Meditations In My Favourite Places
Gail Evans
(Reviewer - Rebecca Brown)
2001 Writers Club Press/iUniverse
ISBN: 0595200869

In Ram P. Varma's Foreword, he introduces us to Gail Evans' unique & refreshing book, letting us know that we will achieve relaxation, enjoyment & will, as we read, “...become one with Nature as well as your Inner-self.”

In the beginning, the author charmingly welcomes the Reader home to Africa. Oh? We have forgotten from whence we came?

Then the journeys begin:
First to the Okavango Delta, where, at five in the morning, Gail boards a Cessna plane which will transport her to the source of all life, where flamingos fill the air beneath them in a pink cloud, & giraffes & elephants are starting their days.

The first meditation also begins at the beginning -- “...settle down in a relaxed position. Breathe in deeply...filling up...your lungs...with air...” & thus, we are off on another kind of journey. To the place of the color red & the first chakra, “...where all solids & physical forms...time, space & instincts...” abide. Here we are taught how an unhealthy chakra affects us. Here we are taught what a healthy chakra can give us.

Then the Lessons, are explained “In evolutionary time...” & “In human development...” Fascinating glimpses of where we've been, who we are, & where we are going.

On to the Kruger National Park, the color orange & the second chakra, meditation & lessons.
On to The Karoo District in the Northern Cape, where a healthy atmosphere begets awesome stargazing, the color yellow, & the third chakra.
On to the Amatola Mountains & her adventure along the Hogsback. Here we meditate upon the color green, & the fourth chakra.
Then along the Eastern Coastlines, “...blessed by the warm Mozambique Current that brings with it summer all year round...” Here is the color blue of the fifth chakra, our “...speech centre...” & the lesson of the Dolphin.
On to Witwatersberg, the cradle of humanity where a 2½-million-year old skull has been found; where the Sterkfontein Caves entice explorers deep into the Earth's story. Indigo is the color of this chakra, & the lessons are of our future.

Finally, we come to the Sentinel, in the Drakensberg mountains, where spider webs catch our eyes, eagles fly & The Mushroom rock taunts us. Here Gail Evans meditates on what mountains have meant to us through our history. Here in the purple of our seventh chakra, we melt into unity with all creation.

The Meditations & Lessons are clear & accessible, unpretentious & instructive.

I deeply enjoyed this author's connecting evolution with our human story. Her insights are filled with “Ahhas.”

I am so glad I have read this author's Meditations In My Favourite Places in Southern Africa: A Travelogue For Inner & Outer Journeys, because as I travel now, I bring more to what my eyes see, & as I live through the stresses of my everyday life, I have practices which give me healing & a contentment for the places wherein I find myself.

Gail Evans' book is charming & a keeper!

More about the author:
Born in Carltonville, South Africa, to a mine mechanic & an architectural draughtswoman, Gail Evans dreamed of becoming a ballet dancer. In spite of winning awards & obtaining honors in her ballet exams, her life took another turn & the ballet fell away, to be replaced by Speech & Drama, for which she obtained a Higher Diploma from the Pretoria Technikon.

For the next six years she starved in the garret, as her mother warned her she would if she followed this career path of working in radio; on stage for P.A.C.T (The Performing Arts Council of the Transvaal); in television shows, as a telecine operator for the S.A.B.C. (South African Broadcasting Company); writing theatre reviews for the arts magazine Scenario, & more often than not, waitressing in order to put a roof over her head & food in her mouth.

In 1985 she married an engineering geologist & spent the next few years traversing un-charted territory in Southern Africa, in an old Landrover, wedged full of carrycots, a large supply of water purification pills in order to make up babies bottles, & a hoard of plastic bags for dirty nappies. It was during this time, largely due to the influence & experience of writing for the arts magazine Scenario, that she became addicted to typewriters. For 14 years, uncounted hours of research, & many nights of soul searching, she published her first book, The Firstborn of God: Resolving the Contradictions in the Bible.

Gail has since explored the genre of fiction, & published Time Trials, “a wacky new age novel” that follows the spiritual, physical & political journeys of a woman during the months leading up to the inauguration of Nelson Mandela as the first democratically elected President of South Africa.

Gail Evans' love of the African terrain shines through in every word she has written in Meditations In My Favourite Places In Southern Africa as well as her deep seated interest in spirituality which weaves a thread throughout all of her work.

The cover for Meditations is by Fil Van Den Bos.

More by Gail Evans: The Firstborn of God; Time Trials.

Do catch my Interview with this traveling writer, I think you'll enjoy her wit & insights!
(05/05/02)

Rebecca