There was No Peace!!

Posted on April 12, 2016 by Rod's World

One of the things I do is tutor refugees who need to Improve their English. At the moment I have very two different students. One was born in a refugee camp in India 25 years ago, yes thats right, she had been in a refugee camp 25 years. Then she was put in three detention centres by our government before being released. She has lived in a free community 4 months of her young life. The other is a doctor who was on the council of the capital city of the nation she comes from , I asked her why she left. Her reply was poignant , there is no peace Teacher, she calls me teacher. I have a sense they will both be great citizens of our country given what they have been through.

I have been thinking about that statement , there is no peace since, what truly gives us peace, is our nation of Australia we live in relative peace from war but to a lot of people They do not feel so, ramping up the threat to our nation. So I have chosen 15 wide ranging statements about peace to comment on the subject.

1. That great philosopher Unknown comes up with on of the most powerful definitions to my mind, peace belongs in our heart not the physical surrounds that we are in.

2. Peace has a few allies in making the world a better place, I love the last one Everybody not just us, no hate, no war.

3. Maura is 9, with more people of her age thinking like that I give Peace a Chance, Join in with John and Yoko.

4. Be in the Now, that is where peace lives, I resist this a lot. Need to read The Power of Now again.

5. Robert Brault is a writer of forty years standing, he points to the fact where our peace really lives, within.

6. We have all seen those silly cartoons with aliens looking on as there are explosions all over our world. Silly or Not?

7. One of the world’s great peace activists, a man who lead a nation to freedom peacefully, hits the spot with this one. Makes me think of Cat’s Peace Train.

8. A disturbing image with a powerful message. Yes its up to you to be a Rider of the Storm

9. MLK, in my favourite top ten speakers, I listen to him regularly, his passion for peace was extraordinary.

10. To one of the young things who have replaced Martin Luther King, the youngest recipient and possibly the most deserving winner of the Nobel Peace prize. Malala speaks the words of peace for her generation.

11. Closer and closer, the world is becoming a smaller place, may we use the words above in our recipe.

12. I’m sure each parent wishes this for that bundle of joy they hold in their arms as they raise them with love. A question though, How does war replace this scene later in Life?

13. One of John Lennon’s more obscure Peace quotes, but a chance to listen to You’re not the only One.

14. Yes a cute dog photo peace quote, works for me. Who is Antsy McClain, watch this: Living in Aliminium.

15. And finally a Sacred Meditation to complete with, may there be peace in your life and the world.

Namaste until next Thursday my dear friends.

Love, I spell it Nature.

Posted on April 7, 2016 by Rod's World

I live in a city of 4 million people and had not been out of it for 6 months and recently went up the Bush to my friends art exhibition last week. I had forgotten what nature has to offer, the lack of mobile phone coverage meaning the only form of communication is aural, the beauty of the stands of trees, the rivers as they meander through the landscape and the noise of the birds, the beauty is life altering.

What have the bards and the ordinary folk said over the centuries about the healing power of Nature, we will travel down the path of enchantment with these 15 choice quotes:

1. This is one of my favorite poems about Nature, the Stars are always there.

The luminosity of their sparkle
Blind with devotion, conceal with adoration.
The innocence of their angelic light,
Shine with the boundless uncertainty
Of where they are to glisten next.

The purity of their bleached glow
Fill with the endless possibilities of beauty beyond our belief.
The simplicity of their navigation
Guide us through anguish we often begin to feel.

The delicacy of their gentle awakening
Enliven our sky with slight promises and the fascination of confusion.
The aspiration the beam lets off
Shows us the path to our capacious imagination full of desires.

The gleam of their twinkle
Darken with perfection, align
With daydream, and are matched flawlessly
With the unreality of our everlasting fantasies.

2. Nature was here long before the human race, and if we are nor careful, will be long here after us, We need to take the words of Frank LLoyd Wright seriously, can’t read his name without thinking of this song: So Long Frank LLoyd Wright.

3. St. Bernard was a prolific author in the 11th century. He believed that travelling to the woods would offer you much more than sitting in a lecture hall.

4. The Nobel Prize in Literature 1913 was awarded to Rabindranath Tagore “because of his profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse, by which, with consummate skill, he has made his poetic thought, expressed in his own English words, a part of the literature of the West”. His beautiful words above re the non business of the butterfly relate to us the timelessness of nature.

5. One of the preeminent scientists of the 20th Century Einstein is best known in popular culture for his mass–energy equivalence formula E = mc² . Albert was just as attached to the power of Nature as to the beaker.

6. The forest, the woods are magnificent reminders of the awesomeness of Nature, they take away your frustrations that arise in daily life.

7. I Admit to being a treehugger, the energy held in a 200 year old tree cannot be duplicated by science.

8. Author Anthony D. Williams writes of the spiritual nature of our planet, the profound effect on Mother Nature being one of the prime influences.

9. William Boyd “Bill” Watterson II is an American cartoonist and the author of the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes, which was syndicated from 1985 to 1995. Calvin and Hobbes is joyful and soulful, much like this comment.

10. People keep posting unique examples of nature on my News feed, it seems there are so many examples of what nature has painted that is extraordinary.

11. The busyness of today’s world means that we do not often stops to smell the Roses, everything is still accomplished by nature without hurry.

12. The weather is indifferent to the human race, it rains too much, it’s too hot for too long. It doesn’t take much notice of what’s going on for us.

13. Heart medicine , nature is definitely part of the mixture that gives us peace, calmness and stillness.

14. William Wordsworth is one of the World’s most famous romantic poets, his 1804 poem ” I wandered Lonely as a Cloud” Is his most remembered tones and my mums favorite poem

I WANDERED lonely as a cloud That floats on high o’er vales and hills, When all at once I saw a crowd, A host, of golden daffodils; Beside the lake, beneath the trees, Fluttering and dancing in the breeze. Continuous as the stars that shine And twinkle on the milky way, They stretched in never-ending line Along the margin of a bay: Ten thousand saw I at a glance, Tossing their heads in sprightly dance. The waves beside them danced; but they Outdid the sparkling waves in glee: A poet could not but be gay, In such a jocund company: I gazed–and gazed–but little thought What wealth the show to me had brought: For oft, when on my couch I lie In vacant or in pensive mood, They flash upon that inward eye Which is the bliss of solitude; And then my heart with pleasure fills, And dances with the daffodils.

15. I love this quote, it gives ownership to Nature being a living entity too.

Writing this has made me feel like taking more trips to the bush, as we call the forest or the woods in Australia, they are magical in their healing potential.

Namaste until Monday my dear friends.

Migrant or Refugee?

Posted on April 4, 2016 by Rod's World

I went to my friend Kavisha Mazzella’s first solo art exhibition yesterday and she sang a song of her nonna’s story. Her grandmother was a refugee from Burma who had to flee when the Japanese started bombing and invading Burma and the Anglo Burmese had to flee the invasion. Here is the song: Fisherman’s Daughter.

It made me think how you become a refugee , the previous century had two world wars that saw many nationalities in the European sector become refugees and this century has seen more Asian, middle eastern and African countries due to civil wars and invasion by western countries.

What did the world do and what will it continue to do with these people who have suffered having to flee their own homeland because they have no other option.

The 15 quotes I have chosen cover statements about and people who have experienced being a refugee, let us begin the journey:

1. This pope has to keep reminding us that migrants and refugees are actually human beings as well , mothers fathers, sons , daughters , uncles and aunties as some nations have started to forget.

2. Each of us come on to the planet as a bouncing baby, some healthier than others, but none of us are illegal.

3. Communication between nations or Interculturalism: Love and Respect for All, Everyone Included would solve many of the problems that occur when people are branded migrant or refugee. I have created a Facebook Page to assist this to happen : Interculturalism.

4. On the page I talk about above I posted a quote that says if you call your self a christian or a muslim or an Italian or English you are being violent. On of you do not say you are from a particular religion or country are you not because you are owning being a human being totally. These flags above represent what is one of the major problems migrants and refugees face.

5. We can never tell what our journey will contain, unfortunately for the migrant and refugee the struggle is much more difficult than those who live in the country they are fleeing to.

6. For many of the families in my country of Australia, this is how they arrived, with one suitcase each. They made a successful life for their families from this difficult beginning.

7. One of the difficulties forced on migrants and refugees is that they must become …….., the question to be asked of the nation saying that is would your citizens do it if the situation was reversed and you were the Other.

8. We have all seen pictures of refugees camps and people crossing dangerous oceans in boats. Why do we wonder then when these same people make such wonderful citizens after putting up with these treacherous journeys to get to a safer country to call home.

9. This is a very broad statement, we probably do it to our own family at times, so how do we do this to people from countries we know very little about. Take the time to get to know people, especially new arrivals to your country.

10. This is what mainstream media forget when they place labels on people fleeing danger in their own countries. It is normally a label that has caused them to leave.

11. Tshibanda Gracia Ngoy fled tribal conflict in 2005 from Nigeria. In 2012 she was a finalist in the NSW Young Australian of the Year and a member of the NSW Multicultural Youth Network. A commerce and communications degree student at Wollongong University, Gracia Ngoy is also a caseworker for refugee families, a youth motivational speaker and a member of the Illawarra Regional Advisory Council and the NSW Multicultural Youth Network. Gracia, who speaks five languages, arrived in Australia with her family in 2005 after fleeing tribal conflict in the troubled Democratic Republic of Congo. After settling in Wollongong, she took up an offer of free homework tutoring, simultaneously signing up as a mentor for others. An accredited freelance journalist, Gracia recently published her first book entitled A Little Recipe for Success which aims to inspire young people to live successful, fulfilled and purposeful lives. She has also written numerous articles aimed at breaking down cultural barriers between her native Congo and Australia. Awarded the prestigious Australian Young People’s Human Rights Medal, Gracia was also named 2010 Wollongong Young Citizen of the Year. Drawing on the wisdom of personal experience, Gracia is determined to help the ‘many people living shattered lives who have been tied up by their past experiences and challenges.’

12. What you let your government get away with when dealing with members of their citizenship, especially their migrants and refugees build the future way you are treated as well.

13. This man is considered one of our greatest minds to have ever lived on the planet, he was a refugee.

14. António Manuel de Oliveira Guterres, born 30 April 1949) is a former Portuguese politician who was Prime Minister of Portugal from 1995 to 2002. He also served for a time as President of the Socialist International. He served as United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees from June 2005 to December 2015. This is what he say about accusing refugees of being terrorists.

15. This has been forgotten in our country, in fact we call them illegal and take away their rights to live as a human being saying they do not have a right to live here and send them to gulags.

So my request is that you spend time getting to know the migrants and refugees in your country. Only then will we realise that they are fellow human beings not terrorists. Love and Respect for All, Everyone Included.

Namaste until Thursday, my dear friends.

Beauty Begins the Moment …..

Posted on March 31, 2016 by Rod's World

At the Intercultural Centre I volunteer at, we are having an art project called Brighten the Jade. We are getting local artists to collaborate to paint the walls of our new meeting room, the Jade Room. It brought me to think what brightens my life up? I would include singing, dancing, time with my family and friends and of course blogging and my new thing creating PDF’s from webinars and podcasts.

What do people say around the world and throughout history about what has brightened their life up, its an interesting recipe of 15 quotes. Let us begin our journey

1. The American Poet John Holmes was known for his uplifting quotes, this being the most famous of them. Being buff brightens your day up but your heart gets fitter the kinder you are.

2. It took me two lengthy periods of working in government service then severals years of mental health issues before I got the health and spiritual value of this statement. Have read Richard’s biography he is a man who did not do this in his life.

3. Time for what was the anthem of my generation: Don’t Worry about a Thing.

4. Do you get tunnel vision on your projects and visions in life. The work I am doing with my mentor Arion Light through his Activation School. points to the above, if you are not attached to where you get your result from, you can get your result from anywhere.

5. We have days we jump out of bed screaming YES, YES, YES, then something happens and the Yes’s fade. Though its great to set by whens if it doesn’t happen on that exact date your dream is still there in your heart and soul.

6. Probably the song that best covers this type of deep love is the one and only All You Need Is Love.

7. Lots of people give up on their plans for supposedly logical reasons, what were their names, but we all know Galileo, Martin Luther King, Oprah Winfrey. Don’t give up brightening up your life.

8. There are so many quotes that express the above sentiment, that the way to brightening up your life is through others, I agree wholeheartedly.

9. Three formulas for brightening up your day. A lot of people do this with their cups, so to remind them when the going gets mundane.

10. This quote is another by the prolific philosopher Unknown – Its not great to have people who demean the sunshine around, heal them or move on.

11. Abhisek Tiwari is an Indian TV actor, this could be a line from his series or a great insight he has come up with that brightens our lives.

12. Just love the cheeky humour of this one.

13. It seems Hafiz is Hafez, words of great Beauty , always.

Hafez
An artistic depiction of Hafez
spiritual poet, mystic
Born	1325/1326 CE Shiraz, Persia (now Iran)
Died	1389/1390 CE Shiraz, Persia (now Iran)
Major shrine	Tomb of Hafez, Shiraz, Iran
Influences	Ibn Arabi, Khwaju, Sanai, Anvari,Nizami, Sa’di, Khaqani, A
Influenced	Subsequent Persian lyric poets,Goethe
Tradition or genre	Mystic poetry (Ghazal, Irfan)
Major works	Divan-e-Hafez

Khwāja Shams-ud-Dīn Muḥammad Ḥāfeẓ-e Shīrāzī (Persian: خواجه شمس‌‌الدین محمد حافظ شیرازی‎‎), known by his pen name Hafez (حافظ Ḥāfeẓ; 1325/26–1389/90),^[1] was a Persian poet who “lauded the joys of love and wine [but] also targeted religious hypocrisy.” His collected works are regarded as a pinnacle of Persian literature and are to be found in the homes of most people in Iran, who learn his poems by heart and still use them as proverbs and sayings. His life and poems have been the subject of much analysis, commentary and interpretation, influencing post-14th century Persian writing more than any other author.

14. Two of the greats, Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman starred in this movies that was about brightening the last days of their lives: The Bucket List.