Smoother Soul Travel With Sabeth

Smoother Soul Travel

With Sabeth

by
Ami Elisabeth Catez Institute

Printed by RTS Print and Copy Centre in 2024
www.rtsprint.co.uk

Supported by Tom Pearson at Isidore and Wild Duck Productions
www.isidore.uk

Thanks to Sr. Judith at Maryton Grange,
to Veronica Errington, to Erica Stones and to Joy Thompson

All further information at:
www.aecinstitute.org
aecinstitute3@gmail.com

Front Cover: ‘Image of Elisabeth Catez’ via www.karmelgent.be

Visit: www.marytoncarmelitesliverpool.org.uk

Published in association with the leere collective 2024
www.leere.co.uk
www.facebook.com/leerecollective

‘Never be afraid to trust an unknown future
to a known God’
Corrie Ten Boom

Chapitre un : The Soul Hurts

Estée thinks
She should now be out of sight
For the hedgerows and the privets are short
And the swaying branches pre-Spring are bare of leaf and of bud
The roadside saplings too offer little cover
Estée wants only to put things right
Somehow
With the caress of trust
Before night envelops the delicate rhythms of her day
Before she heads home
To face the dutiful Sunday evening routine
The rollout of the school week
The boisterous ways of youth converging on the morning bus
Along corridors of a protracted panic
One classroom morphing into another
She checks once more … beyond the hedgerows
For passers by
In earshot
For vehicles
Sudden appearances
Sound empties
Estée favours moments like this
Being ‘alone' in task
The solitude of task
Bringing an inexplicable inner warmth
A trace of wonder through her veins
Some force of love disguised
Removed from the hour, any measure of the clock
Also inexplicable
As if one is discreetly but observantly winding one's way through mystery
Through time and through history
If not flying …
It is a stern refusal to rush, to fluster, that holds her up in journey
Holds the best of her up
And returning to the present
With one final scan of the scene
Amidst the drizzle and the grey cloud mass
Estée buries the young male blackbird
There
In the thin soil
Of the grounds of the United Reformed Church
On the busy corner
Where Avenue meets Avenue
And the public buses swing out towards airport and city
It is where Estée has so often
Stumbled
Upon herself
During holidays or at weekends
Walking her beloved épagneul King Charles dog 'Ralph'
Trying her best to fit
Neatly
Passively
Within a moving and a fragmented adult world

It is the crossroads of her days
Spent between parents

Estée gazes upon the simple contours of the bird's limp body
Its pale orange beak protruding
The lengthy tail running to the finest point of brilliance
Still wet with the sheeting, the sliding rain
Oh … hidden thing!
'Ami unique'
Beyond her fixed and her wounded gaze
A notion of 'perfect' stirs
In that very form
Of the lifeless bird
The shine of its feathers
Carrying the shapes and the silhouettes
Of a redemptive air
A resonating ideal
A valued spot of truth on an ever smiling horizon
One where we too can creep out
Of the mire and the madness
Stronger
But Estée is without the sea and Estée is without the sky
And in those next few minutes
She is back to earth
Where her child soft hands work like small mechanical diggers
Muddy work
Her wide jeans becoming damper and damper
Marked at the ankles by the rainfall and the sodden ground
Still out of sight
A resting place is duly fashioned
Soft feathers now against the rough of the soil
The eye below earth's level
Stoney
Small dark particles
Wedge themselves between her skin and her short fingernails
Her mother might ask what she had been doing
'Fixing a damaged tree', she would say
'Pulling it back into shape'
Or … 'painting my nails black again'
‘Noire … it's the French!' she would tell her Mum
In a semantic plan of distraction
Kneeling
Upon the concrete flagstones
Still out of sight
Estée gathers sticks and offshoots
Twigs, scattered soil and soggy leaves
And covers the scene
God’s firm earth disturbed
Now once more settled
Troubled beauty reconciled in touch and praxis
And spotting a loose discarded pencil
She snaps it in two
To forge a cross
Pushing it into the small mound of earth
That she has so neatly moulded
Recalling words from a worn prayer
At the abrupt roar of an engine
Wondering why …
An adult pastime
… Religion ?
Muffled voices approach the hedgerows
As the rain tips down
They pass
Waning in volume to her relief
And holding to her vague working template of Unity
Estée feels her heart expand
So without further ado, sets off contentedly
Crossing at the junction
To walk up the narrower of the two Avenues
Away from the traffic lights
Feebly
She wipes her hands on her black hooded top
Noticing the green reflection of the traffic light on the wet road surface
It grows quieter
Just the patter of rain now
So Estée names the dark and bulky clouds that linger there above her
Each of them in turn

Those clouds
Threatening noise, hanging low
We too shall now name …

'Blame

Anger

False Perception

Restlessness

Misplaced Allegiance

Rejection

Lost Purpose

Fear’

Chapitre deux: The Soul Rests

And thinking too much on her slow
Lonesome return
Estée misses her exit for 'home'
Home, it’s ever locking identity abandoned
In her weariness
Or obscured by her loving movements
So to confront
The mind
… ever restless
without true basis …
She takes a right hand turning at the corner of the Park
Where the new suburban dwellings lie empty
She picks out a distant point to reach
From there she shall retrace her steps
Important housework duties were incomplete
Besides Ralph would be waiting
Waiting to hear her story
Of finding the poor bird motionless near the bus shelter
Its plumage glossy with the downpour
Estée pushes on
Feeling the water squish in the soles of her white training shoes
Her heart competes with the rising wind
A wailing wind
That rattles garden gates and garage doors
Bins are overturned
Plastic strewn across the street
A door slams
It is here where Estée momentarily envisages herself
Constructing a tent
Away from the urban din
It would ensure protection from the approaching night
Every inch of creeping loneliness
From defeat
A canopy stretched into a single space, a natural space
Shrouding all worry
Nurturing a courage within
Pitched before the aurora
Yet, Love …
In all its many, many movements
Must embrace others
Their condition and their dwelling
For if this was to be the beginnings of a lasting storm
Estée would need the solid and faithful shelter
Of, at the very least, one of her homes
There with Ralph
With Clara and Mum
The warmth of indoors
And at this particular spot
The same rising wind seemed to sound these brazen words …

'Any soul that continues to debate with itself
Will scatter its forces’

One can draw one’s own emoji's
One’s own stories and conclusions
Whilst Estée's soul debates
And debates
Scattering its inner forces
Nonetheless the scene tells us firmly
Estée perceives such grand distances vividly
Even that looming distance from herself
Days, along with the sky, were indeed heavy
Heart and mind
Soul
In turbulence
In a spin
Body a mere bystander
Among men
Women
And on earth
The swirling inward pressures
That steal hope

Now she is at the very point that she picked out
That she thinks she picked out
Along the sandstone walls
In the incessant afternoon gloom
Past the gated posts of Maryton
Estée continues to walk
Detecting the scent of wet flowers
She was not mistaken
There were ivy climbers and common mallow
Near pretty viola tricolor
Lined in legions of colour
Like legionnaires before l'Elysée Palais
Estée stands herself more upright
And follows the decorative trail
The showers cannot interrupt her course
Her appreciation of the spectacle
The hint of white in the viola petal
Sinking below the violet and into the soft yellow hue
All this
Hidden from view
A visitor’s view
A neighbour's view
The hearts view ?

Sabeth was in the voice of the viola tricolor

'… Colour can help you stay with it
Withstand all things
As they are
As you are …'

Estée
Truly immersed
In the deeper scent of the flowers
Felt her thumbs make contact with the rougher tips of her teenage fingers
Had she not once holidayed here … ?
Watched the peak of the high mountain quiver in the hot air
Played at water fights with Clara
At the side of the chalet pool
Traced the run of purple lavender fields
All so very close
Imitations

There came some distant lulling tones
Women and children alone
She guesses
Playtimes or mealtimes perhaps
Each corner in sight seems to her a foreign abode
Grass wet and intense with prospective growth
She was now on the narrow path
Alongside the foundation stone
Set in the decorative brickwork of the building of Carmel
Observing a climbing buff yellow 'Gloire de Dijon'
A grey squirrel darting towards the ‘white light’ glass of the chapel
Across lawn
Then the crucifix
The wood
The wounds
The thorns
The crucifix
Itself acting as a canopy
For any so drawn to it
This canopy
Of stillness and context
But for her … with hands still muddy …
A young man
A body twisted
‘Must have upset someone … and in a big way!'
Thought Estée

And as she turned to make for the gated posts of Maryton
The voice within the violas was there again

'… nothing is commonplace
We do not live in these things, we go beyond them'

It came like an order to rest

Estée says aloud
'Estée shall rest'
If she can but stumble
Home
Estée stumbles home
Still with the scent of those vibrant flowers
Like perfumed, otherworldly realms, in her nostrils

Along the road that sits adjacent to the Park
In a northerly direction
Into the hazy rain
She recognises the power plant
The outbuilding
The spiralling horse chestnut tree
The verges up on 'Yew Tree Lane'
The entrance to the apartments
Her Mum and sister would be alarmed by her late return
As she had cradled the bird, she had switched her mobile phone off
She was so very close

In the small bedroom that she shares with her sister Clara
Ralph wanders in and then out again
Estée closes her eyes
Listens to the night without the rain
And tries to pitch the heart
Beside an eternal tune
A tune she guesses at
She imagines the blackbird
Free and busy
Foraging
She listens for its call
A serene breeze sails through the window
There is a low pitch rumble of traffic
She then speaks her own prayer
From her cell …
'Look after that awesome bird
Who took me on this rainy adventure …
And look after sweet Ralph
As he sleeps …
And be with Mum, with Dad and with Clara too tonight'

And Estée does indeed rest
For what seems like 40 days and 40 nights

Chapitre trois: The Soul Expands

Her mother suggests a small party
At home
To celebrate Estée's forthcoming birthday in July of that year
With Clara
With Suzanne and Patricia
And of course with her beloved Ralph
Estée agrees
Commenting that she needs more pictures with friends out of school time
To post from her phone
For Estée was ready to celebrate her own discoveries
New affinities and observances like fresh horizons of summer promise
Affinities and discoveries
That now moved, guided and shaped her inner blooming world

It was not merely the flowers
Or the crucifix up at Maryton
That had gripped her attention
Faces too all held a shine before her keen eyes
A distinct presence and story of their own
Although there had always been essentially movement and constant flux in her
short life
Much of it puzzling
The faces beheld in any one day
… be they in a captured image or in real form …
Had somehow helped return a tranquil balance
Presented an ‘Answer’ in the midst of a raw pain
She noticed shared human joy
A kind act, a wave
A benign engagement between friends
Babies asleep as they travelled
With their mothers on public transport
She had read somewhere
Of the value of keeping one's face always towards the sun
So any shadows will fall behind you
One face could simply echo the words …

'We do not live in these things'

Estée
Separated from those so integral to her life
Came to gradually withstand the present with a force
Negotiate the shifting foundations
Switching abodes
The confusion of two wardrobes
How often she had been caught gazing
Out of her classroom windows
With half a mind on Ralph
And the other on the tender words
That her Mum had uttered to her before setting out on the school bus
Consequently
Unable to redirect herself quick enough
To offer any incisive comments within the class discussion
An old Languages teacher had once insisted:
'… s'il te plaît Estée, tes propres idées sont importantes'
Then in English joked …
'Add the letter ‘m’ onto your name Estée and do your thing!!'

At the crucifix
Just those few yards again from the viola tricolor
Estée on this occasion notices the holly amongst the privets and the ivy
Their polished green leaves disguising the sharp texture of the rim
The voice of Sabeth
This time
Comes over the sound of a workman's tools
Perhaps emanating from the vegetable plot or the greenhouses
Estée had taken little Ralph's lead and collar
Stepped out of her Mum's apartment
Into brighter climes this one weekend morning
And followed the line of the old stone walls to the gates of Maryton
There she watched Ralph too catch the scent of the flowers for himself
Continuing in an easterly direction along the narrow path
Stopping abruptly before the oaks
Gazing at the isolated
The abused
Figure of Christ
The tangled hair
The head bowed before accusers
The hateful
This time Estée let her hands fall beside her, palms open
Her thin wrist too was marked
She looks at the cut to his torso
And speaks outwardly to a cherished interior form
A reparative, salubrious form
With uncharacteristic resolve and urgency
Capturing a peace and a passion as she does so
In her one languid breath
This Christ was like no other
He belonged to a similar story
Exhausted … Exposed …
Empty …
'I couldn't have hated him …' declares Estée
She watches thin clouds above her head skim by on the light breeze
The boisterous crows seem to call louder
As they swoop down to the mesh fencing
It became clear as fresh water in its flow from mountain
We don't lose the sacred
To this ever scattering, dismissive and chaotic world

The jet streams made their patterns known
High in the holding sky
As the soul veritably expanded
Mystery took hold without disquiet
Ralph tugged at the lead
Her arm and body followed
Combining hurt as a real thing
With repose as a loving one
So expanding into the greatness of vocation
Estée takes quicker steps away from the canopy of the crucifix
Tracing her route back down the path
Up the Road
To the power station on the Park corner
Across Avenue
In rain and in shine
Across any boundary
Outbuildings. Inbuildings
All boundaries. All burdens
That seek to divide and to scorn
With trembling fingers that point and snigger
At frailty

'A constancy of Love
I've come to you to show
It hovers about your soul through every day and every night
Oh, simply look and see the Mystery!'

Estée thinks
What is possible with a friend like this
Hidden among the natural light
And the singular direction of the flowers
What is within the soul today
To so receive a friend like this
And she took notice of the birds that were noisy
And the birds that were quiet
'Le monde entier'
In fact
Speaking alone to Ralph on the soft grass of the Park meadow
Some 20 or so minutes later
Sabeth's words
Estée repeats …
In the completeness of her soul

'A constancy of Love
I've come to you to show'

That evening, as Estée finishes her homework
The TV flashes up images of a distant war
Bloodied children under clouds of smoke, of hate and of loss
Lovelessness
Estée sits at the dining room table
In the small apartment
And writes out her birthday party invitations in her neatest handwriting
There are to be the 3 guests
Along with Ralph
And
Mum

Chapitre quatre: The Soul Belongs

The year presses on
A warm and genial early summer is now upon us
The sun embosoms all young life, free of the grasp of age
The leaves are motionless on the trees
Ralph learns to fetch his own lead from the hallway of the apartment
Time passes too for Estée
With some fleeting glances
At her old self
Her russet coloured hair is shorter
A lot shorter
Eyes still alert
Hooded top and white trainers replaced by an oversized thin check shirt
Drawstring greenish shorts
Black baseball boots
Despite her increased height she still walks with her head a little bowed
Especially in crowds or in unfamiliar company
With her school uniform she wears a watch with a large face
Displaying the image of a Dalmatian dog
It is the time of year when exam tables are laid out in the school hall
Measured with an institutional precision
Summer holidays draw nearer
For children it all feels like very small steps to that great expanse of fun
Parents make holiday arrangements

Estée releases any hidden sorrow or unease
That she might detect in her own timid voice
Impalpably
Her method
A simple strategy
She begins to list her hobbies and her interests as 'go to' pointers elsewhere
Sketchbook business on the iPad
Her myriad of cute stone figurines arrayed in her father's garden
Cycling
TV programmes on nature and on dogs
Baking with Mum in the apartment kitchen
Even going as far as to list a few subjects that she is enjoying at school
History
Languages
3D Art
Philosophy …
Which she hears can be studied in later school life
She collects older photos of Ralph as a puppy for her bedroom walls
Commits to walking him to the junction and back punctually
Before dinner
Whenever she is at the apartment
And gradually
Aware of the bigger 'pool of Life' on offer
Whatever the day, whatever the season
Boldly
She begins to take her own silences seriously
Treating each when they arise, following a domestic or school activity, as a true
point of vantage
Not impairment
Embracing them
Like moments before a burst of decisive growth from rebudding roses
Accepting her own space
As a marvel
Shying less from the company of others after any such quiet and intimate spells

All can be summarised as greater knowledge of herself
Estée staying afloat
Amidst the greater measure
Of mercy
When Estée wobbles
… more often than not when Clara and she have cross words …
She seeks help
In the name
The mere name
Of 'Sabeth'
The air might feel empty of all life
Discouragement the only song
And in an instant a bountiful harmony might there return …
The viola tricolor plants
Direction and compass
Whispers of a saintly kind
Head straight
Head bowed
An affirming tone always close
Filtering in
Alongside
The wood pigeons
Near the polished-effect of the holly leaves
Against a calm blue sky
The quivering yellows and violets and whites visible
The jay, the robin
The presence
Without any given
Any distinctive form

Yet … it is never that straightforward or simple with older siblings in proximity!

Estée asks Clara in their shared room before school

'What is the worst thing you have ever done?'

Clara is quiet

'Thrown a glass at Mum'

'When?' asks Estée

'It doesn't matter’ says Clara

'Did it break?'

'Of course it did … stupid!'

Then …

'Forget it … we're already late, the bus is due … what do you want for your
birthday?'

Estée was slow in offering any answer, fidgeting with her Dalmatian watch

'Oh, I don’t know! Maybe one of those little chisels, like artists have … for some
wood or stone or something to hammer on …'

'Weird!' replied Clara

Had not Sabeth already presented Estée with such a thing as this ?
To carve away at the inner dimensions
To shape and make room for the gift one knows somehow lies present
Dormant
Latent ?
Behind those forces we fight with in time
Those that turn us only inwards
And emerge as we see it
Back in 'the night …'
The long night
Or in the day's pushy preoccupations
Or that bulge like some swelling or deep bruise within
Visible to anyone with eyes
Intuition
Was she not asking less for a chisel
More for a sword to protect her soul ?

’Don’t panic’

Came the perennial reply

Every time

One night
When she had heard Sabeth clear
Speak as if from a cloistered building with a rural backdrop
Where the sun licked the sharply ascending roof
Estée was right back amid that holiday tableau …
Bourgogne-Franche-Comté
With Clara and with Mum and Dad
Before Ralph
After Edith
Before Ralph became this precious piece … peace … of family life
One family
In time
At Flavignerot ?
It was hard to say
The words that had seized her
Bestilled her
So as to seep in like an ointment
They would not leave her …

‘What are you thinking?
What are you doing?
Where is your whole being?
Trust
And so rise
Jeune soeur
Magnify all you detect of Love
Here is Stillness
Here is Belonging
Under this shield
A canopy of presence
Remain ever closer
Beloved Star
Transform
All hurt and loss
In the fresh company
Of light
Of thankfulness
And from this moment on
Be strong in spirit
And in gentle movement
You will heal and you will grow
Now peace
Friendship
Smoother soul travel
Jeune soeur'

And just before night … another trace of voice …

'Find your forever place on that Still Mountain
Jeune soeur'

Chapitre cinq: The Soul in Harmony

Her birthday fell on a Tuesday of that year
A bright glow lit the Avenue in the early afternoon
The last white blossoms looked like large clumps of popcorn
Along the central reservation
Sabeth's voice came as a truth telling whisper
Just when Estée laid out the picnic blanket on the lawn
And yet it was also like a hurtling arrow
Rooting itself to the ground near her feet

'Collect all one's powers
In order to employ them
In the one work of love'

This was an easy business in the company of those who she 'loved' so deeply
Those who were near and symbolised 'home'
On days surrounded by faces of the most intense 'amour'
Affection
Those who had asked of her welfare at that one very juncture in time
When she had felt frozen in loss
Although demanding, it was becoming easier to do so too
Outside of her closest company
To be free of any taunts or gossip at school or between homes
To bear her head straight
Not so bowed
To know her whole person fitted somewhere
Checked by a fierce love
With a healing, the living flame of friendships implanted
And with the gauge of forgiveness
One could avoid the brazen attempts
Of Panic
To try to press its shadow upon one's day
The markings on her thin wrist went uncovered now
No longer hidden under the sleeve of her clothing

On gathering for her small party
Estée and Clara's mother suggests to the group that they head outside
To sit on the neatly kept lawn within the apartment complex
Ralph had already found his way downstairs when Clara had dropped his lead at
the front door
The branches of the trees were full
The grass was lush
It was sometime after one o' clock
'Selfies' were snapped and compared
There were giggles of freedom away from white boards, the smell of stale corridor
paint and exam life
Suzanne and Patricia talked about music, countries of the world, spare Euro coins
and PE classes
And the new school gym that had large posters displayed with messages from
leading football players in the women's game
Around self-care
Holistic health
A tray of cakes and goats cheese soufflés sits in the centre of the blanket
Along with butternut banana crêpes that Clara had baked that morning

Ralph lies in the sun off the blanket
Clara remarks how he still looked like a puppy
As Patricia attempts her own selfie with the dog
Suzanne tries to place a tiara on Estée's head
Estée simply looks intently at the gifts and at the cards scattered on the blanket
She begins to feel again the squeeze of Suzanne's strong hug in the doorway on her
arrival
And the delicate necklace
Complete with the letter 'E'
That Patricia had so carefully wrapped and presented
Around her neck
She hears Mum’s words at her bedroom door at daybreak repeat again
Feels her kiss on the cheek as she rubbed her eyes awaking her to 'your special day'
She observes Clara's smile
The breathing sky
Empty and inviting
Heart melting, soul rising
The abrupt roar of an engine
What a surprise all this was unfolding before her now
She must speak up
The petit clouds high above in the morning sun
Fluffy white like Ralph’s tail
Had vanished
Somehow merging into what looked from below
As a lone elongated column of cloud drifting by obliquely

Tapping a glass
Her Mum initiates a spontaneous chorus of 'Happy Birthday'
A neighbour in the complex, Judith, stops watering balcony plants and joins in the
refrain
It is the perfect prompt for Clara to pass on her wrapped gift to Estée
A bicycle light
'Something for if you go out travelling after dinner' says Clara
The present is unpacked
'I love it', answers Estée ‘… how does it work?'
She feels for a switch
'Merci beaucoup … Clara Banana!'
Ralph jumps from his spot off the blanket and a half full carton of apple juice is
spilt
So pass the minutes of a birthday party
In presence and in gift
Knowledge-rich
What else do you search for outside
When within yourself you possess your true treasure
A fullness
And a small kingdom
Is framed
On the lawn before you

And before bringing the trays and the plates
Back up to the first floor apartment
Estée turns to the group
Tearful somewhat, but joyous with it
Seated on the lawn
Coupled with a slight nervous laugh
Saying …
'I buried a young bird once
And I thought … it could be Ralph
Or …
One of you …
And I got so, so scared
I forgot how to walk or to run
Or to sleep'
A nervous giggle
Before
'… or to ride a bike …
Only I couldn't leave it behind, at that stop … at the bus stop'

‘My Estée’ came a response from the group

Estée could not say from whom

‘But I know how to carry things now
I know I can carry things
I know I can carry …
I …
This tray!!'
More giggles as she makes for the centre of the blanket
'And those other things we are …
Every day … every day, just fascinates me!'
With that she was gone
Making for the apartment stairwell
Naming each step on the latter half of the steps to the first floor
As her baseball boots ascended the levels

We too shall now name them …

'Thankfulness

Mercy

Integrity

Peace

Silence

Courage

Renewal

Growth'

A piece of God's firm Earth
Lawn
Soil
Flower
Inverted wonder
A canopy of presence
And the radiance of stillness
Belonging
Like a reckless sensation
Perhaps unfathomable
Perhaps an invention
Fell into their loving souls

'His will is that we should be
Something established in Him
That we should live where He lives
In the unity of love'

And the young female blackbird
In the branches of the evergreen fir
About to enter the Garden
Young as daybreak
Watching Estée head across the grassy plain to the stairwell
Thrust its tail upwards
Swelled its beating chest
And the air told her too
That she belonged
And in among the balcony plants
Stood the three shining parts of a viola tricolor
Marking Clara, Suzanne and Patricia as young women
With much to do
Marking out Estée as their friend
In the loneliness and in the tired parts of the day

The TV screen in the deserted apartment lounge had been left on
Broadcasting images of mothers in a war torn city
In dialogue
Dolorem. Chagrin. Sorrow
In dialogue
Something hallowed burning of God within them
Reminding us of truth born
Both here and in heaven
And how stars can find their source
Sparks through stubble can run
This youthful Star
In the Unity of Love
Who had found her source
Stumbling between home
Blame and strife
In her Sabeth

AMDG

AECI: 'Smoother Soul Travel With Sabeth'
Questions For Further Discussion

Chapitre un: The Soul Hurts

1. What words would you use to describe the personality of Estee in the
very first chapter of the story? What do you understand by the word 'panic'? What strategies can we use to manage any feelings of 'worry' or 'panic' in our lives?
2. What is this 'task' that Estee must complete? Are there some daily
'tasks' or 'duties' that you prefer to complete alone? How important is it to have a rhythm or a routine to your week?
3. Do you think that religion could be described as a 'pastime' or as a
'hobby'? Explain your answer.

Chapitre deux: The Soul Rests

1. Does technology affect our capacity to rest and to relax? What would your advice be about taking time spent away from our devices? What other issues can influence our quiet or rest time?
2. Do you have any lasting memories of holidays with family and friends?
What were they? Why do you think we can remember such times so clearly?
3. Why might Estee be feeling 'tired'? Is it just a physical tiredness? Has anything within nature caught your attention within the last few days or weeks? How can the natural world help with our understanding of ourselves and re-energise us?

Chapitre trois: The Soul Expands

1. Should 'friendship' have any limits? How can we be sure that 'friends' are always a good influence upon us? Is Sabeth really hearing Sabeth or is Sabeth only 'an imaginary friend' for Estee?
2. In this chapter we learn that Estee begins to see 'faces differently'.
What do you think is happening to her? Why do you think Estee might be daydreaming in her school day?
3. There are sometimes upsetting and shocking TV news reports of conflict and war throughout the world. Can these affect our mood and our outlook on everyday life? What can we do to make our family, our school, our community a little more peaceful?

Chapitre quatre: The Soul Belongs

1. Do you find crowds difficult or easy? Do you find silence difficult or
easy? Explain your answers.
2. Does Estee have unusual hobbies and interests in your opinion? Make a list of your own hobbies and interests but try to include some things
that
you think you might grow to like over time.
3. How would you describe Estee's relationship with her sister Clara?
What do you think are some of the issues that can cause tension between siblings (brothers and sisters)?

Chapitre cinq: The Soul In Harmony

1. In what different ways are birthdays celebrated? Are there any
unusual cultural or religious celebrations around birthdays that you know of? How are you to celebrate your next birthday?
2. In the Ancient Greek tradition there are a variety of words used to
describe different understandings, or types, of 'love'. Try to discover the meaning of a few of these (eros, philos, storge, agape).
3. How has Estee changed at the end of the short story? What has she
learnt from her friendship with Sabeth? What might the words 'unity of love' mean for Estee? What is it that now '... fascinates her'?

Imagine the 'perfect picnic' during the school holidays. You can invite anyone, serve any food and set your picnic in any location. Who would be on your guest list? Would there be music? Where would it be? Would animals be welcome? Describe your very own 'perfect picnic'! Now, you can invite one character from the story, who would it be? Why did you choose them?

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