the feelings to withdraw. Thank you for landing on my site. It’s a pleasure to meet you.
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Dear Pat, how lovely that you have connected… and so glad you enjoyed Tagore… Oriah has just helped me through a long bad patch with The Invitation…
I found your lovely blog after watching the starling murmuration on Dear Kitty blog
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Me, too, Valerie — glad we connected and you found me on the starling murmuration. That is so beautiful to watch. We have something in common in reading Oriah’s poems, especially The Invitation. I’ve always loved that — it’s so real.
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I was very happy to see your Gravatar picture on another blog – hope all is well with you.
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I was so touched to receive your message, good friend… am keeping a very low profile … my life is going through huge changes, and I don’t have the concentration to write at the moment. So good to hear from you, and hope all is well with you… One of the best things about blogging is the lovely people we connect with… so good to hear from you…
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I do not like Hiatuses. Hoping good for you.
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Alice, how lovely to hear from you… Hope all is well with you. My hiatus is a good thing — it is Because of huge changes in my life, which are taking all my energy… and no concentration left over at the moment for writing… lovely to think that my blogging friends have not forgotten me !
Warmest best wishes to you, Alice
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Hoping that you are doing well and that your hiatus is bringing you much peace. I too had to depart for a while. Losing my Mother filled my life with other things to attend to. Prayers for your happiness! I will watch for your return. Best wishes!
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Victoria, thank you so much for your message, lovely to hear from you, and I can imagine what the changes in your life have meant.. My life too has been turned upside down, particularly in the last four months… but time passes.. best wishes to you too, Valerie
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Dear Valerie, I was thinking about you yesterday when we had the partial eclipse and just wanted to pop in to see how things are going and to send you my love. I do miss reading your beautifully written pieces but understand of course that you have other calls on your time. I send my love to you and yours 🙂
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