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.

Not all Superheroes wear Capes!!

Posted on August 15, 2016 by Rod's World

My sister and I take my 89 year old mum op shopping every Tuesday, for those across the seas think Thrift shop shopping. Recently I realised that I have many friends who are motherless who are much younger than me. My birth-name is Rodney Paul Williams and my mum is one of two people who call me Rodney, the other being a friend I have come back in contact with after 30 years when I used to call myself that name.

When you are 89 you sometimes forget what you have said and when reading our families reunion book mum takes pleasure in reminding me I was a very shy child, about every five minutes. I used to get frustrated but realise that she is showing her love as best she can. So what do we write about our dear Mums that make it into the quotes section of Google Images, lets begin the journey.

1. They are the people who carry us in their womb for 9 months, harbouring us until we are ready to enter the world and begin our journey, and yes, they are everywhere.

2. During one of my mental health issues, I argued with my mother that people didn’t care and that I was going to go away. She wouldn’t let me leave and rang the local mental health team so that I received the treatment I needed at the time. They are our Guardian Angels

3. I’m sure at times with the issues that children go through in their lives, their mothers may feel this. But whose name do people call out in periods of extreme fear.

4. It used to make me wonder how women felt about giving their career up to become a mother. My friend Mary says it was the most beautiful period of her life. A Mother’s Prayer.

5. Abraham Lincoln ; (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. Lincoln led the United States through its Civil War—its bloodiest war and its greatest moral, constitutional, and political crisis.In doing so, he preserved the Union, abolished slavery, strengthened the federal government, and modernised the economy. Even presidents of the most powerful nation on the planet love their mothers.

6. During my years of health issues, I could always go home and my mum would heal me with her love. Mother Knows Best.

7. I was lucky enough to experience the joy of watching my sisters children fall asleep in her arms. They are now 30 and 25. My time fly’s by quickly

8. There are periods in our life where we rely entirely on them, then the period we wish they would leave us alone, and then we return to the love as we begin to fear that we will lose them for ever. This happens all across the World : Elderly Mother- Chinese.

9. In that period we do not see eye to eye with our parents, Our heart is what began beating in the womb: our heart knows best.

10 Terri Guillemets is a quotation anthologist from Phoenix, Arizona who has collected quotes since age thirteen. Her passion is sharing literary, inspirational, thought-provoking, and humorous quotations with a worldwide audience via her website The Quote Garden at http://www.quotegarden.com, one of the most long-standing online quotation collections and the first to offer a wide variety of special occasion topics. With a speciality in reviving vintage writings from the 1800s, she shares her love of old books, the art of writing, and the beauty of words with a personal, heartfelt approach — “spreading quotations joy” as she calls it. A curmudgeonesque optimist whose inner child will never grow up, she also enjoys nature, photography, cloud gazing, and family. Another one from across the planet A Mother’s Love

11. And then there are times one must have a laugh at the relationship.

12. Rumi is the most famous Persian poet so we must Have a Persian Mothers Love song: Mother.

13. We come out of the womb with wonder for the whole world. No racism, no sexism, no homophobia. It is the guidelines our mother and father give us that help us show up in life.

14. I remember the times we would get home from school and there would be gifts waiting when we least expected it. So each year I thank Gaia that my dear old mum has reached another : Happy Mothers Day.

15. Did you know mother was an acronym.

I’m sure there are times we have not felt this about our dear mothers, but our heart holds the memory of the womb and still having my mother at 62 years of age as an 89 year old shaman I regret those times.

Namaste until nest time, my dear friends.

Can you Feel the Noise?

Posted on August 1, 2016 by Rod's World

Ever since I took on the life-purpose of radiating Love my feelings have been going haywire.Its like their noise level has increased and that I am meant to deal with them, one thing I was very good at not doing for a long , long time.

I had an experience on a tram the other day where a woman told me I belonged in a psychiatric ward for tapping my feet to the music I was listening to. I felt it was my right to get angry and told her to Fuck off and that I would give her my psychiatrists number is she was disturbed by such minor things and to avoid school closure times when travelling.

So how do we relate and react to our feelings? Do we subdue them or let loose and lessen the hold they have over us. The world has many quotes on the subject of feelings and I like the 15 we are going to journey with todays: Lets begin.

1. I’ve been having these feeling again after a very, very long time of not allowing myself to. I’m still an amateur at it even though I am in my eldership years.

2. Those feelings you don’t want to have and wished they would go away, you had them for a reason. Breathe in, accept them and learn the lesson. Show The Tracks of My Tears.

3. I have been guilty of this for most of my life, as I suspect many of you reading this have been as well. They won’t go away unless they are accepted and expressed. So it’s not Silence is Golden.

4. The good old silent treatment, where you get to make up what is going on. Most times I go it wrong proving that this way of dealing with feelings is utter crap.

5. Out damn spot, denying it and trying to make them go away is the booby prize arena in the feelings stakes.

6. My friend Lissa Rankin talks about True fears and False fears, 90% of what we fear is never going to happen, its just our mind on full volume. Here’s a link to her page : The Fear Cure.

7. I have lost a few people in my life by not expressing my feelings. The latter statement os the result of not doing this.

8. Recently went through this, don’t know if she has forgotten me. gave her the choice to stay in contact, she declined. Feeling like this makes me think of Scary Monsters.

9. Moving on down the line, not really because those dang feeling are still somewhere lurking in my body and mind waiting for more playtime.

10. There is only one song that can go with this quote: Walk a Mile in my Shoes.

11. Declaration of this can have dire or gorgeous consequences dependant on what the other person’s reaction is.

12. Mind reading by any other name: If you could read my mind Love.

13. When people become media stars it is often forgotten that they have feelings to. Marilyn Monroe was hounded to her death as the sex symbol of her time.

14. How often have we thought or said, I thought I had dealt with that Feeling or Issue, yet her it is again raising its ugly head. Take it in your arms, my love. Feelings.

15. The flip flopping world of dealing with our feelings on a day to day basis. Will we ever make our mind up?

The things that make us distinct from each other, unique in our own right. Are we anything else but our feelings, I say that actions are also part of our makeup, but these are predicated by the former.

Namaste until next time, my dear friends.

Connection is, of the Soul!!

Posted on July 28, 2016 by Rod's World

There are many forms of connection across the world, religious sporting, kindred spirits and even family. I went to a card making day for the United Nations International Day of Friendship at Darebin Intercultural Centre in Melbourne where I voluntarily tutor English to two Sri Lankans, one Pakistani and three Chinese students. They give me a great connection to other cultures.

I made a card for each of my siblings , and I am going to send them on August 7th, which is the official day, I’m not sure how my older brother will take being told how I love him, it’s not his thing.

The quotes for connection are widespread across many facets of life, so let’s begin our travel down the road of being connected to something or someone in our lives.

1. Our connection to life can be like Anthony Robbins screaming out Just do It or like Eckhart Tolle cajoling us to just be in the now . Neither is an incorrect way to be connected to the earth. Kate Perry, OMG, has a courage song : Roar.

2. I grew up in Bendigo and went to High School in the 1970’s. The last friend I saw from those days was at least 15 years ago as I had to move away for work. I sometimes regret losing those wonderful friends I used to ride my bike to school with.

3. I’m not sure if this is the cinemaphotographer from Finding Tory, but I have been learning recently that it is not money you work for , it is your time that holds the value. when you lose value , you may contemplate this : Rock and Roll Suicide.

4. You can do well at things, but if they are not improving life on earth, why do you bother?

5. I’m sure we have all seen Steve Jobs, Tim Minchin’s and Jim Carrey’s commencement speeches. How many of the people listening follow the advice before they are sucked into the normality of a 9 to 5 job. Fear and Love.

6. And if we could connect to our younger selves, what would we say. Here is what actress Sandra Bullock suggested at a commencement speech she gave.

7. Make your connection with your spirit the best it can be , shoot high. Terry Teachout (born February 6, 1956) is an American critic, biographer, librettist,author, playwright,and blogger. He is the drama critic of The Wall Street Journal, the critic-at-large of Commentary, and the author of “Sightings,” a column about the arts in America that appears biweekly in the Friday Wall Street Journal. He blogs at About Last Night and has written about the arts for many other magazines and newspapers, including the New York Times and National Review : We are the Champions of the World.

8. Jim Carrey again, I have listened to the speech mentioned above in full about twenty times, if you have time seek it out on Youtube, the one I have included is a shortened version.

9. I wrote a previous blog on Anam Cara, Irish for soul friend, people you can be apart from for years and it feels like a minute and it just continues like no time has passed: That’s what friends are for.

10. There is a saying the greatest compliment you can give someone is to really listen to them. I think this quote sums that situation up pretty well.

11. We are here for a short period of time, do not leave the planet worse than you found it: Peace Train.

12. Not your Love, but your vision, creativity, character, and your passion, then perhaps it has a chance.

13. Because it says so much about our changing types of connection: My thoughts on Google+

14. Eleanor Roosevelt was the first lady of the United States and so much more. She said great empowering things, especially for women.

15. And, yes we are getting two commencement speeches in the add-ons, take it away: Steve Jobs.

As I said, different ways to look at connection, quotes, songs and speeches. Some of them are inspiring, some daggy – Australian for quirky, and some just classic.

Namaste until next time, my dear friends.

You are not a Tree!!

Posted on July 25, 2016 by Rod's World

I suppose I spent the first 30 years of my life being a good country boy with not much ambition besides holding down a job that brought in some money so I could survive this life.

The first event that really changed it was when my sister rang me near her birthday and asked me had I heard anything about the Forum and would I like to come to an evening about it. Being a good brother I said yes as a sort of Birthday present. I could not imagine I would be running down the main street of St. Petersburg with the sports minister and mayor of that city that is larger than Sydney and Melbourne combined just a year and a half later after running the Moscow Peace Marathon.

This phone call was life changing for me as I had never really taken a look at my life up to the moment I enrolled in the Forum a couple of months later. It didn’t have a lot of effect at first because I sat there knowing what they were talking about. It was only when they said something my egotistical IQ did not understand or believe at the time that had me actually take part in the enquiry.

What changes our Lives? Is it looking across the room and seeing the person we know we are going to spend the rest of our life with, the birth of our first child, or in my case a willingness not to know something. Let’s have a look at what is said about it out there:

1. How does one change their life? Winston Churchill, known as much for his cigar smoking as his words says it take old-fashioned courage, the ability to continue down the path of life. Lets be Brave.

2. Don’t listen to those negative stories in your head, go and talk to someone else who will point out the lies they are.

3. There will be moments in your life that you rediscover your two-year old tantrum ability, NO, with this I will not put up with. Here’s why MLK was considered such a change leader : I’ve been to the Mountaintop.

4. The meaning of life is not to get your values from mainstream media but from personal experience, then you truly know how it affects you.

5. Eleanor Roosevelt said the essential thing is to learn and that there is no experience from which you can’t learn something. My mentor Arion says it like this: Everything is a gift. At times it hurts me when I try to comprehend this lifestyle. You could say Its Living not Dreaming.

6. Do you agree with this?

7. Over to John Lennon: Imagine.

8. How many of the men out there were trained not to be emotive and shed tears because it was not being manly? Luckily our society has changed and this is no longer such a crime.

9. I was just turning 30 when I chose the latter. Let’s hear from the Sesame Street crew: Don’t Give Up.

10. My God, of which I don’t really have one, that hurt. Which type, which pain?

11. I’m a How I met your Mother fan, big time. If you are not you will not know who this proud and out gay actor who played the womaniser of the series is. Such an irony. Here’s Tegan and Sara from the Lego movie : Everything is Awesome!!.

12. Life will not always go the way you want it to, time for some yachting lessons so you can sail your way back.

13. My friend Emeli says it You’re Allowed, to live your dreams, she’s referring to. Arnie, the terminator in the classic movie series says it even simpler: I will do! Rise Up!!

14. Albert Einstein , 14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist. He developed the general theory of relativity, one of the two pillars of modern physics (alongside quantum mechanics). Einstein’s work is also known for its influence on the philosophy of science. Einstein is best known in popular culture for his mass–energy equivalence formula E = mc2 (which has been dubbed “the world’s most famous equation”). He received the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics for his “services to theoretical physics”, in particular his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect, a pivotal step in the evolution of quantum theory. His research has changed many lives.

15. Possibly the oldest quote with the youngest and cutest image. Confucius points out how to change your life, begin by taking a step at a time : One Step at a Time!!

The title of this blog comes from another quote: f you don’t like where you are, then change it – You are not a Tree. Victimhood is the booby prize, take that step from tree hood today.

Namaste until next time, my dear friends

Constructing Fear!!

Posted on July 21, 2016 by Rod's World

Recently in our country there has been a politician elected who bases her policies on fear and hate, her name is Pauline Hanson and she calls her party One Nation, one nation if you happen to be of white Anglo Saxon descent. She received over 500,000 votes so she is not alone.

Following up on this a mainstream journalist called for the banning of Muslim immigration because she was afraid for her children to walk the street due to terrorism, two people have been killed by terrorists in our country, and yes they were Muslim.

A Muslim journalist replied to her call, here is the video Destruction or Construction. At the end he called for the following, “You might just be angrily tweeting at someone who said something outrageous. What I’m suggesting is while it feels good to choose destruction, right now I think we need to try construction.”

Construction or Constructive thought in place of fear and loathing would create a very different world to what is being created via mainstream media worldwide. I recently watched a mainstream news broadcast and the first six reports were about death, so I turned it off as I would prefer ignorance to this being pumped into my thought patterns.

There are many opinions on constructive thought throughout the annals of time, lets go on a journey:

1. We need to spread this through classrooms, Love and Courage before the eschewed values of the media barons get hold of our children’s minds.

2. As does hate never decrease, you cannot solve hatred with more hatred or fear, it requires love and Happiness. Pharrell William’s Happy.

3. American Speaker, Poet, Lyricist and Author Sydney Madwed was told by his second grade teacher that his voice and the songs he was making up did not fit in so he could not sing with his class. It took him to the age of 57 to rediscover his talent for poetry.

4. It is often how constructive criticism is that allows us to grow from it, imagine if we had an entire Constructive Summer.

5. Michael Leunig, one of Australia’s living legends and greatest cartoonists uses a duck as his image of calmness. Here is the link to his gallery, be inspired Michael’s magic.

6. Henry Ford, inventor of the first mass assembly line changed the conversation towards cars, here’s a classic tune about one of his iconic models : Mustang Sally.

7. What can be done in the name of pleasing people, taking away their fears.

8. In what Waleed did in his video he was questioning that fear and hate only becomes more fear and hate. He was willing to question this paradigm. Question It.

9. We are seeing the danger worldwide of the former of this modalities being the mainstream methodology. Perhaps this should be displayed in every government institution that exists on the planet.

10. If we learn to listen in these situations we would be On Top of the World

11. Audrey Hepburn , 4 May 1929 – 20 January 1993 was a British actress. Recognised as a film and fashion icon, Hepburn was active during Hollywood’s Golden Age. She was ranked by the American Film Institute as the third-greatest female screen legend in the Golden Age of Hollywood and was inducted into the International Best Dressed List Hall of Fame. Audrey did not believe her greatest talents were her looks, but her positive, constructive attitude.

12. In their song Aussie Rockers Rose Tattoo speaks to this quote We can’t be Beaten.

13. From the great philosopher Author Unknown comes a piece of magic about where fear and loathing come from.

14. Fundamentally Fear is a choice, Jim Carrey says there is only two moods, Fear and Love. Bruce lee, film star and karate master goes for the latter : Positive Vibration.

15. That little inner voice with those harsh words that have constructed our worlds, I called them your sacred stories that you do not want people to know about you, ever. What if we could tell them with out any attachments, how different life would be.

I wish to believe the stories that what is happening on out planet is the old ways fighting for their survival against the coming of the new age of Atlantis. Our future may depend on it.

Namaste until next time, my dear friends.

I’ve got the Music in Me!!

Posted on July 11, 2016 by Rod's World

I have 33,000 songs in my Itunes library, I subscribe to Apple My music, Spotify, have 130 albums on my Bandcamp play list, Mixcloud, Soundcloud and am subscibed to about 300 musicians webpages: so the above statement is my truth.

I cannot play an instrument as my right and left hand do not talk to each other but my dear friend Kavisha Mazzella taught me to sing as a member of The Moon’s a Balloon choir which I honour her for each and every day. The secret is learning to listen not to sing the words. Here is one of her songs to explain why she has such an exquisite ability to do so: Invisible Indivisible.

There are a lot of quotes about the love of music and it is my joy to select them and interpret what they mean to me: Here we go –

1. This statement is very truthful, I have never been able to get into death metal or people who are racist and sexist.

2. I am sure we all have our favourite up and down songs, probably two or three. Think of yours as you listen to one of my all time fave love songs: Let’s Stay Together.

3. Feelings are said to have colours, I agree with the sentiment expressed in this quotes that they also have sounds, rage is aargh and love is aaw to me.

4. You can be stock still to it, you can also be in a state of total chaos but there is always a solution to whatever problem you are facing in your music collection, it might even be the sounds of nature.20 minutes of natures bliss.

5. Because I like puns.

6. Seems Plato was a music dude as well as one of the worlds great philosophers. Here’s some Soul of the Universe music : I am a Soul.

7. Unlike native languages music is understood in every country on every continent of our planet. From Antarctica to Iceland the dulcet tones of an instrument can unite people from all races.

8. Well, I didn’t expect her to be a news anchor. Here’s a news musical Clip: Not the 9 O’clock news.

9. You can put her on in the mood you need to talk about at any time and it doesn’t cost you 200 dollars.

10. How often have you heard music being performed where you forget to eat and drink. I recently went to see one of my favourite ex rock gods Stephen Cummings, lead singer of one of Australia biggest bands in the 1970’s the Sports now a much loved singer songwriter who plays to crowds of 40, here is one of my favourite Steve songs: When Love comes Back to Haunt You.

11. Kavisha, who I mentioned before used to lead a session called Empty Sky, there would be 5 minute breaks of silence between silence. She believed that was where the magic and the healing lay.

12. Not Might mouse Modest Mouse, they are actually a band – The band’s name is derived from a passage from the Virginia Woolf story “The Mark on the Wall,” which reads, “I wish I could hit upon a pleasant track of thought, a track indirectly reflecting credit upon myself, for those are the pleasantest thoughts, and very frequent even in the minds of modest, mouse-coloured people, who believe genuinely that they dislike to hear their own praises. In Australia there is only one song you can use to depict the soul, here it is: Soul Kind of Feeling.

13. Best known for his Fanfare for the Common Man, Aaron Copland was an American composer, composition teacher, writer, and later in his career a conductor of his own and other American music. Instrumental in forging a distinctly American style of composition, in his later years he was often referred to as “the Dean of American Composers” and is best known to the public for the works he wrote in the 1930s and 1940s in a deliberately accessible style often referred to as “populist” and which the composer labelled his “vernacular” style.

14. Yes it’s mi-spelt but that is the joy of this form of music , its can be corny and yet so deep. My favourite is alternative country and my favourite artist : Gillian Welch.

15. As my musical ownership list proves , I totally believe in music, and I also believe in Unicorns.

Thanks for letting me write about my addiction once again, every little bit heelp on the path to recovery.

Namaste until next time my dear friends

Relax, Renew, Refresh!!

Posted on July 7, 2016 by Rod's World

I have just begun to be able to relax again as I have had an injury caused by being pulled around the floor for three minutes to experience what it felt like to fly. Bring on three weeks of sleepless nights a lot of pain and looks when I told people as to how it happened that I am a slightly unconnected individual.

I suppose we don’t really think how quickly our ability to relax and chill can be taken away from us, I hope I have learnt my lesson that relaxing take something as does stressing. Its amazing how many quotes on relaxing feature cute pictures of cats and dogs so I tried not to include to many in the 15 I have chosen to discuss this worthy subject, Let us begin our journey.

1. How many times a day do we forget this little mantra. Frankie goes to Hollywood implores us to Relax, don’t do It.

2. Which way do you wake up, I’m a bit of both.

3. This is possibly what my very fat in law cat Lhasa looked like as a kitten, cats have it all over their canine friends in the relaxing stakes.

4. The Chinese have given much to the world, one of the things is great philosophers who come up with great quotes. This is one of them.

5. Remember to include in your daily to do list time to do stuff like this, laying on the earth is very good for you.

6. Relaxation travels with its mates, here’s a group photo of them just chilling.

7. Relax, take it easy is a song that comes to mind when I think of the baths I have had over my life time : Mika’s beautiful song

8. My father was a teacher, as well as one sister and the other one was a lecturer. Sometimes the system in our country doesn’t allow for this as their marking time is not included in their attendance at the actual school. Cute Polar Bear.

9. I believe that being in the presence of love is one of the most relaxing things you can do in your life. Find a loving community, family and friends and your stress will lower immediately.

10. Now this is one relaxed looking dude, bet he’s rocking out some awesome licks.

11. Our society has become so busy that there are even books being written on how to relax, I think the title of this particular book speaks to how difficult we have made a simple pastime.

12. If you find a job or career you love, you will not work another day in your life. Allan Watts agrees with sense of relaxed play in Life: Allan Watts on Relaxation.

13. One quote I did not choose said 7.45 roll over for a five minute nap, wake up at 8.30. have a 5 minute nap at work at 1.30 , wake up at 1.31 pm. Wayne Dyer’s quote speaks to something entirely different.

14. Had to sneak in one for the dog lovers, He/She looks super relaxed.

15. And we’ll finish with one of the most chilled out songs about relaxing. Take it away Mr. Marley :Don’t Worry ’bout a Thing.

So lets commit to living a more relaxed life and add some years to our time on Earth.

Namaste until next time, my dear friends.

Where we Wrong?

Posted on June 30, 2016 by Rod's World

Today I wrote on reconciliation. In our country there is a call for reconciliation to recognise the indigenous people who are not recognised in our constitution. There is one slight problem, most of the indigenous people don’t want reconciliation they want a treaty that recognises the fact the land was stolen off them.

This has caused much division, in the area where I live there is a call to change the name of the local electorate from Batman, named after explorer John Batman to recognising our indigenous people, the Wurrundjeri.

Batman is a controversial figure due to his dealings with Aboriginal peoples in Van Diemen’s Land/ AKA Tasmania and Victoria. The artist John Glover, Batman’s neighbour in Van Diemens Land, said Batman was “a rogue, thief, cheat and liar, a murderer of blacks and the vilest man I have ever known”.

The treaty Batman negotiated with local Aboriginal peoples in 1835, to acquire land in the Port Phillip area, was a matter of controversy in his day, and has remained an event of great historical interest and debate.

So what does the world say about reconciliation and is it essential that it occurs for the soul of the earth to be restored. Lets begin out journey:

1. Actually Thich Nhat Hanh, this beautiful man has been a peace and reconciliation activist since the days of the Vietnam War. He was interviewed by Oprah, a bit long but worthwhile: The Interview.

2. Recognised as one of the greatest peace activists on his release, he was originally jailed for being a guerrilla, he set up the famous truth and reconciliation commission after the end of apartheid so that chaos did not break out and that a new future could be created in South Africa.

3. Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, was a Spanish writer who is widely regarded as the greatest writer in that language and one of the world’s pre-eminent novelists. What do you think he means by this statement?

4. It is said that we outgrow people but what about those times we made somebody wrong for what they said or did. I recently made up with a person who had been one of my dearest friends. My heart sung after I did it.

5. What if we could restore all the broken hearts we suffered in our life, would the world occur differently, fuck yeah!!

6. Nelson again, putting it in our faces. South African Songs

7. Practical action, Fraser was the last Liberal Party Prime Minister to practise Keynesian economics. In retirement, Fraser became involved in international relief and humanitarian aid issues and, domestically, as a forthright liberal voice for human rights. Shortly after Tony Abbott won the 2009 Liberal Party leadership spill, Fraser ended his Liberal Party membership, stating the party was “no longer a liberal party but a conservative party”.

8. In Victory someone usually loses, Reconciliation tends to be the opposite where both parties obtain what they desire.

9. García Márquez started as a journalist, and wrote many acclaimed non-fiction works and short stories, but is best known for his novels, such as One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967), The Autumn of the Patriarch (1975), and Love in the Time of Cholera (1985). His works have achieved significant critical acclaim and widespread commercial success, most notably for popularising a literary style labelled as magic realism, which uses magical elements and events in otherwise ordinary and realistic situations. Some of his works are set in a fictional village called Macondo (the town mainly inspired by his birthplace Aracataca), and most of them explore the theme of solitude. This powerful statement speaks to the gift of reconciliation.

10. The Fonz from the sitcom Happy Days could not say these words. How much pain has our inability to say them caused us? In my case quite a bit.

11. Have you ever met someone you keep running into in the most unusual situations. I saw one of these people on a TV program the other day.

12. Brother Roger was awarded the UNESCO Prize for Peace Education in 1988 and wrote many books on prayer and reflection, asking young people to be confident in God and committed to their local church community and to humanity. He also wrote books about Christian spirituality and prayer, some together with Mother Teresa with whom he shared a cordial friendship. A springtime to the Soul sounds like a wonderful place to hang out in. Leonard Cohen has a wistful song about reconciliation : Amen.

13. South Africa’s other great peace activist, Desmond Tutu calls us out that forgiveness and reconciliation are real things we need to take action on. Tutu’s admirers see him as a great man who, since the demise of apartheid, has been active in the defence of human rights and uses his high profile to campaign for the oppressed. He has campaigned to fight HIV/AIDS,tuberculosis, poverty, racism, sexism, homophobia and transphobia. He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984; the Albert Schweitzer Prize for Humanitarianism in 1986; the Pacem in Terris Award in 1987; the Sydney Peace Prize in 1999; the Gandhi Peace Prize in 2007; and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009. He has also compiled several books of his speeches and sayings.

14. The great Chinese philosopher Unknown asks us to walk powerfully on the earth, so do I.

15. And we must never forget the magical powers of the Unicorn of Reconciliation, they can help heal the world.

I believe that we can heal the planet through reconciliation, not with just fellow human beings, but the other animals and the plants as well.

Namaste until next time , my dear friends.

Do they really love us and can they talk?

Posted on June 27, 2016 by Rod's World

I am back on the air. After washing my phone and not having access to my verification codes to do an article for several weeks I have my beloved I phone 6 back. I saw an elderly woman walking her beloved pooch this morning on my walk to work, she was dressed in black so I assume that her beloved had passed and that her little white poodle filled her heart in the physical sense at least.

This made me think as a pet-less one, putting me in the minority in my country, 63% of households have one, 40% dogs and 23% cats and probably like my sister Ruth having both ,what it is that pets fulfil in people lives.

I tried not to choose 15 images of cats and dogs, but they are definitely the favourite, so lets go on our journey about the love between the furry ones and their two-legged friends who bizarrely think they are the masters.

1. I never got into pet ownership as a child due to our family having several disasters occur. Dog poisonings, pigeon fox attacks etc. etc. I would enjoy the company of a cat but my lease says nada to that.

2. I am in-laws to a cat and a dog, Suki and Lhasa. How much attention Suki gets my brother in law said once that he wants to come back as her next time around to receive the attention that my sister pours on her. Lhasa is an old cat who rules the roost.

3. Unknown must secretly be a dog or a cat. This speaks so strongly about the bond between the pets and their owners that I know. This song by Patti Page does also : How much is that Doggie in the Window.

4. Those nights watching our favourite life’s a little bit hard at the moment” with our beloved moggie or puppy are so, so special.

5. One knows that as soon as you begin cuddling or patting yours or someones pet you next half an hour has just been taken up.

6. This is the contract you take on with an animal, are you ready for it?

7. I just had to put this one in, it’s funny and explains some of their cuter expressions.

8. Research shows that hugging (and also laughter) is extremely effective at healing sickness, disease, loneliness, depression, anxiety and stress. Research shows a proper deep hug, where the hearts are pressing together, can benefit you in these ways:

1. The nurturing touch of a hug builds trust and a sense of safety

2. Hugs can instantly boost oxytocin levels, which heal feelings of loneliness, isolation, and anger.

3. Holding a hug for an extended time lifts one’s serotonin levels, elevating mood and creating happiness.

4. Hugs strengthen the immune system. The gentle pressure on the sternum and the emotional charge this creates activates the Solar Plexus Chakra. This stimulates the thymus gland, which regulates and balances the body’s production of white blood cells, which keep you healthy and disease free.

5. Hugging boosts self-esteem. From the time we’re born our family’s touch shows us that we’re loved and special. The associations of self-worth and tactile sensations from our early years are still embedded in our nervous system as adults. The cuddles we received from our Mom and Dad while growing up remain imprinted at a cellular level, and hugs remind us at a somatic level of that. Hugs, therefore, connect us to our ability to self love.

6. Hugging relaxes muscles. Hugs release tension in the body. Hugs can take away pain; they soothe aches by increasing circulation into the soft tissues.

7. Hugs balance out the nervous system. The galvanic skin response of someone receiving and giving a hug shows a change in skin conductance. The effect in moisture and electricity in the skin suggests a more balanced state in the nervous system – parasympathetic.

8. Hugs teach us how to give and receive. There is equal value in receiving and being receptive to warmth, as to giving and sharing. Hugs educate us how love flows both ways.

9. Hugs are so much like meditation and laughter. They teach us to let go and be present in the moment. They encourage us to flow with the energy of life. Hugs get you out of your circular thinking patterns and connect you with your heart and your feelings and your breath.

10. The energy exchange between the people hugging is an investment in the relationship. It encourages empathy and understanding. And, it’s synergistic, which means the whole is more than the sum of its parts: 1 1 = 3 or more! This synergy is more likely to result in win-win outcomes.

9. Did the philosophiser Immanuel Kant creator of I think, therefore I am also come up with this classic statement about the human part of the partnership of animal and owner?

10. I’m sure most pet owners have nightmares about this. Cat Stevens would like you to sing you a song : I love my Dog!!.

11. James Alfred “Alf” Wight, OBE, FRCVS (3 October 1916 – 23 February 1995), known by the pen name James Herriot, was a British veterinary surgeon and writer, who used his many years of experiences as a veterinary surgeon to write a series of books each consisting of stories about animals and their owners. He is best known for these semi-autobiographical works, beginning with All Creatures Great and Small in 1972. The British television series adapted from the books is also titled All Creatures Great and Small.

12. My nephew was afraid of dogs for many a year after hearing a German shepherd bark for an extended period of time. Many things can cause phobias towards our furred ones. What would you name your snail?

13. Not always the most logical creatures, are they. Just tricksters at heart really.

14. Cutest animal picture of the blog, and best quote as well.

15. How could I look at this photo and not think of Michael Jackson’s first hit: Ben.

Being one of the 37% minority in my country who do not do this I feel I am close to having the illegal cat. We spend close to 1 billion dollars a year on our furry creatures and they love us for it.

Namaste until next time , my dear friends.