Connections and Creations. Part 4: Crystal Navigation
Tim Arnold, Sandown – Isle of Wight, 2017
Sunday 15th October
We stayed in a hotel which was very sweet but very Fawlty Towers too. I actually liked it, lots of 70s wallpaper everywhere and it felt family run. We had something to eat in the hotel restaurant and halfway through my risotto (Nim had vegetable soup), there was a power cut. We actually both laughed out loud in the dark throughout most of the powercut, half expecting Manuel to turn up at any moment to give us a couple of torches. Classic. After smiling at the manager’s apologies, Nim went up to her room and I went to mine. As we’d planned to get up before sunrise to do some further filming, the early night was a must. However, after I had been sleeping for an hour, I woke up to what sounded like 14 people having a party in the room next door to me. It turned out to be a very large family. It went on and on with doors slamming every few minutes. I got up, put on a dressing gown and asked one of the ladies from that family if they could be a bit quieter. She said ‘I’ll take care of it’. I went back to bed and heard roars of laughter in the room next to me. I had changed rooms earlier in the evening and luckily Nim still had the key for the other room, so I packed my stuff up and knocked on her door. Not very happy Nimmy answered and gave me the key to the other room I had. She will not be getting up at sunrise now, that’s for sure. My soul sister from another mister she might be, but I know how important her sleep is. After 5 hours lying in bed thinking about sleeping, I got up and got my stuff together. iPod, iPhone, portable charger. I didn’t bother shaving because if we end up using any of the footage, it needs to match the stuff we filmed at sunset the night before. I took a brisk 5 minute walk down to the beach.
It actually looked like a film set when I got onto the sand because there were football style flood lights all along the beach. I quite liked the look. I looked to the east and could just about make out a red flicker of what I was hoping would be the beginning of the rising sun. The longer I waited, clouds gathered in the exact spot I was focusing on. It dawned on me that…I would not be seeing the dawn this morning. It was too overcast. However, I spent a bit longer searching for the sun, but I just could not see it, even though it was getting lighter. So I started filming anyway, It wasn’t easy as I was walking and the camera was wobbling of course. I think I did about 6 takes of the whole song, walking up and down the beach singing my heart out with no one but seagulls listening. Or so I thought. Suddenly, I spotted a drone hovering about 100 feet in the air above me. I was freaking out at first. Who was watching me? And then I thought, it would be amazing if I could find out who was controlling the drone and ask then to do a few shots of me singing that I could use in the video. I looked around and saw a couple sat up on the bankside. A man and a woman. The man was operating the drone. I went to say hello and the woman immediately asked if I was making a music video. I said I was ‘trying to’ and then explained why. I think they were both quite touched by this stranger getting up at the crack of dawn to make a video for a friend who had lost her home in a fire back in Toronto. Without saying very much, the man offered to take some shots of me. I ran back down onto the beach and just went full pelt into the song again. Afterwards I chatted to Samar (the woman) whilst Dwayne continued filming with his drone for his own project. At 7.30am in the morning, I found myself discussing losing our loved ones to cancer, The Power of Now and the healing doctrine of ancient Toltec wisdom with a complete stranger on a little seaside resort on The Isle of Wight. It was genuinely magical and there was no one else on the beach. Just us. We swapped details and they said they would send me the footage in a few days. I hope they do. I believe they will. Here’s to the kindness of strangers.
Shortly afterwards, Nim called and I told her what had happened. Luckily for me, she came down to the beach and filmed me again as the footage I had done of myself was just not good enough to use. She went back to the hotel and I went to a greasy spoon café and warmed myself up on a mug of brick-dust tea and a veggie fry-up.
We’d both noticed a shop near the seafront called ‘The Holistic Emporium’ – full of crystals and Tarot cards. We went in and met the owners who were lovely. They were interested in why we were on the island so we told the story again and I shared some of my music with them that I thought might suit the shop’s ambience. We then did a few more shots on the beach and went back to the shop because Nim wanted to get a mug that had a picture of a cat on it and I fancied getting a new crystal. When we went back into the shop, they’d already added some of my music to their instore playlist. I loved that. That kind of thing always makes me happy. Then the gentleman who runs the shop gifted me a crystal. He explained that it was a particular type of crystal that Vikings would use for navigation when the sun was not visible during an overcast day. I was of course stunned by this after having spent much of the morning looking for the sun. He said ‘people who had lost their way would use it to find their way home again’. And then he gave me the crystal.
As we made our way to the ferry after a Sunday lunch on a clifftop, I felt like I had a lot to process from the weekend, and then realised I now had yet another music video to complete when I got back to London!
Have you missed the first three chapters of this story? Go here.
To donate to help Kathy get back on her feet again, click here.
5 Comments
I am astounded by the synchronicity of events and circumstances moving behind the scenes – invisible to us – and always present, dynamic and living alongside our every move… can’t wait to meet this crystal …
I am astounded by the synchronicity of events and circumstances moving behind the scenes – invisible to us – and always present, dynamic and living alongside our every move… can’t wait to meet this crystal …
I wrote that the day my new Siberian kittens were born – unbeknownst to me until a few days ago …
Sorry they wd have been exactly a month old
It was a pleasure chatting to you in our shop – we love the picture of the crystal! I’ll share this fabulous story on our page.
Thanks for the amazing experience in your beautiful shop David! And thank you so much for sharing 🙂 See you soon! Tim x