The delight with which you Savour!!

Posted on December 29, 2016 by Rod's World

Still reading Jeff Foster’s book, The Way of Rest: Jeff’s Home Page. I’m at the section on abundance. Jeff says it is not the things in your life that equate to abundance but the connection to every breath, how sensitive you are to every flicker of sensation and emotion in the body. It is the delight you savor each unique moment.It is the freshness of each morning unencumbered by memory or false hope.

It sounds very much like the teachings of my mentor Arion Light through his Activation School: What is Activation?

So let’s go on a journey of delight!!

1. Often if you have more than one child you need a box of each as they try their unique diets. For your health information, Froot Loops lead the sugar stakes by a big way.

2. My favourite teacher had this saying, he said he wasn’t trying to get us to be perfect as that was the booby prize, the way to never complete anything: Unique.

3. Did you know that 75% of fashion magazines are advertising, don’t give up your unique beauty and believe their crap.

4. Seen as a champion of individualism and a prescient critic of the countervailing pressures of society, Ralph disseminated his thoughts through dozens of published essays and more than 1,500 public lectures across the United States, I apologise for the coke ad: Fuc**** Perfect!.

5. If you try and imitate the great artists they charge you with fraud, there’s a reason for this. Be your own great artist.

6. Love this image, nature is so great at being unique: Born This Way.

7. We see them on the trains in their business burqa’s, hundreds and thousands of them. Ban the business burqa.

8. I write all my comments in bold, should I add italics: Confident.

9. Repeat to yourself in the mirror five times after you get up.

10. Only you can be you, the more you get this the less you struggle with the world: Just the Way You Are!

11. Papa Jack, aka John Gemperie is a Filipino celebrity whose main aim is to spread love.

12. The brave men of Scotland: Be Brave Enough!

13. Says it all in two words.

14. At age 13, Kerr entered and won the 1997 annual Dolly magazine/Impulse model competition. She was flown to Sydney a week before her 14th birthday to shoot for the magazine. Upon Kerr’s win, local media expressed “concerned outrage” at her young age. The controversy raised concerns about the glorification of young girls within the fashion, beauty, and entertainment industries^{: Too Young.}

15. I’m not like everyone else because they are not me. Tattoo this on your arm in case you forget from time to time.

Try to get what you want, and it’s already far away. Be what you want, and it’s already in your heart. The rest is details. The rest, you never really wanted anyway. from lack to abundance in a heartbeat.

Namaste until next time, my dear friends.

Fire up your Heart, for the Wind is getting Cold!!

Posted on December 26, 2016 by Rod's World

I have two Jeff’s in my top ten Facebook contributors, Jeff Brown: Jeff Brown’s Homepage. and Jeff Foster: Jeff Foster’s Homepage. I used to post much more of jeff Browns material, then a friend I trust told me about Jeff Foster and brought me one of his books of essays: The Way of Rest. I have been reading it over the holiday break and was particularly taken by one on firing up your heart, hence the title of this blog.

It began: Break me Open, Life. Shatter my remaining defenses against you. It is called Sing, World, Sing.

So let’s have a look at how the world puts fire in your heart with words:

1. When you find what your passion is your life may appear to be like this instead of the numbness of 9 to 5 living.

2. Jim Carrey in his memorable speech says there are only two states, Fear, and Love. Guess which one sets your heart on fire: Fearless.

3. Samuel Butler (4 December 1835 – 18 June 1902) was an iconoclastic Victorian-era English author who published a variety of works. Two of his most famous pieces are the Utopian satire Erewhon and a semi-autobiographical novel published posthumously, The Way of All Flesh. He is also known for examining Christian orthodoxy, substantive studies of evolutionary thought, studies of Italian art, and works of literary history and criticism. Butler made prose translations of the Iliad and Odyssey, which remain in use to this day.

4. Possibly my favorite poet, E.E. Cummings points out in this quote why it is essential to have the fire in your heart: To Be Yourself.

5. I am learning to be able to tell the difference when women have this.

6. Of course, it has to be this song: Burning down the House.

7. In our community, the Conscious community of Melbourne, Australia, we call it finding your Tribe. Rumi says it better.

8. I love it when I meet these people, you are instantly attracted to them: I saw the Light.

9. Weapon of mass Creation – Your Heart on Fire.

10. To kindle: set (something) on fire.
synonyms: light · ignite · set alight · set light to · set on fire · set fire to · put a match to · set burning · get going · start · touch off · spark · torch: Light my Fire.

11. Josephine Baker (born Freda Josephine McDonald; 3 June 1906 – 12 April 1975) was an African-American expatriate singer and entertainer, whose career was centered primarily in Europe and in particular in her adoptive country of France. In her early career she was also renowned as a dancer, and was among the most celebrated performers to headline in the lavish revues of the Folies Bergère in Paris. Her performance in the revue Un Vent de Folie in 1927 caused a sensation in Paris, with Baker in her costume consisting of only a girdle of bananas becoming not only her most iconic image but also a symbol of the jazz age and the 1920‘s. She was celebrated by all of the great artists and intellectuals of the era, with various circles dubbing her the “Black Pearl”, the “Bronze Venus”, as well as the “Creole Goddess”. Born in St. Louis, Missouri, she renounced her U.S. citizenship to become a citizen of France in 1937 upon her marriage to Jean Lyon.

12. Life is never like a silent stream, it contains flows and ebbs. If your fire is alight it is easier to remain strong: We shall Overcome.

13. More Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī, aka Rumi. This is a beautiful few lines to live life by.

14. Mary Lou Retton (born January 24, 1968) is a retired American gymnast. At the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, she won a gold medal in the individual all-around competition, as well as two silver medals and two bronze medals. Her performance made her one of the most popular athletes in the United States. The fire is still in her heart, Wikipedia says she is worth 5.8 million dollars: Undeniable.

15. Bruce Lee makes a point here, the flame comes from the coals, without coals no flames.

So I thought I would end with the entire Sing, World, Sing!

Break me Open, Life.

Shatter my remaining defenses against you

You placed magnificence at the heart of my despair.

You sowed volcanic strength into my vulnerability.

Even my doubt vibrated with courage.

“Leave the familiar with no hope of return?”

Of Course!

I am not afraid. I was never Afraid!

I once walked a familiar path of self-construction.

I now walk a path of grace and destruction,

of weeping at birdsong and telling the truth.

I will never turn back!

Namaste until next time, my dear friends.

Life is Calling!!

Posted on December 20, 2016 by Rod's World

I recently created a vision for 2017. In it, I used the three questions Vishen Lakhiani suggests in his excellent book The Code of the Extraordinary Mind. They were What do you want to experience? How do you want to Grow? and How do you want to contribute?

It was an exercise for the last week of the Activation Program. If you are a regular reader you will know I have committed to a 2-year training program with Arion Light, the convenor of the school. Here’s the link to it so you can learn a little as to why I did this: Activation School link.

Vishen talked about end goals in life, goals that follow our heart, excite and inspire us, and put our ultimate target in our sights, our calling.

What does society say about our callings, let’s have a look:

1. How do people rise above their societal upbringings, I think belief in the statement above may have something to do with it.

2. How could I not include Oprah Winfrey, here is her gift to you about your calling: Your Calling.

3. When you find your calling, you are fully steeped in your essence and definitely, don’t need to do this.

4. Your job is to wake up your internal alarm clock: Wide Awake.

5. The man who invented the term bliss in his iconic book The Heroes Journey. It describes finding your calling pretty well.

6. Passion, turn to the left. Passion turn to the right. Follow them, they are your calling: Passion.

7. Lissa Rankin M.D. is one of the top ten people I follow on Facebook. I have read all her books, there are three of them, my favorite is the Fear Cure, check it out on this link: The Fear Cure.

8. If you find your calling, you are ecstatically happy, it rubs off: Raise Your Glass.

9. I believe in this statement. The elevator speech, mine is Love and Respect for All, Everyone Included.

10. It doesn’t have to be Jesus if people believe in your calling, this is all they need to do: One step at a Time.

11. I have taken part in a developmental process called Catalyst. In it, they get you to look back at your past and thank it for its contribution and then say goodbye to it because it is not where you are in life now.

12. Most of the time as I was growing up I did not even notice I was breathing. It was these moments that pointed me towards my calling: Every Breath You Take.