My Endeavour

To appreciate what comes.

To be curious.

To talk to the monsters.

To dance dance dance!

(The Ting Tings - now playing - certainly help with the dancing)

"The irony of commitment is that it's deeply liberating -- in work, in play, in love."
~~ Anne Morriss

Had another glorious day at Sculpture by the Sea in Bondi, Sydney on Thursday. Perfect weather and fabulous sculptures.  This one was created by Ben Fasham from Victoria, Australia

This sculpture by Mike Van Dam from Queensland, Australia is called Intervention.
His statement - "In the early 1970's there were estimated to be fewer than 200 humpback whales left.  Now, with help from us there are more than 20,000"

Take the Leap - Go Forth

Often the more money and material goods we have, the more we want - and the less they bring us satisfaction. I've come to realise the real key to feeling good is to give and keep on giving. When we stop putting a monetary value on what we do, it can be immensely liberating.

We also have an obsession with happiness as though it were yet another purchasable product.

As a child I once tried to stand in the end of a rainbow to feel the colours on me. I ran back and forth across a wet field with friends shouting directions across the cow pats.

But rainbows can't be seen from close up. The irony of happiness as a product is that it disappears when we look directly at it, as ephemeral as that rainbow.

When we are young we jump into a pool whether we can swim or not. We have no fear.  Either we swim or we drown.
Before the age of 30 important things happen to us which shape the rest of our lives.  We become aware of ourselves and our own thinking.  We reach the age of reason.  In our new-found maturity we begin to think in a more adult way. We become grown up! Recklessness and risk are not compatible with age.  Risk becomes something which must be carefully considered.

Or is it!!!

We all have a negative voice in our heads that stops us from taking risks. Ask yourself what you really have to lose. Most of the time it's about ego and less about any real loss. Go first. Have the courage to do something before waiting to see if others are willing.

“Two bubbles found they had rainbows on their curves.
They flickered out saying:
"It was worth being a bubble, just to have held that rainbow thirty seconds.” 
~~ Carl Sandburg

I was out walking with a friend around Palm Beach in Sydney and this Magpie came up to us and seemed to have some advice to offer.

Flourish or Struggle

Like plants, to some degree, all of us struggle or flourish according to where we are positioned. Our lives can be hard or easy depending on where the pot is placed. 

Most of us, I think, have had this experience: behaving quite differently according to the people in the room at the time. With some people we feel in perpetual shadow; with others, the sunlight seems to angle in and we are aglow.

With one friend you feel as if you are quite intelligent, discussing erudite issues of politics or literature. You are witty, insightful; the right phrase springs into your mouth at the right time. The very next night, in the company of someone else, you feel dumb and boring. Anxiety or insecurity grips so strongly that the right word, the witty phrase, can never fight its way through to the surface.
I've been thinking about the subtleties of positioning - how the sunlight can hit us when we are standing on this spot, but not in this other spot.

Why, then, don't we strive harder to move into the sun? 

Why don't we spend more time with those who bring out our best selves, and less with those who bring a nuclear winter? Perhaps we could all send out the mental note: ''Paul Whatchamacallit, I know I'm booked in for a barbecue with you on Saturday week but suddenly I find that I am busy. I'm off to spend time with people who think I'm fabulous. And guess what? When I'm with them, I mostly prove them right.''

The best compliment you can pay someone is to say, ''I like the person I am when I'm with you''.
 
"Yeah we all shine on, like the moon, and the stars, and the sun."
~~ John Lennon - Instant Karma

My friend Rose grows these beautiful orchids and has them in the perfect position for them to flourish.

These lovely women are a joy to spend time with and I feel so blessed to call each of them my friend.

Spiritual Virtual Reality

Dreamland is the original cyberspace, our own built-in spiritual virtual reality.

Our dreams take us into other worlds, alternative realities that help us make sense of day-to-day life.

Dreaming is a connection to our unconscious, to our selves.

It is to be treasured.

Isn't it extraordinary that an activity which takes up so much of our lives is so often relegated into the realms of unimportance.

We are based on dreams, they are our centre.

Listen to them.

"Dreams are like stars....you may never touch them, but if you follow them they will lead you to your destiny."
~~ Anonymous

Taken in Wisconsin, USA in August 2010. It was early in the morning and we had gone to the pier to watch the Tall ships arrive. As you could imagine we saw very little.

Window Into Another World

We're told we're hiding in the shadow of others if we don't "achieve" as much as we could.

Also shadows are said to be where bad people lurk!

But shadows are the essence of something far more meaningful than a reflection of physical form. Shadows are the corners of our mind the light of reason rarely touches.

They offer a window into another world. The world of eternal darkness that all too many of us love to fear.

It was the Chinese Han dynasty that gave us shadow puppets. One of Emperor Wu of Han's concubines died and he was so stricken with grief that he ordered his servants to raise her from the dead, and so, with a lamp and a figure made of donkey leather, they brought her shadow back to life.

Things turn even more eerie when it comes to shadow people. These are dark figures that are said to inhabit our peripheral vision (accompanied by a feeling of terrible dread) only to vanish if you try to look at them directly.

But these metaphors of fear hide a much more relaxing and wonderful truth.

Those dark corners of the mind are not full of fear and woe, but are the first steps on the path of truth if we allow ourselves to find out more about them.

"When walking through the "valley of shadows", remember, a shadow is cast by a Light"
~~ Austin O'Malley

I have just purchased this painting called "Shadow Watching" by Judy Prosser an artist from Broome, Western Australia
I love her work.