I miss your Stupid Face!!!

Posted on August 29, 2016 by Rod's World

Put a brave face on, she’ll be right. I’m sure we all have had this said to us at some time in our lives when we are reacting in a not so happy way to the events that are going on in our lives at that exact moment. Our face expresses what is going on for us moment to moment, we cannot hide it from the world: Joy, Grief, Lust, Love all are revealed.

Children are especially good at this, most of the time their faces are filled with wonder, yet as we age we learn new faces to put on, lets have a look at what people have to say about this phenomenon:

1. What is your game face? Happy Face, Serious Face, Wonderment Face, there are many to choose from.

2. The dark night of the Soul moment, this moment for me is when I nearly got sacked from my job for not charging connection fees for fellow staff when I was the Union rep. in am extended pay dispute with our employer. The Area manager threatened me, my direct boss said he would go to the media with it and the threat disappeared magically. Here’s some Beast songs : Not what you think!!

3. When you are scowling do you look beautiful?

4. definition of Proverb a short, well-known pithy saying, stating a general truth or piece of advice – synonyms: saying · adage · saw · maxim · axiom · motto . Here’s my favourite song about dating : Chasing Cars.

5. Possibly the most famous quote about kittens in the world, I’m sure you are putting on your kitten smile as you read this!!

6. You can’t be serious , can you. We all have one of these for those moments we want them to get the point we are putting across. The best Face song ever written.

7. This is why I love Oprah Winfrey, she never does the latter. Yes, I got the Oprah reference in again, Yay!!

8. Obvious song for an obvious statement : Instant Karma.

9. Marilyn Monroe (born Norma Jeane Mortenson; June 1, 1926 – August 5, 1962) was an American actress and model. Famous for playing “dumb blonde” characters, she became one of the most popular sex symbols of the 1950s, emblematic of the era’s attitudes towards sexuality. Although she was a top-billed actress for only a decade, her films grossed $200 million by the time of her unexpected death in 1962.She continues to be considered a major popular culture icon.

10. You can be a lover in a one night stand, you cannot walk side by side as friends.That’s what friends are for.

11. The king and queen of the airwaves, turn it off, and go for your friends when your problems raise their ugly heads.

12. When we affect another’s face to break out in a smile, that is when we are at our best: Walking on Sunshine.

13. Not really about faces, but if you live your life by this motto, you will have lead a great life.

14. As I mentioned earlier we build up a collection of faces to cover our inner child’s wonderment with life, do you work on removing them so you can return to those moments: Baby I love your Way!!

15. The cute dog and silly quote one left to the end, do we all have a Monday Face?

They say the face reveals all along with the eyes. They can be changed by love and hate, I go for the former every time.

Namaste until next time, my dear friends.

I will Play while Unleashing!!

Posted on August 8, 2016 by Rod's World

Missed last Thursday, I was getting ready for a retreat I attended on the weekend called Unleashing the Dragon. It was with my mentor Arion Light through his Activation School. The school’s motto is What you Embody, You Create. It is body work that revolutionises how you come alive, heal & create. Dropping mental force creating and instead taps into the power of creating from an awakened body and your inner essence.

The definition of unleashing has two meaning in the dictionary:

unleash –

release (a dog) from a leash.

“they dig up badger setts and unleash terriers into them”

synonyms: let loose, release, free, set free, loose, unloose, unbridle, untie, untether, unchain,unbind, unshackle, unmanacle; More

2. cause force to be released or become unrestrained.

The latter was more what we were dealing with on the weekend although at times it felt like the former and my body is quite sore today.

So what does the world have to say about the noble art of unleashing, there are many derivatives so lets have a look at a few:

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1. For more than 40 years, Jim Rohn honed his craft like a skilled artist-helping people the world over sculpt life strategies that have expanded their imagination of what is possible. Those who had the privilege of hearing him speak can attest to the elegance and common sense of his material. It is no coincidence, then, that he is widely regarded as one of the most influential thinkers of our time, and thought of by many as a national treasure. He is famous for down to earth quotes as well.

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2. Deep Inside You, many people got to discover this as they unleashed the dragon hiding in their caves. for some it was power, others rage, for some their sexuality and others their tenderness. Try a little Tenderness.

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3. We actually saw people break through those fears that had been holding them back, an act of pure courage.

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4. Things we do not confront build up pain in our bodies, it takes up more and more space unless you unleash it. Time to Start Over Again.

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5. Sai Marie Johnson is a creative concept designer, graphics artist, activist writer, and author of several series. A mother of four children, and the proud wife of a US Army Veteran Sai enjoys many different activities. The owner of a dachshund, and two lovely cats Sai is an animal lover, and a woman who simply calls herself, “A woman with a dream, and a pen.” Here she is writing about to be careful about what you allow to unleashed by our governments.

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6. Another way of saying unleash is to liberate, remember you are Awesome. It’s For the Good Times.

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7. What we each unleashed on the weekend was a mystery to us, even though we were called to have an intention.

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8. Another reason to be unleashed, actually 12 of them. Helps with the Communication in your life.

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9. We went deep into the pockets of our fears and as this quote say, all that now remains is us. There are always fears to work on.

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10. My mind knows a lot, and then there is a saying You don’t know what you don’t know, go there: Who You Are.

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11. OMG, I love lists, here is a great one.

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12. People had some sexy names on the weekend, here’s another, Ricardo Housham has his own quote page : Make your Move.

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13. The greatest Love I have got from fairy tales is to believe in Unicorns, I have friends that I swap Unicorn pictures with.

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14. Besides being a magnificent facilitator Arion is an awesome poet, here is one of his offerings:

Precious love, you are beautiful. I know that you cling to that steering wheel because you think all manner of bad things will happen if you let go, but I want to let you know its ok, that controlling everything is not much of a life for me or you.
Yes life can be harsh and brutal, but control doesn’t protect from that anyway, and here is the most beautiful thing….. Even though it feels like death to move to the back seat, it is so much more than that. Yes a certain rigidity dies, but you precious mind, can’t die, you are luminous brilliance and when you can let go of that steering wheel, in time your shell will crack away and your true nature of genius and light will be revealed.
So my love, let go, come and rest in the back of the bus, I have installed a jacuzzi and all you have to do is relax. I love you so much.

It’s Poetry in Motion.

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15. Three words, YOU ARE ALLOWED, Unleash that dragon. This saying I acknowledge my other mentor and my Anam Cara, Emili Paulo. Here is a link to her work: Collective Potential

As I said in the beginning there are many cuts at Unleashing, be mindful about which ones you do or just go for it, both of these types of advise where given at the end of the weekend.

Namaste until next Thursday, I promise, my dear friends.

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Do we experience the Divine?

Posted on July 18, 2016 by Rod's World

In this time of Pokemon Go, Facebook, Tinder and instantaneous gratification do we remember what it is to experience the divine? Those moments that make our heart shudder such as the birth of our children, the moment we looked across a room and realised that they were the person we were going to marry and other similar events that fill up our photo album of divinity.

This is the meaning of divinity according to the dictionary, number 5 shows how much our society has changed

Divinity – definition of divinity by The Free Dictionary

1. The state or quality of being divine.

2. a. Divinity The godhead; God. Used with the.

b. A deity, such as a god or goddess.

3. Godlike character.

4. Theology.

5. A soft white candy, usually containing nuts.

Over the ages much has been said about what constitutes the divine, often dependant on how strong religion was at the time, lets begin our journey down this sacred path:

1. We often place divinity onto our favourite singers yet they never claim it for themselves, so lets go for Peace, Love and Understanding.

2. Daddy-Long-Legs is a 1912 epistolary novel by the American writer Jean Webster. It follows the protagonist, a young girl named Jerusha “Judy” Abbott, through her college years. She writes the letters to her benefactor, a rich man whom she has never seen.

3. One of the dangers of divinity to me is placing it on one character, it splits the world into believing that theirs is right and the other is wrong. Perhaps it should be A Love Song.

4. A Journey of Discovery – Uncover the mysteries of this key time in our history through ancient spiritual knowledge and new scientific research. Studies of specific numbers and letters have led to unusual findings hidden in lost knowledge and ancient mysteries. Unique and unusual patterns are discovered revealing profound links between modern scientists and ancient
philosophers. These new discoveries point to the beginning of a new era.

5. Washington Irving was an American short story writer, essayist, biographer, historian, and diplomat of the early 19th century. He is best known for his short stories “Rip Van Winkle” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”, both of which appear in his book The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. His historical works include biographies of George Washington, Oliver Goldsmith and Muhammad, and several histories of 15th-century Spain dealing with subjects such as Christopher Columbus, the Moors and the Alhambra. Irving served as the U.S. ambassador to Spain from 1842 to 1846. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

6. The bard knew that it was in the everyday that we honed our divinity and that it was up to us how it turned out.

7. Doreen Virtue is the queen of Angels, she believe their is A Spirit in the Sky.

8. Cute animal quote of the blog, speaks to the law of divinity and the power of nature.

9.Charles seems to be saying there is divinity in Every Moment.

10. Samuel Benjamin “Sam” Harris is an American author, philosopher, and neuroscientist. He is the co-founder and chief executive of Project Reason, a non-profit organisation that promotes science and secularism, and host of the podcast Waking Up with Sam Harris. His book The End of Faith, a critique of organised religion, appeared on The New York Times Best Seller list for 33 weeks and also won the PEN/Martha Albrand Award for First Nonfiction in 2005. Letter to a Christian Nation was a response to criticism of The End of Faith. In The Moral Landscape, Harris argues that science can help answer moral problems and aid human well-being. He subsequently published a long-form essay Lying in 2011, the short book Free Will in 2012, Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion in 2014 and, with British activist Maajid Nawaz, Islam and the Future of Tolerance: A Dialogue in 2015.

11. Your Inner Pilot Light, that feeling , that persistent voice that you sometimes don’t listen to, yet what it is saying was the correct path. It is your Divine Lover.

12. Love and Respect for All, Everyone included – a statement of the divine.

12. Yes you are, look in the mirror daily.

13. Meditate 30 minutes a day and you will hear your divinity a lot louder. here is a short mindfulness meditation by Deepak’s meditation.

14. Has society stopped hearing Sacred Love, that space in life where we tell each other our Sacred stories so that we hear our own as well?

15. So when your divinity speaks to you , it’s a good idea to listen. Because your ripple effect could be what the world is waiting for. Your Ripple Effect.

Have a listen fir your divinity daily, It is speaking to you. It may be faded but it will never give up on you. After 5 psych unit hospitalisations I know this for a fact.

Namaste until next time my dear friends.

Space is the Place!!

Posted on June 2, 2016 by Rod's World

My friends Emeli and Jodi run a social enterprise called Collective Potential, their mission is to: Create spaces for people to connect in real life and provide experiences and resources to create fulfilling lives: Collective Potential website.

It got me to thinking about what does this term creating space mean? Perhaps its talking about astronaut space, physiological space, acreage space, there are many to choose from. I have chosen from a wide range of modalities for the 15 quotes today, lets begin:

1. One of the two most famous philosophers in the world Unknown and Anonymous, Unknown says that we need to let go to allow better things to happen to us.

2. Never devalue your worth for another, never.

3. Well known blogger Melanie Koulouris is famous for her Life has taught me poem. This is a beautiful quote about the need for space on your spiritual path.

4. If you are leading a totally full life, there are time you may need to delete some of it to allow for growth. Randy Gage, author of Mad Genius, a manifesto points out that this means people as well.

5. Busyness means that life can become a bit hum drum with all of that doing, remember to have space for a creative outlet amongst it all, mine are dance, Tai Chi and singing.

6. Something borrowed, something new, something blue: that space that is happening is occurring for the new shiny you to emerge from the ashes. Time for the title song : Sun Ra’s opus.

7. Our job is to turn our minds down and listen to the body, our home. In the silence we can welcome the rest of the world.

8. Saying Hello to the new and goodbye to the old. There was a famous song written about this in the sixties by the lads from Liverpool : Hello Goodbye, check out those outfits.

9. Little boxes all in a row, modern architecture of convenience has seen the beauty of previous time periods be eroded into fitting in as many people as we can on one block.

10. Come home my darling, you know where I am. How many of us enter our sacred space on a daily routine. The bliss king Joseph Campbell says this is where to go to when you feel lost.

11. I promise to laugh with you, cry with you, and grow with you. I will love you when we are together and when we are apart. I promise to support your dreams and to respect our DIFFERENCES, and to love you and be by your side through all the days and nights of our lives.

12. Turn around, you are going the wrong way. Yes you, are you listening?

13. You can be anybody in this space, most definitely not the authentic you.

14. Enter your space ship of light. Back in 1972 David had something to say about this : Space Oddity.

15. Democritus was an influential Ancient Greek pre-Socratic philosopher primarily remembered today for his formulation of an atomic theory of the universe. He was born in Abdera, Thrace, around 460 BC, although, some thought it was 490 BC. Atoms and empty space, puts it in perspective doesn’t it.

In other words, all of those points that I made about how to hold space for others can and should be applied to yourself first. Give yourself permission to trust your own intuition. Give yourself only as much information as you can handle. Don’t let anyone take your power away. Keep your ego out of it. Make yourself feel safe enough to fail. Give guidance and help to yourself with humility and thoughtfulness. Create your own container for complex emotions, fears, trauma, etc. And allow yourself to make decisions that are different from what other people would make.

Namaste until next time my dear friends.

What’s that Aroma?

Posted on May 19, 2016 by Rod's World

Back into it one again, on the journey of living from my great purpose, living my life from contentment and Self Love, providing service to the world via the transformational work of Arion Light via his Activation School. We refer to it as our Essence, others refer to it as God, Consciousness, Gaia or many other names. Access to it is through the body not the mind, in moving all those learnt lessons that inhibit us from living a switched on life.

So how does the world hold Essence, Is it an aroma or a state of being, my 15 quotes look at both these areas in life, lets begin our journey:

1. Seeking out an essence to live your life the best you can may invite change in your life. The requirement to stop listening to what your mind tells you what to do comes to mind to let life flow freely.

2. One thing that helps you attain your essences in Life is good old persistence, in my case it is to do the daily meditations that come with the course.

3. “Live Today! Do not allow your spirit to be softened of your happiness to be limited by a day you cannot have back or a day that does not yet exist. But remember the next second in you life, you have to relate to this again.

4. O.K. I’ll go with this. I have made many of these in my life. Attimes I have not been very good at learning from them.

5. Remember you astronaut and Fairy Queen dream of childhood, what would you need to give up, to surrender to to return there. Time for an Essence song, Lucinda Williams, one of my favourite Americana artists : Essence, Live.

6.Gordon H. Hinckley was an American religious leader and author who served as the 15th President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from March 12, 1995 until his death. Considered a prophet, seer, and revelator by church members, Hinckley was the oldest person to preside over the church in its history.

7. Essence travels with companions: secrets,adventures, challenges and finally ecstatic joy.

8. Last night I lost my house keys and washed my Iphone, I know if I was not residing in the essence of contentment, my reaction would have been very different to making two logical phone calls to resolve it.

9. I attend a weekly meeting with Arion because he is my mentor, this week we got to the fact that I could live from the word Enough and see what the world created for me, staggering.

10. Bow down to the queen of Essence, Oprah Winfrey. She is the prime example of someone living from the essence of energy. Leona Lewis sings a perfectly titled tune: The Essence of Me.

11. This deeply relates to both self love and external love, the former allowing for the latter to flourish. Love yourself with all your might and essence.

12. This is so kooky I just had to include it.

13. This quote fulfils what is available when you live in pure essence, everything is a gift.

14. There are parts of me that have been numb for decades as I shut down possibilities with my life from decisions I made, often as a child, they are waking up. What parts of you are numb?

15. Aaw, the cute animal post for the day. The quote is powerful as well, Tejas Patel started Wisdom Quotes on Facebook after a lengthy spiritual journey. Here is the link to his website of extensive collection of powerful quotes : Wisdom Quotes 4U.

I am discovering that the path to my true essence does not lie in my head but my dear slightly misused body that is becoming freer and freer. I look forward to the journey.

Namaste until next Monday my dear friends.

It’s Your Home.

Posted on May 16, 2016 by Rod's World

They say that you are always looking for it until it settles in and it may take many journeys before you finally arrive there, because all the travel internally and externally cannot make the discovery of what is truly your home until it inhabits your heart.

I visited six countries and six states in Australia looking for home. As a very young child I felt that my family home was “home” but lost this when I moved to Melbourne to begin a French polishing apprenticeship in the early 70’s. I then did the shared house boogie, moving every few years as houses and friendships drifted apart and people partnered up.

As I could not find home externally I took up an internal journey studying the work of Werner Erhard and Tibetan Buddhism for periods of 8 and 9 years. I recently took up bodywork and found what I call home more and more. I have selected 15 quotes on what society has said about taking this journey, they are interesting to say the least. Lets begin this journey:

1. We often say to ourselves via that little voice in our heads but its all too much so never get round to it. Big Tony, Anthony Robbins calls these the impossible journeys, because we never begin them.

2. Then we get to that place in life where we realise this message is much more potent. Lissa Rankin calls this the Inner Pilot Light.

3. Remember when you were going to be Superman or Superwoman when you were riding your Unicorn back in your childhood days. Nelson says you still can be.

4. When I tell the story about going to Russia to run the Moscow Peace Marathon to end World Hunger the year before the Berlin Wall came down some people give me very strange looks. I’m not sure if it because I ran a marathon or that I went to the Soviet Union to do it.

5. We met Serge, Lara and Michael Jackson in Leningrad at a cafe. They wanted to Learn English and we had a lets learn Russian travel book. So they took us under their wings while we were there and showed us the real city. Michael was called Michael Jackson because he loved doing the moonwalk.

6. A lot of the time when I felt that I was not worthy I spent the journey alone, I now see this as a prominent part of my journey, where I spent time learning to Ramble On.

7. Are you a Trekkie, if you are you will instantly recognise the name of the actor who played Doctor Spock in the iconic original series. We spend a lot of time wishing that thing that occur in our journey didn’t occur, for me it is the five hospitalisations I have had over the years. But we cannot change how the chips fall after the event, just how they affect us later on.

8. We all have our sacred stories, I think we keep them to ourselves too much these days. If we didn’t I believe that we would live in a much stronger, loving world as we travel our journeys.

9. Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803 – April 27, 1882), known professionally as Waldo Emerson, was an American essayist, lecturer, and poet who led the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a champion of individualism and a prescient critic of the countervailing pressures of society, and he disseminated his thoughts through dozens of published essays and more than 1,500 public lectures across the United States. All our journeys are individual , there are 7 billion of them, never forget this.

10. I had an African couple as good friends for several years, what I loved was the music they introduced me to , this was one of my favourite pieces: Akon – Mama Africa.

11. At the beginning of a journey the travel agent will give you a list of what is meant to happen each day. We all know from our lives that this simply doesn’t happen. If it did we would complete our to do lists impeccably. It is the lost areas of our life that magic happens.

12. The second mention of Unicorns. To me they are the truly magical creature. I have two friends Justine and Amandine that I swap unicorn images with because they represent a new magical beginning in our lives.

13. This is definitely internal, one of the great videos on this subjects comes from Jim Carrey: Love and Fear.

14. As I mentioned I ran marathons back in the day. When it was pouring rain in the middle of a Melbourne winter and 5 a.m. I had to remember I was running 42 kilometres in a month and yes, one step can make all the difference.

15. And as a final reminder, remember to include joy, bliss and love on your journey. Because after all its a personal choice.

So some of us will have longer journeys than others, we will often feel sad that people pass when they do. That is the journey they were meant to have this time around, if you believe in that sort of stuff. I think I do.

Namaste until Thursday my dear friends.

Is anyone Watching?

Posted on May 12, 2016 by Rod's World

I receive hundreds of different things through my News Feed from my 4,500 Facebook friends. I have a policy if we have 100 mutual friends we are friends who just haven’t met yet. Doing this you end up with a lot of musicians, American female life coaches and people you actually know on your list. As a gratitude exercise I have started sending all of them a Facebook Birthday Card as I believe everybody should receive a birthday card on their special day.

A couple of days ago I received a quote on Integrity that went something like this. Integrity is doing it even when no one is looking. What do you hold Integrity to be: Is it your actions, who you hold yourself to be or a mixture of both.

Choosing my 15 quotes to comment on was interesting, there are a few that dominate but I found quotes that will fascinate and please. Let us begin :

1. I have kept my integrity with my Facebook Birthday cards even one day I was not going to be at home and having left my phone there I went to an Internet Cafe to send them.

2. Many people say they are going to one day. My friend Catherine Deveny calls her writing class Gunnas Master Class, can you guess why. I googled saying vs. doing and it brought up this interesting blog: The Big Difference.

3. Zig Ziglar, most famous for the quote “You can have everything in Life, If you will just help enough other people get what they want” which features on his website passed in 2012. His podcast still receives an average of 350,000 hits a month.

4. Integrity is partially in what you do and who you be. If you wish to keep it intact don’t do things that will challenge it.

5. I like the fact that they are highlighting the word Integrity with a yellow marker so it stands out from the rest. Because when it becomes as ordinary as all other words the battle is lost.

6. Born in Ghana, Israelmore wrote his first Quote on his palm in a toilet, he has come a long way since. He is an Inspirational Writer and a born-again Christian, so passionate about transformation individuals through information. He holds a strong belief that reformation and transformation of society can only become evident in the presence of information. However, it takes only positive and relevant information to bring real and intended transformation.

7. How does one obtain beauty? Does going to the gym or buying the latest perfumes or having plastic surgery or a tummy tuck. None of these things can attain it according to master coach Thomas Leonard, to him beauty is obtained through your inner qualities, Integrity being one of these.

8. How many times does that thought ” Do I really have to ” pass through. The answer is yes even if there is no congratulations and no recognition, remember you still know.

9. These are the gifts you receive from living your life from Integrity. Is there a song about it, of Course: Integrity Song.

10. I used to run Marathons back in the day, during training I would get to my integrity point at about the 8 kilometre mark when my mind would go is this worth it, moast times I said yes.

11. As we move down the journey of time our definition is what is integrity changes over time. The friends I had in my boozing days would definitely not fit into my version of it now.

12.

Integrity

A firm adherence to a code of values

The state of being complete, whole, or undivided

Total honesty and sincerity

The ability to “walk our talk”

Discipline

Activity that improves a skill

Controlling behavior to mold moral character

Habits and ways of acting developed through practice

13. I love these balanced stones images, these show the power of gravity and the reliance on each other. Integrity also comes with other traits like the list Zig Ziglar has put together.

14. This short film made by USC covers the above statement very well : USC Integrity Movie.

15. Do you have conditions for your Integrity, Is it different if no one is watching to being in a crowded room. As the above quote says it’s internally you look for integrity and the actions one takes from that place.

Whilst writing this it has brought up examples for me where I have lapsed my Integrity. I will put them back in place over the next few days.

Namaste my dear friends. Speak to you again next Monday.

Where is your Heart?

Posted on May 9, 2016 by Rod's World

I recently did a Sex and the Soul Retreat that really confronted me. After it I felt as high as a kite for a few days and then a feeling of WTF was that took me over which has now become a deep sense of self love and coming home to myself.

It has made me contemplate what is a sense of home for people, our indigenous culture talks about it being the land they were born on, western culture labels it as the home you buy and the conscious movement that it is where you are at any moment.

So what does society hold it to be, there were many choices to make and the 15 I have picked cover many aspects, here we go:

1. Rosa Louise McCauley Parks (February 4, 1913 – October 24, 2005) was an African American civil rights activist, whom the United States Congress called “the first lady of civil rights” and “the mother of the freedom movement”. Her birthday, February 4, and the day she was arrested for refusing to give her seat up to a white passenger, December 1, have both become Rosa Parks Day, commemorated in California and Missouri (February 4), and Ohio and Oregon (December 1). The above statement shows how something as simple as going home can become much more.

2. What is more enjoyable on a cold winters day than being curled up in front of an open fire with your favourite book of the moment.

3. Since discovering more self love I have been spending more time alone, it reminds me of the saying in reference to the social media generation, if we do not train our children to be alone, all they will know is how to be lonely.

4. Orlando Jonathan Blanchard Bloom (born 13 January 1977) is an English actor. After having his breakthrough as Legolas in the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, he rose to fame by further appearing in epic fantasy, historical epic, and fantasy adventure films. In In 2009, Bloom was named a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador.

5. I have spent a long time finding a sense of home, becoming a Buddhist , being a marathon runner , doing landmark education work only to find after many years that is was in the company of my siblings I felt most at home.

6. Picture this, Tracky dacks and the unshaven look pigging out on chocolate and Netflix, enough said.

7. First lady of the United States Jackie Kennedy got to see many different lands which had different customs on how people were treated making her realise that the United States was not the centre of the Universe.

8. I asked my friend Mary did she feel a loss when she first became mother of her four boys. She looked at me and smiled, saying it is the greatest thing that happens to you in your life even though you don’t have a moment alone.

9. This flies in the face of home being physical,Lets Get Physical. it is spending time with those people that you discover your emotions and best parts of life come to fruition.

10. Life took me to be running down the main street of Leningrad with the Sports Minister and Major at 5 o’clock on a Friday afternoon having thousands of citizens waving Soviet and American flags. Love had my friends younger sister sing You made me love you, I didn’t want to do it to me at her 21st.

11. There is a women’s refuge in the street I live in. I found this out from meeting a young indigenous woman in the street who told me of the two years of horrific abuse she had put up with, she was 18.

12. George Augustus Moore (24 February 1852 – 21 January 1933) was an Irish novelist, short-story writer, poet, art critic, memoirist and dramatist. Moore came from a Roman Catholic landed family who lived at Moore Hall in Carra, County Mayo. He originally wanted to be a painter, and studied art in Paris during the 1870s. There, he befriended many of the leading French artists and writers of the day.

As a naturalistic writer, he was amongst the first English-language authors to absorb the lessons of the French realists, and was particularly influenced by the works of Émile Zola. His writings influenced James Joyce, according to the literary critic and biographer Richard Ellmann, and, although Moore’s work is sometimes seen as outside the mainstream of both Irish and British literature, he is as often regarded as the first great modern Irish novelist. His home remained at County Mayo.

13. As my friend Mary said, its the best thing that happened to her, the best thing that happens to us is that our mums birth us, sometimes we forget. Tupac loved his mum too, Dear Mama.

14. The title of this Blog is half of the saying home is where the heart is, I have lived in many places that were just the address where I live, my home at the time being groups and friends i was connected to.

15. And the access to the feeling of home is to let others in and share your heart space.

I have come to the belief that home is not a physical phenomenon but more of an emotional feeling. I have a home address that is more and more becoming ensconced in my heart but there are several other places where I would say home is where the heart is.

Namaste until Thursday , my dear friends.

Is Reality the X Factor?

Posted on May 5, 2016 by Rod's World

Looking for a subject today I notice The Green Guide: The best on Screen: Television, Streaming, Downloads & Radio was rating the reality TV judges. The Green Guide is the weekly entertainment section of our daily newspaper The Age, considered the more intelectual of the two papers that come out each day.

I cringed instantly that our society had sunk so low that this was considered news. What has become of mainstream society that this is what is considered entertainment for the masses. I checked out what people have quoted about reality over the years and have chosen a deft list to ponder. Here we go:

1. Each of us have our own reality, remember you are judging if you think your reality is more worthwhile than another persons.

2. Reality is that you will most likely end up with a partner at some stage in your life. I think that if you can achieve the above you are creating an awesome reality for the relationship.

3. Life is a game we all play at different levels, and we have our own unique devils. Meatloaf was one of mine: Bat out of Hell.

4. Growing up in rural country towns this above statements makes me relate to the time I went back to one of them as a Buddhist Calm Abiding meditation teacher. When I told people guess what they said?

5. From the first century A.D. Plutarch was a Greek historian, biographer, and essayist, known primarily for his Parallel Lives and Moralia. He is classified as a Middle Platonist. He had several other quotes which survived from that time, a famous one being: I don’t need a friend who changes when I change and who nods when I nod; my shadow does that much better.

6. Lisa Prosen is a passionate Sensitivity Coach, Speaker, and Author. She works with her clients so they can courageously look at their lives in new ways and navigate changes with new found confidence. She helps them learn to balance between their sensitivity and the things they are committed to accomplishing, so they achieve the life they truly want to live. Founder of the popular Facebook group “Practical Solutions for The Highly Sensitive Soul”, Lisa is familiar with the shackles of perfectionism and how living life for other people, ultimately disappoints everybody.

7. Or as the bard would have put it, Out damn spot, reality doesn’t go away even though it is an illusion as all our life is according to the chaos theory.

8. I think they wrote this for mainstream media and what they present as the news. Control, mayhem and evil are not my reality and never will be.

9. Before enlightenment wash the dishes, after enlightenment wash the dishes, welcome to reality.

10. Robert J. Ringer is an American entrepreneur, motivational and political speaker, and author of several best-selling personal-development and political books. The best known of these is a semi quote to the Bard, To be or not to be Intimidated.

11. Our current reality keeps changing faster and faster. A quote I read recently made me shudder. If our children are not taught to be alone they will grow up only knowing how to be lonely. The above quotes lies in that arena for me.

12. Reality lives in the now according to Eckhart Tolle, but what does Beyonce have to say about it : Me, Myself and I.

13. Lucius Annaeus Seneca (often known simply as Seneca or Seneca the Younger) was a Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, dramatist, and in one work humorist, of the Silver Age of Latin literature. He was tutor and later advisor to emperor Nero. While he was later forced to commit suicide for alleged complicity in the Pisonian conspiracy to assassinate Nero, the last of the Julio-Claudian emperors, he may have been innocent. He clearly suffered more from imagination if he was innocent.

14. The ubiquitous to do list, how many of us are honest enough to write the one on the right when it is our reality.

15. This quote by Teal Scott supports my statement at the beginning of this blog. Society does now want to be aware, it would much rather remain in the illusory state that everything is OK as it is.

I have tried to drop judging society to much when writing this, Its just that I believe we were placed on this planet for more than what is churned out as mass entertainment these days.

Namaste until next Monday my dear friends.

What is Yours?

Posted on May 2, 2016 by Rod's World

I volunteer at an organisation called the Darebin Intercultural Centre where we hold programs that allow different culture to educate others on what inspires people about their cultures. We believe that this is the best way of integrating people in our multicultural municipality, there are over 150 different nationalities in Darebin.

What does culture mean, here is the Oxford dictionaries definition :definition of culture – the arts and other manifestations of human intellectual achievement regarded collectively:

“20th century popular culture”

synonyms: the arts · the humanities · intellectual achievement(s) ·

intellectual activity · literature · music · painting · philosophy

a refined understanding or appreciation of culture:

“men of culture”

synonyms: intellectual/artistic awareness · education ·

cultivation · enlightenment · discernment · discrimination · good taste · taste · refinement · polish · sophistication · urbanity · urbaneness · erudition · learning · letters · belles-lettres

the ideas, customs, and social behaviour of a particular people or society:

“Afro-Caribbean culture” ·

“people from many different cultures”

synonyms: civilization · society · way of life · lifestyle · customs ·

traditions · heritage · habits · ways · mores · values

the attitudes and behaviour characteristic of a particular social group:

“the emerging drug culture”

biology

the cultivation of bacteria, tissue cells, etc.. in an artificial medium containing nutrients:

“the cells proliferate readily in culture”

a preparation of cells obtained by culture:

“the bacterium was isolated in two blood cultures”

the cultivation of plants:

“this variety of lettuce is popular for its ease of culture”

synonyms:cultivation · growing · farming · agriculture · husbandry ·

agronomy.

This gives me a wide access to what I could choose as the 15 quotes for today’s interaction, I hope I do it justice, here we go:

1. In my country Australia when they arrived in 1788 the British declared Terra Nullus – vacant land and went on a genocidal attack on the native population who had resided here 60,000 years. Luckily for us they failed and we have a growing culture to look back on and learn from the first Australians.

2. The first thing conquerors do when they take over another is attempt to destroy their languages, music and knowledge of their past. In Tibet speaking their native tongue is banned by the Chinese.

3. Wade Davis CM is a Canadian anthropologist, ethnobotanist, author, and photographer whose work has focused on worldwide indigenous cultures, especially in North and South America and particularly involving the traditional uses and beliefs associated with psychoactive plants.

4. I am a language tutor for 4 people and find I am learning as much as I am supposedly teaching. I have taught 2 doctors. a Council member of a city three times as large as the one I live in and a structural engineer who was responsible for constructing the largest projects in his country until he was blacklisted by the Taliban.

5. I have visited several countries in my 60 years and one of my unique experiences was visiting a housing museum in Tbilisi, Georgia. The building went back 1,300 years and were a fascinating way to learn about the culture of the region.

6. I just had to include this one, as an editing professional I don’t know if the spelling mistake is a deliberate part of the message they are trying to expound or not.

7. And in my very core is one of the main cultural paths, music of many nations. Here is one of my favourite tracks: Culture – Wings of a Dove.

8. What has the world become where the basics of our life have become unaffordable for some, it is hurting the heart of our planet.

9. I believe mainstream’s media portrait of Iran to be a classic example of creating what is meant to be the culture of a country. In my work I have meant a lot of Iranian asylum seekers and become friends with an Iranian musician Studying here. Gelerah’s music is magnificent: Magnificent Tones.

10. Raymond Douglas Bradbury was an American fantasy, science fiction, horror and mystery fiction author. Widely known for his dystopia novel Fahrenheit 451 as well as his science fiction and horror story collections The Martian Chronicles The Illustrated Man, and There Will Come Soft Rains. Bradbury was one of the most celebrated 20th- and 21st-century American genre writers. Hitler tried to destroy German Intellectualism by doing this prior to WW2.

11. When Governments forget that cultures are not to dominate but strengthen the hearts and souls of their citizens quotes like this appear, unfortunately they are occurring at a growing rate.

12. Credited with creating modern Finnish culture Hugo Alvar Henrik Aalto was a Finnish architect and designer, as well as a sculptor and painter. His work includes architecture, furniture, textiles and glassware.

13. Gaining insight into 4 different cultures at the same time can be quite invigorating, I spend some hours investigating what they tell me about each of their unique upbringing, one spent 25 years in a refugee camp, being born there.

14. Pretty unique way to teach multiculturalism to your citizens, build different countries into your infrastructure, wonder what effect it will have on the inhabitants of each suburb.

15. Sound familiar with what is happening in the current era, Herman Hesse wrote this back in the 1940’s prior to the war to end ll wars, they got that wrong too . He was a German-born Swiss poet, novelist, and painter. His best-known works include Steppenwolf, Siddhartha, and The Glass Bead Game, each of which explores an individual’s search for authenticity, self-knowledge and spirituality. In 1946, he received the Nobel Prize in Literature.

I believe the best of each culture will overcome the evil that is being used at the moment to corrupt the world. That is why I have created a Facebook public group: Interculturalism to have a space where people of all cultures can sing the praises and what they love about their life.

Namaste until Thursday, my dear friends.