Love Hurts!!!

Posted on August 16, 2020 by Rod's World

Did you know love is not enough? I found that out in a sudden, dramatic way yesterday. I was travelling in our lockdown city of Melbourne to visit my supposed partner outside the 5-kilometre allowable zone when I rang her because she had written to me that she felt a bit down about her zoom visit to her psychologist. I rang her to find out what could I do for her, two hours later I was heading home and it was all over.

It was because I had agreed with her and allowed her space the night before and it seems I should not have listened to her and gone against her will and taken care of her. We had discussed this for an hour after I was halfway there and she told me she felt the most empowered she had ever felt. It seems that I am not enough to meet her needs. A day later I realise that I cannot be different from where I am at the moment. I can grow but cannot miraculously be different from where I am at the moment, so yes, Love hurts.

What does society say about the pain of unrequited love, lets have a look:

1. I hope it finds this place soon.

2. I forgot: Stronger.

3. I found out the embrace of love is not enough.

4. How will I get her out of my heart, it seems impossible at the moment, only time will tell: Love Hurts.

5. Being in the same city doesn’t seem far enough, I cannot stop thinking of her.

6. I’m crying typing this: When I Look at You.

7. I wish you the best life.

8. No words needed: Disappear.

9. It’s storming in my heart.

10. I mistakenly thought this was not us: Almost in Love.

11. It seems this was not us.

12. And not just of a sexual nature: Dreaming of You.

13. I fear this.

14. Thank you karma, you hurt: Instant Karma.

15. and our final lesson comes from the Twitter personality Bauvard – A work of art should stand on its own, divorced from the personality of the creator. That is the only way the creator can be a work of art in himself.

So what am I learning? Embrace that individual inside you who has ideas, strengths and beauty like no one else. Be the person you know yourself to be – the best version of you – on your terms. And above all, be true to you – if you cannot put your heart into it, take yourself out of it. Starting today…

1. Get your priorities right.

2. Take full responsibilities for your goals.

3. Know your worth.

4. Choose the right perspective.

5. Don’t let your old problems punish your dreams

6. Choose the things that truly matter.

7. Love You.

8. Accept your strengths and Weaknesses.

9. Stand up for You.

10. Learn from others, and move on when you must.

11. Be honest in your relationships.

12. get comfortable with being UNcomfortable.

13. Be who you were born to be.

14. Never give up on You.

The playlist today is a bit maudlin, we begin with Kayne West, go back to the 1970s to hear that song by Nazareth. The four pop divas: Miley Cyrus, Beyonce, Olivia O’Brien and Selena. We finish off with John Lennon: Love Hurts!!!

This will not stop me from spreading the ethos of Love and Respect for All, Everyone Included. I have extended it to a million people in my new tribe: Thriving People.

Join if you wish. Until we meet again, my dear friends.

How Can You Mend A Broken Heart!!!

Posted on August 2, 2020 by Rod's World

You may have noticed my past 5 blogs have been about growing friendship with my friend Amy. It moved quickly and then spectacularly into becoming lovers against all the reasons the world tells you that a friendship between two people 28 years apart in age should. Being used to a single life, where you domestic actions didn’t have a lot of repercussions to being in a partnership saw me totally do some things that have unfortunately taken it from you are the greatest lover I have ever had and talk about moving in together to stop treating me like I am your mother in a period just greater than 24 hours.

Did we really love each other, yes we did, but I allowed my actions to move our relationship from our hearts to her head. I sit here writing this close to tears and I have cried about ten times in my 66 years, my parents once sent me to a phycologist to see why I couldn’t during my teenage years, it didn’t resolve anything and I am still a non-crier basically. The only thing that shifted it was the joy I felt in my love for Amy, I would be sitting on a railway station and feel tears of joy welling up, very un Rod Williams like.

My relationship consultant friend who is also a phycologist advised that we should not contact each other for 30 days as to go from the passion of a ten to the lesser feelings of friendship, say a three to a five we had to journey through our grief and sadness at to what we had lost, as moments this sacred are rare in people’s lives. I fight with the urge daily to break this especially when Amy contacted me. I wanted to write platitudes how I would do anything to get back together, but this is the act of 17-year-old first love. I must admit after 12 years it did feel a bit like this for me.

I realise I could write 1,000s of words what this woman means to me, I will journal them later, so what has the world said about relationship breakdowns and broken hearts over the years. Let’s have a look:

1. Oh, how I wished I could have stopped this occurring.

2. Oh, how my heart yearns for this: How Can You Mend A Broken Heart.

3. I love His Holiness quotes, but my heart does not want to agree with this one at all.

4. Crossed fingers, but it fucking hurts so much at the moment: Don’t Judge Me.

5. One of the things I did not do was break glass but forgetting to thank her most of the time was just as devastating.

6. And to me, it is you: My Immortal.

7. I am feeling this more and more as the pain slides away.

8. I am not ready for Amy to do that yet, I may not be responsible for my reaction in the emotional state I am in at the present: Run Through The Jungle.

9. This hurts in the I still love her zone.

10. I was the storm: Riders On The Storm.

11. I didn’t really do the second thing or did I, she has gone.

12. I lost in the first round: Street Fighting Man.

13. Ken oath.

14. We talked about our families a lot: We are Family.

15 And for our final lesson, well said Trent.

I spoke to a friend halfway through writing this for half an hour because I believe she has wisdom in this area. She advised me three things: 1. Take ownership for your part of the breakdown and look for the red flags that were there for it to happen. 2. Make agreements, keep them. If you are going to break them, communicate, communicate, communicate. 3. Take time to heal before you think about going back there, and do this day by day.

I am just doing these things now.

The playlist today is funk and rock and roll, we begin with the title track by The Bee Gees, then Chris Brown. Evanescence sneaks in this century’s rock track, then we go back in time to CCR, The Doors and the Rolling Stones. We complete with a ten minute epic by Chic and Sister Sledge, enjoy, it rocks: How can you mend a Broken Heart!!!

In my heartbreak, I have started a new tribe around my ethos Love and Respect for All, Everyone Included. It is called Thriving People – People who wish to make a difference to Humanity, my intention is a 1,000,000 people take up the challenge, here is the link to join, I would love you too: Thriving People.

Until we meet again my dear friends.

Let Go, Let God!!!

Posted on July 12, 2020 by Rod's World

I went to Zoom church today, they certainly sing groovier songs than they used to in the days my parents forced me to Sunday school all those years ago. An aside, when I was sixteen I told my mum is she kept making me go I would run away and never come back. She reminded me twenty years later I had said that to her, I had forgotten but it obviously meant a lot and hurt my deeply religious mum.

I personally don’t believe in the God that is presented by the standard Christian church, hell and brimstone etc. etc. but it was interesting viewing, my friend has asked me would I watch it with her as God means a lot to her. The distinctions they used were a lot different from what I expected and I found myself agreeing with quite a bit of the sermon. I am more of a humanist than a Christian, believing in that there are more good people than evil people on the planet and that good, will overcome in the end.

So what have people said about God, even the Gods over Millenium, lets have a look:

1. Not famous enough for a Wikipedia entry, Michelle makes a simple point.

2. Satisfaction guaranteed: I Surrender.

3. From little things big faith grows.

4. God is not all love and light, stop thinking he is: Yes, I Know.

5. Interesting quote by an F1 racing world champion.

6. Remember its his/her process. You are just along for the ride: Waymaker.

7. We are just walking home together.

8. Grammar alert: Your Spirit.

9. How do you live in the space of faith?

10. And you may never understand it: “Babusisiwe Labo Abemukela Umsebenzi KaNkulunkulu Omusha”

11. The cute quote of the blog.

12. The purpose of faith is to lift you up: My Life is in your Hands.

13. Nobody will open it for you, Nobody…

14. I love that saying, It sounds like a plan: You Say.

15. Thank you God for putting Amy in my life.

I thought I would end this blog with a poem by Rilke, it is magnificent:

God speaks to each of us

Rainer Maria Rilke

God speaks to each of us as he makes us,

then walks with us silently out of the night.

These are words we dimly hear:

You, sent out beyond your recall,

go to the limits of your longing.

Embody me.

Flare up like flame

and make big shadows I can move in.

Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror.

Just keep going. No feeling is final.

Don’t let yourself lose me.

Nearby is the country they call life.

You will know it by its seriousness.

Give me your hand.

From Rilke’s Book of Hours: Love Poems to God, translated by Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy.

If you had told me I would include a Hillsong Church song in one of my playlists I may have chortled loudly, but I have changed in the last month. We begin with Hillsong Worship, then the Gaither Vocal Band. Two fine female singers next in Sinak and Tasha Cobbs Leonard. Then we travel to South Africa for some Zulu Gospel. Kirk Franklin is the penultimate song and we finish with Lauren Daigle: Let Go, Let God.

You will love this playlist, Amy. I feel so much closer to my ethos of Love and Respect for All, Everybody Included since I have been around a person of faith. Until next time we meet, my dear friends.

Smile at Strangers, We’re In This Together!!!

Posted on January 31, 2020 by Rod's World

I have had a list on my kitchen wall called Key Statements, I don’t know why or when I wrote it, but here it is:

Don’t let an opportunity go by that that you can make a difference in.

Love and Respect for All, Everyone Included.

Don’t pull back from opportunities to explore the sexual world.

Don’t withhold your feelings for another, it will fester.

Ask, Ask, Ask.

Walk like the value is surging through your body.

I will release my empathic abilities to heal others.

I am a key member of the conscious Melbourne tribe.

Working on each of them at different levels at the moment, here are some things I could do to achieve them sooner:

Take care of myself – Your relationship is the closest and most important relationship you will ever have.
Do what I know is right, for ME – Don’t be scared to walk alone, and don’t be scared to like it.
Follow my own unique path – Every new day is a chance to change your life.
Lock myself away from the world and work on your goals – Dream big dreams, but realize that short term, realistic goals are the key to success.
Adjust my goals and dreams as life changes – don’t forget that sometimes taking a positive step forward requires you to slightly adjust your dreams, or plan new ones – it’s OK to change your mind or have more than one dream.
Forgive those who have wronged me – Forgiveness is a gift you give yourself. Forgiveness is an attribute of the strong and wise.
Show everyone my love and kindness – If you are reserving your love only for those who you have decided are worthy of it – it may come as no surprise that is not loving, it is judgement.
Stand up for others, even if it’s the unpopular thing to do – Sometimes you will say something really small and simple, but it will fit right into an empty space in someone’s heart.
Fight through my failures – When I am feeling down or dealing with failure, don’t be ashamed.
Keep my head held high and keep on smiling – Every day of your life is a page of your history. The only time I run out of chances is when I stop taking them.

So what have people on the planet said about energy and how they use it, here are a few of my favourites:

1. You have the opportunity to make it a better day for each person you come across, do that.

2. Your first gut feeling is often incredibly accurate, trust it: Gut Feeling.

3. You are your own personal lifesaver.

4. Using the principles he teaches, T. Harv Eker went from zero to millionaire in only 2 1/2 years! He combines a unique brand of ‘street-smarts with heart’.

Eker’s high-energy, ‘cut-to-the-chase’ style keeps his audience spellbound. T. Harv Eker’s motto is “talk is cheap” and his unique ability is getting people to take “action” in the real world to produce real success: Can’t Stop The Feeling.

5. What opus are you composing for your life?

6. I love Prince Ea, check out his Youtube videos: Love Yourself.

7. And then we have Oprah’s take on it.

8. Heads or Tails: Love Myself.

9. As can we, be an eagle in your life.

10. And a piece of wisdom from the Man In Black: Your Own Personal Jesus.

11. All you need is LOVE.

12. A powerful line of study that will resolve much in your life: Energy.

13. Shadow and Light, they travel together.

14. The Chinese are great at profound proverbs: Winds of Change.

15. And for our final lesson, this intriguing offering from Osho.

There are few joys in life that equal a good conversation, a good read, a good walk, a good hug, a good smile, or a good friend. As you empower your energy toy will have more and more opportunity to do this. One of my key statement is my ethos for the planet: Love and Respect for All, Everyone Included, as I increase my energy it eventual occurrence comes closer and closer.

The playlist today has spoken word from Prince Ea, one of my faves. We start with Ella Mai and then bop along with Justin Timberlake. Prince Ea is next followed by pop diva Hailee Steinfeld. Then we finish with three male vocals: Johny Cash, Drake and Vance Joy: Smile at Strangers, We’re In This Together!!!

Until we meet again, my dear friends. Remember you can request these blogs in your inbox om the main page of I am an Interculturalist.

Love The Trees Until Their Leaves Fall Off!!!

Posted on September 12, 2019 by Rod's World

In my state of Victoria, Australia, a group of indigenous women from the Djab Wurrung tribe have been fighting the State Government to save their ancient birthing trees, I attended a rally of support outside our Parliament House yesterday.

Among the women speaking out against the eviction of the Djab Wurrung protection embassy camp and the removal of thousands of trees between Buangor and Ararat, including some 200 sacred birthing and direction trees, some of which are believed to be around 800-years-old, embassy leader DT Zellanach travelled from country to speak into power, supporting the rally’s calls of “no trees, no treaty.” The embassy camp has been actively blocking the removal of the trees for around 14 months, despite notices of eviction from the Victorian government being delivered to make way for Major Road Projects Victoria to begin clearing the land.

Our government declared a public square that is just 17 years old, Federation Square being added to the state’s heritage register in recognition of its cultural significance to Victoria. Yet they will not recognise the birthing trees which are around 800 years old the same protection.

When did we forget that nature and the lore of the indigenous people of our country are just as important, if not more so?

What has society said about the rights of mother earth and its peoples over the centuries, remembering that the First Australians are the world’s longest existing culture who had looked after this land for 60,000 years before European settlement, lets have a look:

1. We are the only European settled country that does not have a treaty with the indigenous people of the land we invaded, our relationship with them suffers accordingly.

2. Embassy leader DT Zellanach had this to say at the rally: Zellanach: We are the land. What you do to our country you do to us. We’ve never ceded sovereignty.

Our women and children are the most oppressed people in this land. I get sick and tired of seeing what men want to do to our women and children. The trees are Women’s business: Wild Women Do.

3. The actions the Djab Wurrung women have taken to raise support to resist for 14 months is truly magnificent.

4. These women can clearly hear their regions earthsong: Earth.

5. Sixty thousand years, I believe we have something to learn off these women before it is too late.

6. Ralph Emerson was seen as a champion of individualism and a prescient critic of the countervailing pressures of society, he died in 1882. Luckily there are still people like the Djab Wurrung women who are willing to stand up for their rights: Eve of Destruction.

7. Clearly does not satisfy the Victorian State Government.

8. A quirky individual, Michael Jackson stood for the earth, he possibly would have been at the embassy if he was alive today: Earthsong.

9. I consider the Djab Wurrung women Earth Angels.

10 What are the birthing trees but not the soul of the Djab Wurrung nation: With Arms Wide Open.

11. Our premier, Daniel Andrews has forgotten this, No Trees, No Treaty.

12. I was gifted the ability to hear the earth by an indigenous elder at Confest, sometimes I hear the earth crying, I sure you can hear the trees on the Embassy site: The Memory of The Trees.

13. To all the people who attended the rally with me, thank you for giving the trees a chance.

14. Many Christians who follow the greed train seem to have forgotten this quote from their holy book, including members of our state government in this situation: Timeless Land.

15. And for our final lesson some words from one of the great women of this and the last century, Maya Angelou. To the Djab Wurrung women, I stand with you, No Trees, No Treaty.

Indigenous land, it’s where you stand, we cannot keep denying 60,000 years of occupation. Time for a treaty, and time to protect the Djab Wurrung sacred birthing trees.

Today’s playlist is about the Earth, birthing and trees. We begin with Natalie Cole. Some rap from Little Dicky follows, then we go back to the 1960s to Barry McGuire to demonstrate we haven’t really learnt the lesson this song is about. Then a Michael Jackson song I actually had never heard of. Creed follows with a beautiful ode to birthing then, the penultimate song is from Enya and we complete with a tune from one of Australia’s preeminent indigenous bands Yothu Yindi in praise of the timelessness of our ancient continent and its first people: Love The Trees Until Their Leaves Fall Off!!

I have not written a political based blog for several years but realised that it was time to reenter that space. No Trees, No Treaty. If we are to have Love and Respect for All, Everyone Included becoming the worlds catchcry all must be willing to take action. Until we meet again, my dear friends. Remember if you wish to receive my blogs sign on in the follow space.

The Power of Hope!!

Posted on August 20, 2018 by Rod's World

I haven’t written a political blog for a long time but I am reading the inspirational story of Kon Karapanagiotidis, CEO of the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre here in Melbourne, Australia. The ASRC, as it is known is a refugee centre which receives no government funding who assists refugees who have nowhere else to go as there are people placed on our streets with minimal or no funding at all due to the harsh immigration policies of our federal government towards asylum seekers. Today, they are the largest independent human rights organisation for refugees and people seeking asylum, delivering more services on the ground than any other independent asylum seeker organisation in the country. Our work on the frontline with people seeking asylum informs our practice and enables us to effectively advocate for, and alongside people with lived experience.

The Official title of the book is The Power of Hope or: How Community, Love and Compassion can change our World: Link to buy it. It is the amazing tale of how Kon, himself from a refugee family in Australia came to set up this amazing organisation that has helped thousands of refugees survive in a country that has made the words asylum seeker dirty words.

So what is the official definition of the term Asylum Seeker, here it is: a person who, from fear of persecution for reasons of race, religion, social group, or political opinion, has crossed an international frontier into a country in which he or she hopes to be granted refugee status.

How does the world speak about these two words, let’s have a look:

1. There are those rare people who have existed on earth who can hold values as high as these, Martin Luther King was one of them.

2. Labels are used to make people forget this, especially by mainstream media and governments: Human.

3. There is not a choice between staying behind and taking a bullet and getting on a rickety boat to seek asylum.

4. Often a family has to decide which member of a family to send to seek asylum as they cannot afford the exorbitant rates that money grabbing people such as boat smugglers demand people to seek safety, how would you feel if you had to leave your daughter behind.: The Best Day.

5. There are people running our country who have this fear and shame in their policy decisions.

6. There is a particular minister, Peter Dutton, who is digging a very deep grave for the reputation of our country worldwide: Set Fire to The Rain.

7. The two largest words say it all really, Human Rights.

8. This statement from ancient Greece sums up how mainstream media reports asylum seeking in our country these days: Believe Me.

9. Especially if your destination was Australia by boat, it means 5 years in a detention centre, including your children.

10. Especially if they are a fascist right-wing government as holds sway in Australia regarding asylum seekers: Sitting On The Dock Of The Bay.

11. Considered the founder of modern nursing, Florence has captured truly where our government has taken the boat arrival discussion in our country.

12. Kon has transformed a lot of ordinary Australian into non-spectators regarding the human rights of the people who are besmirched as boat people by our mainstream media courtesy of the evil media magnate Rupert Murdoch: Get Up, Stand Up.

13. Had to sneak in the worst long-term refugee cruelty, seeing Israeli snipers deliberately shoot children brought tears to my eyes, and I do not cry.

14. And what can we do about it, this group of school children spent a night in this cage to show their solidarity and disgust for the situations on the islands where children are held on a long-term basis: Who I Am.

15. Warsan Shire is a 30-year-old British writer, poet, editor and teacher, who was born to Somali parents in Kenya, East Africa. In 2013 she was awarded the inaugural Brunel University African Poetry Prize, chosen from a shortlist of six candidates out of a total 655 entries. Her words “No one leaves home unless/home is the mouth of a shark”, from the poem “Conversations about Home (at a deportation centre)”, have been called “a rallying call for refugees and their advocates”.

So I will finish with Kon’s words on the back cover of his book: “I hope you take from this book the message that we all matter. That there is a place for all of us. That once we know our own voice, live the values close to our hearts and follow our dreams, we can be unstoppable. Hope is only exhausted if we forsake ourselves, otherwise, no one can take our hope from us. It is both our sanctuary and our destiny to live a life with love, belonging, connection and community.” Thank you Kon Karapanagiotidis, you rock!!

Two classics amongst the songs today, we begin with the fine voice of Rag N’ Bone Man, two pop divas follow, Taylor Swift and Adele. Then a rapper new to me, Fort Minor. The superb Otis Redding and Bob Marley finishing with the Disney interpretation of Natasha Bedingfield. Here’s the playlist: The Power of Hope.

Namaste until next time, my dear friends.

Do what makes your Soul Shine!!

Posted on February 12, 2018 by Rod's World

In the Google Images page for quotes to avoid stopping this beautiful quote that is the title of this blog appeared, seems strangely out of place. The subject for today’s blog is taken from Time for my Life, Thea Westra’s excellent book; Here’s the link to her Website. It comes from the challenge for February 12 – face the situation and just complete whatever you are avoiding.

I think we spend as much energy on avoiding things as we do in completing them if we do not set our goals up to act on a daily basis. It’s easy to roll over for another half hour if we have no plans for the day. I tend to not make to many though so there is space for unexpected actions that I need to take. Two to four definites works for me.

So what do our fellow humans have to say about avoidance in their lives, here’s a few cuts at it:

1. If you don’t face it, will it ever go away? Turn around and walk towards it, time to stop running.

2. Reach out and Touch Somebody else. If you don’t do this, they may stop calling: Reach out and touch somebody’s Hand.

3. Adeline Virginia Woolf was an English writer, who is considered one of the foremost modernist authors of the 20th century and a pioneer in the use of stream of consciousness as a narrative device. Woolf became one of the central subjects of the 1970s movement of feminist criticism, and her works have since garnered much attention and widespread commentary for “inspiring feminism”, an aspect of her writing that was unheralded earlier. Her works are widely read all over the world and have been translated into more than fifty languages. She suffered from severe bouts of mental illness throughout her life and took her own life by drowning in 1941 at the age of 59.

4. And also those who saw the gulp and stood by that person in their pain: Feel the Pain.

5. Lots of hashtags for this simple Nike like quote.

6. What was that you said? Oh, nothing, I suppose I will have to make up what you are thinking, then: Sounds of Silence.

7. And this may be one of the things I make up in my frustration at the silence.

8. The worlds greatest philosopher, Ms. Unknown chimes in with the formulae of acceptance, as resistance if futile in making something cease happening: Let it Be.

9. A mixture of both works for me!!

10. Fill in the missing words……: Let’s Hurt Tonight.

11. Founding Honda Motor company in his back shed in 1948, three years after Japan had been bombed into oblivion, Soichiro Honda definitely did not avoid the challenges and vision he saw. The possibility of failure must have been great in the beginning.

12. If you don’t know what you want, spend more time on finding out what you don’t so you create space for the former to surface: Look what you made me Do.

13. My friend Lissa Rankin says there are two types of fear, real fear and suggested fear. I think RD Laing is making the same point in this quote in regard to pain.

14. Other ways to spell inspired action and why avoidance sucks big time: Stronger.

15. And there are plenty more quotes to help you break through the avoidance, actually 51 in the area of overthinking, a classic avoidance method.

Often in avoidance we are facing the wrong direction, pain we are running away instead of turning to face what it has to offer us, what if …. we are facing the circumstances that stop us beginning when we should be facing the other direction of taking the action that compels us forward towards our bright future. Yes, it’s that time!!

Music today is from two different eras, the 60’s offering is Diana Ross, The Beatles and Simon and Garfunkel. Today’s are Kanye West, One Republic and Taylor Swift.

Namaste until next time my dear friends:

Be brave with your Life!!

Posted on January 4, 2018 by Rod's World

Just received Brendon Burchard’s new free book, High-Performance Habits – you actually pay the postage and handling in the mail and the premise of it is six habits, three personal and three social. The personal ones are Seek Clarity, Generate Energy, and Raise Necessity. The Social Ones are Increase Productivity, Develop Influence and Demonstrate Courage.

As Mark Twain relates ” Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear.” When we first do something that contains fear, such as skydiving, the level of fear first time is quite high, or at least it was for me. But the more we do something the more comfortable we get with it. That’s why leading a courageous life can also increase our fearlessness.

What have people said about having a dose of courage over the years, here are the quotes I have chosen:

1. Who is your standalone hero or heroine, Gandhi, Malala, Martin Luther King, Mother Teresa? Or is it just someone from your local community?

2. Everyday courage could mean keeping a positive attitude or taking action despite great uncertainty, bad health or hardship such as sharing unpopular ideas or showing up every day for work even when things are tough at the office: What’s Going On.

3. Mainstream media and our government are telling us to be afraid of Africans with one politician stating that people were afraid to go out because they were afraid of being followed home by an African and having their home invaded. No courage there!!

4. Feel that tremor in your heartbeat, that’s the recipe for courage, go out and do it anyway: The Climb.

5. Unconditional Love, the ultimate emotion – includes trusting someone besides yourself.

6. One of my top ten, Brene Brown. Netflix or ring that person you have been putting that conversation off with, you choose which will have the most positive effect in your life: Be Brave, Show Up.

7. My favourite E. E. Cummings poem is the following: I carry your heart with Me, here it is:

I carry your heart with me ( I carry it in my heart ) I am never without it ( anywhere I go you go, my dear; and whatever is done by only me is your doing, my darling

I fear no fate ( for you are my fate, my sweet ) I want no world ( for beautiful, you are my world, my true ) and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant and whatever a sun will sing is you

Here is the deepest secret nobody knows ( Here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows higher than soul can hope or mind can hide ) and this is the wonder that keeps the stars apart

I carry your heart with me ( I carry it in my heart )

To love that much is an act of immense courage.

8. The dark and the light, Fear and Courage, they travel with each other: So What.

9. Every great adventure began by putting one foot in front of another, the courage is in taking the first step.

10 Who remembers the cheesy song from the Mickey Mouse club, one of Walt’s first creations: The original mouskeeters.

11. Every year my friend Emeli from Collective Potential produces a workbook to implement 2018. This year its called On Purpose. If you would like a copy, join Collective Potential on Facebook and there is a link.

12. One of my other blogs is about this amazing woman Maya Angelou.

Maya Angelou was an American poet, memoirist, and civil rights, activist. She published seven autobiographies, three books of essays, several books of poetry, and was credited with a list of plays, movies, and television shows spanning over 50 years. She received dozens of awards and more than 50 honorary degrees. Angelou is best known for her series of seven autobiographies, which focus on her childhood and early adult experiences. The first, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969), tells of her life up to the age of 17 and brought her international recognition and acclaim.

She became a poet and writer after a series of occupations as a young adult, including fry cook, sex worker, nightclub dancer and performer, cast member of the opera Porgy and Bess, coordinator for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and journalist in Egypt and Ghana during the decolonization of Africa. She was an actor, writer, director, and producer of plays, movies, and public television programs. In 1982, she was named the first Reynolds Professors of American Studies at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. She was active in the Civil Rights Movement and worked with Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. Beginning in the 1990s, she made around 80 appearances a year on the lecture circuit, something she continued into her eighties. In 1993, Angelou recited her poem “On the Pulse of Morning” (1993) at President Bill Clinton’s inauguration, making her the first poet to make an inaugural recitation since Robert Frost at the inauguration of John F. Kennedy in 1961: Maya on Courage.

13. Bravery is a synonym for Courage I think. As well as heroism, potvaliant, and valiancy.

14. Some truth is spoken by the cigar smoker: Hot N Cold.

15. Unusual image, looks like the fish is definitely not in the right spot.

You are capable of remarkable things that you could never foretell and will never discover without courageous action, please take it.

Music this week comes from Marvin Gaye, Pink, Brene Brown, Maya Angelou, the Mickey Mouse Club and one of my favourite pop divas, Katie Perry.

Namste until next time, my dear friends.

Your path is Beautiful and Crooked!!

Posted on November 30, 2017 by Rod's World

Paulo Coelho wrote: One day you will wake up and there won’t be any more time to do the things you’ve always wanted to do. Do it now.

Many of us put our happiness and dreams on hold for another day, when the truth is life is happening right now. If you want to make positive changes, today is the day. I love Joseph Campbell’s Follow your Bliss journey, It isn’t all about wonders, it also includes the dark side and what it takes to get through it to attain the bliss in your life.

So There are a lot of Joseph’s quotes in today’s list but that’s not a bad thing:

1. If you are stuck in a pile of to do lists to fulfill that one dream you chances of missing that door that opened to that magnificent opportunity is high, do not become stuck.

2. They say only 20% of people get to stage 8: Wake Me Up.

3. Walls lock you out, doors are what creates your life when you have the guts to open them.

4. Known as the journey of the hero, leads for an extraordinary life: Journey of a Hero.

5. What you seek is on the other side, take the steps and enter with courage!!

6. Go and do that!!: Turn Me On!!

7. You know when you decided to turn right and bumped into your life partner, that’s the path.

8. Garbologist, writer, life coach, parent – It doesn’t really matter: Try Everything.

9. Your bliss never loses you, It’s just waiting in the shadows for you to locate it.

10. When I saw her, I forgot to Inhale: Happy.

11. My friend Emeli from Collective Potential calls it your purpose. When it occurs, your bliss guides you to it and your life is never the same again.

12. There may only be a little bit, but its an ongoing practice. The more you practice it, the more joy will surface: Joy.

13. No matter what people tell you about what you are doing that is making you happy, It’s your bliss not there’s.

14. Share your message, don’t write wwrite: One last Song.

15. Bliss to me is giving the stars to those we love.

What is another word for bliss?

What’s another word for bliss? Here’s a list of synonyms for this word.

delight, enjoyment, euphoria, happiness, harmony, joy, paradise, pleasure, beatitude, blessedness, cool, ecstasy, felicity, gladness, heaven, rapture, gone

The music includes an hour of Pharrell Williams amazing 24 hour video of people dancing to Happy, it is very uplifting and the African women singing Joy is beautiful.

Namaste until next time my dear friends:

delight, enjoyment, euphoria, happiness, harmony, joy, paradise, pleasure, beatitude, blessedness, cool, ecstasy, felicity, gladness, heaven, rapture, gone

Nature is pleased with Simplicity!

Posted on April 3, 2017 by Rod's World

Sometimes we feel that we have just reconnected with a truth we’ve always known and that if we could just know more about it, our life would be delightful and rich. I call it reconnection with your soul. It takes letting go of many of the things that clutter our lives in the hectic busyness of the modern world.

How do you reconnect with those simple things that used to please you as a child? Let’s have a look at what the world has to say about it:

1. One way I find works is to reconnect and recommit to my core values, as Zig Ziglar, the iconic business coach says we can begin again and make a new ending.

2. I ran into a friend I had not seen for five years in a hat shop in Leningrad. What reconnection brownie points were taking place for this to happen: Fate.

3. From one of the world’s greatest philosophers, Master Unknown comes a beautiful quote about how and why we reconnect.

4. Throw out those judgments and the chance of reconnection being able to come to the fore is much more prevalent: Connection.

5. Laurie Colwin (June 14, 1944 – October 24, 1992) was an American writer who wrote five novels, three collections of short stories and two volumes of essays and recipes. She was known for her portrayals of New York society and her food columns in Gourmet magazine. This is great advice she is offering.

6. This quote is a recipe for reconnection with our souls, I think it is essential: One Human Race.

7. I have a special one of these, a mate I met at a retreat four years ago, Michael, you rock my soul.

8. Beautiful image for a beautiful practice: The Best of Me.

9. How did we survive with these relatively new words that have been added to our dictionaries? What’s a dictionary, is that spellcheck or google it?

10. Co-founder of the online sensation, The Huffington Post. Arianna points to the power of meditation and contemplation in reconnecting with our inner selves: Beautiful.

11. the opening lines from the all-time classic song, The Sounds of Silence. We need to reconnect with all of us for it to truly work out.

12. Go for it, email me the results to rod.williams13 @gmail.com: Never Grow Up.

13. How difficult is this living our distracted lives?

14. Wayne Walter Dyer (May 10, 1940 – August 29, 2015) was an American philosopher, self–help author, and a motivational speaker. His first book, Your Erroneous Zones (1976), is one of the best-selling books of all time, with an estimated 35 million copies sold to date: Make peace with your Ego.