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.

Is No iPhone the first step?

Posted on February 23, 2016 by Rod's World

I lost my iPhone two days ago, meaning when I am travelling away from my abode I am literally off the grid unless I run into someone I know. At first it felt kind of weird, but I have become more and more used to it. It made me think of a journey my friend took down the length of the Yarra River in my home city of Melbourne : The Comfort of Water

I also remember hearing about a family who travelled around their country seeking out fellow off gridders: Off-grid.net .

The quotes I have chosen are directly related to the subject with a few left field ones thrown in for good measure: Lets begin our journey :-

1. Hollywood actor Ed Begley Jr. could have chosen a life of fast cars and flashy woman. Instead after hearing a speech at the First Earth day he had his aha moment and it transformed his relationship to the planet. Here is a story about his eco-house Live by Example.

2. Lets have an unplug day a month and build up our off the grid moments from there.

3. When you go off the grid you give up your attachment to the physical things that drive most people’s lives. You still retain these essential things though.

4. Mainstream society destroys our basic needs, putting yourself off the grid trains you to be self-sufficient. Here is one of his blogs on The myth of Human Progress.

5. When we are kids we didn’t know what a dollar meant, try living off one dollar. Here is the impressive 2013 documentary on that exact subject: Living on One Dollar.

6. I’m sure many of you have visited places that shudder, there is no WiFi connection. I remember these as moments of deep connection with the people who had been brave enough to journey outside the grid.

7. Vincent Kartheiser, the actor who played Martin in the widely popular Mad Men series announced in 2010 he was taking on Simple Living. He no longer has a car and is slowly giving away everything he owns.

8. Several years ago I attended an Anti-clutter workshop at my local library. The first question the woman asked who was running it was How many towels do you have. She had people raise their hands from 4 to 30, and yes there were people who had 30 for two people.

9. Known for diverse roles such as Hellboy and Clay, president of the Motorcycle club in Sons of Anarchy, Ron Perlman is another actor who has joined the growing umber of actors who have followed this path.

10. All the characters in J.R.R. Tolkien’s books would be considered off the grid. As he states, not all those wander are Lost!!

11. The quote is from a Maine organisation in the United States, but the link I have added is for off the Grid living in my home country, Australia: Is it possible?

12. I became curious writing this as to how many people live off the grid, this article states it is as many as 1.7 billion. Its informative and well written: There are lots of us.

13. I believe it would take something special like Fire in my Belly to live totally off the grid, I am very attached to my internet.

14. You can’t buy the smiles with things that these simple enjoyments put on children’s faces.

15. Earthing is seen by many as being an alternative, even maybe hippy term. But the simple act of walking on the earth barefoot is having more and more evidence support it for its health benefits. Definitely off the grid, the wearing of no shoes. This article points them out: Barefoot for better Health.

I get my iPhone back in 3 days but think I will take on the practice off going out without it and see what ensues on my path to off the grid living from there.

Namaste my dear friends and speak to you Thursday, I was a day late again as it is up to my sister what day we go op-shopping with my mum.

On the Road Again!!

Posted on February 16, 2016 by Rod's World

One date late, I was on a Monday op shopping journey with my sister from Tasmania who was over for the week and my regular Tuesday companions my Melbourne sister and my eighty eight year old mum.

I came to work and saw the headline ” My Journey, My Lucky Country ” an entirely different sort of outing, a refugee tale. It made me think what did the word journey mean to an individual was it one of the road, an inner journey of the body and mind, time spent with friends or an entirely different interpretation.

The 15 quotes I have chosen cover many different takes on it, so lets begin our journey:

1. Dr. Steve Maraboli is a life-changing Speaker, best-selling Author, and Behavioural Science Academic. His quotes and videos have become a social media sensation, being shared by millions across the globe and earning him the designation of, “The most quoted man alive.” On journeying he states that one needs to let go of what occurred yesterday to release the beauty of today’s.

2. Rainer Maria Rilke was born in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, travelled extensively throughout Europe, including Russia, Spain, Germany, France, Italy, and in his later years settled in Switzerland—settings that were key to the genesis and inspiration for many of his poems, yet he believed the main journey was an inner one.

3. One of the great hits of the first great musical festival Woodstock was Canned Heats epic On the Road Again Canned Heats anthem to the Journey.

4. Ernest Hemingway , winner of the 1954 Nobel Prize for Literature, had an amazing life’s journey. Married four times, he reported from the Spanish Civil War and was present at the Normanby Landing and the liberation of Paris during World War Two. He certainly lived the ethos of his above quote.

5. In these hectic times of Internet, Facebook and many other forms of Social Media, the journey often feels more like a race. Try to slow down and find the joy that is available on the journey of life. Remember to smell the Roses.

6. How often are we reminded that the journey is not always on a straight lineal path. For me it has been mental health episodes. What have been your falls?

7. My brother left our family home and travelled to Western Australia without notice at the tender age of 17. My parents at the time did not understand this at all. I think we all have incidents in our life’s journey that are not understood by others. They are not meant to be. Its our journey and we mostly know why we are doing it.

8. All the books we are read as children have a happy ending. Yet in our lives this is not always the case, we have much more interesting stories to tell from our journey.

9. “Harness the power of today. Seize the blessings of today! Make something happen, enhance your life, make someone laugh, help a friend, love, love, love!”

10. I have been training myself recently to be in the present, it is quite remarkable how different your experience of life is when you exist from this paradigm, all experiences are more enjoyable.

11. If the Earth formed at midnight and the present moment is the next midnight, 24 hours later, modern humans have been around since 11:59:59pm—1 second. And if human history itself spans 24 hours from one midnight to the next, 14 minutes represents the time since Christ. This put our lifetimes in perspective, remember to enjoy the time you are here.

12. Big Tony point out that to be able to experience a journey you must begin it. Many people choose to never do this.

13. Many people just a few years older than me have been passing recently including a good friends father totally unexpectedly. Don’t forget the people in your life who mean a lot to you. Assuming they will be there tomorrow is just that, an assumption.

14. That’s what friends are for Dionne Warwicks divine tune on the subject.

15. And finally Snoopy has the last say, Lets bring in Willy Nelson as well On the Road Again, to me this is so true. My friends and family have been the best part of the journey.

So how ever we travel our journey, as an entrepreneur, a Nine to Fiver, a sporting hero, a stay at home mum all the advice seems to be enjoy it as much as you can because we are here for a short while.

Namaste until Thursday my dear friends.

It’s not about selfishness—it’s about sanity!!

Posted on November 5, 2015 by Rod's World

Was in a quandary what to write today’s blog about when a friends video blog and this fantastic article Authentic Self Care appeared on my News Feed.

It raised in me memories over my life when I had not done this for myself. The times I would go to work with no sleep and fall asleep at my desk when I was meant to be managing Fourteen people. The times I would not take notice of my depression and anxiety returning and end up in hospital again. The times I would not be in contact with the people who loved me, my mother once sent me a post card with a picture of a ship on it asking if this was the ship I was returning to Australia in as she had not heard from me in 3 months. There are many other examples over my 60 years but I hope you get the point I’m making.

I have spent the last five years becoming more in contact with what is self care for me and am much more aligned with it these days. I gave up drinking, I declared a day the 40th Anniversary of commencing, thanked it and gave up, I investigated healing modalities and settled on Tai Chi as my practice, and I go Op Shopping with my Mum and sister every Tuesday.

So , onto the 15 quotes I have chosen to discuss the sacred practice of Self Care – Here we go.

1. I remember those times earlier in my life when it was about Sex, Drugs and Rock and Roll. That life was about me and my pleasure. I have since learnt that Service is what provides true satisfaction. Some of my friends didn’t make it through.

2. The glass half full quandary is a popular way to look at how you look at life. The empty vessel is a state you do not really want to get to, what it does to your health can be devastating.

3. William S. Burroughs, one of the most politically trenchant, culturally influential, and innovative artists of the 20th century speaks to the power of relaxation in this oft quoted statement.

4. Never forget to add a sense of humour to your Self Care principles, Snoopy has something to say on the matter.

5. What affect does does how you Self Care have on you, It shows the world how you are willing to be treated, so choose it wisely.

6. I handed this poster out at a Mental Health talk we gave at our centre last year, people still come up and thank me for it stating that it is on their Fridge door. it’s a great list of practices that can make profound changes in your health.

7. Guilty as charged, I was a Yes person for Years, Byron Katie is known for her generosity in having a website that enables you to do The Work for nothing. It is profoundly healing and transformational.

8. I like to pamper myself, be pampered by others and to pamper others. It is an excellent way to return to the heart, to me this is the journey we are on as we travel towards the time we are no longer here this time.

9. Sacredness is holy divinity, promising yourself to honour your own well being should be on your personal Ten Commandments.

10. I fill out my Desire Map daily planner every morning here’s the link Daily Planner, one of the five sections is Well Being, another Essence and Spirituality. These are just as important as work you have to do. All work and no Play makes us dull boys and girls.

11. I enjoy Mind Maps, they look swirly and a bit chaotic, which self care can be some times. Give it a go for your prescription for Self Care. A resource for this is the magnificent book by Lissa Rankin The Fear Cure.

12. Make a habit of Excellence in your Self Care, keep on doing it daily.

13. Blogger turned New York Times best-selling author and speaker Mandy Hale is affectionately known around the world as “The Single Woman.” With a heart to inspire single women to live their best lives and to never, ever settle. Her advice is to never give away being the source of your own happiness AKA self care to another.

14. My friend Emeli Paulo from Collective Potential, creator of the transformational RAW workshops and True Grit weekends, has us go around at the beginning of meetings and say I am enough to empower the space and get rid of the stories we have come in with. I recommend the practice if you attend or organise meetings or workshops, Its powerful.

15. Here is a mind map that I have followed for several years. At times I forget part of it and when life starts feeling dazed and confused I look it up and see what it is that I have let slip and put it back in place.

Writing this has reinforced for me the importance of including Self Care in your daily practices. Waking up, Showering, having a coffee, rushing off to work, Getting home, making dinner, Watching TV , crashing out, repeated daily is a formulae for disaster.

Here’s to a healthy dose of Self Care daily.

Namaste until next time, my Dear Friends

Your contribution is a gift to the Community

Posted on December 22, 2014 by Rod's World

The news that has been being reported in my country is tragic at the moment, multiple deaths that are unexpalinable to anyone with a humane heart. it has made me think how does the community recover from such events when they become permeated in our history, Soon after the event an unknown person placed a bunch of flowers in Martin Place as a sign of the deep loss they felt for the people involved, they probably did not know them but they wanted to say i feel for you in some way.

In an amazing outpouring of compassion, thousands upon thousands of people have followed suit and it has simply become to be known as the martin Place Flowers Shrine.

This has brought me to think what options are available to you to mend a broken heart when something unimaginable happens that renders it asunder.

1. Seek professional help.

What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us. Ralph Waldo Emerson’s quote sums up succintly the power of what we are thinking about something has over us. When your thoughts start getting dark and are making it difficult to face the day its time to talk to someone who has been trained in releasing the grip those thoughts have on you.

2. Write about It.

They say it is better in than out and if you find it difficult to talk to someone about it then the option of writing how you feel gets it out of your head and on the page. As they say you can’t start the next chapter if you keep on reading the last in your head.

3. Physical Touch.

I find this one difficult when in the depths of thinking life is not great but in following this koan: Physical touch makes you healthier. Hugs, Massages and holding hands reduces stress while boosting your immune system I have allowed my friends and family to help get me back on the path to wellness.

4. Do what makes you Happy.

Be it spending times with friends and family, physical exercise, watching a film that cheers you up, making something, just do a little bit a day if that is all you can do now, and build it up gradually as this will improve your general demeanour.

5. Meditation.

Your vision will become clear only when you can look in your own heart, who looks outside dreams, who looks inside awakes. Carl Jung expresses very well what the benefits of a daily meditation practice are, meditation is just not for relaxation, its primary purpose is to respond skilfully and gracefully to life’s difficulties as well as its joy. There are many forms of meditation available, from calm abiding to chakra focus. Try one on until you find the type that suits you.

6. Spirituality.

Nothing goes away until it has taught us what we need to know – Pema Chodron, A Buddhist nun and profound thought leader of our generation covers it pretty well, if we think we know the answer there is no opportunity to advance by learning the lesson our circumstances are trying to teach us. Spending a few hours a week reading your favourite spiritual teacher can only enhance your understanding of the world.

7. Shake, Rattle and Roll.

Walking is the worlds oldest exercise and today modern medicine. In the days of driving to work and back home again simple exercise like an half an hour walk can transform your life. I started with this and have built up to cycling every where and three sessions in the gym a week.

8. Dancing.

Dancing with the feet is one thing, Dancing with the heart is Another. We all have our favourite music that touches our heart. Put some on and dance to it. As children this was one of our main pastimes, we have just forgotten the enjoyment we get out of it.

Sorry about the break in blogs, busy over the festive season, Namaste till next times my friends.

Do you Mean to Kill Them?

Posted on October 21, 2014 by Rod's World

My carbon footprint in getting around is fairly low, Walking , Pushbike and Public Transport. I used to ride a motor bike for a few years but had an accident whilst drunk driving and lost my license for two years and never got it back.

On my journey around our fair city of Melbourne I cannot but notice the laziness of the general public in disposing of rubbish. It is discarded everywhere but in the receptacles provided it would seem. Cigarette packets and cigarette butts , junk food containers and alcohol bottles seem to make up the majority of it pointing towards a certain kind of person being the main contributor to this malaise.

And what does this have to do with the cutie in the picture above, she is an albatross who lives on Midway Island. Fleetwood Mac in the 60’s wrote a magnificent instrumental about these birds https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAefTj7GXwQ, they have survived happily on the Island for many years or have they. Where is Midway Island you ask, heres a map to give you an idea.

It s in the middle of the pacific island thousand and thousands of kilometres from the nearest land but this cute picture does not tell the harrowing tale of what is occurring on Midway Island these days. I attended the Sustainable Living Festival last year with my friend Kavisha and happened to be in BMW edge when there was a speaker by the name of Chris Jordan set down to speak. I forget the name of his talk but after being transfixed by the content not the subject matter. Chris is an American photographer with an interest in Environmental issues and had been producing a documentary about the albatrosses on Midway Island for the past few years.

Why he has been doing this is because we have been killing them with plastic. Adult albatrosses have been feeding their young with plastic gleaned from the ocean all those kilometres away and they are dying in their thousands. Here is a link to Chris sharing about the documentary https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-M9t2fm__K0. The only way the plastic gets in the ocean is because we as a race are too lazy to carry our rubbish with us to the nearest bin or to our homes to dispose of it in our own bins and it is washed into the ocean. Next time you are tempted to throw something away because there is no where to put it think of this image.

On my way walking to work or the market I have begun picking up rubbish as I come to it on the footpath knowing it will always be there because we are unthinking when it comes to the costs of dropping rubbish. I hope this little rant makes a few of you think.

Namaste until next time, my friends

What is Clutter?

Posted on September 26, 2014 by Rod's World

Clutter to me is books, I cannot go past a good bargain and as I take my 87 year old mum op shopping every week its really easy to buy one or two a week. I am also a member of the Sunday Assembly book club in Melbourne Australia so there is another book a month. Living in a one bedroom apartment this means that I have several piles of them as I brought most of the books I had from the house I was sharing in Northcote and they fill my book shelf plus some.

I chose the above picture because my desktop sometimes looks like this, I use pictures a lot on Facebook when I comment on someone else’s post, I don’t understand why people share and comment with a heart or something like that which gives you no idea what appealed to you about the post. If social media is about sharing I think people should put in the time to contribute to another/others. I recently created 6 files and categorised all my pictures and files on desktop, heaps easier.

So what else can be cluttered, I recently attended a talk by Mary Anne Bennie, http://www.paperflow.com.au which was fascinating in the way she got people to see how we keep unnecessary things in our homes. The first question she asked was “How many towels do you own’, The answers went from two to twenty, Mary Anne asked the person who replied twenty, what do you do with them. The person lived with her husband and the children had left home, Mary Anne pointed out that they could never use more than four, One in the bathroom each, and one in the wash. She moved through each area of the house and sprung me in the clothes cabinet, I have about twenty shirts, same question, why did I need twenty shirts? Off to the op/thrift shop for some of them. It takes a breakthrough to give your precious possessions away and I am working on it on a daily basis.

I recently met a musician who has gone off the grid, moved out of his home and lives out of his car and on the goodwill of his friends. He has been doing this for over a year and the way he spoke about it on the night I met him his sense of freedom was extraordinary. I’m not up to this yet but good on him for showing it can be done.

The mind also gets cluttered with the fast paced life we live these days, constant information via phones, computers, media, hardly a break from it if we allow it to happen. I have recently returned to my meditation practice as well as my Tai Chi practice. i find this switching off of the world liberating from the constant chatter in my head. My 60 year old legs do not appreciate the lotus position but I have noticed the slowing of the chatter that clutters my mind.

So where is your clutter? Take some action to free your self from its hold. Namaste to next time my friends.

How big is your iTunes?

Posted on September 18, 2014 by Rod's World

Most of the people I know use iTunes, i recently sold 500 CD’s to my brother in laws mate for $50 – he has a son with Down’s syndrome and they go to markets and sell vinyl and CD’s as a father/son thing as the son really enjoys it. They were sitting in my garage gathering dust as I listen to my music on iTunes.

How do we as music fans source our music these days? I have over 300 musician friends on my Facebook page, My friends Kavisha Mazzella calls me a patron of the Arts as I sponsor many crowd funding campaigns and have many an obscure Australian CD through this practice. I even have a Haitian folk singer Leyla McCalla album Vari-Coloured Songs through this practice, Its beautiful but would never had sourced it except for having seen it on Kickstarter. Her name called to me so I sponsored her on a whim.

Another method I use is Op Shopping, You pay between $1.00 to $3.25 a CD which gives you the opportunity to buy several and if one of them doesn’t work out I recycle them back to the opshop after putting them on my iTunes anyway. I recently got the best of Crowded House for a dollar using this method, I gave it to my sister Ruth to listen to in the car as I know she likes the Finn brothers music, cheap presents and much appreciated.

Another site I like is Bandcamp because musicians get more money than from iTunes and being played on Spotify. I have 83 albums in my collection courtesy of quite a few Disturbed Earth CD’s. My friend Dean Richards composes under the name Disturbed Earth and sells his wide range for $3.00 an album, I have eleven at the moment, some more listenable than others, I think I’ll buy another two after writing this. I became a friend with a musician called Yesod through band camp who lives in Missouri as he contacted me and asked me why I was buying his music, I had to tell him I had got onto it because I liked the name of his band and album covers.

My brother Hugo is an announcer on http://www.3RRR.org – his show is called Frank and is on Friday mornings from midnight to 2 a.m. He is my older brother and I must give him credit for my wide music tastes and I do have quite a few CD’s he has burnt me in my collection. I try not to access music through burnt albums although I copy CD’s from the local library but never copy them for other people.

How much music do I have on my iTunes, 16 days, 7 hours and I always listen on shuffle so I am pleasantly surprised track by track. Namaste my friends, until next time.

My CD’s cost me $1.00

Posted on September 9, 2014 by Rod's World

Do you op shop, go to thrift stores, to recycle stores? My sister Ruth and I have been taking my 87 year old mum op shopping in Australia every Tuesday for the past 5 years. Edna taught us to opshop and volunteered in her local church op shop from an early age. Over this time we have come to know really well the specialties of each op shop in Melbourne’s northern suburbs and some of our favourite suburbs in the south and south east.

The mental illness store in High Street Northcote has a fantastic range of mens brand shirts for the outrageous price of $8.00. I brought a Tommy Hillfigger shirt there and when I told my work mate Luciano he said they sell for $120, bargain. There are some stores that are selling at label prices in the last few years and that is why I love Brotherhood of St. Laurence stores, they live by the ethos that you charge by item, shirts $5.00, trousers $6.00, jackets $7.00 not by label. I brought a London Fog jacket at their Watsonia store last winter for $7.00. i was interested in the retail price as I had heard of the label. I had just saved $343.00, another bargain.

A great place to source information is on the speciality blogs that are proliferating on line about this sacred practice on of my favourites is http://ilovetoopshop.blogspot.com.au/, they also have a Facebook link where you get to share your special purchases of the week. Another site I got onto recently is http://nevereverpayretail.com.au/, a spunky young thing who knows her labels and does great pictures, there are heaps of them just google op shops or thrift stores for your state, county or country and you can access the passion of many like minded souls who love a bargain.

There are many large super stores like Savers in Melbourne, an idea that was imported from Canada I believe . Just checked their site, they started in 1954, same age as me, 60 years of providing quality bargains. Both my nephews have worked in Savers in Brunswick. I think that is one of the joys of Op shopping, the staff are mainly volunteers and genuinely love being there. I have had many a great conversation with staff at the Salvo’s, Vinnies and other like minded stores and they have always been passionate. Here’s the link for Savers: http://www.savers.com.au/

I also found one in High Street that sells CD’s for $1.00, CD’s range for this price to the outrageous price of $3.25. As I keep my music on my computer and iPhone these days I buy them and recycle them next week. I recently found Crowded Houses greatest hits and my all time favourite disco era band, Chic’s greatest hits. $2.00 for 2 hours of quality music. I will always love my mother Edna May Williams for passing on the gift of loving an Op Shop and my sisters Ruth and jann for being huge Op shoppers as well, thats how I started my wooden horse collection. My Chinese star sign is that of the Wooden horse and my sister from Tasmania Jann lobbed one birthday with about 15 horses in different shape and form informing me everybody needs to collect at least one thing. Have added a few to the collection since then, Its amazing how they seem to appear in your opshop after you need them when you didn’t notice them before.

So take an oath today: I ………… will willingly and lovingly buy from Op Shops/ Thrift stores from today on and donate to worthwhile causes and save shitloads of money. Yay!!!!!