There’s Enough Sun for Everybody!!

Posted on May 9, 2019 by Rod's World

I am part of the conscious community of Melbourne, we love dancing, workshops and parties. A lot of the people make there living from offering healings, workshops, and dances to the other members of the community. One thing people in the community are naff at is self-marketing. There are over 15 Facebook groups and several Webpages they could offer their products on for free, yet many do not seem to know of their existence.

They post on their personal page and their business page and cross their fingers that it will land on enough of their friend’s pages for people to find out about it. One thing that fascinates me is that not many people take the time to share their friend’s offerings on their personal pages. It takes at a maximum, 30 seconds and is one of the ways that you can best support their endeavours. Facebook algorithms are getting mean as fuck, so reliance on them is at best, stupid. I made a decision several years ago that I would share every event that I came across in the community as my gift to my friends. Recently this is a message I received from a friend I did it for Wow. Rod that is so incredibly kind of you. Thank you! I do often feel I am promoting a million things and it makes it hard to find a genuine connection to my community and audience (even though I know what I offer has value and worth). Having others spread the word is an incredible gift for me. Thank you.

To me, supporting local creativity is a no brainer, but what has society said about supporting each other, let’s have a look:

1. As I said, it takes 30 seconds to post an event on social media.

2. From an often pilloried POTUS, comes this beautiful request: Where Is The Love.

3. You may never know who you heal with your kindness, just be kind.

4. I was stopped in the central mall in our city by a young family one day, He said you may not remember me, I used to be a heroin addict who came to your Centrelink office, your kindness to me over time helped me get off it, you saved my life. What do you say when someone says that to you: People Help The People.

5. Hearts, Ears, and Hands. Everybody has them.

6. Cheap at half the price: Inspiration from Muhammad.

7. Empowerment is what works, jealousy is the booby prize.

8. Shadow and Light, they travel together. That which you focus on has the power in your life: Faded.

9. I have been working on this for over 40 years, it is not as easy as it seems.

10. That’s what friends are for, only one song really: That’s What Friends are For.

11. Find yourself, by losing yourself, not totally logical, but it works for me.

12. Who have you lifted up today, this week, this month, etc. etc: I Can See Clearly Now.

13. This means something totally different down here in The Land Down Under, check out Australia Slang Terms.

14. Pass it along: We are Family.

15. The final lesson is from the world’s curly-haired genius, Albert. Lets live a worthwhile life.

So my call out is every time you see an event shared by a friend, take the 30 seconds to share it, you could be paying their child’s school fees.

The Playlist today is a very positive one. Black Eyed Peas and Ariana Grande kick it off, then Birdy shares a very positive number. The spoken word is from Muhammad Ali today, New to me Alan Walker with his over 1 billion hits follows. Then a posse, Dionne Warwick, Stevie Wonder, Elton John and Gladys Knight combine. We head to the West Indies next to hear from Jimmy Cliff and finish with Sister Sledge: There’s Enough Sun For Everybody.

I love my community, it is a place where my paradigm, Love and Respect For All, Everyone Included is very close to being fulfilled:

Intimacy is Into Me See!!

Posted on May 6, 2019 by Rod's World

What is true intimacy? This is a question and a state of play I have been exploring for the last three years. Admittedly I am coming from a very low base. I have found one of the things that most gets in my way is when I come from I think I know what intimacy is. All those memes, books and audios on finding your true soulmate have begun to confuse me, how she should look, how old she should be, what sexual predications she prefers, does she have or want children, etc., etc. etc.

I make chai at a dance called Mojo, The Dance of Connection, It is a truly sacred place where most of the angst that society attaches to intimacy disappears over the duration of the night. One night I looked out over the dancefloor late into the night, and a sense of sadness came across me because I realised that over 50 per cent of these beautiful souls would go home alone. The expression Sacred Love Letters passed through me. I had no idea what that meant.

Over the next two weeks, I had many thoughts to what it could mean. This is what I came up with. Here we go: As we get older we are trained to not share our intimate moments, being told that it is not safe to reveal our greatest secrets. What does this lead to: Three facts, the divorce rate, average length of relationships 18 to 25: six months and the proliferation of dating apps with their dick picture postings.

So this workshop idea came through, its called The Sacred Love Stories workshop and the premise is that for each chakra you tell your, “If they ever knew that about me, they would never talk to me again story as well as your: Yes I actually did this, and I am not boasting story”. The premise is in doing it with people you might not know as well as your intimate beloved people there will be not as much as a charge and it will move you down the path to doing it with your beloveds.

I have not had the gonads to actually run it yet, but have a list of people I have to contact when I do. Its very close.

So what does society say about intimacy? There are lots of beautiful quotes on the subject, here are some of my favourites:

1. I recently discovered that the person I hold in my heart does not feel the same way, surprisingly, in letting her go, I had the most erotic dance with her I have ever had in my life on Saturday night.

2. Would you get an A-plus or an F: Hold My Hand.

3. This is what I did the first night I put the women I mentioned in my heart.

4. So who of my readers have heard of the 70’s group the Seekers: A World of our Own.

5. Can’t read the authors name, but more Eye Gazing.

6. Kiara was born in Barquisimeto, Venezuela. She took her first steps into the entertainment world when she joined her school choir but, because of her distinctive, powerful voice, the rest of the members didn’t feel she blended in well and wasn’t allowed to stay in their musical ensemble. Seven best selling albums later, she sort of proved them wrong: Liberame.

7. Jim Carrey, Fear and Love, Google It.

8. Mazlo missed this one: All of Me.

9. One day we meet the one we never get over and then we know why all the others did not work out.

10. You look across the room, and their weird says, Thank god I finally found you, game over: Sweet but Psycho.

11. I love the saying it’s easy to get a kiss, not that hard to have sex, but finding the one who touches your heart and warms your soul, that’s hard shit.

12. Rollo Reese May was an American existential psychologist and author of the influential book Love and Will (1969). He is often associated with humanistic psychology, existentialist philosophy and, alongside Viktor Frankl, was a major proponent of existential psychotherapy: Hope.

13. Sometimes its not about the jiggy thing.

14. Break down the wall that prevents you from having intimacy in your life: The Mystical Power of Intimate Relationships.

15. And for our final lesson, a reminder that the intimacy must begin with ourselves.

So my breakthrough has come by being curious about it and checking with my heart, and not the memories in my head of my past failures. Would you like to be added to the Workshop waiting list? I promise it will happen this year.

Today’s playlist covers 5 decades and three countries. It begins with the County superstar, Jess Glynne. Then a blast from the past, the most popular 70’s Aussie band, The Seekers. We cross the ocean to Venezuela to hear Kiara. The smooth John Legend follows, then the quirky Ava Max. Pop diva Natasha Bedingfield sings a song of Hope and we finish with some spoken word from Marianne Williamson:Intimacy Into me See

As well as intimacy in my life I also wish for the community paradigm to be Love and Respect for All, Everybody Included. Until we meet again my dear friends.

Words aren’t Enough To Convey How Much I Miss You.

Posted on May 3, 2019 by Rod's World

I have begun an amazing journey with one of the best Spoken Word artists in Australia if not the world Fleassy Malay, it’s about public speaking and is called Rise: Access to the journey. Fleassy has a spoken word performance Witches, Fleassy’s inspiring poem on women’s empowerment, reached 1,000,000 views in 3 days. It currently sits at over 2,600,000 views in less than one year: Witches.

Truth is Fleassy’s power used to scare the shit out of me, as when she performed she stood in her power, something I had sought for over 60 years and until this year, failed to achieve. Each week of the course I am falling more deeply in love with what gifts she has to offer the world. Each week we have a group Zoom call, this week it was on giving and receiving gifts. I belong to the tribe of the Givers and am incredibly naff at the latter. Each person shared their own version of how they perform them, each one was unique.

So I went in search of my quotes on the subject, not surprisingly there are thousands more on giving than there are on receiving. I think the ones I have chosen display this quite well, let’s begin the journey:

1. It doesn’t say you have to create a cycle of giving and receiving that never ends.

2. The red words are the important ones: The law of Giving and Receiving.

3. Self Care is always an essential part of the recipe though.

4. Dame Freya Madeline Stark DBE was an Anglo-Italian explorer and travel writer. She wrote more than two dozen books on her travels in the Middle East and Afghanistan as well as several autobiographical works and essays. She was one of the first non-Arabs to travel through the southern Arabian Desert. I imagine that she would have had to be a maven at receiving given the cultural conversations of the time in that part of the world: Sweet Child of Mine.

5. Love the name, Peace Pilgrim, and her ethos.

6. And yes, they rhyme: Treasure.

7. The names a little bit clouded, but what a beautiful quote.

8. This is exactly what we discussed today: Superwoman.

9. How good are you at actually asking for receiving help, let alone a gift?

10. From Little Things, big things grow: That magnificent song.

11. Yes, it can fulfil your dreams.

12. Bit obscure, but I love the colours: Singing In The Rain.

13. One of my top ten on the net, I have 5,000 groups, so that says something. if you don’t know him, Google time.

14. Loretta Young was an American actress. Starting as a child actress, she had a long and varied career in film from 1917 to 1953. She won the 1948 Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in the 1947 film The Farmer’s Daughter and received an Oscar nomination for her role in Come to the Stable in 1949. Young moved to the relatively new medium of television, where she had a dramatic anthology series, The Loretta Young Show, from 1953 to 1961. The series earned three Emmy Awards, and was re-run successfully on daytime TV and later in syndication. In the 1980s, Young returned to the small screen and won a Golden Globe for her role in Christmas Eve in 1986: Nobody’s Perfect.

15. The final lesson, there’s that asking word again. Go on, you can do it.

I’m sure as I go through the excellent material provided by Fleassy to transform my listening and ability in the arena of Public Speaking I will fall more deeply in love with what this course has to offer, by the way, it is online so any of you can sign up, we have a few Americans already.

How could I not start the playlist with Spoken Word, so Deepak Chopra leads off followed by The Gunners. Some pop from Bruno Mars and Alicia Keys fill the next two slots. My most ever chosen Playlist song is next, an Aussie classic by Paul Kelly and Missy Higgins. We finish with two uniquely diverse artists, Hollywoods Gene Kelly, and the pop world artificially created Hannah Montana: Words aren’t Enough to Convey How Much I Miss You

So to our beloved group of humans on the Rise journey, I wish you Love and Respect for All, Everyone Included. Until we meet again, my dear friends.

If you Haven’t grown up by 50, You Don’t Have To!!

Posted on April 30, 2019 by Rod's World

Birthdays, we have one every year, I have had 64 of them, something I did not expect to happen in my earlier wild, lost years. We are sort of given a list we are meant to fulfil by our parents: The partner, the kids, the house etc. etc. – I have failed dismally in adding a tick next to these particular things. Instead, I have my conscious community of friends, wild adventures like attending Confest, dancing regularly every week and making chai for two of the dances.

I am at that time in my life that I hear and read about aging gracefully, Fuck That – Its time to party and experience and provide all the things that our community offers and needs us to share our gifts with them. I was having such a conversation with two amazing women at a friends birthday who had broken the mould as well. On our journeys, we tend to find each other over time, firstly we must make some mistakes on the way but our passion and purpose finally get us there.

What does society say about aging with passion, here are a few of my favourite things:

1. Taken to the extreme in one of my all-time favourite movies, Scarface.

2. Especially if you suffered the same fate as the author of this quote, they shot him: My Baby Shot Me Down.

3. This looks like a good read, great title.

4. Fever means something different to those with passion in their bones: Fever.

5. Takes something to get here, but Fuck, Yes.

6. Marie Dressler was a Canadian-American stage and screen actress, comedian, and early silent film and Depression-era film star. Successful on stage in vaudeville and comic operas, she was also successful in film. In 1914, she was in the first full-length film comedy. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1931. A career that rose and fell only to rise again because she did not buy the I am too old bullshit: Fly Me To The Moon.

7. Who wants to keep making those stupid societal errors anyway.

8. And they all came to celebrate my friend Jules at Naked for Satan on Sunday: That’s What Friends are For.

9. Hail the enthusiastic ones.

10. In 1970, after stepping down as NOW’s first president, Friedan organized the nationwide Women’s Strike for Equality on August 26, the 50th anniversary of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution granting women the right to vote. The national strike was successful beyond expectations in broadening the feminist movement; the march led by Friedan in New York City alone attracted over 50,000 people. Betty was 49 at the time: I Feel Shitty

11. Birthday today, time to break the rules.

12. Not just a presidents wife, one rocking mama: Hello.

13. Pick your favourite.

14. If you do this properly, dementia will never be a thing: In My Life.

15. For the final lesson, the first words are cut off, they are not really needed.

There are many ways to live ones live, your soul knows what is best for you.

Jules, the playlist is for you, Seven amazing female divas. Nancy Sinatra begins the journey followed by Peggy Lee. Dianne Krall and Dionne Warwick produce two absolute classics followed by the quirky Jane Friedman who you will not have heard of. The letter A features in the last two tracks with Adele and Allison Crowe. Jules, I expect to hear some of these at your next gig with Austin: If you Haven’t grown up by 50, You Don’t Have To!!

My life is dedicated to Love and Respect For All, Everybody Included no matter what your age, Until next time, my dear friends.

She slept next to the Fires!!

Posted on April 25, 2019 by Rod's World

It took just on a week to get back from the magical land that is known as Confest. The title comes from the glorious minimalist I meet on the last day who had decided to come the day before Confest began, she hopped in her car with a backpack and slept on the earth the entire time, could also do the most amazing earth sounds, I fell in love with her from the moment she shared her vision for the planet.

How do I feel after experiencing my first Confest in 30 years, a mixture of joy and sadness actually. The joy that I have come home again and sadness that I waited 30 years to return. There were hundreds of things to do, workshops, mudtribes, Temple rooms, Silent discos, I chose to hang around our firepit in Tranquility during the day: the drug, alcohol and smoke-free camping area and receive the connections that would come my way and must admit to a silent disco addiction garnered from attending similar events in the Edinburgh Gardens in Fitzroy. They were not the same, the evil energy of drugs and alcohol permeated the tent, still, I danced.

How did the connecting go, fucking magnificently: Saturday night this is the countries represented around our little fire: Finland, Chile, Argentina, Japan, China, The United States, and me as the token Aussie.

The United States started it all with Woodstock, Confest is Australia’s answer. Woodstock’s motto was Peace and Love, how did Confest fulfil that in my heart and how do we as human beings do that on an ongoing basis, let’s have a look:

1, Jimi performed at Woodstock, he would have loved Confest. Died too young at 27.

2. MLK Jnr. knew what was a need, they shot him: Love Your Enemies.

3. Just keeping it real.

4. Heartspace, way to go: Listen to Your Heart.

5. From the greatest of philosophers, Ms Unknown comes this pearl of wisdom.

6. Working together to make the change, Fuck Yes: Let’s Stick Together.

7. Self-love first, the rest will follow, there were 10,000 souls to share yours with.

8. His Holiness recognizes Love and Peace as the new religion that will make the difference, will you: Love is My Religion.

9. If you don’t know who Ram Dass is, check him out, pure gold.

10. Only one song: Stairway to Heaven.

11. Of course, we cannot forget the powerful morning potion after the few hours of sleep got each night.

12. I met dozens of these beautiful angels over the time I was there: Give Peace a Chance.

13. If you truly want to integrate the Confest spirit in your life, do this.

14. And, especially this: We are family.

15. And the final lesson comes from the divine one, Maya Angelou.

What was the most profound moment of Confest for me? When the indigenous elder ran up to me and said, it is good to see you again this lifetime, then performed a ceremony on my face for 15 minutes in the indigenous language, then told me to listen to the forest. Want to know what it said? It said why do these people come here and play the musical instruments of Africa and sing the songs of India, don’t they know we are the oldest surviving culture on the planet and we have our own sounds. We will heal when they leave. it feels like I can hear the Earthsong. By the way, I had never met him in my life.

The playlist of Love and Peace contains some spoken word and all-time classic anthems. We begin with Martin Luther King Jr, then the unusual combination of Roxette and Eminem. Back in time to Bryan Ferry, then Bob’s son Ziggy Marley. Two more old Love and Peace classics follow from Led Zeppelin and John Lennon. We finish all in the family with Chic and Sister Sledge, Lots of live versions because music is just better live: She Slept next to the Fire!!

Confest was a great example of how I want the world to relate: Love and Respect for All, Everyone Included. Until next time, my dear friends.

Freedom is a State of Mind!!

Posted on April 18, 2019 by Rod's World

Going off the grid for 5 days from 6AM tomorrow morning, off to Confest for the first time in 30 years with two of my friends who are Confest virgins. A little about the festival: ConFest (Conference/Festival) is a gathering of people wishing to share talents, skills, ideas, concerns and philosophies in a caring fun loving and tolerant atmosphere. The presentation of workshops, demonstrations, entertainments and the maintenance of site facilities are all performed by volunteers, monetary payment is neither accepted nor made.

At ConFest, people often set up villages with differing themes. ConFest is a clothing optional space, this means ConFesters can wear, or not wear anything they chose. Everywhere at ConFest is clothes optional. Don’t be surprised to have a naked ticket collector when you arrive at the ConFest gate. Clothing can range from nothing to body paint, a coat of mud, a sheet, a fairy costume, even a ball gown or dinner suit. At ConFest, clothing is not gendered specific. There is just one simple rule, respect other ConFester’s choices. A long-running and very popular ConFest tradition is the communal artist’s studio. Activities include body and sign painting, life drawing, clay work, organic art, photography etc. Artists, models and workshop facilitators are always welcome.

I am looking forward to returning, last time I went it was around 1,000 people, it is now over 6,000. How do 6,000 people express their own individual shades of freedom? Then, how does society comment on personal freedom, let’s have a look:

1. I love that saying, there is only climbing.

2. Its all in the air: The Air that I Breathe.

3. Thucydides has been called the father of the school of political realism, which views the political behaviour of individuals and the subsequent outcomes of relations between states as ultimately mediated by and constructed upon the emotions of fear and self-interest.

4. You got to fight for the right to…: You’ve got to Fight…

5. Mail, Key, Bike, etc. etc. etc.

6. There are rules that you are not meant to follow in your life, they are your bullshit rules: Nkosi Sikilel iAfrika.

7. The next step after freedom.

8. I . have met many of these fine people in the past six years of my healing journey, far too many to mention, you know who you are, Thank you: Love Street.

9. It travels hand in hand with integrity.

10. Nothing, Nada, No way, Fuck Off: No Way, Get Fucked, Fuck Off.

11. One word – Rumi!!

12. It may be known as Nirvana: Come as You Are.

13. Ask, expect. depend: Cry Freedom.

14. The curly haired eccentric one knows how to say it: Believe.

15. And our final lesson, two words: Fuck Yes.

What workshops will I do, they go all day supposedly. I will do ones that touch my heart.

Today’s playlist is great. A classic from The Hollies, The Beastie Boys next imploring you to …, A stirring National Anthem is thrown in next. Three of my faves from different eras, The Doors, The Angels from OZ, finishing with Nirvana. Mumford and Sons close it out with a plea to our senses: Freedom is a State of Mind.

Freedom to me would be the world living from Love and Respect for All, Everyone Included. Until we meet again on the other side, my dear friends.

Humans are still the most extraordinary Computer of All!!

Posted on April 15, 2019 by Rod's World

How am I feeling after our Warriors of Love training day on Identity and Essence offered by Arion Light and his Essence School? Link to a New Future.

My Essence is Trust in Intimacy and sees me on a journey as to what it would take to have life be intimate moment by moment in my daily interactions with my family, friends, workmates, and potential lovers as that is an area I am working on after a ten year drought and a 12 month amazing journey.

We did an exercise on giving feedback in regards to our identities and our Essence. All went well as the first two people got it right in giving me feedback to my identity that was areas they thought I could improve in coming from I love you, Rod. Bring on the third person, who started by praising my identity which brought up the following thought, Wait, you are doing it wrong and then an aha moment that I related that my identity was all that was wrong about me and that if people really knew that about me they would never speak to me let alone interact with me in a relationship.

So, how has the human race spoke about Identity and Essence, let’s have a wee look:

1. Busyness vs. Passion, The choice is up to you.

2. Mahatma, we are called the Warriors of Love, 33 and expanding: Faith.

3. We leave no one behind.

4. I work at a place called the Darebin Intercultural Centre. The word Intercultural was specifically chosen to empower what the above quote is pointing at: Common Cultures.

5. John Abbot (1751-c.1840) was an American naturalist and artist. He was the first artist in the New World to create an extensive series of insect drawings and to show insects in all stages of development. In addition to more than 3000 insect illustrations, he also produced drawings of birds and plants. He obviously believed all creatures were part of the earth’s culture.

6. Another Warrior’s essence is clarity, this quote reminds me of his stand for it: Set Your Controls for the Heart of the Sun.

7. Do you know what you really want?

8. How fucking beautiful is this from Albert, rocks my world: Real Love.

9. Not up to them, It’s up to you and the actions you are willing to take it to make it happen.

10. I love the way Brene Brown says it: Dare to Lead: Dare To Lead.

11. A missing from current society is the power of the storytelling circle.

12. Boom: It’s My Life.

13. Made me think of the saying: Opposites Attract, well done Stephen.

14. When I am with the Warriors of Love I feel this so strongly: Illuminating the Soul.

15. And for our final lesson for the day, have some ridiculous fun.

Moving onto the Essence conversations, I have big boots to fill, I am up for it.

Today’s playlist is a little eccentric. George Michael funks out the first track, then some intercultural kids from Western Sydney, Bysa. A classic Pink Floyd song takes you to …, followed by a very gospelly number by Blanca. Brene Brown then lays some truth on us then some good old rock and roll from Bon Jovi. We finish with a contemplative piece about the soul: Humans Are.

My ethos to fill those boots is, Love and Respect for All, Everyone Included. Till next time we meet again, dear friends.

A Relationship Is Like A House!!

Posted on April 12, 2019 by Rod's World

Shit, I forgot to do my Thursday blog, sorry if you rely on it for your morning coffee break but I been having such a great time lately it slipped my mind. This morning I am feeling joyful after attending my friend Cat’s awesome graduation for the process she created called the Cor Method. Here’s the link, travel to Melbourne for eight weeks, it’s worth it: Link To A New Life.

I have been to both graduations and often find myself moved to tears by the amount of heart the participants reveal to their families and friends. From singing to dancing to spoken word each is creative in their own way, all speaking from the heart.

So what has the people of planet Earth said about opening one’s heart to the people in your life, let’s have a look:

1. Many of the participants spoke of the negative stuff their mind was saying to them, but then their hearts took over, superb!!

2. I prefer the former, hate has never resolved anything for me: Love and Hate.

3. Gangaji currently writes and tours as a teacher. She holds that the truth of who you are is already free and at peace, which can be realized simply by ending one’s search.

4. The course definitely allows more space for this: Love Myself.

5. Maya loves the Cor Process too.

6. Lots of famous people know the power that is contained in the heart: So Much Magnificence.

7. Having revealed their hearts to the people they love, the participants need not worry about the former.

8. You could palpably feel the hearts cracking open last night: Hallelujah.

9. When you reveal all of what is in your heart some of this may happen.

10. The eyes have it every time, for me: Bette Davis Eyes.

11. How old is your Inner Child and does She/He still enjoy play?

12. You know where it is hanging out, Go there: Yogi B Truth Hurtz.

13. And how could I leave out the Persian poets?

14. Why Cat is such a heroine in having created this bundle of transformation work: Always Look On The Bright Side of Life.

15. The final lesson for today, Is a life without mistakes a real life?

I must acknowledge how I got to know Cat was through her delightful partner Ryan McRobb, through many connections. They give me hope as to what a joyful relationship could be like.

Today’s playlist has some long live tracks, I prefer live tracks to those from the studio, it’s more real. Using 7 artists in each blog and having done over 450 blogs you discover new artists all the time, we begin with one of them, Michael Kiwanuka, then one of my standard songs about self-love by Hailee Steinfeld. Then two great live tracks by Deva and Miten and Jeff Buckley. For a song about eyes, there is only one choice, Kim Carnes. The heart has to have some Bollywood so Vassan is next, and for some silliness, we complete with Eric Idle: A Relationship is Like A House.

In my heart lies the expression: Love and Respect for All, Everyone Included. Come for holidays in Melbourne and do the next course, we have some ace B and B’s here. Till we meet again, my dear friends.

We Are All Visitors to This Time, This Place!!

Posted on April 8, 2019 by Rod's World

Narrin-ik Mandy. Wurundjeri-wilami-ik, Wurundjeri-baluk-ut. Marramb-ik Dja Dja wurrung ba Nguirai illum wurrung, German ba Irish, Dhunba-njan Woiwurrung. Mundainai-njan Liwik-bulok nugel-ik, ba Lalal ba Gugung nugel-ik, ba Murrup Galada Birrarung, Mundanai-njan Biik-ut. Biik-dui, Baanj Biik, Murnmut Biik, Wurru wurru Biik ba Tharangalk Biik. Bungul-al Wiliam-u. MUndani-njan kirrip-bulok nugel-ik.

This is Wurundjeri language, The native language of the indigenous people who inhabited the land where my home city, Melbourne was established. Translated it reads:

My name is Mandy. My clan is the Wurundjeri-wilam, within the Wurundjeri-baluk patriline. I am also Dja Dja wurrung, Ngurai Illum wurrung, German and Irish. I speak Woiwurrung. I embrace my many ancestors and my many Grandfathers and Grandmothers, and the Spirit River, Birrarung. I embrace the Below Country, On Country, Water Country, Wind Country, Sky Country and the Forest Country above the clouds, which is Bunjil’s home. I embrace my many friends.

Indigenous wisdom was nearly wiped out in my country under harsh policies that did not see the indigenous people included in the census. The following story exemplifies this:

In 1935, an Australian of part Indigenous descent left his home on a reserve to visit a nearby hotel where he was ejected for being Aboriginal. He returned home but was refused entry to the reserve because he was not Aboriginal. He attempted to remove his children from the reserve but was told he could not because they were Aboriginal. He then walked to the next town where he was arrested for being an Aboriginal vagrant and sent to the reserve there. During World War II he tried to enlist but was rejected because he was an Aborigine so he moved to another state where he enlisted as a non-Aborigine. After the end of the war he applied for a passport but was rejected as he was an Aborigine, he obtained an exemption under the Aborigines Protection Act but was now told he could no longer visit his relatives as he was not an Aborigine. He was later told he could not join the Returned Servicemen’s Club because he was an Aborigine.

Their culture is the oldest culture in the world and has much wisdom to offer, here is some indigenous wisdom from around the world:

1. The love of the land is a paramount thing that Western society could learn from them, not the rape and pillage in the name of commercial profit.

2. So many ancestors have handed their wisdom on the next generations: On Sacred Ground.

3. They had so many wise ways, I suppose it was their form of therapy without the expense.

4. A great place to start: Rise.

5. Indigenous wisdom across the planet, Mother Earth, Father Sky.

6. Settlement of new lands 101 by the great? European empires throughout history: Highway To Hell.

7. In my country is has been the women who have cared for the planet.

8. Many governments seem to have forgotten this with their reaction to the Climate Change issue the planet is facing at the moment: With or Without You.

9. My indigenous friend Stevie uses this as part of the name of his organisation Dardi Munwurro – Strong Spirit.

10. Simple wisdom, but we and the planet are always changing, so why not fulfil your dreams: Give It A Go.

11. Add your favourite things you would like to give up.

12. 60,000 years versus 250, makes sense to me: Wiyathul.

13. Oops, missed by that much.

14. Catherine Astrid Salome “Cathy” Freeman, OAM (born 16 February 1973) is an Indigenous Australian former sprinter, who specialised in the 400 metres event. She would occasionally compete in other track events, but 400m was her main event. Her personal best of 48.63 currently ranks her as the sixth-fastest woman of all time, set while finishing second to Marie-José Pérec’s number-three time at the 1996 Olympics. She became the Olympic champion for the women’s 400 metres at the 2000 Summer Olympics, at which she lit the Olympic Flame: Cathy wins gold.

15. And this statement speaks to why we, Western society have so much to learn from our indigenous brothers and sisters.

Ngaga-Dji! Ngaga-Dji! – Hear us, hear us. They are waiting to offer it to us, when will we listen?

The playlist today begins with an artist I thought I would never choose, Yanni. Then Jonas Blue, new to me then we rock out with AC/DC and U2. Timbaland comes next then we honour Australian indigenous folk with Gurrumul and we finish with Cathy Freeman winning gold: We are all Visitors to This Time, This Place.

I also honour indigenous cultures for showing Love and Respect for All, Everyone Included. Until we meet again, my dear friends.

It’s Not About Perfect, It’s about Effort!!

Posted on April 4, 2019 by Rod's World

Today I’m writing about making decisions. I attended an evening run by some German Trainers I did some of the most advanced training I have done in my life. We played the Possibility labyrinth game where there were only two instructions, beep if you took an incorrect path and go if you did not meaning you got to have another chance to move forward. There was no marking and sometime the next step was outside the marked areas making it a very challenging game.

We also got to look at a difficult decision we wished to make in our lives and listen to our bodies contemplating a yes or no answer and take a step towards the answer it provided. I chose the opposite answer to the one my mind had been telling me. I felt clarity about it after doing this where before I had been living out of my expectations of what I hoped would happen.

So what has society written about making hard decisions over the centuries? Let’s take a walk down that pathway:

1. Don’t regret asking that person out, or moving continents.

2. Each decision you make could change the direction of your journey quite dramatically. Do not worry, you are on the right path, it’s your path: Don’t Stop Believing.

3. That old Gut Feeling, It knows what’s best for you.

4. One foot in the front of the other, or jump and learn to fly on the way down. Either way, something will happen: Fight Song.

5. And sometimes they don’t end up with the same result.

6. All those what if, it won’t work out thoughts, that just you mulling it over. Underneath it all, you already know if the answer is Yes or No: Dear Anxiety.

7. So, where do you want to be, time to decide.

8. How close do you get to a million before you have the courage to leap: Unstoppable.

9. In the background you already knew it was time, didn’t you?

10. Nicholas Sparks decided to start writing based on a simple remark from his mother when he was 19 years old that introduced him to the possibility:

‘”Your problem is that you’re bored. You need to find something to do…” Then she looked at me and said the words that would eventually change my life: “Write a book.” Until that moment, I had never considered writing. Granted, I read all the time, but actually sitting down and coming up with a story on my own? …I was nineteen years old and had become an accidental author: A Thousand Years.

11. Very surreal, this quote, what does it mean?

12. Breath in, Breath Out, and Decide. It sounds simple enough but at times is far from that: Take My Breath Away.

13. One of the biggest decisions we make in our life. The one to partner someone through life.

14. It’s like walking through the deep jungle, sometimes the path does not appear to be there, yet the indigenous people have moved through it for centuries: Follow Your Arrow.

15. And for the final lesson of the day, decisions are a lot harder when these things are in play.

The decision was over whether to ask a woman I had met recently out. The circumstances do not allow for it at the moment. With the new space the clarity of making this decision has created, who knows what may happen.

A few pop divas in the playlist today, and some Country and Western. A rock anthem from Journey leads off, Then the first pop diva Rachel Platten. A spoken word piece then Camila Mora and Christina Perri. Another blast from the past with Berlin and we finish with some C & W from Kacey Musgraves: It’s Not About Perfect, It’s About Effort.

As you are making these hard decisions in your life remember, Love and Respect for All, Everybody Included. Peace Out until next time we meet, my dear friends.