Siga Siga (Slowly , Slowly)

---

Siga Siga (Slowly, Slowly)

So week two began with a walk along the coast road to Trachila, another perfect fishing village at the end of our little stretch of coast road , so still, quiet and peaceful. We left by 10 and walked slowly, absorbing the views of the coast, katifigio caves and rocks, the caves on the hillside , the birds, the butterflies and the clear waters, to arrive eventually in this perfect village and drink iced coffee in a little kaffenion near the harbour under the plane trees. Greek ladies chattered animatedly and still unhurriedly. The buildings overlooking the narrow road and harbour are perfect, their wrought iron balconies and shuttered windows still in the late morning sunshine ... bougainvillea still flowering in the autumn sunshine and the smell of basil and the sea mingling in our nostrils..... could it really be any better than this? Having sat simply observing the man gut his small fish on the edge of the sea, watched by us and the hungry cat nearby, hoping desperately for a little favour, and soaking up the stillness for what must have been an age, slowly slowly we paid the bill and the lady owner gifted me, without request, with a cutting from her basil plant and some of it's white blossoms. The kindness of strangers was ours once again. Wandering around the few quiet lanes beyond the harbour and back up the hill and beyond to walk home, we realised that perhaps we had left home too late or enjoyed sitting too long as the early afternoon sun beat down! On our return from our 8.5 km we watched a few nudists swimming at katafigio and we determined to swim there too as it is accessed just below our accommodation! I realise too that I like the rhythm of distance walking and getting into my stride. We then head for the nearby Pantazi beach for a cooling swim and doze in the sun. Arvin makes Crostini with onion tomato and basil , with anchovy and egg and with grilled courgette and aubergine .... heavenly; and for the first time in 7 days we avoid the gorgeous local wine and drink water instead. This, I realise, I have come to see as deprivation!

Tuesday

Today begins another perfect day of yoga and the soft sand beach of Kalogria ,easy swimming in the cool clear water and a long, slow late lunch at our favourite lunchtime haunt at the beach of beetroot with garlic , tzatziki , salt cod croquettes , aubergine dip and local barrel wine....,

Then on our return home I see the missed calls and messages from Romy and Nina and I know my dear friend has gone. How can it be that whilst we were enjoying this idyll of ours my friend was taking her last breath..... I can't take it in , I can't accept it , and I can't control my tears when I call Romy and she tells me in her bravest voice how sorry she is to tell me that her mum has gone..... she sorry for me? I must be strong and brave and comfort her and encourage her , but fail miserably I think and babble on for too long.... and then the stillness and the grief for them, her lovely family, for their awful loss, shock and pain; and for Libby and her loss of life and the future of the small joys and huge pleasures and time and ability to enjoy her family and the world we live in, the simple things and the big things; and for me and all who had the privilege of knowing and loving her. Her humour and slightly sardonic wit , her ability to be the most undemanding, loyal, honest, generous and kind friend and her lateness, her ability to talk, chat , discuss , hold talkathons with me of epic proportions and laugh out loud, to never complain and to accept without giving up the fight....... how could all that and more be gone. I believe that although she has left us in body and I can't really believe we shall never see her again, her spirit still lives on and that the connection is unbroken, that to her family particularly she will always be what she always was, and is simply in another time and space...

The sadness comes and goes, it is sometimes huge, sometimes just a flicker and sometimes goes and I just enjoy remembering. We talk about Libs often and raise a glass to her and her lovely family too, ask for some peace for them in their huge grief somewhere and a beautiful place for Libby.

So I don't sleep so well for a while , and haven't done much since we got here ..... but now slowly , slowly I let go, slowly slowly I relax and slowly, slowly I sleep deep and long and so too does Arvin.

What a difference this makes! We are more sure than ever that we are to enjoy every day and as many minutes of each day as we can , to be in the moment and to absorb what is our gift; life, love and health.

We walk most days - to Kotroni, a perfect sleepy hill hamlet with quiet shaded alleyways , shuttered houses and views to die for ; to Aghios Nikolaos for morning coffee at the harbour amongst local fishermen, ex pats and a few holiday makers. We watch the world go about their daily business and peruse, along with the cats , the fresh fish on the marble slabs ...; to Pantazi beach to laze and swim in the clear waters and observe others doing the same, talking about nothing much other than the change in the sky , the sea , the people on the beach or our family ; around Pyrgos, Platsa and beyond to Avli Springs (natural mountain springs )

and yesterday to hike 14.5 km in the Vyros Gorge along the river bed strewn with pebbles and boulders, rolling , stepping and clambering , climbing a little too ! Then up a long winding dirt road to the top of the mountain and back down the ancient donkey and hiking paths to Kardamili , feeling broken by the end but having experienced the most stunning views, nature and stillness, open skies and shady ravines and isolation, only passing 4 people on our journey.... slowly slowly we absorb the beauty, the quiet , the fauna and flora knowing we are truly alive and so so blessed.

We swim most days . I have always been a water baby and love to swim in the sea and to lie in the water looking at the mountains and the sky. Arvin has never particularly enjoyed swimming and isn't too confident in the water , but swimming together each day I see how he now plunges in and swims a few hundred yards without a problem , and we love that we can enjoy this pleasure each day and that the sun is so warm and dries us and relaxes us slowly slowly more and more every time we go. We go down to the flat rocks and caves of katafigio , quite a climb and quite a descent into the water which is more tumultuous given the depth and the cave entrances , and I feel a little nervous but love the freedom and adventure of this wild swim and drying off on the rocks afterwards....

We shop daily and eat well as always , Fish Stew with fish fresh from the market in Kalamata or the harbour, braais (bbqs) of local meat or whole fresh fish, stuffed vegetables baked slowly slowly in the oven, greek and nicoise salads, fresh bread and flatbread, tzatziki , gorgeous kalamata olives, local baked pastries with cheese and spinach,local organic wine and greek beer, the odd Caorunn Gin of course with the sometimes hard to find schweppes tonic(the best available here), sweet baklava or galaktaboriko , good coffee from our machine (yes we brought an espresso machine with us!) , breakfasts of melon, banana, grapes and full fat greek yoghurt with local honey and nuts or a sprinkle of muesli , eggs from our hosts chickens with fresh bread or toast, jam made by his mother in law from local fruit, his olive oil too, Arvin's freshly squeezed orange juice from the plentiful and cheap oranges and my personal chef continues to indulge me ..... how lucky am I ?! Slowly slowly we enjoy and benefit from what this land and sea have to offer and our skin glows, our joints ease and our bodies benefit , and we maybe have to watch our weight and not enjoy too much ! The daily yoga helps and Arvin's very stiff and sore body and spine is beginning to benefit from this practice and my body and spirit continue to benefit beyond measure from it too.

The kindness of strangers continues to touch our hearts , with people so friendly , so helpful , so generous with the little or much that they have (this seeming to bear no relevance on their ability to give and share what they have ) , so willing to inform , to teach and to share...... we are learning again these gifts which I fear in our society are being slowly eroded as we are often too busy, too stressed, too selfish, too greedy or too unwilling. Here the sharing

and giving is of time, what they have , small gifts and big hearts . Slowly slowly we enjoy and absorb and appreciate and benefit from these kindnesses and remember to spread this love in future even more.....

Slowly Slowly (Siga , siga) we learnt this week as we began Greek language lessons with the lovely Marina in Kalogria..... she is so generous with her knowledge, an excellent teacher, so patient and kind and slowly slowly hopefully we will learn what currently seems unfathomable , with it's different alphabet and it's complex grammar . But we hope to learn a little and grow a little so that we can make an effort to speak with these lovely people in their language and simply understand a little more. Retaining is not as easy as understanding the information we find !

We are going to a chestnut festival in the local village of Kastania tomorrow and on Sunday to Ancient Corinth en route to fetch our lovely Julia .... We are excited for her time with us, to see and touch and talk to her and for her and Arvin to relentlessly wind me up as they love to do no doubt! We chat regularly with our girls , and with family which is lovely but are so enjoying this time to slowly slowly reconnect with ourselves and each other .... to be frank we had best not slow down too much more . We are far too relaxed and slowly slowly may stop thinking too much at all if we aren't careful! There is still a future to plan.... ah but wait, lets leave that till another day and slowly slowly just live in this moment, this hour, this day and enjoy this time together.

---

Comments

[Anna-maria]

In the moment
It seems the slowly slowly has produced a beautiful piece of writing. I'm sad for your friend but hope being where you are connects you to her. If only we all lived in the moment and just breathed. It's a technique then can easily be forgotten once learnt. Enjoy every minute. Love anna-maria x