Not All who Wander are Lost!!

Posted on March 16, 2017 by Rod's World

The Universe speaks in mysterious ways. We have many patterns during our life. Having the same ones we had at four when we are forty can be dangerous or freeing, dependant what area in life we are using them. Sticking to set patterns can hold us back in fulfilling our plans and dreams, Einstein said – “We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.”

Do you know what your patterns are and do you strive to change them to better yourself on a daily basis, Let’s have a look at the power of patterns:

2. I used to have the pattern of going to bet at 2 a.m. and rising at 10 a.m. When I took up the habit of going to the gym at 7 a.m. I had to go to bed many hours earlier.

2. Migrating to the United States in 1938 to avoid discrimination as she was part Jewish, Lotte Lehmann holds the distinction of being the only person with a misspelled star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, it was spelled, Lottie. She was a fabulous opera singer as well: Auf Flugeln Des Gesanges.

3. Let it Go, Let it Out, Let it all Unravel. Let it Free and it can Be a path on which to Travel. Leunig’s great ode to pattern breaking.

4. Constantly disrupting is what achieves the breakthrough, doing it for a day doesn’t hold water: Breakthrough.

5. As we are going through another revolution with the introduction of robotics mature people will have to take this on as many jobs disappear.

6. Do you have a fall/autumn season for your patterns, or do you hold on to the dead leaves, sorry about the golden arches: Send my Love.

7. I asked Tuli Kupferberg once, “Did you really jump off of The Manhattan Bridge?” “Yeah,” he said, “I really did.” “How come?” I said. “I thought that I had lost the ability to love,” Tuli said. “So, I figured I might as well be dead. So, I went one night to the top of The Manhattan Bridge, & after a few minutes, I jumped off.” “That’s amazing,” I said. “Yeah,” Tuli said, “but nothing happened. I landed in the water, & I wasn’t dead. So I swam ashore, & went home, & took a bath, & went to bed. Nobody even noticed.”

8. If I use the term the vicious circle for this quote will it give away what modality I studied in the 1990’s : Same Old Love.

9. Then some patterns are worth keeping, these are some of them.

10. Louis Hay wrote her first book at 58, she lived and still lives the above statement at the ripe old age of 90: Unwritten.

11. What is the most Fabulous thing you have ever done, for a lot of people it is having children. As I have not done this, running the Moscow Peace marathon the year before the Berlin Wall came down is mine.

12. This quote certainly gets into what holding on to what we know works to survive costs us, Time to attack: Teardrop.

13. Marshall Rosenberg, the creator of Non Violent Communication has helped thousands reduce their resistance to using negative means of relating to the people in their lives.

14. Bruce Lee studied life as much as he did martial arts. There are hundreds of quotes you can find all over the internet attributed to him. This one is a particularly powerful one: Living In The Moment.

15. 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 popularizing a literary style labeled 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.

On his death in April 2014, Juan Manuel Santos, the President of Colombia, described him as “the greatest Colombian who ever lived.”

How are your patterns going? Allow them to wander and discover new routes to fulfill your dreams!!

Namaste until next time, my dear friends.

It is What it Is!!

Posted on March 13, 2017 by Rod's World

They say when people break up there are three versions: Yours, Theirs and Reality as to what really happened. There are 7,000,000,000 versions of reality walking around the planet. Some are very similar as they label themselves as belonging to a religious or political belief system and this often takes away the act of thinking freely.

Life is what it is, some of it affects our reality more than other actions do. At the moment it seems to be terrorism or mass migration that is on the top of the list of what is wrong with reality. I don’t think these are new to the world as my country is a totally migratory country except for the indigenous First Australians.

What have they said about reality over the centuries, let’s go on that journey:

1. Who would have thought someone from the 18th centuries quote would be so relevant these days. As idealists, we get a little exasperated with tedious attention to prices over people, numbers over names, logic over love.

2. We form our reality and Jarod Kintz points out a practice that stains it: Inconsiderate.

3. In the great book the Fear Cure, Lissa Rankin points out there are two types of fear. one you should listen to because you are in danger and the other that are all those thinks you think will happen if you do something and never actually do.

4. Danish philosopher Soren Kieregaard was considered to be the first existentialist philosopher. Much of his philosophical work deals with the issues of how one lives as a “single individual”, giving priority to concrete human reality over abstract thinking and highlighting the importance of personal choice and commitment: Let It Go.

5. They say police often have trouble getting facts about what happens at a crime scene because of what is written in the above quote.

6. I wonder how many people live by this premise, I don’t think it’s a question they ask in the census: Made to Dream.

7. It took being shot for this remarkable young woman to be listened to. I think she will fulfill this reality.

8. Mainstream media seems to have forgotten this seeing the way they interpret life: I’ll Show You.

9. Andy tried many ways to change reality in the 1960’s. His works explored the relationship between artistic expression, celebrity culture, and advertising that flourished by the 1960s and utilize a variety of media, including painting, silk screening, photography, film, and sculpture. Some of his best-known works include the silkscreen paintings Campbell’s Soup Cans (1962) and Marilyn Diptych (1962), the experimental film Chelsea Girls (1966), and the multimedia events known as the Exploding Plastic Inevitable (1966-67).

10.In this world, nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes. Why do we resist the latter so ferociously: Rivers of Tears.

11. Management expert James O’Toole, in a 2005 issue of Compass, published by Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, claimed that Bennis developed “an interest in a then-nonexistent field that he would ultimately make his own — leadership — with the publication of his ‘Revisionist Theory of Leadership’ in Harvard Business Review in 1961.” O’Toole observed that Bennis challenged the prevailing wisdom by showing that humanistic, democratic-style leaders are better suited to dealing with the complexity and change that characterize the leadership environment.

12. How often do we fall for this, that what is said about us is the actual reality vs. what we are actually experiencing: Human.

13. It changes moment to moment, each one a new reality.

14. Or seemingly not in mainstream media. If we believed them we would think the whole world is at war or committing acts of terrorism or be dying in accidents: Don’t Lie.

15. They looked across the room and fell in love/lust. The reality struck when they tried a relationship.

So what is your reality? How do you arrive at it and when are you willing to change it?

Namaste until next time, my dear friends.

It Matters not how Straight the Gate!!

Posted on March 11, 2017 by Rod's World

Well, I lost my Thursday blog as I had to leave where I was writing it and it only saved the heading when I got to it again to finish it off. I have since lost the urge to write on that subject of patience. I read this quote and it speaks to how much that mattered.

How do we decide if something matters in our life? Do we flip a coin, ask others opinions, listen to our souls and hearts, attend a mastermind meeting. I’m sure we all have our own unique way of doing it. So let’s have a look at how it has mattered over the centuries:

1. Probably her most famous quote, Katharine Graham led the Washington Post through its most famous period, especially the uncovering of the Watergate scandal in the 1970’s which caused the impeachment of Richard Nixon, the President of the United States. Watergate is now the word used for any type of major scandal in that country adding a new word to their language.

2. Do you give without expecting anything in return, from your heart, not your head? This is a different type of giving that opens other people’s hearts as well: From the Heart.

3. You lose contact with a friend, a relative passes, you lose your job. The pain is almost unbearable. That’s when it matters.

4. Harry Potter offered much to our society over its seven volumes. Perhaps this is the most important lesson: It won’t be like this for Long.

5. In my Desire Map Planner by Danielle LaPorte which is subheaded What I will do to Feel the Way, I want to Feel there is a daily question about what are you going to stop doing. I had never thought of adding this to my daily routine. It opens so much space for what does matter to fill it in.

6. Why do people grow up and hurt each other? We come out as a bouncing baby. Judd Nelson, one of the 1990’s Hollywood Brat Pack, along with Emilio Estevez, Anthony Michael Hall, Rob Lowe, Andrew McCarthy, Demi Moore, Molly Ringwald, and Ally Sheedy asks a very relevant question that matters: Why is it So Hard.

7. Sometimes we lose direction in life and focus on what others are doing. It can make a difference but essentially it is what you do for yourself and with your time that matters.

8. Living at risk is jumping off the cliff and building your wings on the way down. When will you jump off the cliff and what for: Speak Now.

9. I once wrote the following statement on my Facebook page: We all have the same 24 hours as Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela and Mother Teresa. My brother went apeshit. How do you react?

10. Spreading what matters in life also spreads Positive vibrations. Only one song and one artist can be used in this situation: Positive Vibration.

11. Even if you have to forgive your father, your remembrance of him is what makes the relationship strong even after he has passed. My father was a beautifully kind gentleman.

12. If it touches your heart it will always be remembered as a special moment. You may even have smiled: Blue Skies.

13. They say that on their deathbeds the thing most people regret is they did not do more things in their life. They let their common sense talk them out of trying things. Don’t listen to it.

14. I also posted a picture of an 80-year-old yogi and of another 80-year -old on crutches and with a walker. Same sort of reaction as my brother: Always on my Mind.

15. There are no Francis Bailey’s famous enough for Wikipedia but this one must be leading an exemplary life to be included in Google Images, just not quite famous enough.

So how does it matter to you, when do you stand up, and with who?

Namaste until next time , my dear friends.

You cannot Lose Something you Are!!

Posted on March 7, 2017 by Rod's World

Apologies for being a day late, I was putting my computer in a drawer at the reception at work as I was going to lunch and the office was locked when I found my copy of The Universe has Your Back by Gabrielle Bernstein. I opened it to a page that had an affirmation on it:

“I recognize I have chosen wrongly, I forgive this thought, and I choose again. I choose Love”

It is from a chapter called Oneness sets you Free, surrendering to the Holy Instant. What would life be like if we lived it in oneness, not duality? Many great philosophers have made comment on this subject, let’s have a look at what they say.

As you can’t read it clearly this is what Albert said A human being is a part of the whole, called by us “Universe”, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest — a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness.

2. Love Ram Dass, (born Richard Alpert; April 6, 1931)He is an American spiritual teacher and the author of the seminal 1971 book Be Here Now. He is known for his personal and professional associations with Timothy Leary at Harvard University in the early 1960s, for his travels to India and his relationship with the Hindu guru Neem Karoli Baba, and for founding the charitable organizations Seva Foundation and Hanuman Foundation. He continues to teach via his website: Be Here Now.

3. Such a beautiful way of looking at Life. Michael Beckwith, founder of the Agape International Spiritual Center in Culver City, if you have ever heard him speak you know that he lives his life this way.

4. When I was a runner I used to run the Shri Chinmoy half marathons in Melbourne. The organizers were some of the most open-hearted people I have come across: Open my Heart.

5. Remember those nights you were in the outback staring at the milky way realizing that you were an insignificant drop in a massive universe that you could not exist without, this talks to that.

6. Oneness is very simple: everything is included and allowed to live according to its true nature. This is the secret that is being revealed, the opportunity that is offered. How we make use of this opportunity depends upon the degree of our participation, how much we are prepared to give ourselves to the work that needs to be done, to the freedom that needs to be lived: Individuality.

7. Now, this is a difficult state to reach given what the media serve up to us on a daily basis.

8. In all this oneness, we have special moments. We call them Love, for George: Careless Whispers.

9. I write a daily Love Meme every day, often using a heart symbol. It represents to me what makes us all one.

10. Why did you turn left instead of right and run into your beloved? Because in our lives there are no random occurrences even though we often complain they happened: Safe.

11. We are all Starseed, the mountains, the seas, Us.

12. I once saw this man pour sand out of his hands. He could shift your concept of what was so. If you were willing to believe it was a different thing: Divinity.

13. Each of us has the divine masculine and the divine feminine within us. They need each other but must operate as one to be effective.

14. Quantum Physics has argued for this since its concept, unfortunately, our eyes cannot see the closing scene from the Matrix: Lose Yourself to Dance.

15. And in Oneness Everything is a Gift, even that.

Another practice from Gabrielle’s book is Let go of the shadow of the past by seeing someone for the first time with the eyes of love. So let’s recognize the other person is you.

Namaste until next time, my dear friends.

When You Get Lost, Celebrate!!

Posted on March 2, 2017 by Rod's World

When you get lost, celebrate. In every great journey, heroes lose their way sometimes, doubt their own power sometimes. Get lost, and find yourself. Find presence, the breath, the beating of the heart> Take the giant step of not knowing which step to take; a perfect step. Trust the doubting too. And your path will find you, moment to moment. Your true path cannot be lost, ever.

Jeff Foster: Reasons to Celebrate, Page 164 – 165: – The Way of Rest.

Do we remember to celebrate our lives, or do we through complaint in there to balance it out? How could we have a total celebratory life, how would that fit in with what the media expresses as daily life, war, death, and mayhem?

Luckily there are individuals who do not agree with this, here are some of their profound quotes about leading a celebratory life:

1. What we say and think creates our life, I have a practice of writing in the Facebook group Daily Gratitude Space. Join it has you look at simple things you can celebrate. https://www.facebook.com/groups/949499165128838/

2. One of America’s most respected authors, keynote lecturers and productivity consultants on high performance human achievement. 10 million audio programs sold in 14 languages, Denis Waitley is one of the most listened-to voices on personal and career success. He has helped a lot of people lead a good life: Good Life.

3. One way to ensure you are celebrating life is to have your attention be fully where you are, moment to moment. Not so easy to do!

4. Why is it that events that happen in our lives are better as memories. Refer to the point above: Memory.

5. Celebrations change in their focus as we travel down the journey of our lives. Where is yours focused on now?

6. I am one of the world’s worst photographers. My 89-year-old mum served in WW2 as a photographer and passed her skills on to her daughters. Ryan is considered the most important photographer in America, a celebration of life: Photograph.

7. Well, you can’t read many words on this quote. Laughter, a Hug, and Candles Burning BRIGHT. Sounds like a celebratory life to me.

8. As Oprah said love it and the universe will love you right back: Wake me up before you Go-Go!!

9. Josef Pieper was a German Catholic philosopher, at the forefront of the Neo–Thomistic wave in twentieth century Catholic philosophy. Among his most notable works are The Four Cardinal Virtues: Prudence, Justice, Fortitude, Temperance; Leisure: the Basis of Culture; The Philosophical Act and Guide to Thomas Aquinas (published in England as Introduction to Thomas Aquinas).

10. What would life be like if we celebrated all body forms, no anorexia probably? Fashion magazines have a lot to answer for: Your Body.

11. Music, Dance, Laughter, Meditation equals Celebration.

12. The dictionary of Jazz (Robert Laffont, Bouquins) defines him in the following way: A first-rate artist and intellectual, Archie Shepp has been at the head of the Avant- Garde Free Jazz movement and has been able to join the mainstream of Jazz, while remaining true to his aesthetic. He has developed a true poli-instrumentality: an alto player, he also plays soprano since 1969, piano since 1975 and more recently occasionally sings blues and standards: Lush Life.

13. Celebrate your life, It’s yours and you have no idea how everybody else is doing with theirs.

14. What entry in the history book are you leaving behind? What comes up when they google your name. It’s your celebration by life: Celebration!!

15. I had this said to me about Los Angeles by a 16-year-old girl in California in the 1990’s. Then she explained what she meant. I had not heard or thought of some of the things she talked about. They certainly know what celebrating is about in the Golden State.

So let’s remember to celebrate life, supposedly we only have one.

Namaste until nest time, my dear friends.

It fills the cup of Silence.

Posted on February 27, 2017 by Rod's World

My Chinese english student Ginny isn’t coming today, her husband is flying back home so she has to drive him to the airport so I am listening to music and writing todays blog. I thought music would be a great subject to write about. I have 40,000 tunes on my Itunes, I’m a bit addicted, always have been since a young age.

I have been a door-bitch for my musical friends for over 30 years, I love most types of music and support the theory most eras produce some talented people. At the moment Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds are playing on my iPhone. I saw him in the Birthday Party many years ago, always worth a listen.

How do you relate to music , does it pump you up, slow you down or both, let’s have a look what they say about it:

1. How did you choose your favourite songs? First Love, divorce, losing your virginity are often memorable times.

2. Thats why we part with our hard earned cash to go and see the greats. They combine words and silence that fills our heart with joy: That’s what I Like.

3. Your music rends to relief the pain, It’s your gateway to your soul.

4. Friedrich Nietsche is considered on of the great philosophers. At the age of 44 he had a complete breakdown and was cared for by his mother and then his sister until his death 11 years later: Without Music.

5. Backstreet Boy member has had an extraordinary life for 20 years thanks to his musical ability. He is very grateful for it.

6. Had to laugh at this one, probably true for me though: Life is like a Song.

7. What is your soul music, Mine is beautiful deep songs by female singer songwriters.

8. Have had many of these outbursts over my 62 years, the last was at a Safer Youssef, a mystical experience: Soupir Eternel.

9. I always thought that I couldn’t sing until I met my friend Kavisha Mazzella, an award winning singer songwriter and beautifully hearted soul and my choir leader, you can listen to her at http://www.kavisha.com.

10. There are so many songs that fill my dreams, what are yours: Dream a little Dream of Me.

11. Love an acronym, this is a powerful one.

12. I have made many a good friend I met at music gigs watching bands we both appreciated: Make you feel my Love.

13. Passion, Joy, Heartbreak, Power. All have their specific songs.

14. The Bard, taught at most western English speaking schools , you either loved or hated him. His words could make the earth shudder, didn’t know he discover earth music though: Earth Song.

15. I went to a funeral of a friends father. He had them play Smoke, Smoke that Cigarette as one of the tunes. He died from lung cancer. I haven’t chosen the music for mine yet, I may not have heard it yet.

Music is a constant part of our lives, some of it we love , other styles we hate. My big secret, I love pop divas, very uncool in the live music scene.

Namaste until next time, my dear friends.

We are a work in progress!!

Posted on February 23, 2017 by Rod's World

Disruptive Engagement – what does Brene Brown mean by that term: It’s quite long but worthwhile -To reignite creativity, innovation, and learning, leaders must re-humanize education and work. This means understanding how scarcity is affecting the way we lead and work, learning how to engage with vulnerability, and recognizing and combating shame. Make no mistake: honest conversations about vulnerability and shame are disruptive. The reason that we are not having these conversations in our organizations is that they shine the light in dark corners. Once there is language, awareness, and understanding, turning back is almost impossible and carries with it severe consequences. We all want to dare greatly. If you give us a glimpse into that possibility, we’ll hold on to it as our vision.

To me it is engagement through the community, accepting self-love and love of others and giving your identity up. The juice is from service to others. I put in engagement quotes to find pictures and got a whole lot of rings and vows of deep love so I changed it to committed engagement and these are what came up. Let’s journey:

1. Be responsible for your life, it’s your engagement and stand for what it is that creates the story that will be told after you have passed.

2. He really did look like an eccentric 60’s hippie philosopher. Alan Watts is quoted by humanists, community builders, and generally good people: Work and Play.

3. Doing Life – How do you do yours? Is it a joyous journey you wake up every morning screaming Yes!!!!!! Or is it a life of darkness?

4. Being silent is being busy if you planned it. I have many friends who have attended the 10-day Vispanna meditation retreat and said it was the hardest thing they had done and the best thing they had done all in the same breath: The Devil goes Down to Georgia.

5. How could you not choose this imagery and message, that’s why I said you need to give up your identity.

6. Engagement is a day to day adventure, make sure you do not wait to begin it: Alive.

7. Such a beautiful smile from a person who brings so much joy to the world. Can’t help but agree if you are fully engaged in loving your friends and family you are totally engaged in life.

8. Have you found a cause to sacrifice yourself into? They say it is the ultimate experience in your life. Parenthood is said to be this for many: Soul Sacrifice.

9. The Latter-day Saints base their religion on many hands engaged in a good cause> If you have ever been to Salt lake City you will never get lost as the first fifty streets around the temple are named Temple North, South , East and West.

10. I think it’s meant to be an anti-war slogan: The Universal Soldier.

11. Helen Keller definitely has the right to say this, I agree wholeheartedly.

12. Often people go and do self-development programs and get screamed out to go out and Do It Now, one big man being famous for it. Move at your own pace, its the only one you can: Piece of my Heart.

13. 7,000,000,000 unique folk battling a media who are trying to make you conform to fit a corrupted image of what it is to be human. Fight the good fight.

14. perhaps if we did this before doing it with a physical being there would not be so many of these: D.I.V.O.R.C.E.

15. There are heroes, and then there’s us, transforming the world one act at a time.

What you engage in will create your life. Think about that for a moment. Any change you want to make?

Namaste until next time, my dear friends.

Do You Fit In?

Posted on February 20, 2017 by Rod's World

Desire, often tied to sexual physicality yet it covers all fields in our psyche. It is said if you walk away from them you are not really living a life, just existing. How often as children do we have desires that we fulfill purely with our imaginations. Later on we are taught that this is not a practical way to lead our lives, I think that is a shame because it robs us of our ability to soldier on to fulfill our dreams later in life.

What has society said about desire, there were many takes at it, let’s have a look at a few:

1. Life does not make it easy for you to reach your desires. it has installed that little voice in your heads that challenges you as to whether you deserve it or not.

2. Arguably the most distinguished man of letters in English history, Samuel Johnson points out another character we need to make our desires come true: Curiosity: Curiosity Killed The Cat.

3. There is one voice to listen too when considering your desires: Your courageous one.

4. Creativity is a journey of achieving your desires, not a battle to defeat those who may get in your way: Good Life.

5. Here’s a word you will want to drop in casual conversation to impress you friends and family.

6. Are your desires material things? That’s fine but you can’t take them with you. Remember: The Best Things In Life Are Free.

7. Not quite as famous as his son Alan, Lauded for his epic poem Howl, Louis was famous for the comment quoted from his death. Louis Ginsberg published puns in the Newark Star Ledger under the heading “Keep an O’Pun Mind”. He often asked and answered, “Is life worth living? It depends on the liver.” His collection of puns was never published but they can be found in Box 2, Folder 9 in the Louis Ginsberg Papers at Stanford University. Louis Ginsberg, who died of liver and spleen cancer, told his son Allen Ginsberg, “I never thought my pun would come back to bite me.“

8. Which do you choose, I align with the wise: Closer To The Heart.

9. I’m sure Gandhi said lots of prayers to have his desire to free India from England’s grips come true. They seemed to have become tied to religious folk these days, don’t do this, use the power they offer.

10. What if we could read minds, would you be slapped often or thanked for your generosity: Meet Me Halfway.

11. It is wise to remember that postponing your desires just strengthens their grip on you. Don’t put them off!!

12. Such a beautiful name, Spanish poet, playwright and theatre director was also famous for his quote To see you naked is to recall the Earth.: Burned With Desire.

13. Mignon McLaughlin was an American journalist and author. In the 1950s, she began publishing aphorisms that were later collected in three books, entitled, The Neurotic’s Notebook, The Second Neurotic’s Notebook and The Complete Neurotic’s Notebook. I think this testy quote is from one of them.

14. One of my favourite songs about what we desire in life: Wild Horses.

15. Einstein, the master of imagination quotes : Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution.”

Do your desires fit in to the life you lead today, or do you hide them away in the caverns of what you life would be like if you only ………., fill in the dots.

Namaste until next time, my dear friends.

Lucky Enough to be Different!!

Posted on February 16, 2017 by Rod's World

I read a beautiful piece of prose in Jeff Fosters The Way of the Rest last night. here it is:

You are the one I wake up with every morning. The one I breathe with, The one whose every heartbeat I feel as my own. You are the one I walk with, the one I speak and sing with, the one who stays with me through every waking moment of every sacred day. You are the one I get sick with, the one I cry with, the one whose anger and joy and doubt surge through me like fire. You are the one I will die with, the one whose arms I return to. You are the one I see in every face, shining through every pair of eyes, shimmering through the silences, the trails of dust and the spaces in the canopy.ou are my constant companion, my home, my reason, my joy, my life. we cannot be divided, we cannot be two, and even One is too many for us.

I sing this song to myself, disappearing into the song and I am never alone.

It is called Love Song to Myself, how many of us write love songs to ourselves? I know I haven’t in a long time.

What is this thing called self-love? Let’s go on a journey down its rocky path:

1. Love is a four letter word, so is self. Two four letter worded combined make for an awesome life.

2. Do you do these things daily, if not what is enough for you to Love Yourself: Beautiful.

3. You Look like you are in Love. A statement that you are not yourself, a shame really.

4. I did a role play once with my friend Marija. For 15 minutes we had to say a statement to each other. Mine to her was you are fucking magnificent and hers to me was you are a handsome man. Since then we will always be FM and HM to each other: Who I Am.

5. With the publication of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Angelou publicly discussed aspects of her personal life. She was respected as a spokesperson for black people and women, and her works have been considered a defense of black culture. Attempts have been made to ban her books from some U.S. libraries, but her works are widely used in schools and universities worldwide. Angelou’s most celebrated works have been labeled as autobiographical fiction, but many critics consider them to be autobiographies. She made a deliberate attempt to challenge the common structure of the autobiography by critiquing, changing, and expanding the genre. Her books center on themes such as racism, identity, family, and travel.

6. Breathing is necessary to stay alive. I agree with Mandy Hale that these should also be part of the menu: F**king Perfect.

7. Shine on, you crazy diamond, you are unique and that is why we love you.

8. There are 7,000,000,000 beautifully unique individuals on the planet. Some have forgotten. Your job is to remember!!: Don’t you know you’re Beautiful.

9. Listen to your heart space, because one day it will stop, that will be the end.

10. Coleman Hawkins, a renowned jazz saxophone player is credited with saying If you don’t make mistakes, you aren’t really trying. His playing exemplified that: Cool Jazz.

11. Be careful what you say and think. Remember you are always listening and most of it will come true, even when you don’t want it too.

12. Make sure that you are not that person: Firework.

13. Sing that song to yourself as Jeff reiterates in his prose. It will give you access to others loving you.

14. I am also reading Brene’s Daring Greatly. Self-talk is incredibly powerful. Make the best use of it, you can: Brave.

15. And for the last insight, let’s give us the greatest gift we can, the beautiful gift of self-love.

You are lucky enough to be different from your brothers, sisters and best friends. That is because you are uniquely the beautiful being we know as ………….., insert your name here.

Namaste until next time, my dear friends.

Don’t Squander Joy!!

Posted on February 13, 2017 by Rod's World

I went along to watch a friend do her graduation performance at a transformational program she had been participating in called The Voices Of. In it, Ally embraced the voices of her INNER CHILD, INNER WISDOM, FEAR, SHADOW, DO-ER & DREAMER, she had come to find her TRUE VOICE. It was one of the most joyous evenings I have been to in a long time. Here’s a link to the website for it if you wish to know more: Voices of Movement.

It made me think about what brings you joy in my life. Is it music, sex, food? There are many ways to feel it, let’s have a look at what they say about it:

1. From the author of the iconic novels Treasure island and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Robert Louis Stevenson points to the fact joy is a feeling, not something that can be truly expressed in words.

2. Joy is a choice we must make daily, I made it last night by attending Ally’s graduation. To experience it today I must continue to choose it: I Choose You.

3. Can’t you feel it bubbling up just wanting to burst through, have a joyous day!!

4. Get out your fishing net of love, there is a soul full of joy waiting for you: Heart Full of Soul.

5. How do you have joy occur in your life, you focus on the things that make you feel that way.

6. What do you hold as holy, what keeps you warm and aglow? For me it’s music and blogging: Eternal Flame.

7. Your life is not somewhere to get to, It is a journey. Finding joy in that will make for a more enjoyable one.

8. It doesn’t change who you are when you get to your goal. If you are not joyful on the way there don’t expect it will change miraculously when you achieve it: Joyful Journey.

9. Until his final years, Wagner’s life was characterised by political exile, turbulent love affairs, poverty and repeated flight from his creditors. His controversial writings on music, drama and politics have attracted extensive comment, notably, since the late 20th century, where they express antisemitic sentiments. The effect of his ideas can be traced in many of the arts throughout the 20th century; his influence spread beyond composition into conducting, philosophy, literature, the visual arts and theatre.

10. One of my favourite writers Wayne Dyer reminds us that we knew this when we came into the world, so how did it become something that we have to battle for as we get older: Be Natural.

11. If you lead a life of gratitude for the simple things joy will flourish in your life on a daily basis.

12. This is a list of joyful events I attempt to practice daily because it certainly would be a case of Incredible Joy: Singing In The Rain.

13. Joy is not a destination , it’s a state of being. There is a borough named Mount Joy in Pennsylvania though.

14. Thich Nhat Hanh says some mightily obtuse things at times. You will always get a huge amount from them. This song came up next on Youtube, I think it defines joy appropriately: A Spoonful of Sugar.

15. From the world’s most prodigious and famous philosopher, Anon. comes the reminder that when you are giving joy it cannot help but stick to you as well.

So joy is available in your life, if you want it to be, I say don’t squander the opportunities day by day.

Namaste until next time, my dear friends.