Gifts in various forms

The week has started with a smile, and not a moment too soon, after spending most of last week ill and grouchy. It has started with gifts. I have been asked to contribute a regular column to The Mother Magazine, based here in the UK, but distributed in over 40 countries! I'm delighted and nervous about that!

We have also been given a Ganesh figure as a gift, from an acquaintance which is strangely appropriate since we have been talking about him a fair bit lately, and my son is going to visit a Hindu Temple on a school trip this week. My other Ganesh figure was also a gift many years ago, and has been broken since we moved back here. I tend to believe in omens (though I like to ignore them sometimes..think, head in the sand) and when nearly all my spiritual items, buddha, ganesh etc. appeared broken when they came out of the box they were shipped in, well, I wasn't feeling ecstatic about moving back here at the time.

Ganesh is a remover of obstacles, so what could it mean to have him broken? He can also cause obstacles to those who need to be checked.. hmm. And then I read that its bad luck to have only a two armed Ganesh, which was what my first one was (this new one has four arms)..but I can't remember where I read that, or find it again, but have also read that a two armed form is much older. The past two years have been a learning experience indeed, and it has felt like a 'container' period.. we were re-grouping, adjusting, growing (including a baby!) and simplifying. It was all necessary, we had to get our feet firmly planted on the ground before taking any more great leaps. I'm hoping the arrival of a second Ganesh in our house means "wherever there is Ganesha, there is prosperity and success".