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.

Is Your House Clean?

Posted on January 30, 2017 by Rod's World

My mentor Arion writes great poetry, he wrote this about befriending who you really are:

Oh Great Mystery

Beloved friend who has always been

I see you have a thousand faces

And a thousand ways you dance in my skin

So Before I quest to see your one true face

Let me delight in each and every one

For each is so precious that I sing

From my bones and through my blood

For in staring into your thousand directions

I embrace you, again and again

So having attempted to befriend all the different modalities that make us our own best friends how do we walk the journey of friendship with others, let’s take that beautiful trip:

1. Jean de La Fontaine (IPA; 8 July 1621 – 13 April 1695) was a famous French fabulist and one of the most widely read French poets of the 17th century. He is known above all for his Fables, which provided a model for subsequent fabulists across Europe and numerous alternative versions in France, and in French regional languages. What a fabulous word fabulist is!! It means a person who composes or relates fables or a liar, especially one who invents elaborately dishonest stories – “a born fabulist, with an imagination unfettered by the laws of logic and probability”

So there is only one song I can use for this, take it away Slade: Mama, We’re all Crazee Now.

3. You get the whole gamut with a true friend.

4. I have had several of these through my life, includes my siblings and a couple of others: Lay Me Down.

5. Remember when we ………… fill in the blanks, only your bestie can.

6. They are the people you call when you need someone to do this or kick you up the arse: Cry me a River.

7. At one time in our lives, our best friends were a rabbit and their friend in this quote, the teddy bear. I’m sure they did this for us.

8. it’s fantastic having people in your lives that you haven’t seen for years but it feels like 5 seconds, I think this is what this quote is pointing out: That’s what friends are For.

9. I totally agree with you, Hubert, so have I.

10. I met one of these people in a restaurant in Leningrad. Raisa was a soviet submarine officer who pressed the nuclear buttons: Thinking the same Thing.

11. Concise but very true by Ralph.

12. Two of the great philosophers, Piglet and Pooh hit the spot with this one: Friends for Life.

13. This puts you in the class of superhero.

14. Reminds me of the night I ended up in the back of a divvy van with my friend Petar, It didn’t work then either: Scuz Me.

15. My friend Kavisha sings a song Bound for Glory with a line that goes: We are Angels, We’ve forgotten these things and are wings are broken, Luckily we have good friends who remind us they are not.

So fall in love with your thousand friends that reside in your body and get out there and meet someone else’s thousand.

Namaste until next time my dear friends

You can shake the World!!

Posted on August 25, 2016 by Rod's World

Arrived at one of my voluntary gigs yesterday and the collective potential team were having a brain storm as to where they were at. CP are a start up Personal Development company who I give my time to because I get heaps back helping people get real, here’s the link to check them out Collective Potential.

One of the things we got to was that we had lost touch with our community , so I volunteered to take on the Community Management role to see what we needed to restore it. Made me start thinking what does being part of a community mean ad how does society look at it, here we go :

1. Cute animal shot of the blog, but wise words about that in a community there are not always leaders that stand out, its more of a communal effort with everybody putting their bit in.

2. Lance Edward Armstrong is an American former professional road racing cyclist. He is the 1993 Elite Men’s Road Race World Champion, and he had won the Tour de France seven consecutive times from 1999 to 2005, but was stripped of his Tour de France victories in 2012 after a protracted doping scandal. He must have forgot the above: Lance sings.

3. We, Collective Potential are based in a co working space for women, these spaces are becoming more prevalent as people seek out communities to begin their solo entrepreneurships.

4. Star Wars for We are Family.

5. Community is not just about fitting in, it’s about standing up for what you believe in and dealing with evil.

6. A controversial figure both during her life and after her death, Mother Teresa was widely admired by many for her charitable works. She was both praised and criticised for her views. She also received criticism for conditions in the hospices she ran. But for her hundreds of people would not be alive as she partook in her adopted community of Calcutta. She treated people Just one at a Time.

7. What a great analogy, well done Mrs. Griffiths.

8. As a community grows and expands it creates the opportunity for transformation of all members not just the chosen few. Transformation.

9. Marianne Williamson is one of my top ten because of words like these ones. She is one of the greatest supporters of Love on the planet.

10. I do number 9, I cannot imagine that the people who do it do it in their own homes, so why do they do it in the street, I have no idea. Build me up Buttercup.

11. All the Nobel Prize winners gave something to the world to receive the accolade, it was not about the money they had accumulated or how they looked.

12. Stand out and make a difference, noble and beautiful words, please fulfil them sometime in your life. The Man in Black sings on making a difference.

13. My dear 89 year old mother spent her life doing this, it rubbed off for all of her kids. I teach English to asylum seekers, my brother does a radio show, the eldest of my sisters does sustainability stuff and the youngest plays Taiko drums in a community orchestra.

14. Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was a South African anti-apartheid revolutionary, politician, and philanthropist, who served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999. He was the country’s first black chief executive, and the first elected in a fully representative democratic election. His government focused on dismantling the legacy of apartheid through tackling institutionalised racism and fostering racial reconciliation. Politically an African nationalist and democratic socialist, he served as President of the African National Congress party from 1991 to 1997. He oversaw South Africa ending apartheid without serious recriminations on the white minority which was a huge possibility : Free Nelson Mandela.

15. And finally a wall poster to remind you how to DIY community.

I am so glad my mother inducted us into being community members who value contributing to our different communities, it’s much better than sitting in front of the TV being a lounge lizard.

Namaste until next time, my dear friends.

Are you telling a great Story?

Posted on June 6, 2016 by Rod's World

My friend Emeli has chosen Stories as the theme of her next workshop, based on stories can carry us, or break us: Collective Potential. At different times in our lives we listen to different stories, some empowering , others that take us to the depths of despair. What is it that has us choose to stop listening to the empowering ones? I have a friend who never seems to do this , he says he does it by concentrating on living in the moment.

There are many varieties of quotes that relate to our stories, I think I have chosen wisely in the 15 I have selected today, let us begin our journey.

1. Delicious ambiguity, what a beautiful term. Add some zest to your life by not knowing what the next moment is going to be.

2. What were your favourite kids stories, I liked Charlie Brown. Sir Terence David John “Terry” Pratchett, OBE was an English author of fantasy novels, especially comical works. He is best known for his Discworld series of 41 novels. Pratchett’s first novel, The Carpet People, was published in 1971; after the first Discworld novel, The Colour of Magic, was published in 1983, he wrote two books a year on average. His 2011 Discworld novel Snuff was at the time of its release the third-fastest-selling hardback adult-readership novel since records began in the UK, selling 55,000 copies in the first three days. His final Discworld novel, The Shepherd’s Crown, was published in August 2015, five months after his death.

3. That voice in your head speak in words like I am and I always. The stories of our life link us, such as I have two sisters Ruth and Jann and an older brother Hugo. Christina Baldwin is founder of , Peerspirit.com living on our planet with Nature powerfully.

4. As young children we have imaginary friends, believe in Unicorns and the fae. Society seems to delight in suppressing these as we grow older. Terry Prachett speaks to those of us that survive this.

5. My writing teacher Catherine Deveny, The Dev says you should always be truthful in your words. then you don’t have to remember what you said or wrote, because it is the truth.

6. 7 billion of them, each unique. Make it as good a one as it can be.

7. This to me is a Sacred Story from a life of Sacred love.

8. Perfectionism is the booby prize, how do you enjoy the journey?

9. Memories are often written in a song – some Elvis : Memories.

10. Neil Gaiman gave one of the most inspirational commencement speeches ever about making some art, its long but worth the time : Make some Art.

11. Putting Yellow stickies on our fridges to express our feelings to our beloved, a noble past time.

12. Sacred Love – to be told or tell someone I Love You and realising that It never has to be said again but that it will for the rest of their lives.

13. Terry Prachett again. Who is going to write your story, moi or someone else?

14. ANNA QUINDLEN is a novelist and journalist whose work has appeared on fiction, nonfiction, and self-help bestseller lists. She is the author of eight novels: Object Lessons, One True Thing, Black and Blue, Blessings, Rise and Shine, Every Last One, Still Life with Bread Crumbs, and Miller’s Valley. Her memoir Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake, published in 2012, was a number one New York Times bestseller. Her book A Short Guide to a Happy Life has sold more than a million copies. While a columnist at The New York Times she won the Pulitzer Prize and published two collections, Living Out Loud and Thinking Out Loud. Her Newsweek columns were collected in Loud and Clear. She loves London : Streets of London.

15. A reminder for number 15. Only you can remember how you see the world, so tell those stories proudly. You are a divine being.

Remember behind every favourite song, there is an untold story. Please tell your Sacred stories.

Namaste until next time my dear friends.

Space is the Place!!

Posted on June 2, 2016 by Rod's World

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

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

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

2. Never devalue your worth for another, never.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Namaste until next time my dear friends.

Can You Hear It?

Posted on April 25, 2016 by Rod's World

I have recently been reading Lissa Rankin’s third book the Anatomy of a Calling, you can check it out at Lissarankin.com. Her premise is that every single one of us are heroes. We are all on what Joseph Campbell calls “a heroes journey”, we are all on a mission to step into our true nature and fulfill the assignment our souls were sent to earth to fulfill. Navigating the heroes journey is one of the cornerstones of living a meaningful, authentic healthy life.

There are times on this journey we wish we were on another persons, I know for myself that I could have done with the five Pysch unit admissions that took six months out of my life but now realise that I needed to go through this to get to the point I am at now with my own business and being the most relaxed I have ever been in my life.

Often we receives phone calls towards our true calling that we are not ready for as we have not travelled or completed our heroes journey as yet, how do we find our true calling and what has society said about people who confess to being on theirs. Here are 15 cuts at it:

1. Remember that first time you fell in love, the ecstatic humming and ability for anything to feel good. Don’t give that feeling up when the earth states to shake.

2. Yes as you expect, Oprah has commented on this. Its like having a Spirit Bird.

3. Many people receive their calling as a spiritual adventure, exploring all the possible paths available to achieve the outcome. Steve Vai, the legendary guitarist does it through his instrument: Tender Surrender

4. At times on the journey you will need faith because it certainly won’t be looking like you have imagined it would.

5. Melanie Moushigan Koulouris has a Youtube channel dedicated to her beautifully uplifting quotes, this is one of many that could get you closer to your calling : Melanie’s Quotes to Your Calling.

6. One of the actions Lissa took on her journey was to ask herself the question, what would Love Do, what’s your answer?

7. Time to open your heart and soul and hear the call.

8. They say it is good to get away from the bustle and bustle of the city to the serenity and call of the ocean which covers the majority of the planet. Its helps you hear what is truly in your heart.

9. George Bernard Shaw, known at his insistence simply as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic and polemicist whose influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from the 1880s to his death and beyond. He wrote more than sixty plays, including major works such as Man and Superman, Pygmalion and Saint Joan. With a range incorporating both contemporary satire and historical allegory, Shaw became the leading dramatist of his generation, and in 1925 was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.

10. At times you will think your journey has gone astray and the above is happening: Van’s excellent Wild Night

11. I have recently spent quite a bit of training doing breath and body work, it is remarkable how much it wakes you up to what your calling is.

12. Here is a man who found his calling, John Muir was a Scottish-American naturalist, author, environmental philosopher and early advocate of preservation of wilderness in the United States. His letters, essays, and books telling of his adventures in nature, especially in the Sierra Nevada of California, have been read by millions. His activism helped to preserve the Yosemite Valley, Sequoia National Park and other wilderness areas. The Sierra Club, which he founded, is a prominent American conservation organization. The 211-mile John Muir Trail, a hiking trail in the Sierra Nevada, was named in his honor. Other such places include Muir Woods National Monument, Muir Beach, John Muir College, Mount Muir, Camp Muir and Muir Glacier. In Scotland, the John Muir Way, a 130 mile long distance route, was named in honor of him.

13. You will meet people on your Heroes journey that before they speak you will both know that you have been calling each other for lifetimes. I have several of these in my life.

14. to cultivate relationship with your calling, practice becoming the consciousness that witnesses the dialogues in your mind. You can then chose the above.

15. What’s that ringing sound of worry and anxiety, mark it down as a spam call. Move forward towards that irresistible calling that you have wished for your whole life.

Lissa also talks about the greatest tool we all have on our journey, our Inner Pilot Light. I love the ones she sends to me and write some of my one now.

Namaste until Thursday my dear friends.

Purpose, do we have One?

Posted on April 21, 2016 by Rod's World

On the 6th May I will be part of the crew for RAW: Purpose and Meaning, a deep conversation that will make a difference for about 100 people. My friend Emeli will lead us through a process which will move people closer to seeing what they are on the planet for.

I have spent a lot of my life seeking mine, thinking I have found it at different times, doing some extraordinary things on the way. I have run the Moscow Peace Marathon the year before the Berlin Wall came down in the name of ending world hunger during one of these times. I have done an 8 week silent Calm Abiding meditation retreat during another and been the editor of a national Community Development journal for two years which also gave me purpose in my life at the time.

What does the world have to say about finding your purpose. There are quotes from some well known individuals to that most well known philosopher Anonymous, lets take a journey through 15 of them.

1. As a child new from the womb we are pure unbridled potential, we all could be president of the United States, the most powerful position on the planet. As we journey through life it takes something to remember this.

2. It’s wiser to look out there for your purpose because without others involved its hard to make a difference that has much affect.

3. Sometimes it gets dark along the path of our purpose, luckily you will have your trusty companion passion to light your journey for you.

4. In her songs Diana Ross sang about this, such a one is Ain’t no Mountain High Enough

5. All the great people who are remembered for their grand purposes used this simple formulae in their day to day progression towards them.

6. Purpose makes you jump out of bed, especially when they are fulfilling that dream you were having. I must include the classic number by Lou Reed and his friends: Perfect Song for a Perfect Day.

7. Did Mark Twain realise he would be one of the early pioneers of a self development movement that would have millions of people seeking their Why, their purpose. I don’t think so.

8. Love this one, just make you absence felt, perhaps you will have a day named after your purpose if you do it well enough.

9. Are we commissioned by the creator if there is such a being? A lot of people have purpose in their life without believing this.

10. Howard Washington Thurman 1899 – 1981 was an influential African American author, philosopher, theologian, educator, and civil rights leader. He played a leading role in many social justice movements and organisations of the twentieth century. He definitely spent his time on the planet alive.

11. Purpose makes many friends on her journey, travelling with one or two of them and at sometimes all of them to achieve the result she is seeking.

12. An essential part of the recipe in fulfilling your purpose is to locate the Self Love within you because this allows you to give it away and receive it in buckets. You cannot imagine how much easier this will make your journey.

13. “Buechner uses words with such transformative power that any comment on them is like the moon palely reflecting the sun.”

14. Don’t just find your purpose, give it away to as many people as you can.

15. As the three examples I gave at the beginning show you your purpose will change throughout your life, never give up looking for them. Remember there is always climbing after all.

I am looking forward to the 6th May, I love conversations that make a difference.

Namaste until Monday , my dear friends.

There was No Peace!!

Posted on April 12, 2016 by Rod's World

One of the things I do is tutor refugees who need to Improve their English. At the moment I have very two different students. One was born in a refugee camp in India 25 years ago, yes thats right, she had been in a refugee camp 25 years. Then she was put in three detention centres by our government before being released. She has lived in a free community 4 months of her young life. The other is a doctor who was on the council of the capital city of the nation she comes from , I asked her why she left. Her reply was poignant , there is no peace Teacher, she calls me teacher. I have a sense they will both be great citizens of our country given what they have been through.

I have been thinking about that statement , there is no peace since, what truly gives us peace, is our nation of Australia we live in relative peace from war but to a lot of people They do not feel so, ramping up the threat to our nation. So I have chosen 15 wide ranging statements about peace to comment on the subject.

1. That great philosopher Unknown comes up with on of the most powerful definitions to my mind, peace belongs in our heart not the physical surrounds that we are in.

2. Peace has a few allies in making the world a better place, I love the last one Everybody not just us, no hate, no war.

3. Maura is 9, with more people of her age thinking like that I give Peace a Chance, Join in with John and Yoko.

4. Be in the Now, that is where peace lives, I resist this a lot. Need to read The Power of Now again.

5. Robert Brault is a writer of forty years standing, he points to the fact where our peace really lives, within.

6. We have all seen those silly cartoons with aliens looking on as there are explosions all over our world. Silly or Not?

7. One of the world’s great peace activists, a man who lead a nation to freedom peacefully, hits the spot with this one. Makes me think of Cat’s Peace Train.

8. A disturbing image with a powerful message. Yes its up to you to be a Rider of the Storm

9. MLK, in my favourite top ten speakers, I listen to him regularly, his passion for peace was extraordinary.

10. To one of the young things who have replaced Martin Luther King, the youngest recipient and possibly the most deserving winner of the Nobel Peace prize. Malala speaks the words of peace for her generation.

11. Closer and closer, the world is becoming a smaller place, may we use the words above in our recipe.

12. I’m sure each parent wishes this for that bundle of joy they hold in their arms as they raise them with love. A question though, How does war replace this scene later in Life?

13. One of John Lennon’s more obscure Peace quotes, but a chance to listen to You’re not the only One.

14. Yes a cute dog photo peace quote, works for me. Who is Antsy McClain, watch this: Living in Aliminium.

15. And finally a Sacred Meditation to complete with, may there be peace in your life and the world.

Namaste until next Thursday my dear friends.

Migrant or Refugee?

Posted on April 4, 2016 by Rod's World

I went to my friend Kavisha Mazzella’s first solo art exhibition yesterday and she sang a song of her nonna’s story. Her grandmother was a refugee from Burma who had to flee when the Japanese started bombing and invading Burma and the Anglo Burmese had to flee the invasion. Here is the song: Fisherman’s Daughter.

It made me think how you become a refugee , the previous century had two world wars that saw many nationalities in the European sector become refugees and this century has seen more Asian, middle eastern and African countries due to civil wars and invasion by western countries.

What did the world do and what will it continue to do with these people who have suffered having to flee their own homeland because they have no other option.

The 15 quotes I have chosen cover statements about and people who have experienced being a refugee, let us begin the journey:

1. This pope has to keep reminding us that migrants and refugees are actually human beings as well , mothers fathers, sons , daughters , uncles and aunties as some nations have started to forget.

2. Each of us come on to the planet as a bouncing baby, some healthier than others, but none of us are illegal.

3. Communication between nations or Interculturalism: Love and Respect for All, Everyone Included would solve many of the problems that occur when people are branded migrant or refugee. I have created a Facebook Page to assist this to happen : Interculturalism.

4. On the page I talk about above I posted a quote that says if you call your self a christian or a muslim or an Italian or English you are being violent. On of you do not say you are from a particular religion or country are you not because you are owning being a human being totally. These flags above represent what is one of the major problems migrants and refugees face.

5. We can never tell what our journey will contain, unfortunately for the migrant and refugee the struggle is much more difficult than those who live in the country they are fleeing to.

6. For many of the families in my country of Australia, this is how they arrived, with one suitcase each. They made a successful life for their families from this difficult beginning.

7. One of the difficulties forced on migrants and refugees is that they must become …….., the question to be asked of the nation saying that is would your citizens do it if the situation was reversed and you were the Other.

8. We have all seen pictures of refugees camps and people crossing dangerous oceans in boats. Why do we wonder then when these same people make such wonderful citizens after putting up with these treacherous journeys to get to a safer country to call home.

9. This is a very broad statement, we probably do it to our own family at times, so how do we do this to people from countries we know very little about. Take the time to get to know people, especially new arrivals to your country.

10. This is what mainstream media forget when they place labels on people fleeing danger in their own countries. It is normally a label that has caused them to leave.

11. Tshibanda Gracia Ngoy fled tribal conflict in 2005 from Nigeria. In 2012 she was a finalist in the NSW Young Australian of the Year and a member of the NSW Multicultural Youth Network. A commerce and communications degree student at Wollongong University, Gracia Ngoy is also a caseworker for refugee families, a youth motivational speaker and a member of the Illawarra Regional Advisory Council and the NSW Multicultural Youth Network. Gracia, who speaks five languages, arrived in Australia with her family in 2005 after fleeing tribal conflict in the troubled Democratic Republic of Congo. After settling in Wollongong, she took up an offer of free homework tutoring, simultaneously signing up as a mentor for others. An accredited freelance journalist, Gracia recently published her first book entitled A Little Recipe for Success which aims to inspire young people to live successful, fulfilled and purposeful lives. She has also written numerous articles aimed at breaking down cultural barriers between her native Congo and Australia. Awarded the prestigious Australian Young People’s Human Rights Medal, Gracia was also named 2010 Wollongong Young Citizen of the Year. Drawing on the wisdom of personal experience, Gracia is determined to help the ‘many people living shattered lives who have been tied up by their past experiences and challenges.’

12. What you let your government get away with when dealing with members of their citizenship, especially their migrants and refugees build the future way you are treated as well.

13. This man is considered one of our greatest minds to have ever lived on the planet, he was a refugee.

14. António Manuel de Oliveira Guterres, born 30 April 1949) is a former Portuguese politician who was Prime Minister of Portugal from 1995 to 2002. He also served for a time as President of the Socialist International. He served as United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees from June 2005 to December 2015. This is what he say about accusing refugees of being terrorists.

15. This has been forgotten in our country, in fact we call them illegal and take away their rights to live as a human being saying they do not have a right to live here and send them to gulags.

So my request is that you spend time getting to know the migrants and refugees in your country. Only then will we realise that they are fellow human beings not terrorists. Love and Respect for All, Everyone Included.

Namaste until Thursday, my dear friends.

Beauty Begins the Moment …..

Posted on March 31, 2016 by Rod's World

At the Intercultural Centre I volunteer at, we are having an art project called Brighten the Jade. We are getting local artists to collaborate to paint the walls of our new meeting room, the Jade Room. It brought me to think what brightens my life up? I would include singing, dancing, time with my family and friends and of course blogging and my new thing creating PDF’s from webinars and podcasts.

What do people say around the world and throughout history about what has brightened their life up, its an interesting recipe of 15 quotes. Let us begin our journey

1. The American Poet John Holmes was known for his uplifting quotes, this being the most famous of them. Being buff brightens your day up but your heart gets fitter the kinder you are.

2. It took me two lengthy periods of working in government service then severals years of mental health issues before I got the health and spiritual value of this statement. Have read Richard’s biography he is a man who did not do this in his life.

3. Time for what was the anthem of my generation: Don’t Worry about a Thing.

4. Do you get tunnel vision on your projects and visions in life. The work I am doing with my mentor Arion Light through his Activation School. points to the above, if you are not attached to where you get your result from, you can get your result from anywhere.

5. We have days we jump out of bed screaming YES, YES, YES, then something happens and the Yes’s fade. Though its great to set by whens if it doesn’t happen on that exact date your dream is still there in your heart and soul.

6. Probably the song that best covers this type of deep love is the one and only All You Need Is Love.

7. Lots of people give up on their plans for supposedly logical reasons, what were their names, but we all know Galileo, Martin Luther King, Oprah Winfrey. Don’t give up brightening up your life.

8. There are so many quotes that express the above sentiment, that the way to brightening up your life is through others, I agree wholeheartedly.

9. Three formulas for brightening up your day. A lot of people do this with their cups, so to remind them when the going gets mundane.

10. This quote is another by the prolific philosopher Unknown – Its not great to have people who demean the sunshine around, heal them or move on.

11. Abhisek Tiwari is an Indian TV actor, this could be a line from his series or a great insight he has come up with that brightens our lives.

12. Just love the cheeky humour of this one.

13. It seems Hafiz is Hafez, words of great Beauty , always.

Hafez
An artistic depiction of Hafez
spiritual poet, mystic
Born	1325/1326 CE Shiraz, Persia (now Iran)
Died	1389/1390 CE Shiraz, Persia (now Iran)
Major shrine	Tomb of Hafez, Shiraz, Iran
Influences	Ibn Arabi, Khwaju, Sanai, Anvari,Nizami, Sa’di, Khaqani, A
Influenced	Subsequent Persian lyric poets,Goethe
Tradition or genre	Mystic poetry (Ghazal, Irfan)
Major works	Divan-e-Hafez

Khwāja Shams-ud-Dīn Muḥammad Ḥāfeẓ-e Shīrāzī (Persian: خواجه شمس‌‌الدین محمد حافظ شیرازی‎‎), known by his pen name Hafez (حافظ Ḥāfeẓ; 1325/26–1389/90),^[1] was a Persian poet who “lauded the joys of love and wine [but] also targeted religious hypocrisy.” His collected works are regarded as a pinnacle of Persian literature and are to be found in the homes of most people in Iran, who learn his poems by heart and still use them as proverbs and sayings. His life and poems have been the subject of much analysis, commentary and interpretation, influencing post-14th century Persian writing more than any other author.

14. Two of the greats, Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman starred in this movies that was about brightening the last days of their lives: The Bucket List.