Who Really, Really knows you?

Posted on June 28, 2020 by Rod's World

I was asked this question by a friend today when I looked I said my sisters Ruth and Jann. Amy then asked me what about your friends, I have 5000 Facebook friends and I would say one of them, my long time friend Clare who helped me through my recent mental health breakdown would be the closest. What is it that stops the human race letting people get close to them? I have an idea, I believe we stop telling each other what I call our Sacred Love Stories at an early age for fear of being hurt. These are the negative and positive stories about ourselves that go like this: If you knew this about me I would have to kill you and I am not boasting, I really went through or did this. I designed a workshop around the chakras using that technology but my if you knew this about me I would have to kill you got in the way of me ever running it.

What does it take to totally trust someone to be authentic and not withhold anything? I am learning how to do this and acknowledge Amy, who is allowing me to go on this journey with her. So what has society said about knowing the real you, lets have a look:

1. Dale Evans Rogers (born Lucille Wood Smith; October 31, 1912 – February 7, 2001) was an American actress, singer, and songwriter. She was the third wife of singing cowboy Roy Rogers.

2. I have been being taught this powerfully over the last week: You Really Got Me.

3. Very relatable.

4. And that the stories you make up in your head about the people in your life are not true until you get to deeply know them: Say It Right.

5. Boom!!!

6. Prayer is such a powerful healing tool: Praying.

7. Warts and All comes to mind.

8. And in front of the L-word do not forget to put the Self word: Rainbow.

9. I think she is.

10.. The whole kit and caboodle, that’s true love: Who You Are.

11. I have found out lately I do this most of my waking moments.

12. Another form of insomnia: You are the Reason.

13. My new life contract.

14. From one of civilisation’s great thinkers, This: Love Myself.

15. And for our final lesson, we cross to Socrates best buddy, Plato.

No list as promised, Amy, just a deep sense of gratitude for your listening for me.

The playlist begins with a 60’s classic from The Kinks. Then we delve into pop diva land for the next four tracks: Nelly Furtado, Kesha twice and Jessie J. Over to C & W for the next track from Callum Scott and we complete with my most played song by Hailee Steinfeld: Who Really Really Knows You.

Another recent question has come to mind writing this, what would you say if you could say one thing to the world leaders, of course, Love and Respect for All, Everyone Included.

Until we meet again, my dear friends.

Are you Enough?

Posted on June 21, 2020 by Rod's World

How often have you asked yourself this question? They say that you make your prime decision about your life by the age of seven years old, then spend the rest of your life surviving it via therapy or being in the winner’s circle.

Over to my friend Marc Chernoff to provide a list that will support us in this area. It is called 12 choices your future self will thank you for:

When life pushes you over, stand up and push back even harder, when there is a fork in the road and choices to make, make the ones your future self will thank you for:

1. Choosing you – The most exhausting activity is pretending to be who you know you aren’t.

2. Appreciating what you have – Sometimes, when you make the most out of what you have, it turns out to be a lot more than you ever imagined.

3. Believing in yourself and your dreams – Believe in you. Listen to your soul.

4, Being positive – You can’t live a positive life with a negative attitude.

5. Taking action – The happiest and most successful people are usually those who have broken the chains of procrastination.

6. Letting Go – The biggest step in changing the world around you is to change the world within you.

7. Picking yourself back up – Sometimes when things go wrong it’s because they would have turned out worse if they had gone right.

8. Ignoring negative people – You are not a rug; some people may try to walk all over you, but you don’t have to lie there and take it.

9. Staying in touch with close friends and family – There comes a time in life you’ll have to leave everything behind for a while and start something new, but never forget the people who stood by your side.

10. Making time for fun – Fun is way underrated.

11. Spreading Love and Kindness – The happiness surrounding you is greatly affected by the choices you make every day.

12. Being the change you want to see in the world – Don’t tell others how to live; live and let them watch you.

So what has the human race said about being enough, let’s have a look

1. Three powerful statements on self love there.

2. Love the last line: Never Stop.

3. Time to break down the walls.

4. And to stop pretending: Worth It.

5. Read the handwriting.

6. Having these in your heart definitely brings out the strength in you: You Say.

7. What a great name: Badass Warrior Queen.

8. I love memes with hearts in them: Fight Song.

9. Some powerful I statements here.

10. Some great words from our curly-haired genius: Somewhere over the Rainbow.

11. What are your personal avatars?

12. All hail Brene: Love Myself.

13. That why all the good books say self-love first and foremost.

14. These boots are made for walking: Boots.

15. And the last offering comes from the cardigan-wearing one, Eckhart Tolle reminding us of the treasure we all have within:

So choose to spread love to one person a day, beginning with yourself would be a grand idea. Imagine the amount of happiness you can spread in a lifetime, day by day.

Today on the playlist we have an all-women lineup. We have something for the young and not so young. Two bands unknown to me start us off. The Brand New Heavies and Fifth Harmony, both have millions of followers. Lauren Daigle and Rachel Platten belt out a couple of anthems next. Then back in time to Judy Garland, the penultimate number is from Hailee Steinfeld and we finish with Nancy Sinatra: Are You Enough?

This actually is take two of this blog, I got one quote from the end and poof, it disappeared. But I had to mention my ethos, Love and Respect for All, Everybody Included and my ever-growing Facebook group calledInterculturalism. We would love you to join us to spread love and respect around the planet.

Until we meet again, my dear friends.

Writing your Life Story!!!

Posted on June 14, 2020 by Rod's World

A friend just liked a meme I posted on Facebook. Its says the following: 4 Things you can’t get Back- The stone after it’s thrown; the word after it’s said; the occasion after its missed; the time after it’s gone. As I reach Age pension eligibility in four weeks they have made me ponder my life.

I like what my friend Marc Chernoff has to say about writing a life story worth living. I love this paragraph: When writing the story of your life, don’t let someone else hold the pen. Make conscious choices every day that align your actions with your values and your dreams; the way you live each day is a sentence in the story of your life. Each day, you choose whether the sentence ends with a period, a question mark, or an exclamation mark.

Here are Marc’s ten suggestions for doing this:

1. Find a passion that makes you come alive.

2. Work hard on that passion.

3. Live happily in your own way.

4. Change your path when you must, but keep moving forward.

5. When the going gets tough, keep fighting.

6. Let go of the past and live consciously in the present.

7. Embrace new ideas, lessons, and challenges.

8. Appreciate the little things in life that mean a lot.

9. Live honourably through kindness.

10. Spend quality time with people you love.

So what has society said about storytelling over time, we have always done it:

st1

1. Yes, that diatribe in your head, that’s the story of your life.

st2

2. Yes, it is official, I have a crush on Maya Angelou: Maya on Words.

st3

3. How do you tell the world about your ideas?

st4

4. How’s the living going?: Staying Alive.

st5

5. A great reason for my ethos of Love and Respect for All, Everybody Included.

st6

6. Our stories have had the world evolve: World Turning.

st7

7. What do you do in creating your communities storyline?

st8

8. Remember as children how much we loved this, it is still available: Magic Carpet Ride.

st9

9. Love this quote, well done Christina.

st10

10. Wise words from one of the most amazing storytellers to have lived, think the Mac, the iPod, the iPhone: Steve’s Stanford Speech.

st11

11. Ground Control, to Major Tom.

st12

12. Where have you travelled in your reading?: 500 Miles.

st13

13. When I think of the big items I have brought in my life, this is oh so true in every case.

st14

14. And the bridge takes you over: Bridge over troubled Waters.

st15

15. And for our final lesson, we call on Ira Glass, host of This American Life and All Things Considered.

Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs, and what every great story has, are characters that come alive in the pursuit of something that inspires them.

The playlist contains words today. Firstly we have Maya Angelou, then The Bee Gees. Fleetwood Mac are next, followed by a 60’s classic by Steppenwolf. Lots of Words from Steve Jobs, his Stanford commencement speech. Then an anthem from the Proclaimers and we finish with the dulcet tones of John Legend: Writing you Life Story.

My life story, Love and Respect for All, Everybody Included. Until we meet again, my dear friends.

st16

Who’s in Your Tribe?

Posted on June 8, 2020 by Rod's World

I recently posted a meme which said you are God to them all or God to none. I did not go to the Black Lives Matter rally, it was not because I don’t think they have a valid point, but because I think it misses the point, racism that is. I believe that it is a much bigger conversation and lives in the realm of the evil of tribalism worldwide. Events such as the 11 million person genocide by King Leopold of Belgium in Africa, the colonising wars in Australia and New Zealand received little mention in history books because they are written by the victors.

So I have posed the question: Who’s in your tribe as the title of this blog. I can answer everybody from within my ethos of Love and Respect for All, Everyone Included, the crux of Interculturalism. What actions do we have to take to achieve the seemingly impossible world my ethos speaks of. Here are twenty mantras from my friend Marc Chernoff that may help:

1. The most beautiful thing is to see a person nearby smiling. And even more beautiful is knowing you are the reason behind it.

2. If you have the power to make someone happier today, do it. The world needs more of that.

3. Some people build lots of walls in their lives and not enough bridges. There’s no good reason to be one of them. Open yourself up. Take small chances on people.

4. Never stop doing little things for those around you. Sometimes those little things occupy the biggest part of their hearts.

5. Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of love – all which have the potential to turn a life around.

6. Be present. Be thoughtful. Compliment people. Magnify their strengths, not their weaknesses. This is how to make a real and lasting difference in your relationships, new and old.

7. We don’t always need advice. Sometimes all we need is a hand to hold, an ear to listen, and a heart to understand.

8. Today, just be 100 per cent present with those around you- be all there. That is enough.

9. There’s no such thing as “self-made” Someone else believed in you. Someone else encouraged you. Someone else invested in you. Someone else prayed for you. Someone else spoke life over you. Be that someone for others too.

10. It’s practically impossible to love our neighbour if we don’t know them, and yet that’s often the case. We live in such a hyper-connected world with such limited or nonexistent connection. Remember this: Relationships matter. Stories matter.

11. In human relationships, distance is not measured in kilometres but in affection. Two people can be next to each other yet kilometres apart.

12. Stay in touch with those who truly matter to you because it’s convenient, but because they’re are worth the extra effort.

13. The single greatest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place. Too often we don’t listen to understand, we listen to reply. Bring awareness to this. And listen for what’s truly behind the words.

14. Set an example. Treat everyone with love and respect, even those who are rude to you – not because they are always nice, but because you are. (And do your best to be thankful for the rude and difficult people too; they serve as great reminders on how not to be.)

15. Sometimes it is better to be kind than right.

16. People are much nicer when they’re happier, which says a lot about those who aren’t nice to you. Sad, but true.

17. The real test always comes when you don’t get what you expect from people. Will you react in anger? Or will calmness be your superpower?

18. The way we treat people we don’t understand is a report card on what we’ve learnt about love, compassion and kindness.

19. Be kinder than necessary. What goes around comes around. No one has made themselves strong by showing how small someone else is.

20. The best relationships are not just about the good times you share, they’re also about the obstacles you go through together and the fact that you still say”I Love You” in the end.

So we all live in communities, so what have we said about community spirit over the years, here are a few of my favourite quotes on the subject:

1. Do you know your communities vision, you can check it out on most council websites if you do not.

2. Gandhi’s freeing of India is the best example of this I know: From Little Things, Big Things Grow.

3. Martin’s wife said some cool things to.

4. How connected are you, how many people in your street names do you know?: In my Feelings.

5. Do you have people you really care for and would do anything for?

6. This one is an in your face take on community spirit: Just Stand Up.

7. And the others would answer…

8. In Melbourne, our community radio stations and local musicians compete in the Reclink Community Cup, it has very little to do with football and winning: My Immortal.

9. This one made me shudder.

10. Changes, of course, it can just be one song: Changes.

11. When you say I did it on my own, by myself hundreds of people sigh.

12. Another opportunity to feature the magnificent Maya Angelou: The Best Advice.

13. What is it that has you feel you belong?

14. What you give out you get back: Rain on Me.

15. And for our final lesson, its time to realise community makes you feel absolutely fabulous.

Since we all intellectually understand that we shouldn’t bypass or judge people too quickly, but sometimes still forget when we’re in the heat of a pressing moment, it would be a good practice to read this list several times a week until it has stuck.

Today’s playlist goes all over the place. We begin with Paul Kelly and Missy Higgins, yes that song, then Drake and over to an All-Star anthem. A group I am growing to like a lot, Evanescence is next. Then we finish with three legends: David Bowie, Maya Angelou and finish with Lady Gaga and Ariane Grande: Who’s in Your Tribe?

My wish is that our tribe is every other citizen on the planet, can this happen, I’m working on it: Love and Respect for All, Everyone Included.

What will still be there on the other side?

Posted on June 1, 2020 by Rod's World

I really have not been through the COVID19 pandemic, I was in a psych unit for 5 weeks and lying on my couch for a further three weeks surviving on Ubereats so some of the restrictions bemuse me, and others seem fair enough. The trams and trains of Melbourne are still empty in peak hour, and we still cannot dance.

Will everybody return to their offices, their schools or will they never walk out their front door again. So what should we care about on our journey forward? Life is all about taking chances. It’s about doing something you initially thought you could never do. It’s about being a little bit crazy, following your heart, and not worrying about every detail of what everyone else thinks. And above all, it’s about learning to love who you are and what you have.

Marc’s list today is titled 12 Things to start caring about today, here we go:

Start caring about your own happiness.
Start caring about your goals and dreams.
Start caring about how you invest your time every day.
Start caring about how you think and what you think about.
Start caring about how you treat yourself.
Start caring about how you treat others.
Start caring about how others treat you.
Start caring about your health.
Start caring about your education and personal growth.
Start caring about doing the best YOU can.
Start caring about all the wonderful things you have right now.
Start caring about this moment we call ‘life.’

So this following your heart thing, what does society have to say about it, here are a few of my favourites:

If it has the dark and the light in the menu, go for it.

2. Have you ever asked, how did I end up here: Listen to Your Heart

3. I am a creator, one simple step.

4. Someone may even say to you, you may not be right: You may not be right.

5. So it doesn’t have to yell too loudly.

6. Don’t get lost, listen to your heart and it should not happen: Heartbreaker.

7. And is rarely wrong in its judgement.

8. I love this mantra: Silly

9. You still have passion and dreams as well as following your heart.

10. The formulae of the great unknown: Give me a Try.

11. Time to hit the Wide Open Road.

12. Have you found it yet: Happy.

13. You can’t do halfway, booya.

14. Definitely a how did I get here moment when the mind kicks in: Sing for the Moment.

15. And for our final lesson, Mama, we’re all crazy now.

Your relationship with yourself is the closest and most important you will ever have. When was the last time someone told you that they loved you just the way you are, and that what you think and how you feel matters? When was the last time someone told you that you did a great job, or took you someplace, simply because they know you feel happy when you’re there? When was that someone You? The way you treat yourself sets the standards for others. You must love who you are or no one else will either. And when you are truly comfortable in your own skin, not everyone will like you, but you won’t care about it one bit.

Today’s playlist begins with Tupac, then Little Kid. A fine bunch of rockers from England next in the form of Free followed by Deniece Williams. Sizzla and Pharrell Williams come before the final number from Eminem: What will still be there on the other side?

O.K., its time for the ethos. follow your heart to my Facebook group Interculturalism: https://www.facebook.com/groups/Interulturalism/ and partake in the joy of Love and Respect for All, Everone included. Until we meet again, my dear friends.

It is hard to heal when you are lying to the world.

Posted on May 22, 2020 by Rod's World

Hello, dear friends and readers: this is my first blog since the first week of February, you are still reading them, even in bigger numbers, thanks for that. Where have I been, I have been hanging out in the mental health universe, from deep in it to the recovery stage. At different stages, I lied to many professionals, my family and friends in the hope that would work in me recovering quicker. Strangely this did not work, perhaps the only thing was that I was released too early from the Melbourne Clinic and had to survive on my own for many hours at home when I was not truly ready.

So its times for my friend Marc Chernoff’s list of empowerment, no surprise I opened his book to this particular list:

12 Things You Should Be Able to Say to Yourself:

I am following my heart and. intuition.
I am proud of myself.
I am making a difference.
I am happy and grateful.
I am growing into the best version of myself.
I am making my time count.
I am honest with myself.
I am good to those I care about.
I know what unconditional love feels like.
I have forgiven those who once hurt me.
I take full accountability for my life.
I have no regrets.

There was a great deal of cringe factor in writing these as I am about 1 out of 10 for a lot of them.

So what should the quotes be about today, mental health or empowerment, I vote for mental health as not enough is written about that:

1. Declaring you are in this process is a very important step, stop lying to yourself.

2. One of my party tricks when I get struck down, cut everybody off, I would not recommend this as a powerful healing process: It’s My Party.

3. How good is our society with it, they lock you up so you are out of the way, I don’t know whether I vote Yae or Nae to this.

4. Some of this you forget in the depths of it: Love Myself

5. You and your medication, I am a lifer, when I stop taking it, the dark times reappear.

6. Remember to ask when its difficult RUOK: Feels.

7. The amount of anxiety and handshaking I went through I do have to agree with this.

8. Another way of saying the title of this blog: Change

9. This would have made my list of 12 things.

10. This would be a point of healing I could relate to: Both Sides Now.

11. But there certainly are times you do not agree with this.

12: Guilty as charged: Man Up.

13. Great words from a previous POTUS.

14. When you feel like you have a brick on your tongue, the third one is not that easy: I’m Walking on Sunshine.

15. And our final quote is from someone the system missed.

I have not written my ethos in three months, so here I go: Love and Respect for All, Everyone Included. My Psychiatrist thought this was far too a large step, I will take little steps, writing this blog is one of them. Until my net blog, my dear friends.

The playlist contains some great pop divas and a certified legend. We begin with Jessie J and Hailee Steinfeld. Calvin Harris is next, then Christine Aguilera. The legendary Joni Mitchell follows. Then a doco about men’s silence in this area. We finish on a bright note with Katrina and the Waves: It is hard to heal when you are lying to the world.

Springtime for Hitler and Germany!!!

Posted on February 3, 2020 by Rod's World

Why am I using a line from Zero Mostel’s iconic film the Producers as the title of my latest blog? I went to this inspirational event called Get Mic’d yesterday at which there was an opportunity for ten, which became 11 people because the presenter pulled out two names, not one for the final person to do a three-minute presentation and one of them tied the Fuhrer into their presentation on his love life. I cannot reveal any more due to privacy guidelines but it was epic.

What is speaking your truth? What do you have to give up to be able to do it? If you want to fly and move on to better things, you have yo give up the things that weigh you down – which is not always as obvious and easy as it sounds. My friend Marc Chernoff, author of 1,000+ little things Happy Successful People do differently makes this offering towards achieving the ability to do so:

1. Letting the opinions of others control your life – They know your name, not your story.

2. The shame of past failures – You will fail sometimes, and that’s okay.

3. Being indecisive about what you want – You will never leave where you are until you decide where you would rather be.

4. Procrastinating on the goals that matter to you – There are two primary choices in life: to accept conditions as they exist, or accept the responsibility for changing them.

5. Choosing to do nothing – You don’t choose how you are going to die, or when.

6. Your need to be right – If you keep on saying you’re right, even if you are right now, eventually you will be wrong.

7. Running from problems that should be fixed – We make life harder than it has to be.

8. Making excuses rather than decisions – Life is a continuous exercise in creative problem-solving.

9. Overlooking the positive points in your life – What you see often depends on what you are looking for.

10. Not appreciating the present moment – We do not remember days, we remember moments.

So what has society made of speaking your truth over time, let’s have a look:

1. We begin with one of the most recognised purveyors of the art alive on the planet today, Oprah Winfrey.

2. You know its close to your truth when you can make the energy in the room shift: You’re the Voice.

3. Self Love 101.

4. When you speak the truth some won’t like it: They Don’t Like Me.

5. Boom!!!

6. Liar, Liar, pants on fire: Beautiful Liar.

7. It is your life and your truth you have to live day to day.

8. Time for the title song: Springtime for Hitler and Germany.

9. With this attitude, he freed a country from servitude.

10. No void here: Not Afraid.

11. From the creator of two of the most well-known books ever, 1984 and Animal Farm, George Orwell calls out what speaking your truth really is.

12. Yes, you, the beautiful unique human being you really are: Human.

13. Naomi Wolf is a feminist author and journalist. Her career in journalism began in 1995 and has included topics such as abortion, the Occupy Wall Street movement, Edward Snowden and ISIS. She has written for media outlets such as The Nation, The New Republic, The Guardian and The Huffington Post.

14. From the 18th Century comes insight into how difficult it is to speak your truth in today’s society given the instant gratification society we exist in today: It Wasn’t Easy to Be Happy For You.

15. And from the worlds most famous philosopher, Ms Unknown comes to our final lesson and the reason you should always speak your truth.

Live authentically and cherish each precious moment of your journey, Because when you finally arrive at your desired destination, I guarantee you, another journey will begin. At least that is what I have found on my journey of spreading my ethos, Love and Respect for All, Everyone Included across the planet.

The playlist today has some of the biggies in it. In Australia, there is no one bigger than John Farnham. My unknown artist for this list is Cryptic Wisdom. Then possibly the two biggest pop diva’s combine, Beyonce and Shakira. The title song is next, Then across to America for our final songs from Eminem, Rag “N Bone Man and the Lumineers: Springtime for Hitler and Germany

Remember you can sign up to receive these blogs on my home page: until we meet again, my dear friends.

She Births New Beginnings!!!

Posted on January 23, 2020 by Rod's World

Crewed on an event called Embody your Full Power as a Man last night. It’s an introduction to a body of work called Dancing Eros for Men. Surprisingly you do not journey with your male archetypes but with those of the sacred feminine: The archetypes are the Maiden, the Wild Woman, the Priestess, the Erotic Mother and the Slut and they live in all of us in their own unique way: Dancing Eros.

I began the journey in June 2018 with some trepidation as I looked out over the group of men gathered in the room the first night as to what a slightly over the hill 63-year-old would get out of such a program and would I have to dance like a slut in front of 20 other men, not really my bag. This what I wrote when requested to do a testimonial for the intro last night: The intimacy I created with the group of men I journeyed with transmuted to everyone in my life: Lovers, Brothers, Sisters, Parents, Workmates, Strangers in the Streets, see you at the intro. It was like the spirit of humanity sat in that room with me over the eight nights and days we spent together.

My friend Marc Chernoff has created a list which sums up pretty well what I got out of it:

A Silhouette of a human being stands before you. Perhaps a friend. Perhaps a lover. Perhaps a perfect stranger. They need you to connect with them. They need you to share this moment.

They need you to:

1. They need you to smile without hesitation.

2. Give without expectation.

3. Comfort without lying.

4. Guide without misleading.

5. Forgive without resentment.

6. Rest without judgement.

7. Notice without critiquing.

8. Appreciate without comparing.

9. Listen without interruption.

10. Question without objection.

11. Challenge without mocking.

12. Consider without doubting.

13. Discuss without criticizing.

So what have we said about our sacred feminine spirit over the centuries, here are some of the ways we expressed it:

1. As children, we rely on what our heart says to us to be in the world, as our brain kicks in, we forget the purity of this.

2. Just Man up is such a demeaning tool to dissect our full personality: On a Roll.

3. You need to do the work.

4. CARLOS ANDRÉS GÓMEZ is a Colombian American poet, speaker, actor, and author of Hijito, selected by Eduardo C. Corral as the winner of the 2018 Broken River Prize and a #1 SPD bestseller, and the memoir Man Up: Reimagining Modern Manhood, released by Penguin Random House: We’ve Only Just Begun.

5. To take on a transformational shift like Dancing Eros, you need a fair bit of this.

6. We need to have them in a healthy balance: Both Sides Now.

7. From the 18th Century. Charlotte Brontë was an English novelist and poet, the eldest of the three Brontë sisters who survived into adulthood and whose novels became classics of English literature.

8. Values can be buried with you and remembered, Ferrari’s can’t: I Gotta Feeling.

9. French-born fashionista Rykiel was also a writer. She wrote several books about fashion, a collection of children’s stories, magazine columns and an epistolary novel with Régine Desforges. Her first book Et Je La Voudrais Nue (I Would Like Her Naked) was published in 1979. In 2012, she co-authored N’oubliez pas que je joue (Don’t forget it’s a game) with journalist Judith Perrignon.

10. This is why it was an honour to be part of the crew who gave the opportunity to 50 men to transform their lives: The Power of Love.

11. Time to walk the Inner path.

12. You can dance if you want to, It’s time: I Wanna Dance with Somebody.

13. Or that suffering may take you to a Dancing Eros for Men intro in Collingwood.

14. Listening deeply is part of the deal: Listen to The Earth.

15. What others would you add?

In the end, what all people want deep down is the need for you to be uniquely you – just the way you are, and they need you to respect them – just the way they are. This so fits in with my world ethos of Love and Respect for All, Everyone Included.

The playlist contains some of the classic female voices of all time: Unknown pop diva Ashley O begins the journey. Karen Carpenter and Joni Mitchell are the first of our female vocal legends. We return to this century with The Black Eyed Peas before being entranced by Celine Dion and Whitney Houston. We finish with some beats from Listen to the Earth: She Births New Beginnings.

Remember to sign up to receive these blogs in your inbox on the righthand side of my homepage at http://www.rodwill1707.com. Until we meet again, my dear friends.

Don’t Count the Days, Make the Days Count!!!

Posted on January 20, 2020 by Rod's World

I just spent the weekend crewing on The Essence School’s Warrior Rising retreat. It was excellent: Living As Essence.

I walked into an initiation without hearing about the intent of it as I was in the kitchen, I later found out it was Pain to Power. The premise was you paired up with someone and shared the essence that empowered your life force and of they saw you were not present to it they pushed you to the extent you had agreed to on a scale from zero to ten, zero being no touch and ten being full-on. I chose five as I felt that was about what I could take and deliver from my 65-year-old body. I started with the essence of Resilience and with each blow got to see that there was more to it, by the end it had become: Resilience, Power, Unstoppability and Strength. During another exercise, it morphed into Unstoppable Resilience.

There are simple truths we sometimes misinterpret as uncalled for pain, here they are:

1. The route to your destination is never a straight one – We take questionable turns and get lost.

2. Real friends won’t ask you to changes who you are – The right people for you will love all the things about you that the wrong people are intimidated by, and they will empower you in them.

3. Cheating is a choice, not a mistake, and not an excuse – They trusted you much more that you deserve.

4. The past can’t hurt you anymore – not unless you let it – Forgive and move on.

5. Adversity will come to every person at some point – You can’t change the hand you were dealt, just how you play it.

6. Sometimes things fall apart so better things can fall together – When things fall apart, consider the possibility that life knocked it down on purpose.

7. Someone else doesn’t have to be wrong for you to be right – Keep an open mind. The highest form of ignorance is when you reject something you didn’t know.

8. Everything has just been the way it needed to be – In life, we do lots of things. All of these things, positive and negative have taught us important lessons.

9. Silence is often the loudest cry – Sometimes what a person needs most is a hand to hold and a heart to understand.

10. The difference between where you are and where you want to be is what you do – What you do today is important because you are exchanging a day of your life for it.

11. It’s not who you are that holds you back, it’s who you think you’re not – Judging yourself is not the same as boing honest with yourself.

12. Right Now is the only moment guaranteed to you – Smile through the hard times, even though it doesn’t seem to get any better.

There should be some great quotes on overcoming pains, lets have a look:

1. Back to the Ancient Roman Empire for this one, The first major Roman poet to begin his career during the reign of Augustus, Ovid is today best known for the Metamorphoses, a 15-book continuous mythological narrative written in the meter of epic, and for works in elegiac couplets such as Ars Amatoria (“The Art of Love”) and Fasti. His poetry was much imitated during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, and greatly influenced Western art and literature. The Metamorphoses remains one of the most important sources of classical mythology.

2. We don’t use the ordinary moments of our days to tell as dinner stories when we overcame something: Moments.

3. And stronger!!!

4. A classic of the pain to power genre: I Want You To Hit Me.

5. Sing the Light Electric, free yourself.

6. Push me harder from your friendship: I Stand Alone.

7. Deaf and blind from the age of 19 months, Helen Keller definitely has the right to speak about this. She was a suffragette, pacifist, radical socialist, and a birth control supporter.

8. It is all fuel: Blank Space.

9. It never ever lasts forever.

10. Insert your word in this for God, Gaia, The Universe, Allah, The Buddha whatever takes your fancy: Bring Me To Life.

11. In the overcoming of it, there lies the growth.

12. For Joy, insert Power: Roar.

13. Lord Byron, was an English poet, peer, and politician who became a revolutionary in the Greek War of Independence, and is considered one of the historical leading figures of the Romantic movement of his era.

14. There’s a fine line between…: Pleasure and Pain.

15. And our final powerful lesson for today comes from Private Benjamin, AKA actress Goldie Hawn.

So just live, make mistakes, make memories, and take chances. That is how I am spreading my ethos around the planet, if you need a reminder it is Love and Respect for All, Everyone Included.

The playlist for today is kickass rock and pop divas, from zero to ten in styles. We begin with Tove Lo, some Spoken word from The Fight Club, then we rock out with Godsmack. Taylor Swift takes us back to the world of pop. Evanescence then powers it back up. Penultimate is more pop from Kate Perry. We finish with one of my favourite Aussie rock anthems by the Diviynls: Don’t count the days, make the days count.

Remember you can get my blogs direct to your email by registering on the right-hand side of my page. Until we meet again, my dear friends.

People are Prettiest When They Talk About Something They Really Love!!!

Posted on January 2, 2020 by Rod's World

Do you do what you love to fulfil your basics in life? We can look at some of the answers given on Quora as to why this occurred for many people. It goes back to a lack of support in our developing years. I particularly like this answer:

“For me – when I was young I always wanted to go into the Law (I blame the reruns of Perry Mason on after school). When I was 17 I started at a new high school, the careers counsellor didn’t know me from Adam and when she asked what I wanted to do at Uni, I said Law – she asked if was getting straight A’s, I wasn’t. Her response? Forget about Law then, it’s a pipe dream. I still insisted that for my work experience I’d like to try something Law related. This request was ignored and I was assigned to stamp books in a Uni library for a week whilst other students she knew got to hang out in law firms for that week,

As a teenager with particularly low self-esteem, this advice to ‘forget it’ from an authority figure was unfortunately taken quite seriously and so I did forget about Law.

Obviously, in hindsight it was exceedingly poor advice, there was a multitude of other options open to me without straight A’s. I can’t place all blame with the careers counsellor, I could have figured it out on my own, but I wonder how things may have worked out differently had she been a bit more helpful with someone she was meeting for the first time.

Here are Ten Simple Truths from Marc Chernoff that are sometimes forgotten that would help us make progress towards doing what we love.

Education and Intelligence accomplish nothing without action.
Happiness and Success are two different things.
Everyone runs their own business.
Having too many choices interferes with decision making.
All people possess dimensions of success and dimensions of failure.
Every mistake you make is progress.
People can be great at doing things they don’t like to do.
The problems we have with others are typically more about us.
Emotional decisions are rarely good decisions.
You will never feel 100% ready when an opportunity arises.

So, what does the world say about truths in life, Here are a few of my favourites:

1. A paradox it may seem, but will get a lot done in life.

2. Sojourner Truth, born Isabella [Belle] Baumfree; was an African-American abolitionist and women’s rights activist. In 2014, Truth was included in Smithsonian magazine’s list of the “100 Most Significant Americans of All Time.”: Standing In The LoveLight.

3. Our Shadows walk alongside our light.

4. What would Cinderella say about this?: Who Is She?

5. Not everything we read or hear is true, use your discretion to find out which is true or untrue.

6. Boom!!!: Live Your Life.

7. Unfortunately, we have been electing these people as our political leaders in far too many countries lately.

8. They are your keepers.: Faithful.

9. What is your favourite carnival ride, probably says a lot about your relationship to life.

10. One foot in front of another gets the job done: From Little Things, Big Things Grow.

11. K.I.S.S.

12. Sonnenberg’s blog — FrankSonnenbergOnline — has attracted millions of readers on the Internet. It was named among the “Best 21st Century Leadership Blogs”; among the “Top 100 Socially-Shared Leadership Blogs”; and one of the “Best Inspirational Blogs On the Planet.” Frank’s newest book, Soul Food: Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life, was released November 2018: Honesty.

13. Choice the first path, you will feel a lot more relaxed in your life.

14. I rate George one of the worlds great philosophers, highly underrated: Truth.

15. And for our final lesson, we go to Alan Watts for a universal truth.

Just remember those significant moments of opportunity for personal growth and development will come and go throughout your lifetime. If you are looking to make positive changes in your life you will need to embrace these moments of opportunity even though you will never feel 100% ready for them.

The playlist begins with my favourite song from my friend Jo Jo Smith. Over to the Cinderella soundtrack next then back to the present with T.I. and Rhianna. New to me is Sarah Reeves. The Waifs do a Kev Carmody cover next. The penultimate song is by Billy Joel and we finish with some spoken word from George Carlin: People are Prettiest When They Talk About Something They Really Love!!!

What do you really love? For me it is spreading Love and Respect for All, Everyone Included across the planet. Until we meet again, my dear friends.

+ Add your own event Eventbrite

I am an Interculturalist

Smile! You’re at the best WordPress.com site ever

Category Archives: the daily Love