We did not have far to travel on this day, but the corrugated, potholed and rough gravel roads were troublesome. Malcolm slowly and carefully nurtured the car and caravan over long stretches of bumps and body-hammering rippled corrugations, thus easing the wear-and-tear on both of our vehicles. It seemed that, even the gravel road, was giving me a metaphorically lesson on how to care for my body, my own human vehicle.
NamibRand, is one of our most favourite campsites in Namibia. It offers good facilities that are set amongst the red and brown-orange dunes and far enough apart from each other to give each group privacy. Gemsbok and Cape Foxes visited us regularly. It was here, that the silence and the peace truly began to connect with my own inner stillness.
The few days that we spent at this campsite, gave me the opportunity to explore the trembling that was still rolling through my body. I realised that this discomfort was situated around L5 of the spine. According to the teaching of the Chakra system, my body was calling me to focus on all my relationships with: myself, others, groups, God and Earth. Unsurprisingly, this is one of the most important topics for people who work with The Go(o)dman to explore.
In the same manner that I had watched the Orange River flow by me at Amanzi, at this campsite, I was able to observe the insects, birds and Gemsbok that quietly passed by me. I focussed on my body, especially my feet and wondered why they had become so very troublesome. They felt detached from the rest of me; as if I was walking in somebody else’s shoes.
Then I had an unexpected recollection of being five years old and our doctor, who still did home visits at that time, talking with urgency and seriousness to my parents. My father and I had both been diagnosed with Polio. This happened in the 1950s, during a localised outbreak of this debilitating disease. Soon after hearing the news, my parents packed our tiny car with luggage and food and we travelled some 1 600 km to stay with family where it was possible to heal in the dryer and warmer climate of the highveld.
Janice, my very gifted therapeutic reflexologist had been less lucky than me. Polio had severely affected her body. Janice, was the one who gave me the key that would unlock the messages Go(o)dman was about to deliver.
In my book, Remembering the Soul of You, I described how I had spontaneously recalled the life of a Jewish child who had lived through the horrors of the Holocaust. That little girl had died tragically and had felt abandoned by God. When I told Janice about this memory, this dear therapeutic reflexologist said, “Meyrene, don’t you realise that it was God who lovingly came to fetch that child and take her to heaven. It was God who loved her.” These were the keywords that would stimulate a depth of exploration that I could not have imagined.
