Every so often, I feel the urge to write a long, self-pitying article about how difficult life is. I've just got over one such urge. On top of the things mentioned in the previous article, I also crashed the car, which didn't help the whole stress and anxiety issue.

But now the car is repaired, I have been able to talk with some good friends and received some shamanic healing. I've had a fairly light week work-wise, so I've been able to rest. All that has repaired me to some extent, so I now no longer feel like moaning.

I did, however, think it would be a touch dishonest, in this particular series of articles, to not mention that, for about two weeks there, my regular spiritual practice crashed and burned. I was so stressed out, and then tired from being stressed out, that I had a major sofa crisis and just couldn't get it together for a while.

There are always going to be times like this. There are always going to be rough times and times when, for one reason or another, my spiritual practice suffers. There is only one thing to be done about it: accept that it happened and then pick it up again. Which is what I have done. Normal service seems to have resumed.

Weird, though, how even in the most stressed out and difficult times, inspiration for my spiritual life still keeps flowing. And that is much more interesting for me to write about and for you to read...