In the summer I was humbled to be invited to talk with Kerri Lake on her new podcast series Animals of a New Earth. Kerri is a wonderful teacher and a fascinating person to spend time with.
To listen to the podcast please click here
At the end of 2020 I got together with my wonderful friends Jane Pike and Tania Kindersley to ponder on the year gone by and the year to come.
Please click here to listen to the podcast
I recently was invited to talk with Heather Drummond on her podcast series Seers, Be-ers, Knowers and Doers where she asks all her guests about the subject of intuition.
Heather is an amazing practitioner and I have had such joy getting to know Heather and working with her.
Click here to listen to the podcast
I had great fun talking with Jane Pike when we spent time together in California.
Please click here to listen to the podcast.
The setting free of me. Today was a weird and yet wonderful day.
Finally I feel able to share what has gone on between me and my amazing horse Teazel.
Below is what happened today, followed by my first ever public sharing of the words Teazel gave me on 18.08.18. It has only taken me four and a half years to step into my authenticity.
This is who I really am. This is what my life is about.
My hope is that if the real you is feeling hidden, fearful or trapped, these words might help set you free.
This morning was a moment of overwhelm. The reality of the situation the world was in hit me full-force. I had the feeling that any family that escaped from this pandemic crisis unscathed would be extremely lucky. I thought it highly probable that I would be one of the lucky ones.
The sheer vastness of the pain and suffering. The people dying with no relatives by their side. The ICU nurses choosing to be the intermediary between distraught family and dying patient.
The conduit of tearful messages from an absent family to the unconscious loved one.
The only person there as the person passed to the next realm. And all conducted in muffled tones and muted touch through layers of hot, uncomfortable, but oh so precious PPE.
Then the post from the farmer forced to throw his milk down the drain as the processor could no longer pay for the milk, nor use it. Too few customers and too few workers.
Comments were posted that supported of the farmer.
But also there was a comment from the family of a nurse berating the farmer for posting about his problems when their family member was risking her life every day to care for the sick and dying. It felt almost a competition to see whose pain and suffering was the worst, as though there was a finite amount of suffering and pain in the world and one man’s pain and suffering was more worthy to be seen than those of another.
Everything is valid.
Everything is perspective.
I see you both. I hear you both. I honour you both.
I sat weeping in the pain of the world. Where was the way out? Where was a future? It all looked bleak.
But then a fleeting thought kissed my consciousness. What is this pain teaching me? Why am I feeling it? What can arise from this overwhelm?
The answer came immediately.
Now more than ever I do not know how long I have on this Earthly plane. If I have something I need to do, don’t prevaricate. Do it NOW.
The tears stopped. My breath flowed. Calmness washed over me.
OK I get the message.
Time to put on my big girl pants. Time to step into the arena.
I walked out of the house, blessed and grateful to be able to walk freely outside to take my horse to pasture and walk my dog. As many times before,
I plugged my earphones in and listened to an audible book. This morning was the continuation of “Untamed” by Glennon Doyle. Yet again the Universe worked it’s magic.
As the words flowed from ear to heart, there was a deep knowing that this was the message.
“… show up as I am wherever I am, that’s it and that’s all. People will like me or not, but being liked is not my one thing, integrity is. So I must live and tell my truth.”
“I am responsible for saying my truth, but not responsible for others reaction to it.”
There it was. There was confirmation of what I had to do. Be me. No apologies. No worrying if people would think me mad, weird or having lost the plot.
This was the reason for the overwhelm this morning, the setting free of me.
Below are the words given to me by my amazing horse Teazel.
Teazel 18/08/15
Needed to do this test/connection- to learn, consolidate, experience, joy, fulfillment, explore, understand, give, see, be, free, release others, wisdom, light, friendship, feeling, light, sensation, richness, stability, mirror, peace.Journey together this plane to the next.
Understand the connection between all things. Energy flows. There is no barrier. Freedom from constraint of the physical. Accessing the wisdom not of this world, reaching beyond the material.
I am in shape a horse but my energy is spirit connection. I have the power to lead and heal follow me closely, watch me closely. I will teach you access to these things.
Our connection is high above the physicality, this is the path you were meant to tread. Our connection will lead to heights of understanding not yet reached. Atom to atom, energy to energy, there is no blockage to attaining bliss. Just be and follow, feel and understand. All is attainable once you free yourself of the constraints you impose upon yourself.
Move freely, learn deeply.
The light is at the end of the tunnel and you are entering into the light now. All will be clear.
Carry on as you are doing. All is well.
There will be a shift in gear of your “healing/connection” power.
Calm, peace – all is well.
No judgement , no need to explain as all will become clear, results will speak for themselves. Trailblazer bringing it forward, educate, elucidate the time is now.
Don’t question just do.
The people and horses will come.
Fire up your connection to the energy of the Universe, sit in it, dwell in it. You are it. Life is energy but energy doesn’t die.
Circular, wheels overlapping interacting. What was before is now and will be again. Vortices of energy carrying information through the eons. No beginning, no end. Each circle has information added this is passed forward and back – hence you can change the past.
Time has no meaning, it is a human construct to try and explain. But they don’t really know. The surface has been just scraped. No beginning, no end.
The knowledge lies deep below and high above. It is reachable, tangible, but you must be open and ready to receive it.
Many people are reaching the point of openness, but only a few will cope with the information and energy. It is powerful and all-encompassing and will change the perception of everything as nothing will be seen as before.
A new understanding will prevail, but it will be hard as many will not believe, but the examples will flourish and be there and people will not be able to deny it – once their eyes are opened.
Your job is to help open their eyes. Your work will take you to where you need to be. Follow the path, the path is light and easy it will open before you. Do as you are doing. All is well.
Follow your path you are free there is no dictat, no rules, no expectation.
Follow the energy, follow the knowledge, follow the feel. You know what is right for you to take you to the right place and people.
TRUST.
You have a job to do. I will be by your side as is Midnight. She got you to this place and then passed the job onto me to guide instruct and protect. We are with you always as are a myriad other horses, before, now and after, all are horse energy.
Why did you love horses from such a young age? So you would follow your calling, so we could guide you. Nothing else matters but to be true to you – who you are, what you are, what you are destined to do.
There is much to do, but you will do it and more.
TRUST.
All is well.
Something will happen that will change the perception.
The forces and people are gathering to enable the change to happen.
All is aligned, all is in place, follow the feel, follow the path, you know it, you are on it. Everything is in place. Just follow.
All is well.
In May 2019 thanks to the great kindness of my friends Warwick and Robyn Schiller I got to spend three weeks staying with them in California. Part of my stay was to accompany them to The Western States Horse Expo a three day event held near Sacramento featuring clinicians from all over the States and beyond. Both Warwick and presenting at the Expo as well as fellow guest of Warwick and Robyn, the glorious Jane Pike.
I was excited enough just to be attending the Expo. I had often seen reports about them and posts from people attending them and had always longed to be able to go to one. So my dream came true, but little did I know what other magic was about to happen.
Warwick had brought one horse with him to use in his demos – Petey. Petey was stabled in one of the many rows of temporary stables put up to house the horses attending the Expo.
The evening of the first night we were there the last thing we did was to check on Petey. As we were walking up the line of stables we met a pretty, fair-haired young lady who was checking her own horses. It turned out Warwick and she knew each other and this is when I was first introduced to Madison Shambaugh aka Mustang Maddy.
Maddy was there with five horses, one of which was tied outside the stables. As we were talking she explained that this particular mustang would not settle at all in his stable and so she kept him tied outside where he could see the other horses. She kept him there for as long as possible as he basically would trash his bed and work himself up into a lather walking round and round the stable. On hearing this I immediately wanted to ask Maddy if she would like me to zap this horse just to see if it would help him relax. However it was past 10pm, Maddy had only just met me and I felt it was not quite the right time for a stranger to offer to do something which Maddy might consider very strange to one of her horses. We said goodnight and went back to our accommodation.
The next morning I got up fairly early and went to muck out Petey. As I walked down the line of stables, who should be with her horses, but Maddy. The same mustang as before was already tied outside and this gave me the perfect opportunity to offer to give the mustang (named Tauri) a zap.
All credit to Maddy, I explained what I did and how I worked and she was more than happy for me to work with Tauri. So later that morning I came back and gave Tauri a session. He was still tied outside, so as I normally do I stood a few feet away from him and started to zap.
Tauri stood very still with his hindleg cocked, his whole body was relaxed, and he totally ignored his haynet. His eyes went very soft, his bottom lip drooped and his nose and lips had random little twitches. Every now and again his head would give a small jerk up and his ears would flicker back and for as though in response to some unseen stimulus. He showed no reaction to anything going on around him. He was truly in what I term the zone.
When working with a horse in this way I let the horse dictate when the session is over. They often do this by giving a big stretch accompanied by maybe a lick and chew or a yawn. It is as though they are waking up and are once more aware of their surroundings. They come “back in the room”!
With Tauri however he would give a stretch and relax the other hind leg, but still stay in the zone. He was definitely making the most of it! Eventually after about 30 minutes Tauri did stretch and wake up. He went back to eating his haynet as though nothing had happened.
Later that day Maddy was riding Tauri in one of her demos. As I sat watching him I had to smile. As Maddy sat on Tauri explaining her work, Tauri gave a series of huge yawns, so much so that Maddy herself commented to the audience just how relaxed he was after having had the session with me.
Of course the acid test as to whether the zap had helped Tauri relax, would be what his stable was like the next morning. I am happy to say that his stable was not just quite tidy, it was pristine with no sign of any pacing or upset at all.
Both Maddy and I were so happy at the change in Tauri that I ended up over the next few days working with all her horses, and even with Maddy herself.
The horse that for me was a real treat to work with was Maddy’s main mustang Terk. Once again as soon as I started work with Terk, he went in the zone just as Tauri had. But Terk seemed to go even deeper. Several times during the session he would give a back arching stretch and I thought he was showing me that he was done. But no, time and again he would stretch and then go back in the zone as though having released what he needed to at that level, he was going a level deeper. It was a good 45 minutes before Terk decided to re-surface and return to eating his hay net.
Terk was also very special as before I went to zap him I knew I should take pen and paper with me. Sometime during the session I “heard” words I had to write down. They were seemingly from Terk describing his relationship with Maddy and giving her information. When several days later Maddy and I got the chance to discuss what I had written, it all made sense to her and she was grateful for the insight into her relationship with this beautiful horse.
Over the next week I was so grateful to have the chance to work with all of Maddy’s horses namely four mustangs Tauri, Terk, Takota and Kodiak and her Off the track Thoroughbred she has been training called Finn.
I have had the privilege over the years to have worked with many horses. One thing I came to realise is that the mustangs were very receptive to the frequencies and the way I work, and went into the zone very easily and quickly. The word that came to me as I worked with them is that they are “elemental”. By this I mean because they, however briefly as a proportion of their lives, have lived as wild horses they can access and use this energy very easily. It is as if the layers of human detritus that can sometimes affect horses bred and reared in captivity, are just not there. When I work with a mustang they immediately “get it”.
Since the Expo I have worked at distance with Maddy, her horses and Zeus, one of her zebras.
Being with the mustangs was a total honour and joy and I will be forever grateful to Maddy for trusting me to work with them.
Many people ask me how I got into this work especially as I have a scientific background.
My answer is always the same,
“It was my horse that led me to this weird and wonderful world!”
And here’s how she did it.
It was 1992. Hubby wanted a farm bike. I wanted a horse. For several months there had been good tempered banter between us over which should be bought, bike or horse. A horse was
environmentally friendly: you could carry bags of feed on a bike. A horse didn’t disturb the sheep: a bike was faster…. and so it continued. That was until on one bright day towards the end of May 1992 when Hubby relented, and we were off to Hereford horse sales to buy a horse.
There were nearly two hundred lots there that day with maybe ten that would suit. Back and forth I went
between the rows of pens, examining all and excitedly dreaming of coming home with my very own horse!
Like many other people I believe 3 is a lucky or significant number. With the sale due to start in under 10
minutes I first caught sight of her, all the 3’s – Lot 33.
Lot 33 was a rising 3 Cleveland Bay x Thoroughbred filly, described as “Broken, green and ready to ride on in quiet company.” Perfect. I had ridden a CB x TB belonging to a friend for several years and absolutely fallen in love with the Cleveland Bay breed. Lot 33, Midnight Maiden. Here was my horse.
I have never been so nervous as I was when Midnight entered the sale ring. As she was led round, Hubby a farmer with years of experience buying at auctions, stood cool as a cucumber NOT BIDDING! Two people (one a dealer) were bidding and the price was rising, if Hubby didn’t bid soon I thought I would have a nervous breakdown. But ever the master, in order not to push the price even higher, he waited until the last minute to bid. Then BANG! The gavel was down, Lot 33 was mine.
And so Midnight Maiden aka Min came into my life. At that moment I never imagined what she would teach me or what wonders she would lead me to.
Just so we are clear, Cleveland Bay horses are one of the few breeds (if not the only breed) that has the word “intractable” i.e. stubborn in the description of the breed standard. Basically when they say “No!” they mean it. Thus I was soon to discover it was with Min, even with a gene dilution by TB blood!
The start of our life together could not have been more inauspicious. The day after we bought her I planned a ride in the evening with my friend accompanying me on Grantley her old Irish Cob, the ideal quiet hacking companion.
Min was on her toes as I tried to mount her, but nothing I couldn’t “handle”. We walked out onto the lane and were no more than 25 yards from the house going down the short hill, when Min started bucking. I flew through the air with the greatest of ease, hit the road, and sat up to see my left arm swinging a graceful 180 degree arc.
I had snapped my humerus in two mid-way between elbow and shoulder. Just why it is called the humerus I shall never understand because it hurt like hell!
Six weeks later with Min ridden on by a vastly more experienced trainer than I, who interestingly also
recounted having to sit for 30 minutes at a particular spot before Min deigned to move forward, I was back in the saddle.
We got on well enough, but there were several times especially in the first few months, when after having to dismount yet again and lead Min just to get her moving in the required direction, I questioned my sanity about buying a young horse. Why hadn’t I bought a ready-made 7 year old?
And so the first few years our rides together continued in much the same vein. As long as Min’s wishes vaguely coincided with mine, all was OK, not great, just OK. It was this feeling of disconnect and discontent between us that got me looking for a “better” way.
I bought western tack, somehow believing just putting a different saddle and bridle on would change everything for the better. No surprise when I tell you that didn’t work.
Around 2000 my search led me to my first encounter with what was known as Natural Horsemanship in the shape of Parelli Horsemanship. I threw Min and I into this system and if it did nothing else it opened my eyes to there being a different way from the traditional way of riding. It also showed me just how pissed off with me Min really was.
A fortuitous meeting with an amazing lady called Val was The Universe’s way of leading me down the path to magic. Val helped and guided me on my Parelli path, and then in July 2002 offered to take me to a two day clinic with a horseman named Len Judd. I was over the moon with the prospect of taking Min on our first ever clinic. Little did I know what lay in store.
Val had recently sold her property in Pembrokeshire to another horse trainer Steve, whom whilst visiting
the States had met Len, seen him work and was impressed enough to invite Len and his wife Nina over to Wales to hold a clinic.
On a sunny Friday in July 2003 Val and I set off with our two horses on board her trailer, excited to see what the weekend held.
My first meeting with Nina threw me as she took one look at me and said
“I know you. Where have I seen you before?”
Nina is a beautiful slim, dark haired, 6ft tall vision. I knew for certain I would have remembered meeting her before! Looking back this was the start of the weird and wonderful that I was about to be immersed in over that weekend.
Friday night was a demo. Val and I both expected to see a demonstration on how to move your horse’s body, how to connect with the reins etc. Instead we were introduced to the world of energy and how to horses this is their language of communication. Totally not what was expected and to be truthful, all a little unsettling.
Saturday morning dawned misty but with promise of a hot day. Both Val and I were literally shaking with
anticipation of the day to come. We had NO idea what to expect.
The weekend that followed was filled with talk of energy and connection. Len would watch the horses and tell us what their energy was “saying” to him. We did some riding done over the whole weekend, but mainly we started to see what horses are – energetic beings totally in tune with our energy and emotions.
Sometime in the first few hours of the clinic it was as though a veil fell away from my eyes and for the first
time I could see clearly.
My brain was struggling to comprehend what was happening. In every moment my “scientific” version of the world was being challenged and I was being invited to accept this new knowledge.
There were tears ………… lots of tears, tears of wonder and gratitude. I didn’t know what was happening to me, but I somehow I knew I was finding my truth.
During one of my many conversations with Len where I relentlessly cross-questioned him over just what the hell was happening to me, he stopped, looked at me and said,
“Open your mind but form no opinions.”
This was to become my mantra and I truly believe that because of Len saying this to me, I could accept the
inexplicable yet real things that happened during my journey.
Over the years these words have slowly evolved into how I now think, namely “My experience is my Truth.”
As Len and I were sat on the grassy bank discussing the weird and wonderful world of energy, he looked at me and said,
“And now the dreams will start.”
That sentence has stayed with me, and I would soon realise why.
The clinic finished, we said our goodbyes, Val and I drove home with a whole new perspective of horses, energy and connection.
I truly had no idea what had happened to me, all I did know was that it felt in some ways that I was seeing and feeling the world for the first time. It was all new and magical. Many of the worries I had had previous to the clinic fell away. In their place was just a feeling of wonder and a need to explore this whole new world.
On the Wednesday night after the clinic I had a particularly vivid dream involving Len and Nina and their children.
The dream was so intense that now some 17 years later I still remember it clearly.
To begin with I was walking in sand dunes with Nina and we were looking for lavender flowers. We walked the dunes and picked the flowers, but they had to be lavender.
Then the scene shifted and I found Len and Nina looking for their children in a busy street.
The scene shifted once more, and we were in a café sat round a table. There were Len and Nina and three boys and one girl, all evidently their children. As I sat with them the feeling came over me in the dream that they were from “the far east”, not Japanese but from that region.
When I woke up the dream was so vivid and clear and knowing Len and Nina were still in Pembrokeshire, I decided to ring Nina and talk to her about it.
My only knowledge of Len and Nina’s children after knowing them less than a week was from during the demo on the Friday night. Len had seen a lady in the audience with a young girl sat on her knee
and had made a joke with Nina about not having a daughter, only having boys. Later talking to Len and Nina over the weekend I learned they had two sons Lenny and Miah.
Len was obviously Aussie by origin and I had thought as they lived in California and with her beautiful looks, Nina may have Hispanic heritage.
I decided my first question to Nina would be about picking lavender, but I didn’t want to tell her about the
dream or to lead her to an obvious answer, so I asked,
“Does lavender have any significance to you?”
“Why yes” Nina replied “It’s my favourite scent. In fact I bought some yesterday.”
My heart began pounding WTF was going on!
I then told her about the dream and described sitting in the café with four children including a girl and that they had a “far eastern” feel to their origins. Her reply floored me.
“Yes that’s right. I have a son and daughter from a previous marriage and two sons with Len. As to the far
eastern bit, yes my parents were from Indonesia!”
I truly didn’t know what to say or think. All I knew was Len had been quite right about the dreams……!
Thus I stepped into this new world. I was desperate for information and a few days later I found myself in
our local bookshop with no idea what I was actually looking for.
I happened to pick up a book entitled “Reiki for Life” by Penelope Quest. I had heard the word Reiki before but had no knowledge of it, however for some reason I was drawn to this book and
knew I had to look at it.
I took the book off the shelf and it “fell” open on page 57. This was the page that described what some people experience when they have what is termed an attunement, part of the process involved with learning how to give Reiki.
I read:-
“Some people go through a shift in their awareness immediately, describing the sensation as almost like being reborn, so that they experience everything around them more intensely: colours are brighter, their
sense of smell is enhanced and sounds are sharper. Others …….. describe a sense of floating or light-headedness.”
The description matched exactly what I had experienced at the horse clinic. So for that reason and that reason alone, namely total self-interest, I went looking for a Reiki Master in the hope that studying Reiki
may give more of the magical moments like the ones I had experienced at the clinic. Within a month I had booked training for level 1 Reiki.
The rest as they say, is history.
I studied Level 1 Reiki and fell in love with healing work. Over the next two years I completed the training for levels 2 and 3 and became a Reiki Master.
From then over the subsequent years I looked at and studied other energy modalities such as Qigong, Quantum Touch and around 2008 I discovered Reconnective Healing.
This has become the cornerstone of the work I do now.
In 2015 in order to continue to be registered as a Reconnective healing Foundational Practitioner I had to attend an obligatory training seminar. I did this with an open heart, but as a result of attending the seminar something in me shifted. I realised the true me was the sum of not only all my training and work in the various modalities, but the sum of me as a person – mother, wife, daughter. The sum of all my other work – farmer, computer mentor, bookkeeper. The sum of all my interests and hobbies – horses, science,
books, walking etc. It was time to step into the real me and Point of Balance was born!
My journey into the world of energy, connection and healing has been life affirming and filled with wonder.
So many wondrous and inexplicable things have happened long the way and it has been the path to meeting a host of truly inspirational, beautiful people many of whom I am honoured and grateful to now call friends.
The one thing I do know is that I am in this amazing place, doing the work that is my passion all that is all thanks to Lot 33 Midnight Maiden.
There is a post-script to this story.
As I said at the beginning before Hubby kindly bought me Min, we had been having “discussions” over the relative merits of a horse vs a farm bike, with Min being bought in May 1992.
During the summer of 1992 in a free, weekly farming magazine called Farming News, there was a competition running for several weeks which asked questions on the different farming
sectors of livestock, arable and dairy. I duly entered on every sector.
As there was a high likelihood of a tie regarding points gained answering the questions, there was a tie break
question.
The question was “What do you think the price of land will be in the year 2000?”
Over the weeks they gave some information as to what land prices had been and what they were now and from this I calculated the figure I used for the tiebreak question.
I submitted all my answers and my tiebreak estimate and we waited.
The letter came. We found we were invited to a judging day for the top ten respondents.
We duly attended the judging day.
I sat in front of a board of judges comprised of representatives from the sponsoring companies and was asked various questions about our farming enterprise. Right at the end I was asked how I had arrived at my tiebreak figure for the price of land.
I stood there pondering my options. Should I try and waffle out a hopefully intelligent answer or should I
tell the whole truth? Bugger it I thought, I’ll tell the truth.
So I told them the how by using the figures they had given us, I had worked out an average price rise per year, multiplied by 8 to get to a figure for the year 2000 and arrived at the figure £2459.
I had contemplated this number, but had then decided that as 3 was my lucky number the figure I submitted needed to be divisible by 3. Thus for my tiebreak answer the figure I submitted was £2469.
On hearing this the judges all looked slightly uncomfortable and I thought I’d blown it! But no. Their discomfort came from the fact that their figure had been calculated using an equation that was about three inches long with µ this, ≤ that and Δ all over the place, with the figure they arrived being £2465.
I had used simple averaging, a belief in the power of 3 and arrived at a figure a mere £4 above theirs.
As a result of this tiebreak figure, the judges informed me that we had come first out of all the entries and had won a farm bike!
So Hubby had bought me a horse – all the 3’s Lot 33 and I had won him a bike using my belief in the number 3.
The Power of 3 in all its glory.
I’ve found The Tower Talk a very powerful tool when getting a person to understand another person’s point of view. Consider a square, four-sided tower. At the top of the tower on each side is a window and each window faces to a cardinal point of the compass – north, south, east and west.
When you enter the tower and climb the stairs to the top floor, you find that when you look out of the windows, each has it’s own unique view. Looking out of the window facing North you see a wood. Looking out of the window facing East you see a town. Looking out of the window facing South you see a wide river. Looking out of the window facing West you see the sea. Now. imagine four people have grown up in the tower but have only ever be able to look out of one of those windows.
If you asked each of those people what was outside. dependant on which direction they faced, you would get four different answers, with each answer being the truth. If those four people then came together in the middle of the Tower, each would say that their “point of view” was correct and that those of the other three people couldn’t possibly be true. And so it is in life, we meet people with opinions and values diametrically opposed to our own where it’s a real struggle to understand how they can think that way.
Now let’s examine the windows. If the window only had a narrow gap to see through and a stone window frame, you could equate this to a person with a very limited point of view and a strong ego.
The narrow gap would be the inability to see another’s point of view, whilst the stone window surround would indicate it would be very hard to get them to see, let alone agree with a point of view differing from their own. Examining another window you might find it was a big expanse of glass with a light, wooden window frame, a portion of the window might even open so that you could lean out and look around the corner. This would equate to a person with a much more open mind and less ego, willing to look out and appreciate someone else’s opinion.
I’m hoping from this analogy that you will see we all grow up to a greater or lesser extent looking out of our own window. What we see can lead to an entrenched position on a wide variety of subjects such as religion, politics or even which football team should be supported. If you have only ever looked out of your own window you will only have ever seen your own point of view. It can then be hard to appreciate an opinion differing from yours. So in the future if you encounter someone with an opinion or point of view that is directly opposed to yours and you feel yourself getting irritated or angry, just breathe deep and think of The Tower Talk. Understanding it is through the other person’s cultural, religious or familial experience – the view from their window – that formed this point of view can help you let go of those emotions and appreciate why that person has that opinion. The answer to this problem is actually simple, go up on the roof of the tower and have a damn good party. From the roof of the tower all points of view can be seen and whilst not everyone may be in agreement, the differing views can be appreciated leading to more understanding and tolerance between us all. Here’s to a great party!