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Circles of Separation: Doing Our Best

This is the last part of Circles of Separation (Book 3 of Waldmeer).

Chapter 76: Salt and Ide

“What do you think, Ide?” asked Salt. He was standing in his new massage and healing room at Vibes Yoga Studio in Waldmeer.

“I love it,” said Ide. “It’s beautiful. Just like you,” she added with a kiss.

Salt didn’t need her kisses but he was happy to have them. Not long ago, he had asked Ide about the idea of him staying in her house for most of the week. Previously, he had been staying there a few days and spending the rest of the week in the back hills with the Clinker clan. Ide knew that if she said yes, she was saying yes to a couple relationship. She recalled when Farkas asked her if she wanted to jointly buy this house with him. At the time, she had considered all the things that could go wrong. There were a lot. As it turned out, some of them did happen. However, she now pondered, many of her fears didn’t eventuate and many wonderful moments came from her and Farkas’s time together. One of those moments turned into their child, Lan-Lan. Her greatest fear had been that the relationship would fall apart. It did, thought Ide, and, you know what, we are fine. Continue reading “Circles of Separation: Doing Our Best”

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Circles of Separation: Snakes and Bitches

This is the second last part of Circles of Separation (Book 2 of Waldmeer). One more to go until the story is finished!

Chapter 73: Indra

Although the Borderfirma Mountains covered a vast area, Lady Faith’s palace was at the Borderfirma Lowlands end of it. The only thing separating the palace and the Lowlands was the Great Valley. That is why Odin and Nina lived there.

This is a very long dream, thought Gabriel as he pushed on through the Great Valley after choosing his path at the fork. There were no more decisions to be made about which way to go because there was only one road through the Great Valley. By now, Gabriel was suspecting that there was more to his journey than a dream. For one thing, he was really hungry. As he felt he had no hope of knowing what to do if it wasn’t a dream, he kept acting on the premise that it was. Continue reading “Circles of Separation: Snakes and Bitches”

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Circles of Separation: Naming Rights

“The worst place is at the fork. You can’t keep going the same direction as you came. You have to choose one or other path. Whatever the choice, at least, it is movement.”

Interlude: Amira’s Names

Amira has different names in the different Circles. She is called Vera in the Outer Circle, Amira in the Middle Circle, and Lady Faith in the Inner Circle. Vera’s mission in the Outer Circle is to remember her spiritual name. Vera means faith. In remembering her name of Lady Faith, Vera also connects with her purpose and spiritual worth and is called Lady Faith henceforth. However, on Earth (the Middle Circle), she is called by her Earth name of Amira. Continue reading “Circles of Separation: Naming Rights”

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Circles of Separation: Contract

Whenever you feel a spark of love or goodwill towards another person, feed it so that it will grow.

Chapter 68: Being Watched

Another week had passed. Still no word from Amira. Gabriel drove to Waldmeer again. As he entered the bungalow, he had the uneasy feeling of being watched. He looked at the stacked boxes from the Darnall Curiosity Shop. I don’t know why Amira has to keep all this junk from her great aunts, he thought. He moved closer to the stack and was about to open one of the boxes when he heard a loud call from the forest. Walking to the door, he spotted two eagles, in a nearby tree, gazing at him.

“Who are you?” said a woman at Amira’s back door.

“Who are you?” asked Gabriel in surprise. The woman was about forty with dark, curly hair and the sort of focused, intelligent eyes that belong to a driven, uncompromising person. Continue reading “Circles of Separation: Contract”

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Circles of Separation: Lowlands

“You can’t fight fire with fire,” said Odin. “Everyone gets burned.”

Chapter 64: Tension

“Thank God,” said Ide as she lay on the floor of her dear and peaceful lounge room. “No more hospital visits.” She had returned from the city for the last of Christopher’s visits to the surgeon after his broken leg. “No more fighting the city traffic,” continued Ide in singsong fashion. “No more crazy hospital. No more graphic YouTube videos.”

“What do you mean?” asked Salt. Continue reading “Circles of Separation: Lowlands”

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Circles of Separation: Odin of the Great Valley

Circles of Separation: Part 3 begins.

Part 3 – Borderfirma Mountains – The Inner Circle
Odin of the Great Valley

Chapter 62: Tree House

img_9038The boys lay on the wooden floor of the tree house and gazed up into the moving leaves. It was a grand tree house; three stories, with a flag at the top, and lights that came on every evening. It was fit for a king which is just as well because the boys were royal. Malik was fourteen. He looked over the nearby palace roofs into the Borderfirma Mountains. This land belonged to his mother and the surrounding Borderfirma lands belonged to her siblings. The Borderfirma lands, together, made up the Inner Circle. Continue reading “Circles of Separation: Odin of the Great Valley”

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Circles of Separation: In the Air

Peace, he thought, how unassuming you are. Yet, you are king of all the feelings.

Chapter 59: Forest Royalty

Amira looked out her kitchen window to the magnificent magnolia tree in her front garden. It had been the usher of spring with its graceful, pink petals since it was planted by Amira’s parents forty years ago. Back then, most of the houses in Waldmeer had lovely, loved gardens with flowering trees and shrubs and colourful bulbs and annuals. As so many of the houses in Waldmeer were now holiday houses, the original gardens were disappearing. Amira’s father, Lenny, would talk about the new gardens with contempt. “That’s not a real garden,” he would say as he pointed disparagingly to the en masse, clinical plantings and stretches of cement, tiles, and stones. “They are soulless places for the heartless.” He took it as personally offensive when the gardens of his long-time friends had been sold, along with their accompanying houses, and “improved and updated” for the new occupants with busy lives in the city. He would mumble to himself and go out into his own garden until he felt better. Each year, when the magnolia blossomed with fragrant majesty, he said, “You go through a dull winter when there’s nothin’ much flowering. It all looks pretty ordinary and then the magnolia comes out and you know that spring is in the air. It’s the kinda thing that makes a fella glad to be alive.” Continue reading “Circles of Separation: In the Air”

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Circles of Separation: Protection

“At a time when Ide was totally dependent on the goodwill and skill of other people, she felt acutely grateful to everyone, everywhere, who does their best by giving what they have to give, no matter what issues they are facing in their own lives.”

Chapter 57: Sweet Ruthlessness

As Amira walked out of Handspun, she bumped into Gabriel and some of the Boys of Darnall who were taking a short-cut through the Arcade. The Boys included some women, two of whom were walking with the group today. No one in that group was, generally, friendly towards Amira, although, some were more polite than others. Gabriel, however, stopped to talk to Amira. Despite their problems, he did love Amira. Even if he didn’t, he was not a rude person. As Gabriel was talking, Amira could feel the eyes of one of the women boring into her back. It was Bridgette. She didn’t live in Darnall. She was an artist, like Gabriel, and lived in the city. Continue reading “Circles of Separation: Protection”

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Circles of Separation: Handspun

“We’re our own worst enemy,” said Wolfgang.  “We’re, also, our own best friend.”

Chapter 54: Best Friend

Tonight was the last Dementia Unit dance class. Wolfgang was in fine form and had been talking nonstop. “I like making a noise,” he joked. “I should have been a politician. Do you know that I come here every morning to have breakfast with my Madeline?”

“No,” said Gabriel. “That’s devoted.” Continue reading “Circles of Separation: Handspun”

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Circles of Separation: Narrow Lane

Put your efforts towards the things in life that enhance your highest self.

Chapter 51: Right Next Door

“We have taken matters into our own hands,” said Mullum-Mullum to Amira. “We had concerns about Gabriel’s safety in regards Evanora. There is no need for you to be worried, however, we ask that you not see him unless instructed to do so.” Mullum-Mullum gazed into the distance. Amira couldn’t see where he was looking. Nor could she see anything around him. Normally, if Amira saw Mullum-Mullum in her night-travels, she saw him in the setting of the Darnall rose garden. However, for some reason, tonight, he seemed to be standing in a blank space with no distinguishing features.

“I guess,” sighed Amira, “Gabriel hasn’t suffered enough yet.” Continue reading “Circles of Separation: Narrow Lane”