Are you Interested?

Posted on January 25, 2016 by Rod's World

I have lived in Preston, Victoria, Australia for four years now and find it a much more communal area than the suburb I previously lived in. Perhaps this is because of the local council who are committed to each of the 153 different cultures who make up its population and the Darebin Intercultural Centre that was sent up to ensure this happened. link to information on DIC.

What makes a great community, It is defined in meaning two distinct things

community

kəˈmjuːnɪti/

noun

1.

a group of people living in the same place or having a particular characteristic in common.

“Montreal’s Italian community”

synonyms: group, section, body, company, set, circle, clique, coterie, ring, band,faction;
2.

the condition of sharing or having certain attitudes and interests in common.

“the sense of community that organized religion can provide”

I have belonged to many different communities over my life: The football playing community, the singing community, the self development community and the Northside living community being some of them.

What has society said about Community over the centuries. The 15 quotes I have chosen say different things about it, lets have a look :

1. Author of the outstanding book Love and Will Rollo May states that Communication is an essential part of Community as it leads to us understanding each other not judging from made up opinions.

2, This beautiful poster suggests many ways to build a sense of community. If these are in place I suggest you would be part of a vibrant one.

3. When you become a genuine part of a community there is something you give to it, your heart. One touched in your heart you realise that this is what fulfils you th emost in your life.

4. Marianne Williamson, known for her quote from her best selling book A Return To Love: Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate, Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn’t serve the world. There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we’re liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others. This quote is often incorrectly credited to Nelson Mandela. Another powerful pointer to th epower of community from Marianne.

5. Synergy is another benefit of strong communities. Synergy is the interaction of elements that when combined produce a total effect that is greater than the sum of the individual elements, contributions, etc. You need less to achieve much more.

6. In your Face community, Love and Respect for all, Everyone Included – the ethos of my public FB group Interculturalism, a space to join and share your examples of Community that includes everyone.

7. Always look out for people who are in your community who are not partaking of what is available in belonging to it. Always give them the choice but don’t assume they don’t want to be.

8. I agree with Mahatma, when I am not partaking in a Community I feel a little lost as I did for the first year of living in Preston, but after discovering The Intercultural centre and its activities I became part of that beautiful gift one gives, Of Service.

9. Love this image and quote from Henrik Ibsen, father of the school of Realism. In a community anyone can step forward and lead, they tend to have less bureaucracy than other structures.

10 A gaggle of words that come out of Community. Things that you obtain, assets, a sense of wellness, support of others and events to attend and meet the others from your community.

11. I am listening to Mitch Albom’s book the Five people you meet in Heaven, a book about Ernie who dies where he learns that heaven is not a lush Garden of Eden, but a place where your earthly life is explained to you by five people. These people may have been loved ones or distant strangers. Yet each of them changed your path forever. Its fascinating and points out the importance of creating purpose and meaning in your life through community service.

12. David Bowie worked on this his whole love, from Ziggy Stardust to the Thin White Duke, he was all about including everyone in his fan group AKA his community. Here is one of his finest songs in relationship to Community: Heroes.

13. Jasmine Guy is an actress who pointed out that Community is not as easy as it used to be when we were part of a tribe living in a Village, but it is still is so worthwhile.

14. Maria Montessori was an Italian physician, educator, and innovator, acclaimed for her educational method that builds on the way children naturally learn. She created schools where the whole school was a community not broken up into separate classes.

15. And finally something to remember, that our bodies are a community as well, made up of millions of Star Seeds and Cells.

So have a think about what communities you say you belong to and those you would like to, I guarantee that it will open your heart more for you and by being of Service you will live a healthier life.

Namaste until next Thursday, my dear friends.

Did you Get It!

Posted on January 18, 2016 by Rod's World

I have started listening to Podcasts on the recommendation of my Anam Cara Emeli. I listened to a fascinating one about fulfilling your purpose by getting your message out there. This made me think did most people know what the Message they had to give in life was.

I have done several modalities to set up my message for the year and live from my Core Desired Feelings of . These are from Danielle LaPortes brilliant process The Desire Map. From the others my Word for 2016 is Sacredness and my Essence is Sacred Love, more about those in a later Blog.

I have chosen 15 diverse quotes, covering Love, Social Media and Purpose. No Oprah but there is Mother Teresa. Lets begin our journey.

1. This is describing the essence of Sacred Love, where you or someone say I Love You, and you don’t really have to say it again because they you or they hear it for the rest of you life this time in. Its to do with revealing your Sacred Stories.

2. Google didn’t find Aditya, but their message is Inspiring in its words and intention, don’t mess round delivering yours.

3. Its good to have a dream, I have a favourite image which is of a Unicorn and it says don’t let them kill your day dream. But to fulfil that daydream you also require the actions of Doing stuff.

4. Dennis S. Brown is a motivational speaker who grew up in a three room “Shot Gun” house in Central Louisiana is known as Mr Attitude. His ability to relate to transforming your message through real life events he has experienced draw people to him in the thousands.

5. Luke Rinehart wrote a book called The Dice Man back in 1971 where he shook a dice before making any decision. It is a fascinating read as to me the message is that we make decisions on much more shallow fears and judgements than this in our lives.

6. Throw in a bit of weird, a bit of not normal, Yes even some insanity to get that Message out there if you want it to be heard.

7. Probably not many people on Earth are quoted more than His Holiness, The Dalai Lama. When spreading you Message , if you want it to be joyful and easy look in the mirror and there is the person responsible for it happening.

8. There will always be critics, mainstream media makes a living from it, imagine if they reported the great messages that existed around the World instead, it would transform.

9. Parenting 101, give your used things to your next sibling or the family down the street who are not as well off as you. Thinking about it later and having judgements about it doesn’t get that Message out there.

10. I get to tell one of my sacred stories, about how I broke up a friendship via SMS because she said that it was a valid way to communicate and would not agree to meeting face to face. I told her it was a crap way and have not heard from her since after I said to her that I was not the negative person she talked about and that negative people did not send three things I love about you for 5 months each and every day.

11. Time for a song, Little Anthony from 1960. Tears on My Pillow, Tears may be necessary to move to the next level of getting your message out there. It isn’t always a cakewalk.

12. Penn Fraser Jillette is an American magician, juggler, comedian, musician, inventor, actor, and best-selling author known for his work with fellow magician Teller in the team Penn & Teller. He is also known for his advocacy of atheism, scientific scepticism , libertarianism and free-market capitalism . The Message is the Message, we often forget this as it becomes more difficult.

13. Mother Teresa is much loved and much maligned, there appears to be no middle ground with her. She got her Message out powerfully to the World about the slums of India. As she states, you need to light the flame daily for it to keep burning, same with your message.

14. There are roughly 6,500 spoken languages in the world today. However, about 2,000 of those languages have fewer than 1,000 speakers. The most popular language in the world is Mandarin Chinese. There are 1,213,000,000 people in the world that speak that language. How about if we wrote our message in every language, that certainly would make a difference.

15. Finally a bit of humour about getting your message out there. Make sure it is real for you. if its not why will other people listen to it.

Each of us have a message to bring to the planet and its people, it would seem that the messages being spoken the loudest are those of war, corruption and Terrorism. Do not worry, it is the last cries of a time that has seen its day. We are entering the Age of Aquarius. Peace and Love and Human Connection.

Namaste until Thursday, my dear friends.

I Feel I’ve meet you Before.

Posted on January 7, 2016 by Rod's World

Sometimes you meet someone, and it’s so clear the two of you, on some level belong together. As Lovers, or as Anam Cara – Soul Friends, or as Family or as something entirely different. You just work, whether you understand one another or you’re in love or you are partners in crime. You meet these people throughout your life, out of nowhere, under the strangest circumstances, and they help you feel alive.

What would it take to feel that way about everyone on the planet: Love and Respect for All: Everyone Included. This is the ethos for the public Facebook group I formed over two years ago, Interculturalism. You are free to join and tell your stories.

So I have chosen 15 quotes relating to We are One to comment on, No Oprah or Tony, but some very beautiful insights.

1. As far as we know all species on earth hearts beat the same. Maybe at different speeds but they all have to beat to stay alive. We forget this at times and enter the judgement zone that we are different.

2. Back in the 70’s in Melbourne Australia, a band called Skyhooks released a Song called Ego is not a dirty Word, Video of Ego is not a dirty Word. It may not be a dirty word , but it keeps us separate.

3. Eckhart Tolle is a German-born resident of Canada, best known as the author of The Power of Now and A New Earth: Awakening to your Life’s Purpose. In 2011, he was listed by the Watkins Review as the most spiritually influential person in the world.

4. Science Fiction writer Ray Bradbury reminds us we are an experiment with form by the Universe. Not separate but an experiment from a greater force.

5. When born we know nothing of Me and You, but are then trained to be a unique individual by other unique individuals. We then spend the rest of our lives trying to fit in with the colourful creation that is earth’s culture.

6. We look in the mirror and either like or dislike what we see dependent on our mood. This image points out what the reflection of Me is.

7. When we find those people mentioned in the first paragraph we feel like a force to be reckoned with. How much could we get done if we united together and used the force of a tsunami for good.

8.Luciano De Crescenzo (Italian pronunciation: [luˈtʃano de kreʃˈʃɛntso]; born 18 August 1928) is an Italian writer, film actor, director and engineer. He published a long series of books, including novels and popularizations of philosophy. For his work in the field of Greek philosophy he received honorary citizenship of Athens in 1994. Here is his quote on our need for each other to fly.

9. Radha Sahar is a New Zealand musician who sings meaningful songs to life Voices of the Wind. This beautiful ode calls out to us acting as one, not as loners.

10. Somewhere on our journey we forget this . I think this is what all babies are told as they are delivered and fight for it as long as they can.

11. Our celebrity today is His Holiness The Dalai Lama, he included everyone and every creature as well.

12. A lion and a bird, how much do we love those pictures on Facebook where two different species become friends, time to wake up.

13. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin SJ was a French philosopher and Jesuit priest who trained as a paleontologist and geologist and took part in the discovery of Peking Man. it is claimed we are all descended from Peking Man. One Family split asunder, time to remember our heritage.

14. Time for a reminder from one of the great disco songs We are Family, we have the same amount of blood and the same number of bones, yes We are One and the Same.

15. Unfortunately this question does not appear on most countries citizenship test, lets start a movement to have it be the first and only question people need to ask.

Do you feel more connection to people after reading this, I hope so as that was my intention. Namaste until next Monday , my dear friends.

The Irish got it Right!!

Posted on December 21, 2015 by Rod's World

I was given the honour of being declared someone’s Anam Cara the other day. We are entirely different people – Emeli is a kick Ass entrepreneur who is about having people see their purpose in life through workshops and retreats and I am a wordsmith who loves blogs and conscious dancing.

Historically, your Anam Cara is a person to whom you look as the person to share, confess and reveal the hidden intimacies in your life. With your Anam Cara you can express your mind, your heart, the very core of your innermost self. Your friendship with your anam cara is not just a friendship, but also an act of belonging, a place of recognition. Therefore, the most powerful gift you can bring to your friendship with your Anam Cara is your attention and awareness. It is your responsibility to be completely present with your Anam Cara.

So what does society have to say about Anam Cara’s, I have chosen 15 pertinent quotes to examine this, here we go.

1. Your Anam Cara may not be your lover or partner, He or she may not even be your bestie or live in the same state or country. But you simply know when you meet them that they are.

2. Back in the 1500’s Paracelsus came up with this beautiful quote that to me describes the Anam Cara relationship divinely. Partelsus was strangely called the Father of Toxicology as well as beng a being a philosopher.

3. Its said that with your Anam Cara you could sit there for days and days and resolve deep issues. My friend Kavisha, who is a renowned musician and chantress says the healing is not in the words, its in the silence in between.

4. It could have been easy for me to overlook Emeli as on of my Anam Cara’s, we meet putting chairs out at a yoga and meditation event mutual friends were running. It was when Em did a 45 minute workshop promising that you would know what stopped you in Life and delivered that caught my attention.

5. I love Ten Years After I’m Going Home from Woodstock , one of the great raw guitar performances Adam Cara Live. it reminds me of the joy you feel being around these people.

6. I was at a party Saturday night and overheard my friends housemate saying she was bored. it was full of bush doofers who would open a conversation with which doofs do you go to. She had just come back from working on AIDS projects in Africa and Asia. We had this amazing conversation about what we saw as making a difference for several hours. It was an honour to meet her soul.

7. John O’Donohue wrote the 1977 best seller Anam Cara. A former ex priest , he traces the expression back to the monastic traditions. I love you have arrived at your most Sacred Place – Home. Here is his last recorded talk on the subject – The beauty of Anam Cara.

8. John O’Donohue was skilled with his words and his quotes on the subject are very moving and this one touches me in many places.

9. More from John, after all he wrote the book on the subject, its on my list to read with about 6 others. This mystical quote speaks to how I feel about Emeli because it is not how we look, and what we say that draws us to be Anam Cara, it is other worldly.

10. I don’t know how many Anam Cara you are allowed in your life but another dear friend and I were discussing Yoni staring, I think this constitutes feeling the confidence to share everything.

11. I think this is self explanatory as to what it has to do with Anam Cara, it is breathtaking beautiful in its simplicity.

12. It was only less than two years ago I met Emeli, I am 61. but those two years feel like they contain as much of a journey as the previous 59.

13. Time for another song, Continental Robert Desouza and the Dynamic Hypnotics from 1984, he’s still performing around Sydney. Its a soul kind of Feeling Anam Cara Feeling.

14. Elephant and Cat, Anam Cara come in strange combinations, but they always feel Oh So right.

15. I like throwing in an Oprah quote or An image without words, I believe these beautiful butterfly friends are Anam Cara.

So when Emeli explained Anam Cara to me, I believed I entered a new phase in my life, as well as being an Elder, no longer a little boy I am an Aman Cara, sweet.

Namaste until Thursday , my dear friends