An experienced fell-walker who turned her love for the mountains into exploring and developing her love for climbing; Carolyn McGregor maintains a passion for wild places, nature and living in such landscapes. Map reading and navigation skills for mountains was furthered by developing skills in marine navigation; weather skills for the mountains and sea, developing wild camping and bush craft understanding which enabled solo travel by sea kayak along the Norwegian coast-line, fjiords and mountains during 2007 and Carolyn has continued her quiet journeys in wild places ever since.
About Healing and Wholeness by Carolyn McGregor BSc (Ost.)., BA Div (Hons)., RSHom., Registered Osteopath Registered Homoeopath
‘I only went out for a walk, and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found I was really going in’ – John Muir.
I practice Osteopathy and Homoeopathy which also enables the expression of qualities in me known since I was a small child, a gift of healing.
Healing links us to our true nature, to the Source of our Being and so guides us intimately, sensitively, truthfully and creatively to the highest expression of our selves manifest in the present moment.
‘In you I live and move and have my being’ (cf. Acts 17:28).
In each moment staying present to the moment unfolding, the story unfurling like a leaf to the Spring’s warmth; of listening with the acute intensity of a wild creature present to its surroundings; capturing in sense and time the gift of understanding another person, in their health, healing and suffering.
Healing and wholeness comes with each moment moving us forward to the healing gift of the present, as to embrace the glory of a summer’s day, to release the past like an autumn leaf no longer required by the health of the tree, providing hummus and fertility to the soil of the future.
Each movement of time more precious than the last, akin to the kaleidoscope of a rain drop glistening on a leaf, encompassing all time in a brief moment, before falling silently to the ground becoming one with the fecundity of earth.
‘No writer could ever match the poetry expressed in the form of a single tree,
For it speaks from its roots, through the fibres of its stem, the shape of the trunk, the turn and spread of the branches, the twisting and reaching of the twigs. A tree speaks. It speaks of a hundred summers and a hundred winters. Of storms and droughts and floods and snows, of plague and gales, and rocks and hidden waters, of air and birds and pollinating insects. The whole of the message is contained in the way it has grown, precisely, to make use of what its environment has provided.
It states in essence: ‘Here I am, and where I am is what I am’.
The way of the saying can only be purely truthful. The natural laws make it impossible to lie. If a tree appears to be beautiful it is because beauty is truth and truth is beauty.’
- John Wyatt. Reflection on the Lakes. 1998
My original inspiration for seeing, sensing and touching trees, nature, and the wild places was the landscape of my childhood, and my family’s shared love and compassion for nature, echoed later in the beautiful photography of Shinzo Maeda: ‘A Tree. A Blade of Grass’.
We are blessed in our British isles to have so varied a landscape, ecology and variety of flora and fauna. The wild places are my beloved homeland, nurturing my heart, healing and touching, and sensing the deepest parts of my Being to bring me full circle to the perfection and simplicity of a single leaf, a stem of grass, the trunk of a tree, earthing and centreing, grounding one’s being to the harmony of the present; its branches soaring a symphony to the majesty of the heavens above us, connecting our humble natures to the cosmos. Bringing the cosmos into the heart.
‘Above the mountains,
The geese turn into
The light again
painting their
black silhouettes
on an open sky.
Sometimes everything
has to be
enscribed across
the heavens
so you can find
the one line
already written
inside you.
Sometimes it takes
a great sky
to find that
small, bright
and indescribable
wedge of freedom
in your own heart’
- The Journey by David Whyte
The scintilla animae, the ‘imperishable spark’ shines in the heart of every man as a reflection of God’s creative wisdom. God created man in the power of his own counsel, so that he would seek his Creator of his own accord and would freely arrive at full and blessed perfection by cleaving to God’ (Didache15:14).
I try, to the best of my ability to live and act in all things, with integrity, for the highest wisdom and healing of my Being and for those I meet. With experience, I have honed myself even in the smallest things, in humble, practical life and in the widest sense of my practitionership. I saw the following quotation and it spoke to me of the true nature of craft, which for me, is the honing my skills with experience as an Osteopath, Homoeopath and healer:
‘Think of what is right and true
Practice and cultivate the science
Become acquainted with the art
Know the principle of the craft
Understand the harm and benefit in everything
Learn to see everything accurately
Become aware of what is not obvious
Be careful even in small matters
Do not do anything useless.
The insight of Miyamoto Musashi speaks of working with integrity, blending dignity, compassion and lightness of being to support the health and wholeness of another, guided by the inspiration of the present moment, the fullness of its grace and the unequivocal natural and divine laws encompassed within. The presence of the Divine, of God, the Creator in the natural world is the simplicity and the essence of living things; of water tumbling over stones and the wind moving through trees creating animating presence to which the senses are enlivened, enriched and find peace and stillness of Being. ‘Be still and know that I AM God’.
‘Final and complete healing will come from within, from the soul itself, which by His beneficence radiates harmony throughout the personality when allowed to do so’
- ‘Heal Thyself’ – by Dr Edward Bach
‘Stand still. The trees ahead and bushes beside you
Are not lost. Wherever you are is called Here.
And you must treat it as a powerful stranger,
Must ask permission to know it and be known.
The forest breathes. Listen. It answers,
I have made this place around you.
If you leave it, you may come back here again, saying Here.
No two trees are the same to Raven.
No two branches are the same to Wren.
If what a tree or bush does is lost on you,
You are surely lost. Stand still. The forest knows
Where you are. You must let it find you’ – Lost. By David Wagoner
It’s amazing what we experience when we pull on our wellies and go for a walk.
Carolyn McGregor is a Registered Osteopath, Homeopath and Healer, also offering Equine/Animal Osteopathy with Healing, holds a B.A. in Divinity and is registered with the General Osteopathic Council and the Alliance of Registered Homoeopaths.
For enquiries and to Book a Consultation contact Carolyn McGregor BSc (Ost.,)., BA Div (Hons)., Licentiate of Homoeopathy, MARH., on mobile: 07766330489 or via the website Contact Page
Osteopathy for You – Healing the Whole Person in Spirit and by Touch
Registered with The General Osteopathic Council, Osteopathy House, 176 Tower Bridge Road, London, SE1 3YY. Telephone: 0207 357 6655
Registered with The Alliance of Registered Homoeopaths, Millbrook, Millbrook Hill, Nutley, East Sussex, TN22 3PJ. Telephone: 01825 714506