Summer Update

Well I look at how long ago my last post was and blush as the summer is almost over. Time flies when you are having fun and looking after two very bored children!

My latest Nia update is that I have slowly been working on my first routine, Sanjana and taught my first songs with Laurie and Fred's blessing. While marked for improvement, I was not expecting it to be so much fun! It continues to amaze me, just how much Nia gives me as a person, healing not only my body but my mind and my spirit. Each class is a promise and a challenge for me to grow stronger and more present in my life. Last two classes, Laurie asked us to come up with one word or short phrase for what Nia brings to us. My word on Sunday was self-love and on Wednesday, it was pretty.

So feeling a bit crazy but in that same spirit of growth and crazy fun, I signed up for Adult beginning Jazz classes at my daughter’s dance studio and it has been a blast. It is also fun to take the principles of Nia and adapt them in a new setting. Learning the steps and turns has been great at revealing and breaking some of my habits, encouraging me to find new adaptability and flexibility.

I have even managed to get some writing in on finishing an old short story I started years ago. My hope is to have it finished by end of summer.

Here is a brief excerpt for those willing to brave my prose!

The Crystalline Sea
By Christina Norman


She was five years old the first time the stranger came round the inn. It was a dark wet night as the rain was attacking the ground with a ferocity that drove travelers to seek shelter in every possible corner huddled miserably, trying to get dry. He wore the raindrops pouring about him as comfortably as he wore his blue travel worn cloak. The water on his handsome aquiline face and sandy blonde hair gleamed, giving him, it seemed to her, an otherworldly glow as she watched from her perch at the window. Just for a moment the glow seemed to intensify as he caught her watching him through the window and smiled almost knowingly. It faded so quickly that as he swept through the doors into the warmth of the inn, Katy immediately questioned if she even saw it in the first place.

Katy’s papa spied the newcomer and greeted him with his booming voice “Tis a cold, wet night you choose to visit the fine Amber Rose Inn. If you be seekin’ an evening stay, I’ve only the common room available, we booked up fast. However we have plenty of the finest stew in Merlin’s Bluff, all the credit goes to me Abbie. The bread is hot and the ale is cool. I brew me own ale, no watered down stuff steps foot on my watch ain’t that right Jonas?”

“Aye, Master Salte, youse speak nottin’ but the truth!” shouted Jonas sitting at a nearby table. The husky lad had obviously been enjoying several samples of Master Salte’s labor. He was sitting with his friends. The four young farmhands had gathered that evening out of the rain. Morning would come early and the calloused hands would once again, no matter the weather, plow and till, plant and fix, harness and tend. Tonight, those busy hands lay idle except to lift the mugs of ale to quench thirsty throats and spoons to feed hungry stomachs.

Betts, the pretty maid Katy’s papa had hired, twirled, flirted ans served with an deft touch as the weather had drawn more and more of the town folk and travelers to the inn for food and comfort. Master Salte knew from experience that foul as the weather may be, very fair would be his night’s earnings. Mistress Abbie, papa’s wife was busy in the kitchen, overseeing the roasts, pies, stews and breads that the inn’s patrons demanded and raved over. Too busy to keep an eye on a small wiry girl. She failed to notice Katy quietly observing the bustle and taking in the storm from her perch in a shadowy corner, instead of sleeping in her room.

Katy had bristled at Abbie’s commanding tone that she was to stay in her room and out of the way. At first it was simple defiance that drew Katy out to the common room unnoticed and that same bit of rebellion was why she stayed. Despite all of the activity, it was the same conversations, the same concerns that adults always seem to fret over, as it was every night. The men would talk about money – who had it, who did not and who needed it, weather and the effect on the current crops, farming, farming and more farming. The women would invariably turn the conversation to marriage, who should be, who wanted to be who wasn’t until finally the subject turned to babies. Yuck, bleh and double bleh! Katy did not understand grown-ups at all! And she certainly did not want to become one if it meant that one had to forget how to play jacks or if one was not allow to go running through the meadow at the back of the inn, chasing butterflies and counting bees.

It was the stranger in the storm, the stranger that walked through the doors of the Amber Rose that caught her interest. She felt a tingle of excitement. Something new, she thought. Katy was certain that something unusual, something amazing was going to happen. So instead of returning to her room, she stayed. Keeping very still, Katy kept an eye out for Abbie. She was determined she was not going to get caught and sent to bed.

The young man smiled at papa broadly and replied, “A place in the common room will suit me just fine. I fear the strength of your good ale would be wasted on a poor man like myself and will make do with water. I, however, must insist on a bowl of Mistress Abbie’s stew for I have been told for the last three town’s it is the finest in the district.” Words flowed like honey from his mouth, smooth and sweet to the ear, both in tone and flattery. Katy watched in fascination as he un-strapped from the pack he was carrying, a case and set it on the table lovingly.

“You be one of those traveling minstrels, aye?” Master Salte asked with a gleam of interest in his eyes not unlike his hidden daughter’s.

Mistaking the look, the young stranger started to pull out the bag which he carried his coins. “Indeed, I am. I assure you I have coin enough for the bed and meals. There will be no begging from me tonight.”

“Nay lad, I mean no harm. I trust well enough that you’d have asked for work up front if you needed it. We don’t often see your kind in these parts. Being a bit on the remote side and all with little to offer the fancy going city folk. Only during the spring and summer festivals do we get a chance to hear someone besides Ole Harry making a go at a tale or two.” Master Salte cleared his throat nervously. “It just seems a shame with the weather so awful and all, that perhaps you might help us pass the time by sharing one of your stories.” Katy’s ears perked up and she looked over with eager interest. A story! This was worth the risk of getting caught.

The handsome minstrel smiled a rueful smile, expressing both weariness and understanding. “I has been a long day of travel and I was looking forward to a quiet evening.” His brilliant blue eyes met Katy’s brown soulful ones for a moment. Katy stifled a gasp, certain she was going to be ratted out. Instead he flashed a warm smile at the child, and turned to her papa. “If you give me but a moment of time to savor my supper and to rest a while, I believe I have a tale for the telling.” Katy’s heart leapt with joy as her papa signaled to Betts to bring a bowl of stew.

“Of course, my friend. Of course.” Betts quickly served the young man supper with her brightest smile, sighing over his handsome face as she left for the kitchen. Katy waited and watched in sweet anticipation of the story that was to come.

That evening was the first time that Katy heard of the maiden trapped in a Crystal Cage lost in the Crystalline Sea. Little did she dream, how that story was about to take a hold of her life.