Leza Scott-Riddell

"Turn off your head … think with your heart." I loved Michell’s open and honest autobiography, Elephant Songs. She writes in a candid, chatty tone, as though we are sitting together over a cup of tea, comfortably bouncing backwards and forwards in time to ensure that we understand all she is conveying. Her deep love for people, animals, trees, spirits and all of nature never wavers from childhood through to adulthood. She takes us from her childhood in Zimbabwe, down to the southern tip of Africa, and then up to Scotland. Her love for each of these countries shines through her writing. In both times of joy and difficulty, she holds nothing back. She acquaints us with her beloved ‘families’ whom we also grow to love. The childhood family she grew up with in Africa, the Scottish family she married into and her ‘families’ of friends and neighbours in each country. She also introduces us to her internet ‘family’ of close friends from around the world with whom she has warm and intimate relationships. It is heartening to read about the closeness that can be developed through the internet. Then, of course, there is her internal ‘family’ of spiritual visitors, hence, the ‘Reluctant Psychic’. These are the most interesting characters we get to meet as most of us don’t have such encounters. She deals with them as she deals with the physical people in her life, with compassion, love, honesty and sometimes annoyance, but patience and acceptance are never far away. Their knowledge of her internal world means that there are no secrets from them, and they are able to lead her to the deepest points of learning that are for her alone, yet, in her sharing of them, we learn as well. Learning our deepest innermost lessons are never easy and Michelle doesn’t pretend they are, but she is a persistent student, and, if we can be as accepting and open as she is, we can learn some of our deepest lessons along with her. I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in self-progress and open to mystical concepts. Thank you, Michelle.