Stroke Me Stroke Me

Why do we blog??.......OR more to the point WHY DO I BLOG?

I have given this question considerable thought and concluded it is because I love being stroked, complimented, flattered, hugged........am I being shallow?

Probably!

Blogging has enhanced my creative side and expanded my knowledge 100 fold. I actually feel I am a better person since I started blogging.

I blog to be part of a community of people whom I respect; I want to understand your thinking and I want you to understand mine.

I blog to be part of the conversation. I blog to remember. I blog to refine my thinking. I blog because I don't think I really understand something until I write about it.

Finally I blog because there are truly remarkable people in the world, who perhaps would not be recognized by the world. I blog to connect with persons who share some (if not all) of my values.

So I keep coming back to blogging because of YOU my friends, yes YOU, I keep coming back because of YOU. BLESS YOU.

"A true friend is someone who thinks that you are a good egg even though he knows that you are slightly cracked".
~~ Bernard Meltzer


BTW the dolphin encounter was mind blowing. Everyday I relive being graced by those amazing creatures.

This is a postcard of the spectacular Dusty Dolphins that Stoneweaver & I had the privilege of playing with in Kaikoura, New Zealand, March 2010.

Dreaming of Dolphins

I am leaving for New Zealand tomorrow for a week's holiday and to make one of my lifetime dreams come true......swimming with dolphins in the open sea!

I will also be seeing my now 'real life' friend Stoneweaver again which will be awesome....AND AND AND we will both be meeting up with another blogger Marja for the first time.......LIFE IS GOOD!

I have decided to rehash a post I wrote about dolphins back in November 2009. When I wrote this post I had no idea that just a few months later I would be making a connection with these incredible creatures.

So take care dear friends, "see you" in April.

Please remember to......Keep smiling.....Keep shining.

One day a long time ago, I was watching a documentary about dolphins and something inside me clicked. I was well into my late 20’s and was watching the television as if I was glued to it. It felt as if I was in a mind-meld with the dolphins and it was too a point that I started to cry because on some spiritual level, I understood what these dolphins were saying. I just knew that the dolphin was my Spiritual Animal Totem, I just knew it!

The beautiful, graceful, sleek dolphin carries many messages for the two legged! A key to understanding because the dolphin meaning is connected with themes of duality. It has to do with the dolphin being both fish and mammal. It is both of the water, and an air breather. Ergo, dolphin symbolism talks to us about "being in two worlds at once." Indeed, the dolphin is a great conveyor of the concept of yin and yang.

It is playful, and is a reminder that time to play is a crucial element in walking in BALANCE. It moves through the water quickly and with great grace, ever moving with the flow. Dolphins tell us to move with the ebb and flow of life, and not to search for brick walls to smash into. To spend our energy fighting the current gets us nowhere. Being constantly at war with others, with our surroundings and with circumstances we cannot change, destroys the spirit, eats away at hope, and consumes the joy of life.

The power of the Dolphin is community in BALANCE.

"The animal shall not be measured by man. In a world older and more complete than ours, they move finished and complete, gifted with extension of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear. They are not brethren; they are not underlings; they are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendor and travail of the earth".
~ Henry Beston, The Outermost House, 1928

A Bit of Advice

Joseph 1 day old in August 2006.

Letter to be given to Joseph on his 18th birthday:

Dear Joe, may angel face friend

• Don't listen to baby boomers who tell you you've got to slow down and "smell the roses". We never took that advice when we were young and neither should you. Throw yourself at life!

• Don't cross the road with your iPod on....or whatever the devise is called in 2025.

• Never get into a fight with your neighbours. Apologise. Make Peace. Buy them a case of beer......anything.

• When meeting someone over lunch, the way they treat the waiter is a better guide to their character than how they treat you.

• Eat your vegetables and clean your teeth.

• You are what you eat but also what you read and watch and hear. Don't feed your brain with rubbish, at least not all the time.

• Don't be negative. Whingeing is for people who want to blame others for their troubles, because it's easier than finding their own way forward. If a friend makes a habit of bad-mouthing other people, take a moment to wonder what they say about you. Spend your mental energy on people who think you are terrific, not people who dislike you.

• Tread carefully if a friend asks you to counsel them about their love life. Never agree with their assessment that their ex-partner is horrid, as they will make up the next day.

• Never ignore an invitation to dance.
  

• Never buy an expensive umbrella as you'll lose it within the month.

• Don't be tight with your money when it comes to your friends or charity.
  

• Surround yourself with people who bring out your best side; people in whose company you become fabulous, funny and wise.

• Remember the most important decision you'll ever make isn't about career or investments, it's your choice of life partner.

And remember I will always love you unconditionally.

Namaste
Pegs xxxxxx

"To love is to risk not being loved in return. To hope is to risk pain. To try is to risk failure, but risk must be taken because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing." ~~ Author Unknown


Joseph - March 2010, Cromer, Sydney - In our favourite park.

Turn The Page

I threw my phone books out the other day. For months they'd sat in a corner of my office, unopened and unused, victims of a world where, with a click of a mouse, I can get anyone's phone number, their educational history and a tour of their street.

Beyond its cockroach squishing properties, the phone book has outlived its usefulness. Yet parting with something as archaic and unwieldy as the telephone directory came with some unexpected nostalgia.

When compared with other anachronisms such as the typewriter or Polaroid camera, the space the phonebook occupies in my cumulative reference library of associations is limited. But as I dropped the volumes into the recycling bin, I felt a little of my life went with them.

It is difficult to comprehend a world without the phone book. How to forget the hours trying to find the number of a teenage crush. And what of those black-and-white scenes of detectives drinking coffee and spending all night calling every "Schultz" in town until the mystery blonde in the negligee picked up the receiver and whispered: "Be careful my husband might be listening". Does Sam Spade googling photos of someone's company fun run carry the same air?

A future without phone books is a radically unfamiliar world. Corrupt policemen will beat suspects with modems, and strongmen in sideshows will tear laptops in half. Interior designers will add "period" touches to the apartments of investment bankers by scattering copies of the Yellow Pages.

Every year the world and I grow a little more unfamiliar. No one sends postcards anymore. Wallets are being replaced by mobile phones with built-in credit cards.

Life before Twitter, cyber bullying or Paris Hilton had something to recommend it, if only that it didn't have any of them.

It was slower, knowledge was more precious for having been hard won, there was no glowing oracle to tell you every answer. If you wanted to find that forgotten high school love, you had to open a book and start turning, one page at a time.


"Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counsellors, and the most patient of teachers."
~~ Charles W. Eliot, The Happy Life, 1896


My bookends

The Real World Rocks

The real world is a magical place especially when it collides with the virtual world.

Stoneweaver flew to Australia from New Zealand last week (although she was sitting in an aeroplane as she hasn't grown wings yet) and we hung out for 5 days. What a delightful lady to explore Sydney with. To laugh with. To share stories with. To eat with. To drink with.

We would never had met if we hadn't blogged. So three cheers for the blogosphere.

Stoneweaver is returning the favour and I will be flying to New Zealand on March 20th for a week. As well as exploring her lovely country we will be swimming with dolphins at Kaikoura. All my life I have been wanted to swim with dolphins, it is a dream come true. I am sure these dolphins will touch me in a special way that my heart will leap and their beauty and grace will bring me to tears.


There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.
~~ Albert Einstein


Stoneweaver & I took a ferry ride to Watsons Bay where we enjoyed the most delicious lunch at Doyles. - Feb 2010