No Change, No Choice

Posted on July 24, 2015 by Grace Loveday

Once again on this trip I find myself in a church swaying and clapping in time to the rousing music and enthusiastic singing of the choir. Whites, blacks and Hispanics, young and old, well dressed and shabby are all here to experience the community of the Glide Memorial Church in San Francisco. All are welcome and this is made clear when after the first, and only prayer, given ad-lib by a long-haired black transgender woman, she finishes with “Right on, Amen, Hallelujah, Shalom, Salaam, Namaste” Continue reading →

If You Go Down to the Woods Today ……

Posted on July 15, 2015 by Grace Loveday

If a smell could be a colour then I would have been breathing a vibrant spring-like green. The fragrance was piney-resin with an underlayer of warm damp soil following the rain shower the night before. It was sparkling clean and fresh, a soothing balm for my lungs. This was just part of the experience as we hiked through the Sequoia National Park which lies in the southern Sierra Nevada range in California. Continue reading →

Spiritual Maraes

Posted on June 28, 2015 by Grace Loveday

Throughout this trip the open-air sanctuaries called “Maraes”, which were once the centre of power and spiritual ceremonies in French Polynesian culture, have been a huge draw for me. Though they often look like a ragged and disorganised pile of stones there is something about the sites that are tranquil and calming. The biggest one on Tahiti is nestled in a large tree lined valley. Continue reading →

Le Vague Bleu

Posted on June 13, 2015 by Grace Loveday

I had thought my only travel companion on this trip would be David, but I now find out we were joined, without a by your leave, by El Niño. It is he who has imposed his disagreeable countenance upon us, with his heavy cloud, his winds and rain. But we have managed to ignore him and shake him off like the obnoxious bore at a dinner party – in part by running away to Tahiti! Continue reading →

Weather or Not

Posted on May 14, 2015 by Grace Loveday

Having chosen a privately owned apartment to stay in on Rarotonga, the capital island of the Cook Islands, there was no representative and fancy minibus to meet us as there was for some of the other tourists. Instead we flung our backpacks on and made our way to the bus stop, joining locals as they finished their days work. We sat in the back, our packs propped up beside us, Continue reading →