Make each day, a Story!!

Posted on October 13, 2016 by Rod's World

Are you a good storyteller? I love listening to podcasts and the ones that hold my attention are the ones who tell great stories. To me, a great story is one that has you live an experience you haven’t before. This means that everyone can be a storyteller for another because we all have our own unique experiences, how do you get other people to listen to yours?

Lets look at what people have said on their storyboards:

1. Christina Baldwin is a writer and seminar presenter of 30+ years experience. She has contributed two classic books to the exploration of journal writing, including the well-known classic, Life’s Companion, Journal Writing as a Spiritual Practice, revised and reissued in 2007 after 100,000 original sales. This work led her to a long study of personal growth and group dynamics and as a result of that experience she wrote Calling the Circle, the First and Future Culture to explore how social container releases needed wisdom.

2. From little things, big things grow. In Australia an indigenous tribal elder Vincent Lingiari took on one of the large land owners Lord Vestey with a simple story, Its our land: From Little Things.

3. Steve Jobs was a classic story teller, he said Our goal is to make the best devices in the world, not to be the biggest, my entire family now has apple computers.

4. How do you relate to stories, do they lift you up and give you a new direction in life. They do for me, it may be a simple half page or a 400 page volume but if they add to my knowledge they have done what is required : Compass.

5. Michael Margolis made a career from Story telling. on his twitter page he wrote the following : Helping trailblazers tell their story. Educator, anthropologist, entrepreneur. Left-handed, colour-blind, believes chocolate is a food group. Try the red pill. His webpage is called http://www.getstoried.com.

6. Our mainstream media tell stories, they unfortunately have become written for profit not the betterment of society. How did we let it become about money not what would help our society grow: Magic.

7. We have all heard the saying you will not be remembered for what you had when you pass, but how you made people feel, the stories that are told about you when you are no longer there.

8. Sir Terence David John “Terry” Pratchett, OBE was an English author of fantasy novels, especially comical works. He is best known for his Discworld series of 41 novels. Pratchett’s first novel, The Carpet People, was published in 1971. The first Discworld novel, The Colour of Magic, was published in 1983, after which he wrote two books a year on average. His 2011 Discworld novel Snuff was at the time of its release the third-fastest-selling hardback adult-readership novel since records began in the UK, selling 55,000 copies in the first three days. His final Discworld novel, The Shepherd’s Crown, was published in August 2015, five months after his death. He definitely turned his life into a story: The Hedgehog Song.

9. Changes, don’t wait to be a richer man: Changes, just gonna have to be a different man. Lines from a famous Bowie song. Don’t keep telling the same story for your whole life.

10. Interculturalism: Love and Respect for All: Everyone Included. I set up a Facebook group so we can share great cultural stories, Join Here : FB Interculturalism.

11. “Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.”

12. Tenzin Gyatzo, HHDL has it down pat. Its not success that is going to transform the world. Will it be the Western Women as he has also said : Transformer.

13. I hadn’t heard of Michael Margolis before I wrote this blog, have watched a few YouTube videos while writing it, he is a fascinating man, have a look.

14. Nourishing is one of the great things stories are capable of as they strengthen our dreams: Dream.

15. I think my brother in law worked on this story. Images help stories as well.

So lets get out their and pump up our stories and fulfil our dreams.

Namaste until next time , my dear friends.

Pluck those Strings!!

Posted on October 10, 2016 by Rod's World

Where I volunteer we did a project last year producing a book called My Journey, My Lucky Country about the stories of 11 mature age migrants and their journeys before and after they decided to settle in Australia. One of them commented that she found it hard with out any English when she first arrived but if you are determined that anything is possible. I had found my word for today’s blog, determination.

So lets take the journey down the path of determination:

1. Carl von Clausewitz -was a Prussian general and military theorist who stressed the “moral” (meaning, in modern terms, psychological) and political aspects of war.

He saw history as a vital check on erudite abstractions that did not accord with experience. In contrast to the early work of Antoine-Henri Jomini, he argued that war could not be quantified or reduced to mapwork, geometry, and graphs. Clausewitz had many aphorisms, of which the most famous is “War is the continuation of politics by other means.”

2. These are several of the attitudes that you need to live a determined life: Win.

3. There’s a famous saying that life is about learning, the day that you stop learning is the day that you die. It’s from a Tom Clancy novel. I agree but cannot admit to doing it all the time.

4. I am statements support you in the quality of life you lead. In our country there was a rock anthem: We can’t be Beaten.

5. When you wish upon a star it may happen or it may not, but if you commit that you will, it is all over.

6. There is only one song that could go with this quote from one of my animal totems: The Leader of the Pack – The Shangri-La’s.

7. From the worlds most famous philosopher Anon. comes advice when we can alter our future, Now!!

8. Self will is needed in this short quote about what it takes ti make stuff happen: Free.

9. Josie Spinardi is an American weight loss guru, who specialises in have people break their overeating habit helping people to create the life they can’t wait to wake up to.

10. I’ve got a couple of friends who always seem to sparkle whenever I see them, they say they work hard on being happy : Sparklers.

11. How many lucky people do you know, who seem predestined to success, then there is the rest of us who get there through grit and determination.

12. The worlds oldest rock and roll band, Who else could it be: Satisfaction.

13. To fulfil a project it must be an everyday occurrence, well planned out , and followed.

14. How we interpret a situation, as a mistake that ends all hope, or as an opportunity to learn helps work out how far we are likely to rise: We are the Champions.

15. Tsepiso Makhubedu has his or her own page of quotes in searchquotes but no autobiography. Perhaps they will be as famous as anon. one day. Be a rebel.

As Ruza said if you are determined anything is possible, how would your life be different if you lived your life that way?

Namaste until next time my dear friends.

Making Hope Possible!!

Posted on October 3, 2016 by Rod's World

My word for today is restorative, it’s interesting what quotes come up under that. When we restore something to its former glory we are doing a service to the planet as we do not have to build new structures, physically or mentally. we just make good what has become damaged.

So let’s begin our journey along the making hope possible trail:

1. By restoring Light and Love you have a much better chance of restoring the hope that has been lost from a situation.

2. Audrey Hepburn believed in the 5 R’s and that everybody was redeemable, imagine the world if we all thought that was possible: Wouldn’t it be Loverly.

3. This is one of the great pitfalls for perfectionists, do you start anything if you don’t think you are going to get it absolutely right. Problems are a part of life and for our lives to succeed we must learn to deal with them.

4.Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan was the 5th Umayyad caliph. He was born in Medina, Hejaz, Abd al-Malik was a well-educated man and capable ruler who was able to solve many political problems that impeded his rule. The 14th-century Muslim historian Ibn Khaldun states: “`Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan is one of the greatest Arab and Muslim Caliphs. He followed in the footsteps of `Umar ibn al-Khattab, the Commander of the Believers, in regulating state affairs”.

During his reign, all important records were translated into Arabic, and for the first time, a special currency for the Muslim world was minted, which led to war with the Byzantine Empire under Justinian II. The Byzantines were led by Leontios at the Battle of Sebastopolis in 692 in Asia Minor and were decisively defeated by al-Malik after the defection of a large contingent of Slavs. The Islamic currency was then made the only currency of exchange in the Muslim world. Also, many reforms happened in his time relating to agriculture and commerce. Al-Malik extended and consolidated Muslim rule, made Arabic the state language and organised a regular postal service: Soften Your Heart.

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5. When I was in the depths of my mental health crisis I use d to get on busses in the hope the problems would stay behind in the place I had left, they didn’t. Only when I started taking on board the love of my friends and family did the problems start to go away.

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6. Marianne and John both believe in this: Give Peace a Chance.

7. I have found lately that the solution for a problem lies in the heart not the head. By going into your heart and accepting what is so, it magically clears the situation.

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8. Risky behaviour is deemed to be that way if you haven’t worked out the way to get there. It may not be your normal path of action but there is always a way to get places: There’s no Other Way.

9. Yoga is a group of physical, mental, and spiritual practices or disciplines which originated in ancient India. There is a broad variety of Yoga schools, practices, and goals in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism. Among the most well-known types of yoga are Hatha yoga and Rāja yoga.

The origins of yoga have been speculated to date back to pre-Vedic Indian traditions, it is mentioned in the Rigveda, but most likely developed around the sixth and fifth centuries B.C., in ancient India’s ascetic and śramaṇa movements. The chronology of earliest texts describing yoga-practices is unclear, varyingly credited to Hindu Upanishads and Buddhist Pāli Canon,probably of third century BCE or later. The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali date from the first half of the 1st millennium CE, but only gained prominence in the West in the 20th century. Hatha yoga texts emerged around the 11th century with origins in tantra.

Yoga gurus from India later introduced yoga to the west, following the success of Swami Vivekananda in the late 19th and early 20th century. In the 1980s, yoga became popular as a system of physical exercise across the Western world. Yoga in Indian traditions, however, is more than physical exercise, it has a meditative and spiritual core. One of the six major orthodox schools of Hinduism is also called Yoga, which has its own epistemology and metaphysics, and is closely related to Hindu Samkhya philosophy.^[

Many studies have tried to determine the effectiveness of yoga as a complementary intervention for cancer, schizophrenia, asthma, and heart disease. The results of these studies have been mixed and inconclusive, with cancer studies suggesting none to unclear effectiveness, and others suggesting yoga may reduce risk factors and aid in a patient’s psychological healing process.

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10. There is a new method of justice taking of in parts of the world. It is called restorative justice not retributive justice. It looks at redressing the issues that have caused people to commit crimes so they do not do it again: Clean This House.

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11. The daughter of artistic Italian parents, wife of a professor of philosophy, and an accomplished pianist, Vanda Scaravelli was accustomed throughout her life to meeting creative artists, intellectuals, and literati. The Indian philosopher J. Krishnamurti came to stay at the Scaravelli’s villa overlooking Florence every year. When Scaravelli’s husband died suddenly after World War II, she soon began spending summers with her children at a chalet in Switzerland, where she hosted Krishnamurti during his lectures there. B. K. S. Iyengar would come every morning to teach him yoga; he introduced Scaravelli, then in her 40s, to the ancient discipline, and “a new life came into my body.” Thus began her ongoing exploration of what she called allegrezza, “the intelligent heart.”

From T. K. V. Desikachar she learned breath awareness; she later formulated her own approach to yoga (in which “you become intelligent and at the same time you are happy”) and began to teach others. Her book Awakening the Spine (Harper San Francisco, 1995) became a classic. Since her death in 1999, at age 91, several teachers have carried on her work, most notably Toronto-based Esther Myers. “I practice because it is natural for me to practice,” she told Myers in a 1996 YJ interview. “There is no other reason.

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12. The restorative power of a visit to a major art exhibition or to a great movie cannot be paid for, it isn’t the money you put out: Art for Art’s Sake.

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13. I woke up with a bung knee this morning, after one hours sleep because every time I turned over I would wake from the pain. I hope the above quote has some credibility.

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14. In our social media madness that is called our lives these days always remember that our soul is there hanging out in the peace zone: Desiderata.

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15. Do we make our children think these days , or just rort remember facts so they are prepared for their careers that have been mapped out by society. MLK was not one to accept easy answers or half baked solutions.

The path to Possibility is what I have been aiming to address in this blog. Possibility opens up a new paradigm in our lives that allows us to restore all those dreams we had as children.

Namaste until next time, my dear friends.

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It’s a divine Purpose!!

Posted on September 29, 2016 by Rod's World

Support – It means many things across our society which could not exist with out it. We often hold ourselves as separate but this is far from the truth as without the support I received on my arrival on this blessed planet from my parents I would not be here writing this. It could be any of the following areas but I have focused on the support of family and friends, to me a divine purpose:

VERB

bear all or part of the weight of; hold up:

give assistance to, especially financially:

provide with a home and the necessities of life:

give approval, comfort, or encouragement to:

be actively interested in and concerned for the success of (a particular sports team).

(supporting)

(of an actor or role) of secondary importance to the leading roles in a play or film.

(of a pop or rock group or performer) function as a secondary act to (another) at a concert.

suggest the truth of; corroborate:

produce enough food and water for; be capable of sustaining:
endure; tolerate:
(of a computer or operating system) allow the use or operation of (a program, language, or device):
NOUN
a thing that bears the weight of something or keeps it upright:

the action of supporting something or someone or the state of being supported:

material assistance:

approval, encouragement, or comfort:

technical help given to the user of a computer or other product.

evidence that serves to corroborate something:

a secondary act at a pop or rock concert:

Lets have a look at how life talks about the act of supporting one another:

1. I spend time volunteering at two organisations because over my many years on this planets I have learnt that the biggest changes in my life have occurred when I have been involved in community action.

2. Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) was a British statesman who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1955. Churchill was also an officer in the British Army, a non-academic historian, a writer (as Winston S. Churchill), and an artist. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953 for his overall, lifetime body of work. In 1963, he was the first of only eight people to be made an honorary citizen of the United States, he espoused that any one could lead a good life: Everybody.

3. Are you on some ones to do list or do you live in their heart?

4. I spent yesterday at a workshop called clarity and productivity, this is the type of support that would honour the person you are giving it to: Aretha’s Respect.

5. Possibly the most famous love affair of our time, Snoopy and Charlie Brown, who is the Snoopy in your life?
6. I have put my siblings through times where it was their love that sustained out relationship not my actions, I regret doing this but at the time I was not capable of anything else: That’s what friends/family are for.

7. Through giving support this is the gift you give to yourself, unconditional self love.

8. I saw this image and fell in love with it, then I read the message about the knowing. I have this in my life, thank you all: Sometimes when we Touch.

9. Gloria Laura Vanderbilt is an American artist, author, actress, heiress, and socialite. During the 1930s, she was the subject of a high-profile child custody trial in which her mother, Gloria Morgan Vanderbilt, and her paternal aunt, Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, both sought custody of the child Gloria and control over her $5 million trust fund. The trial, called the “trial of the century” by the press, was the subject of wide, sensational press coverage due to the wealth and notoriety of the involved parties and the scandalous evidence presented to support Whitney’s claim that Gloria Morgan Vanderbilt was an unfit parent.

10. When you have that thought that its time to contact a particular friend and give them a boost, do it. Trust your Inner Pilot Light, that’s why you are friends: One Day.

11. High Five what your friend is good at, their soul is in there waiting to hear it in times of trouble.

12. The hug, one of the ultimate givings of support, here are her allies: Say Something.

13. I love the silliness of this one, but then again is it silly?

14. A little support is better than no support. Eeyore puts it so well:Stand up.

15. Do this exercise program daily and we will change the world!!

So my request is when you have that thought that that person or that cause would be a good thing to do don’t ignore it, go with your gut feeling, the more the merrier.

Namaste until next time, my dear friends.

Like Icing with Cake!!

Posted on September 22, 2016 by Rod's World

How many truly intimate moments do we have in our lifetime? Is it a touch from our beloved, a feeling surging through our heart or screaming at a person you desire for 5 minutes like recently happened to me because words didn’t seem enough.

Type in Intimacy in Google and it brings up over 9,000,000 results. Lots of books, on line and experiential courses abound. It is defined as Intimacy:

the state of being intimate.

a close, familiar, and usually affectionate or loving personal relationship with another person or group.

a close association with or detailed knowledge or deep understanding of a place, subject, period of history, etc.:

an intimacy with Japan.

an act or expression serving as a token of familiarity, affection, or the like:

to allow the intimacy of using first names.

an amorously familiar act; liberty.

sexual intercourse.

the quality of being comfortable, warm, or familiar:

the intimacy of the room.

So academics are not even sure what it means, how has it been quoted over the centuries, lets have a look:

1. I like this definition a lot, it has happened to me recently leaving me gob smacked as what to do about the situation after it occurs.

2. Same person, blowing all over each others face: These Boots are made for Walking.

3. I’m available for this. Not sure if there is someone there at the moment.

4. Sounds like song lyrics , these words are so intimate: Just give me a Reason.

5. My friend Chris runs beautiful events that allow people to experience the intimacy of this over a day : The Yoga of Eye Gazing.

6. Is bilss really Bliss? my anal proofreading picked up the mistake. Obviously they didn’t go the hard yards of intimacy when creating this: I was Here.

7. A deadly trio for the sacredness of true intimacy. Watch out for them.

8. How often do we withhold this integral form of intimacy in the name of not hurting someone ? : Only Love can hurt like This.

9. I see You, a phrase donated to the English language from the blockbuster film Avatar. It expresses the depth of intimacy well.

10. Intimacy cake, without the icing you end up in bed, alone. : Commitment.

11. Do you do the small things from which big things grow in the intimacy stakes on a daily basis?

12. I want this oh so badly, come on. I am ready and able.

13. Are you a player. How much does the C word scare you in your dealings in your relationships.

14. Henri Nouwen was a Dutch Catholic priest, professor, writer and theologian. His interests were rooted primarily in psychology, pastoral ministry, spirituality, social justice and community. Over the course of his life, Nouwen was heavily influenced by the work of Anton Boisen, Thomas Merton, Rembrandt, Vincent van Gogh and Jean Vanier.

After nearly two decades of teaching at academic institutions including the University of Notre Dame, Yale Divinity School and Harvard Divinity School, Nouwen went on to work with mentally and physically handicapped people at the L’Arche Daybreak community in Richmond Hill, Ontario.: Fear and Love.

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15. And isn’t this what we are seeking in the end, access to someone’s soul?

Hoping that you remember your intimate moments a little more after reading this.

Namaste until next time, my dear friends.

Uncover your true Self!!

Posted on September 15, 2016 by Rod's World

I offered to send Facebook Birthday Cards to a friend of mine who runs a self development company and has close to 5,000 Facebook friends and was so incredibly busy. It lasted a day before one of her friends commented that if it was coming from her it would be more authentic. Shows how well our true friends know us.

So what makes something authentic, the definition is as follows

Authentic |

adjective

not false or copied; genuine; real:

an authentic antique.

having an origin supported by unquestionable evidence; authenticated; verified:

an authentic document of the Middle Ages; an authentic work of the old master.

representing one’s true nature or beliefs; true to oneself or to the person identified:

a story told in the authentic voice of a Midwestern farmer; a senator’s speech that sounded authentic.

entitled to acceptance or belief because of agreement with known facts or experience; reliable; trustworthy:

an authentic report on poverty in Africa.

Law. executed with all due formalities:

an authentic deed.

Music.

(of a church mode) having a range extending from the final to the octave above.
(of a cadence) consisting of a dominant harmony followed by a tonic.

To Emeli’s friend we were not being authentic, so what has been said over the centuries in regard to this matter that clutches at our heart strings, let’s have a look

1. Janet Louise Stephenson is an author who writes about abandonment, something that happened to her as a child until she was adopted by a Mormon family. She later searched for her mother and wrote a book about that experience.

2. We know when we are being authentic, we are not coming from those millions of frazzled thoughts in our head, but the openness of our hearts: The Song of the Heart.

3. Perfectionism is often said to be the booby prize as it stops you doing so much in your life as you don’t try things that you believe you won’t get right. Time to get real!!

4. We praise the doers of the world, but does just churning out tasks fulfil one’s soul. I believe there is another question that must also be answered in our daily to and fro, Who are you being about it. Here’s a fine article comparing the two: Doing vs. Being.

5. Authenticity goes by a few other names as well. Bravery and Courage are two that come to mind.

6. Brene Brown is a shero of mine, a she hero. Can you imagine the ride to work if everybody was totally open and allowing themselves to be seen, frightening or compelling, you choose: The Gifts of Imperfection.

7. How often do we catch ourselves seeking approval from our peers to justify our worldly existence? How much easier life would be if we could drop this malady from our daily actions.

8. What do you sell your soul for? I know that I get a knot in my stomach whenever I do this: Who will Save Your Soul.

9. The queen of authenticity, Oprah Winfrey admits that she wasn’t always that way. It was something that came to her later in life. She wishes she had come to it earlier.

10. With 80 publications to her name, authenticity is just one of the many subjects Marianne Williamson is one of the worlds most respected experts on. She rose to fame with her iconic Return to Love first published in 1992: The Power to Change.

11. Freedom is not just being released from behind prison bars. Nelson Mandela said if he had not been willing to forgive his guards whilst in prison for 28 years he would never have been free for that period of time.

12. How do you pray on a daily basis? Prayers can be construed as a matter of relationship with our true nature, more than a request or an invocation. Its purpose is to learn to be an ally of mystery, instead of trying to drive life according to our need and interest or to get specific help: Spirit Prayer.

13. Teal Swan has her fans and detractors. Teal is an internationally recognised spiritual leader and an influential new voice in the field of metaphysics. She was born with a range of extrasensory abilities including clairvoyance, clairsentience, and clairaudience. Teal survived 13 years of physical, mental, and sexual abuse before escaping her abuser at age 19 and beginning her own process of recovery and transformation.

Today, she shares what she has learned with millions of people, teaching them how to find forgiveness, happiness, freedom, and self-love in their lives. She reaches a wide audience through a range of powerful and accessible online resources and through various publications, media interviews, frequency artwork, and Synchronisation workshops that she presents around the world.

14. Do you fit in or are you like the zebra in the middle showing off their best backside shot because that’s whats authentic for them: Dancing Fool.

15. And this is an apology to Emeli’s friend, don’t believe everything you read on Facebook if you don’t think its authentic.

I see the power of authenticity in friendships and love can make or break trust, It’s something we must continually practise or it just falls away.

Namaste until next time my dear friends.

You can shake the World!!

Posted on August 25, 2016 by Rod's World

Arrived at one of my voluntary gigs yesterday and the collective potential team were having a brain storm as to where they were at. CP are a start up Personal Development company who I give my time to because I get heaps back helping people get real, here’s the link to check them out Collective Potential.

One of the things we got to was that we had lost touch with our community , so I volunteered to take on the Community Management role to see what we needed to restore it. Made me start thinking what does being part of a community mean ad how does society look at it, here we go :

1. Cute animal shot of the blog, but wise words about that in a community there are not always leaders that stand out, its more of a communal effort with everybody putting their bit in.

2. Lance Edward Armstrong is an American former professional road racing cyclist. He is the 1993 Elite Men’s Road Race World Champion, and he had won the Tour de France seven consecutive times from 1999 to 2005, but was stripped of his Tour de France victories in 2012 after a protracted doping scandal. He must have forgot the above: Lance sings.

3. We, Collective Potential are based in a co working space for women, these spaces are becoming more prevalent as people seek out communities to begin their solo entrepreneurships.

4. Star Wars for We are Family.

5. Community is not just about fitting in, it’s about standing up for what you believe in and dealing with evil.

6. A controversial figure both during her life and after her death, Mother Teresa was widely admired by many for her charitable works. She was both praised and criticised for her views. She also received criticism for conditions in the hospices she ran. But for her hundreds of people would not be alive as she partook in her adopted community of Calcutta. She treated people Just one at a Time.

7. What a great analogy, well done Mrs. Griffiths.

8. As a community grows and expands it creates the opportunity for transformation of all members not just the chosen few. Transformation.

9. Marianne Williamson is one of my top ten because of words like these ones. She is one of the greatest supporters of Love on the planet.

10. I do number 9, I cannot imagine that the people who do it do it in their own homes, so why do they do it in the street, I have no idea. Build me up Buttercup.

11. All the Nobel Prize winners gave something to the world to receive the accolade, it was not about the money they had accumulated or how they looked.

12. Stand out and make a difference, noble and beautiful words, please fulfil them sometime in your life. The Man in Black sings on making a difference.

13. My dear 89 year old mother spent her life doing this, it rubbed off for all of her kids. I teach English to asylum seekers, my brother does a radio show, the eldest of my sisters does sustainability stuff and the youngest plays Taiko drums in a community orchestra.

14. Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was a South African anti-apartheid revolutionary, politician, and philanthropist, who served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999. He was the country’s first black chief executive, and the first elected in a fully representative democratic election. His government focused on dismantling the legacy of apartheid through tackling institutionalised racism and fostering racial reconciliation. Politically an African nationalist and democratic socialist, he served as President of the African National Congress party from 1991 to 1997. He oversaw South Africa ending apartheid without serious recriminations on the white minority which was a huge possibility : Free Nelson Mandela.

15. And finally a wall poster to remind you how to DIY community.

I am so glad my mother inducted us into being community members who value contributing to our different communities, it’s much better than sitting in front of the TV being a lounge lizard.

Namaste until next time, my dear friends.

Be not perfect, Be original!!

Posted on August 22, 2016 by Rod's World

I am involved in a two year training course and we did our first training day on the weekend. This is on top of the weekend retreats and course that we are also involved in at the moment. One could call this a lot of work to be doing but when you find the thing you love doing they say you will never work another day in your life. Have a think about the times that you have discovered these moments and how quickly time has flown by when you have achieved this state.

How does the community relate to work and what saying have survived the decades, lets begin our journey:

1. There are millions of people who hop in their car, drive to work and do a reasonable job. These are not the people who they write articles about. It is people who stand out so much they simply cannot be ignored.

2. Steve Jobs is one of the great examples of this. The founder of Apple, he was sacked by his board, went on to found the innovative Pixar films and returned to Apple and took them to new heights: Steve on Work.

3. Elon Musk, founder of Tesla electric cars founded his first company because he was ignored when he waited several hours at a Fortune 100 company to drop off his resume. Elon thought, stuff this, I’ll start my own company. The career of the world’s greatest entrepreneur was born in this moment.

4. We have all uttered those deadly words, I just don’t have enough time for ……. Bring on Eight Days a Week.

5. Consistency is the best plan to produce great work, don’t think you just need to do it at the end of the project, that is called cramming.

6. They say the greatest inventions has come about because people have never lost site of the goal they intended in the first place. Plan A may have fallen by the wayside, but they have always had a Plan B and C. : Live Your Life.

7. Only one of these words in blue above gets things done.

8. When does this moment occur in a persons life. A musician playing at your local hotel would be the former, but at some moment when they cross over to stadium’s , it becomes the latter: Can I have your Autograph.

9. This statement reminds, me of my mentor Arion. His two influences were Tony Robbins and Eckhart Tolle. One get on with it the other Be in the Now. Each one works at different times in our lives.

10. There are many step programs in the world today, I like this one a lot: You’re the Hero.

11. Never undervalue your self, do it for free because you love it and would do it for nothing or charge what you are worth because you deserve it.

12. Time flies when you are having fun. The time this happens the most is when you are making a difference: Stand Up.

13. Working hard can be called by several names: slavery being one of them. If you do not have the freedom to believe in yourself then what are you doing it for?

14. Would you be missed it you stopped turning up to work, are you invisible doing what you do. Take a few days of and see what happens. Just Do It!!

15. And finally I am sure we have all had days like this. Swivel On!!

So I hope you are doing what you love. If you are not Tony would say do something about it and Eckhart would say breath into it.

Namaste until next time, my dear friends.

There is no Beauty in the Finest Cloth!!

Posted on August 18, 2016 by Rod's World

We are having a movie day at the Darebin Intercultural Centre today. It is a screening of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. We provide lunch before and the attendees were discussing the countries they come from: Malta, China, Vietnam, India, Ireland and Italy, most of how arrived as refugees , many of them asylum seekers who arrived in our country by boat.

Hanh, our elderly vietnamese who attends our events and was an asylum seeker who arrived by boat back in the 1970’s was sharing about how she was helping the new intake of Syrians who are arriving in our country because they have nothing. And she said how she could relate to that and how poorly our planet is set up so that all people survive.

It led to a conversation about the sustainability of our beloved planet, so I am enquiring into what has been said and done over the years in regard to this. Lets have a look:

1. I watched a discussion on A T.V. showed called Q and A the other night with a scientist and a politician discussing Climate Change. The politician said that it had been made up by NASA. The scientist asked him did he believe we had landed on the moon, and who was responsible for that.

2. Point taken, Prince Ea has a few words to say about this: Sorry.

3. Will there be an Amazon Forest in the future for our children and grandchildren to visit. In the past 40 years 20% of the rainforest has been cut down. Here are 20 Facts about the Amazon.

4. They say that everything is music, what tune what is happening in Syria playing:War, what is it good for?

5. Anna Lappé is an author and educator, known for her work as an expert on food systems and as a sustainable food advocate. The co-author or author of three books and the contributing author to over ten others, Anna’s work has been widely translated internationally and featured in many journals. With her mother Frances Moore Lappé, Anna co-founded the Cambridge-based Small Planet Institute, an international network for research and popular education about the root causes of hunger and poverty. The Lappés are also co-founders of the Small Planet Fund, which has raised nearly $1 million for democratic social movements worldwide, two of which have won the Nobel Peace Prize since the Fund’s founding in 2002.Anna’s research on sustainable agriculture has taken her from Brooklyn to South Korea, China, Bangladesh, India, Poland, France, Italy, Mali, Kenya, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Brazil, Mexico, Canada, and beyond.

6. Sustainability depends on us all, stop using plastic bags, throwing rubbish in the streets, purchasing pre wrapped items from supermarkets etc. etc. etc. : Sustainability Song.

7. One of my favourite songs is by Paul Kelly , From Little things, Big Things grow. It depicts the action of an indigenous tribe in Australia and their battle for their land with Lord Vestey, a British landowner: Here are the words:

Gather round people let me tell you’re a story
An eight year long story of power and pride
British Lord Vestey and Vincent Lingiarri
Were opposite men on opposite sides

Vestey was fat with money and muscle
Beef was his business, broad was his door
Vincent was lean and spoke very little
He had no bank balance, hard dirt was his floor