It’s Your Home.

Posted on May 16, 2016 by Rod's World

They say that you are always looking for it until it settles in and it may take many journeys before you finally arrive there, because all the travel internally and externally cannot make the discovery of what is truly your home until it inhabits your heart.

I visited six countries and six states in Australia looking for home. As a very young child I felt that my family home was “home” but lost this when I moved to Melbourne to begin a French polishing apprenticeship in the early 70’s. I then did the shared house boogie, moving every few years as houses and friendships drifted apart and people partnered up.

As I could not find home externally I took up an internal journey studying the work of Werner Erhard and Tibetan Buddhism for periods of 8 and 9 years. I recently took up bodywork and found what I call home more and more. I have selected 15 quotes on what society has said about taking this journey, they are interesting to say the least. Lets begin this journey:

1. We often say to ourselves via that little voice in our heads but its all too much so never get round to it. Big Tony, Anthony Robbins calls these the impossible journeys, because we never begin them.

2. Then we get to that place in life where we realise this message is much more potent. Lissa Rankin calls this the Inner Pilot Light.

3. Remember when you were going to be Superman or Superwoman when you were riding your Unicorn back in your childhood days. Nelson says you still can be.

4. When I tell the story about going to Russia to run the Moscow Peace Marathon to end World Hunger the year before the Berlin Wall came down some people give me very strange looks. I’m not sure if it because I ran a marathon or that I went to the Soviet Union to do it.

5. We met Serge, Lara and Michael Jackson in Leningrad at a cafe. They wanted to Learn English and we had a lets learn Russian travel book. So they took us under their wings while we were there and showed us the real city. Michael was called Michael Jackson because he loved doing the moonwalk.

6. A lot of the time when I felt that I was not worthy I spent the journey alone, I now see this as a prominent part of my journey, where I spent time learning to Ramble On.

7. Are you a Trekkie, if you are you will instantly recognise the name of the actor who played Doctor Spock in the iconic original series. We spend a lot of time wishing that thing that occur in our journey didn’t occur, for me it is the five hospitalisations I have had over the years. But we cannot change how the chips fall after the event, just how they affect us later on.

8. We all have our sacred stories, I think we keep them to ourselves too much these days. If we didn’t I believe that we would live in a much stronger, loving world as we travel our journeys.

9. Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803 – April 27, 1882), known professionally as Waldo Emerson, was an American essayist, lecturer, and poet who led the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a champion of individualism and a prescient critic of the countervailing pressures of society, and he disseminated his thoughts through dozens of published essays and more than 1,500 public lectures across the United States. All our journeys are individual , there are 7 billion of them, never forget this.

10. I had an African couple as good friends for several years, what I loved was the music they introduced me to , this was one of my favourite pieces: Akon – Mama Africa.

11. At the beginning of a journey the travel agent will give you a list of what is meant to happen each day. We all know from our lives that this simply doesn’t happen. If it did we would complete our to do lists impeccably. It is the lost areas of our life that magic happens.

12. The second mention of Unicorns. To me they are the truly magical creature. I have two friends Justine and Amandine that I swap unicorn images with because they represent a new magical beginning in our lives.

13. This is definitely internal, one of the great videos on this subjects comes from Jim Carrey: Love and Fear.

14. As I mentioned I ran marathons back in the day. When it was pouring rain in the middle of a Melbourne winter and 5 a.m. I had to remember I was running 42 kilometres in a month and yes, one step can make all the difference.

15. And as a final reminder, remember to include joy, bliss and love on your journey. Because after all its a personal choice.

So some of us will have longer journeys than others, we will often feel sad that people pass when they do. That is the journey they were meant to have this time around, if you believe in that sort of stuff. I think I do.

Namaste until Thursday my dear friends.

Is anyone Watching?

Posted on May 12, 2016 by Rod's World

I receive hundreds of different things through my News Feed from my 4,500 Facebook friends. I have a policy if we have 100 mutual friends we are friends who just haven’t met yet. Doing this you end up with a lot of musicians, American female life coaches and people you actually know on your list. As a gratitude exercise I have started sending all of them a Facebook Birthday Card as I believe everybody should receive a birthday card on their special day.

A couple of days ago I received a quote on Integrity that went something like this. Integrity is doing it even when no one is looking. What do you hold Integrity to be: Is it your actions, who you hold yourself to be or a mixture of both.

Choosing my 15 quotes to comment on was interesting, there are a few that dominate but I found quotes that will fascinate and please. Let us begin :

1. I have kept my integrity with my Facebook Birthday cards even one day I was not going to be at home and having left my phone there I went to an Internet Cafe to send them.

2. Many people say they are going to one day. My friend Catherine Deveny calls her writing class Gunnas Master Class, can you guess why. I googled saying vs. doing and it brought up this interesting blog: The Big Difference.

3. Zig Ziglar, most famous for the quote “You can have everything in Life, If you will just help enough other people get what they want” which features on his website passed in 2012. His podcast still receives an average of 350,000 hits a month.

4. Integrity is partially in what you do and who you be. If you wish to keep it intact don’t do things that will challenge it.

5. I like the fact that they are highlighting the word Integrity with a yellow marker so it stands out from the rest. Because when it becomes as ordinary as all other words the battle is lost.

6. Born in Ghana, Israelmore wrote his first Quote on his palm in a toilet, he has come a long way since. He is an Inspirational Writer and a born-again Christian, so passionate about transformation individuals through information. He holds a strong belief that reformation and transformation of society can only become evident in the presence of information. However, it takes only positive and relevant information to bring real and intended transformation.

7. How does one obtain beauty? Does going to the gym or buying the latest perfumes or having plastic surgery or a tummy tuck. None of these things can attain it according to master coach Thomas Leonard, to him beauty is obtained through your inner qualities, Integrity being one of these.

8. How many times does that thought ” Do I really have to ” pass through. The answer is yes even if there is no congratulations and no recognition, remember you still know.

9. These are the gifts you receive from living your life from Integrity. Is there a song about it, of Course: Integrity Song.

10. I used to run Marathons back in the day, during training I would get to my integrity point at about the 8 kilometre mark when my mind would go is this worth it, moast times I said yes.

11. As we move down the journey of time our definition is what is integrity changes over time. The friends I had in my boozing days would definitely not fit into my version of it now.

12.

Integrity

A firm adherence to a code of values

The state of being complete, whole, or undivided

Total honesty and sincerity

The ability to “walk our talk”

Discipline

Activity that improves a skill

Controlling behavior to mold moral character

Habits and ways of acting developed through practice

13. I love these balanced stones images, these show the power of gravity and the reliance on each other. Integrity also comes with other traits like the list Zig Ziglar has put together.

14. This short film made by USC covers the above statement very well : USC Integrity Movie.

15. Do you have conditions for your Integrity, Is it different if no one is watching to being in a crowded room. As the above quote says it’s internally you look for integrity and the actions one takes from that place.

Whilst writing this it has brought up examples for me where I have lapsed my Integrity. I will put them back in place over the next few days.

Namaste my dear friends. Speak to you again next Monday.

Is Reality the X Factor?

Posted on May 5, 2016 by Rod's World

Looking for a subject today I notice The Green Guide: The best on Screen: Television, Streaming, Downloads & Radio was rating the reality TV judges. The Green Guide is the weekly entertainment section of our daily newspaper The Age, considered the more intelectual of the two papers that come out each day.

I cringed instantly that our society had sunk so low that this was considered news. What has become of mainstream society that this is what is considered entertainment for the masses. I checked out what people have quoted about reality over the years and have chosen a deft list to ponder. Here we go:

1. Each of us have our own reality, remember you are judging if you think your reality is more worthwhile than another persons.

2. Reality is that you will most likely end up with a partner at some stage in your life. I think that if you can achieve the above you are creating an awesome reality for the relationship.

3. Life is a game we all play at different levels, and we have our own unique devils. Meatloaf was one of mine: Bat out of Hell.

4. Growing up in rural country towns this above statements makes me relate to the time I went back to one of them as a Buddhist Calm Abiding meditation teacher. When I told people guess what they said?

5. From the first century A.D. Plutarch was a Greek historian, biographer, and essayist, known primarily for his Parallel Lives and Moralia. He is classified as a Middle Platonist. He had several other quotes which survived from that time, a famous one being: I don’t need a friend who changes when I change and who nods when I nod; my shadow does that much better.

6. Lisa Prosen is a passionate Sensitivity Coach, Speaker, and Author. She works with her clients so they can courageously look at their lives in new ways and navigate changes with new found confidence. She helps them learn to balance between their sensitivity and the things they are committed to accomplishing, so they achieve the life they truly want to live. Founder of the popular Facebook group “Practical Solutions for The Highly Sensitive Soul”, Lisa is familiar with the shackles of perfectionism and how living life for other people, ultimately disappoints everybody.

7. Or as the bard would have put it, Out damn spot, reality doesn’t go away even though it is an illusion as all our life is according to the chaos theory.

8. I think they wrote this for mainstream media and what they present as the news. Control, mayhem and evil are not my reality and never will be.

9. Before enlightenment wash the dishes, after enlightenment wash the dishes, welcome to reality.

10. Robert J. Ringer is an American entrepreneur, motivational and political speaker, and author of several best-selling personal-development and political books. The best known of these is a semi quote to the Bard, To be or not to be Intimidated.

11. Our current reality keeps changing faster and faster. A quote I read recently made me shudder. If our children are not taught to be alone they will grow up only knowing how to be lonely. The above quotes lies in that arena for me.

12. Reality lives in the now according to Eckhart Tolle, but what does Beyonce have to say about it : Me, Myself and I.

13. Lucius Annaeus Seneca (often known simply as Seneca or Seneca the Younger) was a Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, dramatist, and in one work humorist, of the Silver Age of Latin literature. He was tutor and later advisor to emperor Nero. While he was later forced to commit suicide for alleged complicity in the Pisonian conspiracy to assassinate Nero, the last of the Julio-Claudian emperors, he may have been innocent. He clearly suffered more from imagination if he was innocent.

14. The ubiquitous to do list, how many of us are honest enough to write the one on the right when it is our reality.

15. This quote by Teal Scott supports my statement at the beginning of this blog. Society does now want to be aware, it would much rather remain in the illusory state that everything is OK as it is.

I have tried to drop judging society to much when writing this, Its just that I believe we were placed on this planet for more than what is churned out as mass entertainment these days.

Namaste until next Monday my dear friends.

Is it a Reality?

Posted on April 28, 2016 by Rod's World

Thinking of what to write about today the word fantasy came to mind. We all have them and each of them is different, imagine if 7,000,000,000 people fulfilled theirs, what a different place the world would be. Mine is to have the ethos Love and Respect for All, Everyone Included be the prominent discussion on the planet.

To get this to happen I have created a Facebook group called Interculturalism. It is a place for all peoples of the world to spread great stories of different cultures learning about what they have in common. Join in, I have 4 countries at the moment and the more the merrier.

What do people sat about having a fantasy out there. I have chosen 15 random quotes that cover several ways of looking at it. Lets begin our journey.

1. Remember back to the time you were excited by adventures of the imaginary such as Alice in Wonderland. These are two of my favourite lines from that delightful jaunt.

2. Lady Gaga is someone who definitely has led a fantasy life. From wearing a meat dress to singing at the Oscars she is one of the great fantasy survivors. Here’s my favourite Lady Gaga song: Born This Way.

3. Considered the worlds most eminent scientist by some, Albert confesses that it was the gift of fantasy that was his key driver.

4. The fantasy relationship lives in the heart not the physical presence of each person. That feeling of only being apart one minute when you see each other.

5. And we do, we are just not very good at telling each other what they are. In this time of privacy the art of telling each other our sacred stories such as our fantasies seems to have disappeared.

6. It is always good to remember that fantasy is not always a positive thing, you can have a fantasy, but if you don’t do anything about it happening don’t expect it to happen.

7. Theodor Seuss Geisel was an American writer and illustrator best known for authoring popular children’s books under the pen name Dr. Seuss. His work includes several of the most popular children’s books of all time, selling over 600 million copies and being translated into more than 20 languages by the time of his death. That’s a lot of fantasies for the children of the world fulfilled.

8. This is a great space to live in so that the negativity of the mainstream media doesn’t not influence you.

9. Iris Murdoch was an Irish-English author and philosopher, best known for her novels about good and evil, sexual relationships, morality, and the power of the unconscious. She wrote about the subjects of the human fantasy world, not the humdrum of reality.

10. Norma Jean AKA Marilyn Monroe was considered the sex goddess of her time. She was every red blooded male’s fantasy. They were not thinking about coming home to her after work. Marilyn was a singer too: One of her Fantasies.

11. Itzah C. Kret author of My Nutty Neighbours is world famous for the above quote, pointing out that if you see what you want to, the world can be a fascinating place.

12. On Google there are 3,000,000 hits for books about falling in Love adding strength to the above premise.

13. I chose the title for this blog Is this a Reality for a reason. Always remember your fantasies exist in reality, all you need to do is take action towards them on a daily basis.

14. What are the ingredients that make up your fantasy. I include star seed and maybe I’ll throw in some Pixie Dust.

15. Don’t you love those Keep Calm quotes for every little circumstance on the planet. Here is my great secret I know to be true, Unicorns are real. I belong to a group of friends who shares every Unicorn picture and quote they come across on Facebook.

Lets all stand for fulfilling all our fantasies, it would be such a much better world to ride our unicorns on.

Namaste until next Monday, my dear friends.

Standing In the Lovelight!!

Posted on April 14, 2016 by Rod's World

My friend Jo Jo posts a wish that people stand for Love each day, it’s because that’s who she is for life. The title of this blog comes from my favourite Jo Jo song: JO JO at her best.

What turns on your Love Light. There are 7 billion versions of this on the planet, I recommend that you find the people who have similar reasons as yourself, as my friend Jeffrey Slayter says , go and find the Others. Don’t look for those who will not understand yours.

I have crossed diverse areas of peoples Lovelights in the 15 quotes I have chosen to look at where society has gone with this. Let us begin our journey:

1. As Jo Jo sings we are standing in the Love Light all the time, must be the season for it if you choose it.

2. Unfortunately at times the Love Light gets shattered by the irresponsible actions of a greedy few and an event called war takes place. It is then up to our children to say enough, this is now what we were put on the planet for.

3. There was a slightly better known band that Jo Jo who did a song about this subject as well, here it is : Sweden’s go at it! I prefer the Australian one.

4. All the external lights: street light, candle light, and even the light from the moon and the stars does not come anywhere near the power of the inner light of love. It makes you tremble and shudder with vitality and joy.

5. If we could just provide the energy required from the love we have for each other when we first arrive on the planet. Because that is what we are, Pure Love, then the question of alternative energy would be solved out right.

6. Must have been dancing in the Lovelight when I chose this one. Beautiful image of the power of it.

7. People often say they fall in Love, I say they find it as it is ever present in the form of light. We just need to look harder for self love and sacred love.

8. Driving the car to the stressful job does not feel like love to many, but get the mind out of the way of the heart and the light shines through.

9. One of the strongest examples of this for me was in the ancient Russian city of Leningrad the year before the wall the day came down with a young submariner. We both could not speak each others language but found entering each others Lovelight irresistible.

10. David Oman McKay was an American religious leader and educator who served as the ninth president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, serving from 1951 until his death. He believed in the LoveLight.

11. Gede Prama is a long student on peace. He began his childhood by communing with symbolical Guru in one of old village in north Bali. Later on when he learned from the life stories of many maha siddha (the enlightened), he began to understand his spiritual experience in childhood. This last experience then enriched by meditating, reading, researching and personal meeting with some of world wide spiritual Gurus like HH Dalai Lama, Thich Nhat Hanh and Karen Armstrong.

Scholarship enables Gede Prama to continue his postgraduate study to England and France. Hard work makes Gede Prama was appointed as CEO (chief executive officer) of a large corporation at the age of 38. And one year later he left behind all luxuries of corporate world then begin a journey of serving. To serve people on the path of peace.

12. Lighten the dark regions of your inner world. Denying them does not produce light but stress. Going on an acceptance journey allows for new Essences to grow in their place.

13. Sue Fitzmaurice is a coach, a very great one from New Zealand, here is her story

My purpose in life is to teach, research, coach and write about purpose. It’s what I love and it’s what I’m good at. It took a while to figure out that that was my thing – I spent a good few years chasing my tail, chasing money, achievements, status, and a few other things that had both negative and positive outcomes but all of which led me to here.

I hope in some small way I can inspire others to be all they can be and to reveal their own purpose in this world, with some nourishment for the heart, mind and soul.

Despite intolerance of all kinds around us I believe we are all One, that Love and Light underlie our humanity, and when we can understand and open to it, we will cease harming each other and our planet.

For most of us it takes most of our lives to figure it out, and each day is another step up the mountain.

14. When will we learn to light our Love Lights, they definitely don’t do it at school. In fact one could say they specialise in putting them out.

15. And as we do Jo Jo, the last one is send out as much Love Light as we can each day, because that is what will make the difference in the end. The work of the Natural Mystic.

So my purpose was to shine some Love Light on the lives of people who manage to read this and hope they pass it on to their beloved, family and friends

Namaste until next 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.

Love, I spell it Nature.

Posted on April 7, 2016 by Rod's World

I live in a city of 4 million people and had not been out of it for 6 months and recently went up the Bush to my friends art exhibition last week. I had forgotten what nature has to offer, the lack of mobile phone coverage meaning the only form of communication is aural, the beauty of the stands of trees, the rivers as they meander through the landscape and the noise of the birds, the beauty is life altering.

What have the bards and the ordinary folk said over the centuries about the healing power of Nature, we will travel down the path of enchantment with these 15 choice quotes:

1. This is one of my favorite poems about Nature, the Stars are always there.

The luminosity of their sparkle
Blind with devotion, conceal with adoration.
The innocence of their angelic light,
Shine with the boundless uncertainty
Of where they are to glisten next.

The purity of their bleached glow
Fill with the endless possibilities of beauty beyond our belief.
The simplicity of their navigation
Guide us through anguish we often begin to feel.

The delicacy of their gentle awakening
Enliven our sky with slight promises and the fascination of confusion.
The aspiration the beam lets off
Shows us the path to our capacious imagination full of desires.

The gleam of their twinkle
Darken with perfection, align
With daydream, and are matched flawlessly
With the unreality of our everlasting fantasies.

2. Nature was here long before the human race, and if we are nor careful, will be long here after us, We need to take the words of Frank LLoyd Wright seriously, can’t read his name without thinking of this song: So Long Frank LLoyd Wright.

3. St. Bernard was a prolific author in the 11th century. He believed that travelling to the woods would offer you much more than sitting in a lecture hall.

4. The Nobel Prize in Literature 1913 was awarded to Rabindranath Tagore “because of his profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse, by which, with consummate skill, he has made his poetic thought, expressed in his own English words, a part of the literature of the West”. His beautiful words above re the non business of the butterfly relate to us the timelessness of nature.

5. One of the preeminent scientists of the 20th Century Einstein is best known in popular culture for his mass–energy equivalence formula E = mc² . Albert was just as attached to the power of Nature as to the beaker.

6. The forest, the woods are magnificent reminders of the awesomeness of Nature, they take away your frustrations that arise in daily life.

7. I Admit to being a treehugger, the energy held in a 200 year old tree cannot be duplicated by science.

8. Author Anthony D. Williams writes of the spiritual nature of our planet, the profound effect on Mother Nature being one of the prime influences.

9. William Boyd “Bill” Watterson II is an American cartoonist and the author of the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes, which was syndicated from 1985 to 1995. Calvin and Hobbes is joyful and soulful, much like this comment.

10. People keep posting unique examples of nature on my News feed, it seems there are so many examples of what nature has painted that is extraordinary.

11. The busyness of today’s world means that we do not often stops to smell the Roses, everything is still accomplished by nature without hurry.

12. The weather is indifferent to the human race, it rains too much, it’s too hot for too long. It doesn’t take much notice of what’s going on for us.

13. Heart medicine , nature is definitely part of the mixture that gives us peace, calmness and stillness.

14. William Wordsworth is one of the World’s most famous romantic poets, his 1804 poem ” I wandered Lonely as a Cloud” Is his most remembered tones and my mums favorite poem

I WANDERED lonely as a cloud That floats on high o’er vales and hills, When all at once I saw a crowd, A host, of golden daffodils; Beside the lake, beneath the trees, Fluttering and dancing in the breeze. Continuous as the stars that shine And twinkle on the milky way, They stretched in never-ending line Along the margin of a bay: Ten thousand saw I at a glance, Tossing their heads in sprightly dance. The waves beside them danced; but they Outdid the sparkling waves in glee: A poet could not but be gay, In such a jocund company: I gazed–and gazed–but little thought What wealth the show to me had brought: For oft, when on my couch I lie In vacant or in pensive mood, They flash upon that inward eye Which is the bliss of solitude; And then my heart with pleasure fills, And dances with the daffodils.

15. I love this quote, it gives ownership to Nature being a living entity too.

Writing this has made me feel like taking more trips to the bush, as we call the forest or the woods in Australia, they are magical in their healing potential.

Namaste until Monday 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.

15. And finally , lets get amongst the stars, after all we are starseed, but that’s another blog for another time.

Namaste until Monday my dear friends

To Love Vs. I am Loved

Posted on March 28, 2016 by Rod's World

I follow the Cored Desired Feeling from the remarkable The Desire Map process by Danielle LaPorte. One of the cheapest transformations around : Gateway to Your Freedom. My 5 CDF’s are I am Peace, I am Bliss, I am Love, I am Helping Other People Evolve and I am Loved.

I am excellent at the first four but have recently taken on the fifth I am Loved. I write daily love memes on Facebook and am going to produce a book of them soon, giving love out comes easily, accepting is another matter all together. I used to cringe inwardly several years ago because my self worth had taken several battering including five admissions to psychiatric wards for a period of 6 months. I have been on a journey ever since to change my reaction and allowance of love into my life.

A lot of I am Loved quotes are quite cheesy so it took me a while to choose the 15 for todays discussion. Here they are, lets go:

1. This is the journey I am own, That all parts of this statement are as strong as each other. I think each person has to work on at least one part of it daily.

2. I once had the younger sister of a friend of mine since You made me Love You, I didn’t want to do it at her 21st Birthday party in front of all her friends. I was embarrassed not taking in what she was expressing to me. It never happened.

3. I think why we are finding this difficult is because our society has lost contact with Sacred Love. The time where someone says I love you or you say it to them and both of you know you never have to hear it again. People have stopped telling each other their Sacred stories .

4. Are we expected to change our partners to fit into our expectations of who they really are, watch as they walk out the door, refer to number three.

5. The Meaning of beautiful

pleasing the senses or mind aesthetically:

“beautiful poetry” ·

synonyms: attractive · pretty · handsome · good–looking ·

of a very high standard; excellent:

“she spoke in beautiful English”

synonyms: excellent · splendid · wonderful · magnificent ·

6. To be in a loveable state means to accept all of you , whatever mood is coming at you down the hallway. Its your choice after all.

7. How to attract Love in you life is to love it right back, heres a song about it : Mary J Blige – I am.

8. Sometimes I have done this , apologised for who I was in the hope that I would be love, it didn’t work.

9. Now here is someone who knows she is Loved, how could you not.

10. Mickey Mouse brought us humour in our lives as children, do statements like this turn you off or think I am loved because they are revealing their vulnerable parts to me.

11. How many times have you been told I just don’t love you that way, can we just be friends, bring on the tequila.

12. What is the furtherest distance that this has happened to you, to me it was a Russian sailor who pushed the nuclear missile buttons on a submarine based in St. Petersburg.

13.Eric Fromm was a German social psychologist, psychoanalyst, sociologist, humanistic philosopher, and democratic socialist. He was associated with the Frankfurt School of critical theory. When accepting I am Loved there always must be I Love as well.