Shadows of the Dance

Pip is a New Zealand woman who is working as a Pain Management Counsellor in a hospital in the Scottish Borders. She has come to the UK in search of her destiny.

When Pip meets Osi, a staunch British Army Officer, they are both overwhelmed by their physical and spiritual connection. The timing is not good for their relationship as Osi is deployed to Iraq. When he goes, their bond takes Pip into an intense emotional and spiritual adventure. As she no longer has physical contact with Osi, she maintains her connection with him via a journal, where she lives pain and health care by day and pain and war with Osi by night. She becomes reliant on the media for any information regarding his mission. Her visions and dreams of war become so entangled with her daily life that she is not sure where the boundaries of reality lie.

When Osi returns, his experiences in Iraq confirm to Pip that her dreams and visions are a spiritual gift. His return is short lived. Throughout her journal Pip uses songs and poetry to entwine her dreams with stories of her life in the Borders, travel, visits with her old friend Milton and Jacquie who has cancer. Through it all Pip is supported by these close friendships and her sister in New Zealand, with whom she relies on regular contact. As their paths continue to cross in her dreams and in reality, she is inspired to write a book about the richness and pain he has brought to her life.

This heart warming story explores relationships across age and culture, set against the backdrop of Army and Healthcare institutions. It identifies with anyone who may have been touched by the God of War.