There is nothing better than receiving a reminder of all that is important. Some writers, you Jane, and you Eleanor, can wiggle between the cracks of my tightly bound humanity to the soft, open space where your words create an expansion that leaves me changed. For this I am very grateful. I loved this essay SO much and appreciate that it showed up for me this morning.
I want my definition of reality to be expansive, to be able to walk through every day seeing beyond the current dimensions I'm locked in, to feel the Divine by my side every step of the way, and yet this requires a great deal of effort most of the time. So I make that effort because I want more for my reality.
Thank you for your kind words, Donna! I'm so happy you enjoyed Eleanor's essay! I absolutely adore it!! And what a beautiful definition of reality! I hold that vision with you! ❤️
Thanks for reading, Donna and sharing thoughts and feelings. Like you, I want to feel the Divine by my side every step of the way, and like you it takes effort. Happy to meet you here.
Eleanor, my dear friend. This is one of the best things I’ve read of late. I will read it again to let it sink into me.
Would that more of us would embrace these realms, give light and empathy to our own severing, do the work that enables kindness and laughter to pour from the depths of us more freely.
I am grateful to know you and to be in conversation with you through your words and your bright intelligence and your beautiful heart.
Thank you, Eleanor. Thank you, Jane. You’re two of the Substackers I’d be honored and over the moon to commune with in person someday. And I’m so delighted you got to do so with each other.
Oh I hope we can! I would so love that. I'm sure it'll happen one day. I imagine meeting you in the plains or on some mountain, wind whipping, tea drinking, a valley or peak before us. We are connected. It's an honour to know you and call you my friend. I'm so lucky. xx
A heartbreaking and beautiful essay! I lived in London for 11 years and my first love was a kiwi who went to boarding school.. just saying, I totally get it. Sadly.
Haha. It sounds like you do get it, Imola! And I'm so glad you enjoyed it! Also: You lived in London for eleven years?!? We really do need to have a long lunch one day!
I'm going to see if I can actually make this happen in, say, the next six months or so! A dear friend of mine and I are starting to take long weekend trips together and Montreal would be lovely! I will keep you posted!
as everything I read by you Eleanor, it has been thought provoking and beautiful. Yes, unfortunately I’m intimately familiar with its tragedy. I could write my own essay on the subject… but I appreciated your approach and showing how these men, disconnected from their hearts and feelings are governing our world! Scary thought… and so true. Which is why as a mother I try my best to raise human beings who are connected to their hearts as much as their minds. Seems small, but it’s better than nothing. Thank you for your writing Eleanor!
This is exquisite, Eleanor—naming the severance (empire, schooling, materialism) and then stitching reality back together through the material, imaginary, and divine is medicine. This is exactly the re-enchantment project our culture needs: imagination as a sacred bridge back to wholeness.
"Time spent here is to know fully that reality is part material, part imaginary, part divine, that this physical aspect which allows me to type is but a fraction of the whole." To be raised in a culture that dismisses insights and wisdom with phrases like "Oh, it's all in your imagination" is disorienting. Imagination is not only our birthright, it's a faculty, a sense as critical and powerful as the (so-called) "five senses" we're most familiar with. Sight and insight are closely entwined, two views of reality from different dimensions.
Thanks, Eleanor, for voicing this in your unique, artful way. I'm grateful for the reminder, and for the connection.
I went to a British Public School back in the sixties. As it was not a boarding school, I was spared the overt sexual abuse, but the physical and emotional abuse were there, and the older abusers were clearly getting some sexual satisfaction from it.
The rest rings so, so true.
Those of us who have made it through have done so, as Eleanor so beautifully puts it, "by asking the question, Who am I? and imagining the answer."
Oh, John, I'm so sorry. How awful. I'm glad you survived and grew into such a lovely soul! Defied the odds!! And I'm happy you enjoyed Eleanor's beautiful and brilliant essay! ❤️
Max Weber called it the "disenchantment of the world." Those "savages" who represent the type of life humans lived who came before us for 195,000 of the last 200,000 years full of magic and wonder may in fact have been happier.
...I encourage you to live knowing the three realms we have access to; the material, imaginary and divine, are real. The sum of their parts is reality; everything you see around you was born in someone’s imagination, including you, and time engaged with all three, and with fair shared belief, is time well spent. Eleanor Anstruther
The entire essay has incredible depth, and it has left me going down some deep channels of thought. Thank you, Eleanor and Jane, for sharing this writing with all of us. One of the parts that I have copied and placed above I believe is wise and kind encouragement.
Dear Mary, I so appreciate your understanding and kind words. The response to this essay has been amazing, yours included, and it's helped me know in real time that I'm not alone in my comprehension of this dream we're living, and that there are thousands, if not millions out there aware of the depth of our reality. We are points of light.
Every weekday, I cross the boundary into a world ruled by numbers where I type more of them into spreadsheets to keep it turning, where writing stories and drawing pictures and photographing nature are all frivolous eccentricities. But this place that I cross back to every night, filled with poets and writers and artists and creatives, and words like these, makes me believe that the soul of magic still lives. Thank you Eleanor and Jane ✨
So very sorry that that happened to you in your childhood! I can't imagine"!
Still, I perceove an overfertilized imagination: Reality is what it is. not just anything that one might imagine it ito be and confounding those just has to be dangerous!
Thank you for your comment, Michael! I hear what you're saying and agree that can be dangerous. I don't think that's what Eleanor is suggesting though. But I don't want to put words in her mouth! I'll let her respond if she's able. Thanks for reading!
There is nothing better than receiving a reminder of all that is important. Some writers, you Jane, and you Eleanor, can wiggle between the cracks of my tightly bound humanity to the soft, open space where your words create an expansion that leaves me changed. For this I am very grateful. I loved this essay SO much and appreciate that it showed up for me this morning.
I want my definition of reality to be expansive, to be able to walk through every day seeing beyond the current dimensions I'm locked in, to feel the Divine by my side every step of the way, and yet this requires a great deal of effort most of the time. So I make that effort because I want more for my reality.
Thank you both.
Thank you for your kind words, Donna! I'm so happy you enjoyed Eleanor's essay! I absolutely adore it!! And what a beautiful definition of reality! I hold that vision with you! ❤️
Thanks for reading, Donna and sharing thoughts and feelings. Like you, I want to feel the Divine by my side every step of the way, and like you it takes effort. Happy to meet you here.
Eleanor, my dear friend. This is one of the best things I’ve read of late. I will read it again to let it sink into me.
Would that more of us would embrace these realms, give light and empathy to our own severing, do the work that enables kindness and laughter to pour from the depths of us more freely.
I am grateful to know you and to be in conversation with you through your words and your bright intelligence and your beautiful heart.
Thank you, Eleanor. Thank you, Jane. You’re two of the Substackers I’d be honored and over the moon to commune with in person someday. And I’m so delighted you got to do so with each other.
I'm so happy you enjoyed it, Holly! I agree, it's a stunningly beautiful and wise piece. And yes to embracing the realms and to in person communions!
Oh I hope we can! I would so love that. I'm sure it'll happen one day. I imagine meeting you in the plains or on some mountain, wind whipping, tea drinking, a valley or peak before us. We are connected. It's an honour to know you and call you my friend. I'm so lucky. xx
🥰 🌄💨🫖
A heartbreaking and beautiful essay! I lived in London for 11 years and my first love was a kiwi who went to boarding school.. just saying, I totally get it. Sadly.
Haha. It sounds like you do get it, Imola! And I'm so glad you enjoyed it! Also: You lived in London for eleven years?!? We really do need to have a long lunch one day!
We do!! So when are you coming over? I have a big pot of African chickpea soup on the stove :)
I'm going to see if I can actually make this happen in, say, the next six months or so! A dear friend of mine and I are starting to take long weekend trips together and Montreal would be lovely! I will keep you posted!
Please do Jane! Six months brings us to Montreal winter, but we will keep the fire burning!
Hi Imola - yes, those who've experienced it first hand in relationship know of its tragedy. Thanks for reading, and for your kind words.
as everything I read by you Eleanor, it has been thought provoking and beautiful. Yes, unfortunately I’m intimately familiar with its tragedy. I could write my own essay on the subject… but I appreciated your approach and showing how these men, disconnected from their hearts and feelings are governing our world! Scary thought… and so true. Which is why as a mother I try my best to raise human beings who are connected to their hearts as much as their minds. Seems small, but it’s better than nothing. Thank you for your writing Eleanor!
It’s a huge contribution, to raise human beings who are connected to their hearts as much as their minds - It’s everything. I salute you.
Thank you. This was beautiful. Oh, the daemons! Such wonderful characters they were. They helped me to understand more deeply the meaning of the soul.
So happy you enjoyed it, Anne. I agree, ooooh, the daemons! And, yes, such soul deepening work.
Me too. And helped such conversations with my children, too.
This is exquisite, Eleanor—naming the severance (empire, schooling, materialism) and then stitching reality back together through the material, imaginary, and divine is medicine. This is exactly the re-enchantment project our culture needs: imagination as a sacred bridge back to wholeness.
I so agree, Camilla! Happy you enjoyed it! 🌸
I'm so glad to hear how this landed with you - divine medicine, yes, exactly. Thanks for reading.
Simply beautiful writing. Thank you
So happy you enjoyed it, Jerry! I feel the same!
Thanks Jerry. 🙂
"Time spent here is to know fully that reality is part material, part imaginary, part divine, that this physical aspect which allows me to type is but a fraction of the whole." To be raised in a culture that dismisses insights and wisdom with phrases like "Oh, it's all in your imagination" is disorienting. Imagination is not only our birthright, it's a faculty, a sense as critical and powerful as the (so-called) "five senses" we're most familiar with. Sight and insight are closely entwined, two views of reality from different dimensions.
Thanks, Eleanor, for voicing this in your unique, artful way. I'm grateful for the reminder, and for the connection.
So happy you enjoyed it, Julie! 🌸
Ditto, and thanks for reading, Julie. I'm so glad it landed.
I went to a British Public School back in the sixties. As it was not a boarding school, I was spared the overt sexual abuse, but the physical and emotional abuse were there, and the older abusers were clearly getting some sexual satisfaction from it.
The rest rings so, so true.
Those of us who have made it through have done so, as Eleanor so beautifully puts it, "by asking the question, Who am I? and imagining the answer."
Thank you both so much. 🙏
Oh, John, I'm so sorry. How awful. I'm glad you survived and grew into such a lovely soul! Defied the odds!! And I'm happy you enjoyed Eleanor's beautiful and brilliant essay! ❤️
Thank you, Jane, for your kind words.
Thank you for sharing, John. They were brutal places, and it remains, no matter the modernisation a brutal system. I'm glad you made it through.
Just brilliant, thank you. 🙏🌀💜
So happy you enjoyed it, Simone! And I agree! ❤️
Hey, hi 🙂 And Thank you.
Max Weber called it the "disenchantment of the world." Those "savages" who represent the type of life humans lived who came before us for 195,000 of the last 200,000 years full of magic and wonder may in fact have been happier.
Truth!
Well said.
this is entirely brilliant and beautiful
I'm so delighted you enjoyed it, Appleton!! I feel the same!
Thank you, Appleton King!
...I encourage you to live knowing the three realms we have access to; the material, imaginary and divine, are real. The sum of their parts is reality; everything you see around you was born in someone’s imagination, including you, and time engaged with all three, and with fair shared belief, is time well spent. Eleanor Anstruther
The entire essay has incredible depth, and it has left me going down some deep channels of thought. Thank you, Eleanor and Jane, for sharing this writing with all of us. One of the parts that I have copied and placed above I believe is wise and kind encouragement.
I loooooove the passage you quoted here. So beautiful and, yes, wise and kind encouragement! So happy you enjoyed the essay, Mary!
Dear Mary, I so appreciate your understanding and kind words. The response to this essay has been amazing, yours included, and it's helped me know in real time that I'm not alone in my comprehension of this dream we're living, and that there are thousands, if not millions out there aware of the depth of our reality. We are points of light.
Fantastic
Are you asking while awake, dreaming or dosing
They’ve merged
Brilliantly written
Thank you
So happy you enjoyed it, Prajna!
Prajna, thank you so much.
Every weekday, I cross the boundary into a world ruled by numbers where I type more of them into spreadsheets to keep it turning, where writing stories and drawing pictures and photographing nature are all frivolous eccentricities. But this place that I cross back to every night, filled with poets and writers and artists and creatives, and words like these, makes me believe that the soul of magic still lives. Thank you Eleanor and Jane ✨
Beautiful! So glad you enjoyed it, Emily!
I'm so touched - thank you, Emily. We have to remember what we're made of...
From the dust of dead stars…. Like actually 💛
Like actually 💛✨
WOW. This is gorgeous. Thank you.
So happy you enjoyed it, Asha!! I also think it's gorgeous! xx
Thank you so much
So very sorry that that happened to you in your childhood! I can't imagine"!
Still, I perceove an overfertilized imagination: Reality is what it is. not just anything that one might imagine it ito be and confounding those just has to be dangerous!
Just IMHO, and I may be mistaken.
Thank you for your comment, Michael! I hear what you're saying and agree that can be dangerous. I don't think that's what Eleanor is suggesting though. But I don't want to put words in her mouth! I'll let her respond if she's able. Thanks for reading!
Hi, thanks for this reaction. I appreciate your opinion.