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

It’s often its own Reward!!

Posted on January 16, 2017 by Rod's World

Being rewarded, is that receiving you a financial salary for what you do in life? Or is it a more spiritual path as spoken of by luminaries like His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Deepak Chopra and Carolyn Myss.

Above me, there is a flier advertising the Compassionate Voices Community Choir quoting words such as Rejoice, Improve, Connect and Learn. If this is what being Compassionate has to offer I’m on board.

In our busy lives, compassion is one of those things that is easy to drop out, for ourselves and others. So let’s have a look at what society has said to remind us not to do that over the centuries:

1. I recently read a quote that said do not complain for 24 hours, not even once and your life would transform. I can imagine the same applies for judging oneself and others.

2. Putting life off is not a part of a Compassionate journey. it would be like being in the now moment to moment. How much more would you get done if you did not procrastinate over things: Do It Right Now.

3. Grandparents are old, even older than our parents, and our younger siblings, why do they cling so hard? These are ideas you need to transform because you will probably be all these things sometime in your life.

4. Always have a mirror around so that you can remember you always have someone to practice compassion with, the most important person in your life: Compassion.

5. Compassion has some worth housemates, these are some of them.

6. Compassion, another name could be heart to heart surgery: Open Your Heart.

7. How would the world transform if we taught compassion in the education system as well as knowledge? I say it would be a very different place.

8. The compulsory cute animal photo quote, If you don’t ask or act what you think is purely supposition: Rolling In the Deep.

9. As Byron Katie said in her quote we always have someone to practice compassion with. And when we get that down pat we can then open our heart to others.

10. I’m the leader, the leader of the gang of compassion I am, so can you be too: Leader of the Pack.

11. Each of our senses has a purpose that can empower our lives and the world.

12. Probably better known as Uma Thurman’s dad, Robert Alexander Farrar Thurman (born August 3, 1941) is an American Buddhist writer and academic who has written, edited or translated several books on Tibetan Buddhism. He is the Je Tsongkhapa Professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies at Columbia University, holding the first endowed chair in this field of study in the United States. He also is the co-founder and president of the Tibet House New York and is active against the People’s Republic of China’s control of Tibet: Om Mani Pad Me Hung.

13. Have compassion for the days to come, keep growing and creating the best day of your life.

14. Thoughts don’t get a lot done, it needs physical actions as well for anything to happen: Would You.

15. They call it the technological revolution, don’t forget the spiritual technologies such as compassion, kindness, serenity, mindfulness and humility.

Remember to look in the mirror when you first get up and say I Love You then go and pass it on to whoever you come across during the day.

Namaste until next time, my dear friends.

Make each day, a Story!!

Posted on October 13, 2016 by Rod's World

Are you a good storyteller? I love listening to podcasts and the ones that hold my attention are the ones who tell great stories. To me, a great story is one that has you live an experience you haven’t before. This means that everyone can be a storyteller for another because we all have our own unique experiences, how do you get other people to listen to yours?

Lets look at what people have said on their storyboards:

1. Christina Baldwin is a writer and seminar presenter of 30+ years experience. She has contributed two classic books to the exploration of journal writing, including the well-known classic, Life’s Companion, Journal Writing as a Spiritual Practice, revised and reissued in 2007 after 100,000 original sales. This work led her to a long study of personal growth and group dynamics and as a result of that experience she wrote Calling the Circle, the First and Future Culture to explore how social container releases needed wisdom.

2. From little things, big things grow. In Australia an indigenous tribal elder Vincent Lingiari took on one of the large land owners Lord Vestey with a simple story, Its our land: From Little Things.

3. Steve Jobs was a classic story teller, he said Our goal is to make the best devices in the world, not to be the biggest, my entire family now has apple computers.

4. How do you relate to stories, do they lift you up and give you a new direction in life. They do for me, it may be a simple half page or a 400 page volume but if they add to my knowledge they have done what is required : Compass.

5. Michael Margolis made a career from Story telling. on his twitter page he wrote the following : Helping trailblazers tell their story. Educator, anthropologist, entrepreneur. Left-handed, colour-blind, believes chocolate is a food group. Try the red pill. His webpage is called http://www.getstoried.com.

6. Our mainstream media tell stories, they unfortunately have become written for profit not the betterment of society. How did we let it become about money not what would help our society grow: Magic.

7. We have all heard the saying you will not be remembered for what you had when you pass, but how you made people feel, the stories that are told about you when you are no longer there.

8. 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. The first Discworld novel, The Colour of Magic, was published in 1983, after which 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. He definitely turned his life into a story: The Hedgehog Song.

9. Changes, don’t wait to be a richer man: Changes, just gonna have to be a different man. Lines from a famous Bowie song. Don’t keep telling the same story for your whole life.

10. Interculturalism: Love and Respect for All: Everyone Included. I set up a Facebook group so we can share great cultural stories, Join Here : FB Interculturalism.

11. “Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.”

12. Tenzin Gyatzo, HHDL has it down pat. Its not success that is going to transform the world. Will it be the Western Women as he has also said : Transformer.

13. I hadn’t heard of Michael Margolis before I wrote this blog, have watched a few YouTube videos while writing it, he is a fascinating man, have a look.

14. Nourishing is one of the great things stories are capable of as they strengthen our dreams: Dream.

15. I think my brother in law worked on this story. Images help stories as well.

So lets get out their and pump up our stories and fulfil our dreams.

Namaste until next time , my dear friends.

Partake in one of Life’s Pleasure, Your Body!

Posted on January 28, 2016 by Rod's World

I up to recently had been taking a medication that increased you appetite and because of this blew out to over one hundred kilograms. My frame is not made to carry this much weight and had bits that were hanging about.

I had been going to the gym for the past two years and this did not move “The bits”, and I used to not enjoy looking in the mirror. Magically since I have come off the medication I have lost eight Kilos and my belief that I can lose the magical fifteen has become a reality not another failed New Years resolution.

What do we as a community say about Body Image, most of the quotes are aimed at women, which says something about our society I believe as I think it is a cross gender issue but has been kidnapped by the fashion and marketing industries. Let us begin:

1. I never used to believe in gyms until I started going to one, becoming the virtual gym junkie, going at least three times a week. The main benefit was one of feeling lighter of mind not body.

2. I have a friend who is known for her expression when she is impressed with something, utters the good old Australian colloquialism Fuck Yeah. Here’s another way of saying you where given your unique body for a purpose.

3. The people who suffer the most attacks on their bodies must surely be Hollywood actresses. Friends star Jennifer Aniston suggests that it is not their job to satisfy the wishes of a blood thirsty media pack.

4. We are only given one body this time around, if you disregard it too often it will burn you to the ground and you will be in the line to get the next one.

5.Simply, beautifully, wonderfully uniquely you. The gateway to your soul is not disliking what you see in the mirror, but what your beautiful Inner Pilot Light says to you when you are loving yourself.

6. Dr. Vanessa Pawlowski provides Counselling for a new relationship to your worries and your body. This is her main mantra in life, I think is should be stuck on every bathroom mirror.

7. Marilyn was the film goddess of her time. She looked nothing like the catwalk models of today or the Parisian beauties of the Seventeenth Centuries. Proof that what is accepted as beautiful changes with time.

8. I am doing some work at the moment that disagrees with this, that we hold the memories in the body Arion’s Activation School. Altering the mind works for a while but if it remains in the body, it will come back.

9. Mainstream media lost me a long time ago, images of War, Death and pestilence. The message they spread about body image are just as harmful for the general population, why do they do this?

10. Michelle M. McGrath, convenor of the Sacred Self website has this beautiful quote pointing out the Sacredness and limitlessness of our bodies. Very empowering.

11. Our song for the day from Pop Diva Rihanna Diamonds, Comfort with your body is the way she travels.

12. Kurt Vonnegut is a fine Sci Fi writer and a well known social commentator. On the subject of the Body, he reminds us it is our greatest Instrument and we should take very good care of it.

13. Could I write on Body image without mentioning the practice of Yoga that has swept the West. B. K. S. Iyengar was one of the original Yoga gurus who brought his style to the west. He refers to the body as the temple and that it should be treated accordingly.

14. Frequently attributed to C.S. Lewis the popular origins of this quote actually go back to Quakerism in the 1892 journal Annals of a Quiet Neighbourhood and there is evidence it was used earlier than this date. So work on your Soul and the body will follow.

15. And the final word to Emma Watson, British actress and model whom you may know better as Hermoine from the Harry Potter film series. Emma is outspoken about the pressure put on women to fit in to the images the media creates for them. She does not agree with it.

Most of the quotes seem to be saying that we are given a body and a soul, that we should look after both as they are inter connected. Go out and do this and you will live a healthy Life. Namaste until next Monday , my dear friends.

Walking the Visionary Road!!

Posted on November 23, 2015 by Rod's World

Had an inspiring weekend crewing on my dear friend Emeli Paulo’s True Grit workshop. Twenty brave souls and Ten crew inquired into what does True Grit mean for them to fulfil their dreams and purpose.

The highlight of the weekend for me was the two times we did the process that saw people move from their current reality to embracing their vision by seeing what they needed to let go and what support they needed. I have called it Walking the Visionary Road because I forget the actual name used and I like mine better.

I got to play the current reality in one of them and saw so much out of it, primarily how I hang on to mine and how my vision is normally in the distance but without structures in place to get there.

So what do we as a society say about why we need and the power of having a vision. Fifteen quotes and yes Tony Robbins is in there, how could the big guy not be. Here we go –

1. And the rhythm of life is a powerful beat, feel the tingle in your fingers and the tingle in your feet. Having your Vision powerfully in presence is a truly creative act, take it today.

2. What is your position in Life, an oft asked question at parties as social chit chat. Who gives a flying rats, I wonder what that expression means. But what inspires is people speaking about their passion in Life, what turns them on and gets them hot under the collar. Cute little duckies by the way.

3. As a child I remember watching the old American series, The Invisible Man. It was mesmerising to a young child living in Country Victoria. A bit like our powerful vision is to others who cannot not see it and often become the naysayers in our life. Don’t listen to these folk.

4. I am old enough to remember when Muhammad Ali was named Cassius Clay. Here is his take on living from Vision and the forgettable song that was written about him : The Black Superman.

5. Helen Adams Keller was an American author, political activist, and lecturer. She was the first deaf and blind person to earn a bachelor of arts degree. Here is her take on living an ordinary life.

6. Debbie Ford was an inspiring author who wrote on how our shadow world inhibited our chances of fulfilling our vision. her work had us look at our excuses and re aligning with our life’s vision. Unfortunately she died young, her fans have continued her insights at Debbie’s Work.

7. The legend goes that Thomas Edison broke 1 million light bulbs before he discovered the ones that worked. If this is true that definitely makes him an expert in the arena of execution.

8. Alice Cooper’s first hit was Welcome to my Nightmare – Alice in Action. The Japanese are very succinct and direct, with their sayings. Here is their input to the importance of action in our daily lives and the consequence of the lack thereof.

9. Nelson Mandela had one of the great Visions if our time. He attributes the power of being about to hold a huge Vision through your imagination as the reason for him succeeding.

10. In business there is a requirement to provide the Tax department with your Income statement and Balance Sheet. How many of us include our Vision in our assets list. Really it is the greatest one we have.

11. How many of you have been to Disney World. I have, it a place where our dreams and fantasies come alive. This is Walt Disney’s vision for the children of the world. Awesome, if I don’t say so myself.

12. I sing in a choir, The Moons a Balloon, our leader is my Friend Kavisha Mazzella, she is an award winning Singer Songwriter, here’s one of her songs Invisible Indivisible. I pay more to go and dance to recorded music that hear her sing her beautiful words.

13. I recently went to a public talk on healing the wounds of Love. The focus was not on making up a better story about them but Waking Up. Jeremiah kept stating our job is to Wake Up. This was a profound moment for me.

14. Saving the best nearly to the last. The Get it done man Tony/Anthony Robbins. Why Vision holders are special people. Combined with commitment and willingness to act, the world is your oyster.

15. Another way to sneak in another list of Possibilities, but this is a beautiful one, it included all the ingredients for an awesome life.

It was an extraordinary weekend, opening up a sense that we will fulfil our Visions, one step at a time, some taking fast steps even running towards it and others one solid step at a time, with periods of falling backwards. Remember we are now officially a member of the Collective Potential tribe, welcome aboard.

Namaste until Thursday, my dear friends.

Forgive and Forget, Is it that Easy?

Posted on October 19, 2015 by Rod's World

I was recently talking to a friend outside her house discussing what publicity I could help with for an event she was involved with to receive a discounted ticket when I recieved an SMS from my bestest friend asking me if I was off the airwaves.

I SMS’d her back and explained what I was doing or at least I thought I did. I then received another SMS asking where we still going out that night. I sent one back saying that going out with her was my main priority. The reply I received was not what I expected, It was that she had not felt that way for a long time and felt I was being negative to her.

After the initial shock of receiving such a reply I realise that we needed to discuss the difficulties we had been having in catching up and forgive each other and re- establish our friendship to what it had been when we first started going out with each other.

Wikipedia defines Forgiveness as follow –

Forgiveness – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia//

Forgiveness is the intentional and voluntary process by which a victim undergoes a change in feelings and attitude regarding an offense, lets go of negative emotions such as vengefulness, with an increased ability to wish the offender well.^[1]^[2] Forgiveness is different from condoning (failing to see the action as wrong and in need of forgiveness), excusing (not holding the offender as responsible for the action), pardoning (granted by a representative of society, such as a judge), forgetting (removing awareness of the offense from consciousness), and reconciliation (restoration of a relationship).^[1]

In certain contexts, forgiveness is a legal term for absolving or giving up all claims on account of debt, loan, obligation or other claims.^[3]^[4]

As a psychological concept and virtue, the benefits of forgiveness have been explored in religious thought, the social sciences and medicine. Forgiveness may be considered simply in terms of the person who forgives^[5] including forgiving themselves, in terms of the person forgiven or in terms of the relationship between the forgiver and the person forgiven. In most contexts, forgiveness is granted without any expectation of restorative justice, and without any response on the part of the offender (for example, one may forgive a person who is incommunicado or dead). In practical terms, it may be necessary for the offender to offer some form of acknowledgment, an apology, or even just ask for forgiveness, in order for the wronged person to believe himself able to forgive.^[1]

I have chosen quotes from across the Ages to see what our society has to say about it, Here we go –

1. In our love relationships we will always come across things that make us arc up. This enables us to practice the noble art of forgiveness on a daily basis to restore the deep state of Love that we committed too when choosing those particular people to fulfil these roles in our life.

2. When we are ruminating on the past and blaming others or being the victim of circumstances in our lives, it is valuable to realise tht we cannot change events as they occurred but we can drastically lessen the effect they will have on our future by uttering the words, silently or out Loud, I foryou you, me , them etc. etc.

3. Lissa Rankin, Author of the ground breaking book The Fear Cure points to that a major percentage of disease is caused by False Fears. On reading the books I discovered that a lot of these fears come from things and events where you have not forgiven ,even to the point of Heart Attacks, here is the link to her page about it – The Fear Cure .

4. Self Forgiveness is an important part of Self Love, a state that is required to allow other Love into your life. Be courageous in admitting that even you make mistakes.

5. Holding on to interactions and events that play on your minds days and years later is very bad for your mental health research shows. Converting these from a bitter experience to a valuable lesson will free you from the debilitating illnesses that often follow the practice of blame and shame.

6. Every Tuesday the local Council come and collect the rubbish I have been unable to recycle. If is was as easy to clear the mind of holding of things from the past that clutter up our lives.

7. The vow goes I will love and cherish, whether in Good Fortune or adversity. Its not always plain sailing on the good ship Matrimony. Moments of forgiving occur every single day as we journey down this sacred path.

8. How long have you sentenced yourself to. I had one shadow belief that was from the age of four. It only took to the tender age of 60 to realise what it was costing me, the world looked very different after letting this one go. I suppose there was no internet and Facebook when I took it on.

9. World Peace Day is 21st September, It is dedicated to world peace, and specifically the absence of war and violence, there have been a total of 26 days of peace since 1945, the end of World War 2, the War to End all Wars. Oops got that one a little eschewed.

10. Be in the Now, Moment to moment, Discipline – all words that point to what is needed to live in the state of the dignity of True Forgiveness.

11. Any you an anyone or a butterfly? Butterflies have beautiful colours and character and fly lightly in the wind because they are not carrying their past burdens around with them.

12. Two steps forward, three steps back doesn’t get much done. When you grant yourself and others the precious gift of forgiveness you free your feet from work-boots to the latest Nike runners and you have the ability to Just Do It!!

13. Promises, Promises was a minor hit for the band Naked Eyes in the eighties. What they sung in the 80’s. Its about how much value we place on them. When you forgive it better be of a reasonably high level.

14. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, a fantasy about a man who grew younger not older. He grew smaller the longer his life went on, do you by holding on to those grudges?

15. Finally, the words you use in your life is what gives you your power. In Australia we are known for saying sorry for the simplest of things. So when you have cut someone deep those words have little effect, Try on Will you forgive me?

We had a frank and moving discussion that night when we went out and restored the relationship to nearer what it had been. I didn’t sat please forgive me. I will next time I see her.

Namaste until next time , my dear friends

Suki or Lhasa?

Posted on October 8, 2015 by Rod's World

Who are Suki and Lhasa, my sister’s beloved cat and dog, I’m not allowed to have pets in my flat.

Pets? Cats or Dogs, Rats or Mice, Budgies or Parrots. We all have our personal choice. I am more of a Dog person than those life controlling moggies who know they are the owner not the other way around.Wikipedia has an interesting definition of what an animal lover is, Check out number three –

The terms animal love or animal lover can have several meanings:

affectional relationships between humans and companion animals, see human-animal bonding
wider concern about the well-being of all animals, see animal welfare
sexual relationships between humans and animals, see zoophilia
affectional bonding between animals, see pair bond
the possibility of emotions such as love in animals, see emotion in animals
Animal Love, a 1996 documentary filmDIRECTED by Ulrich Seidl

I have chosen 15 quotes , some famous , some from just your standard neighborhood cat or dog lover. Here we go –

1. I’ve decided to start my quotes on a less that serious note. I can’t imagine Paul my 50’s something psychiatrist using licking as part of his treatment but I might suggest it on my next three monthly catch up.

2. Suki normally is giving that look when he wants a pat, once you start the cut off point is never.

3. Mark Twain was known for his quirky and insightful quotes as much as his fame for his novels. His summation of the output of dogs vs. Cats is pretty close to the bone in my opinion.

4. Love the even when you don’t share the People Food line, Yes most dogs believe they are human.

5. The one dog I had was poisoned, my parents disappeared him very quickly. I switched to guinea pigs because they couldn’t run away because they were in a cage.

6. Jean Maurice Eugene Clement Cocteau, French poet and film maker always had at least one cat in his home. He came out with this well known cat loving quote as testament to the love he felt for them.

7. I have several friends who judge a persons character on the reaction their pets have to them. I remember visiting my friends house in Bendigo. They had 13 animals, 6 cats. Four went for my lap at once.

8. How a dog and children come into the world. Treated right they will continue to do so until we place that wooden cross next to the back fence, the pets I mean not the children.

9. Dogs know something when they choose trees as their place of going to the toilet. Starlight attracts them to the beauty, that’s a little left field.

10. Unconditional Love, if we followed this set of ideals for loving I think the world would be a better place all around.

11. Especially when it from a young kitten rubbing themselves against your leg at dinner time, and believe me they know when it is their dinnertime, don’t be late or there will be consequences.

12. We all have seen that look if we have ever been graciously allowed to share a premises with a cat. I am plotting to take over the world look and you are going to be my first conquests.

13. Had to get in one about my true addiction Music, I have 24,000 songs on my Itunes. My friend La Rola organised a dance party to pay for her beloved car Kevin’s surgery. How could you not go.

George Mikes, Hungarian Born British author came up with this beauty, about the real chain of command in our homes.

15. Aaw, isn’t it cute when two cats clean each other, they do it from the smallest moggie to the largest lions. No one has worked it out. Which one of the three scenario’s above do you think it is.

I am jealous at times of the love my sister and her family have received from Suki and Lhasa, Lhasa is a bit old these days to show much, He just lies around and sleeps, but remember after all he is a cat.

Its time to say adieu, so once again Namaste until next time , my dear friends.