Walking in the woods in the Natural Park of Montseny is one of the great pleasures of being here. It is a chestnut oak and beech wood with areas of pine forest and twice I have been there with a small group of people to do Reiki in the Woods. It is organised by a gentle and interesting man called Jordi. We meet up in Sant Celoni at about 10am on a sunday morning – sometimes it is nearer 11am when we all finally arrive but I must write another post about Time! Jordi takes us to a secluded and peaceful part of the woods and we spend time doing simple but deep exercises of healing, meditation, body movements and connection with ourselves and the natural world around us. I have done lots of classes in Catalunya which of course are all taught in Catalan which I still don’t speak but I have become accustomed to this new position of welcome outsider. I don’t understand everything, I miss some of the responses that people give to the exercises, I can’t communicate all that I am feeling in words. But something else happens – I have become not just practised at smiling and nodding but also more sensitive to body language, my heart hears emotions which may not be expressed in words. I make connections with people without being able to talk very much. When I first arrived in Barcelona I often felt frustrated and invisible and out of kilter but I have recently noticed this happens less and less. There are ways to connect and communicate without words – or without all the subtleties and clever wit that in the past I thought were vital. I think people here talk a lot – especially women – but perhaps it is just that I speak so little now. Words flow around me as if I am a rock in a fast flowing river and goodbyes can last over an hour as it seems there is always something else to say. I live in a more silent world – and the danger could be that I start to think too much and make judgements as I observe the other people. This sometimes happened in my first months here – a defense against the strangeness of my surroundings. But now I seem to have settled into enjoying this time of acute awareness of other levels of communication. Of course I also understand a lot more Catalan and I can respond in my hesitant but improving Castellano but I have also relaxed more into accepting this stage and taking things one step at a time – poco a poco or poc a poc!These pictures were taken the first time I did the Reiki in the Woods workshop and after a beautiful morning connecting with the trees – the new growth – the colours of the fallen leaves – the sounds of birds – we found a nest on the ground, intricately woven with grey beech twigs and I raised it on a longer branch and placed a pine cone inside – art – another way of communicating without the need for verbal explanations.And Duna was there too. Noone seemed to mind a little wild dog racing around excited by the woody smells as we did our more meditative work. She was the free spirit of adventure and for three hours was happy to explore by herself and bury her nose in the sweet leafy earth until in the end she become one with the surroundings.