Thoughts

Let us consistently choose the single goal of peace rather than multiple goals that lead to conflict.

Let us continue to practice forgiveness.

Let us look lovingly upon the present, for it holds only knowledge that is forever true.

Let us continue to be involved in a process of personal transformation in which we are only concerned about giving and not about getting.

Let us be the love and light the world so desperately needs.

"If you're waiting for the right time......time never comes, time only goes"
~~ Azereth Skivel

Sculpture at Rookwood Cemetery, Sydney - September 2014 by Peter Tilley - He called this sculpture "Hesitation"

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.

2015 International Year of Light

What a wonderful resolution by the United Nations to declare 2015 as the International Year of Light.

They want to raise global awareness by focusing on the topic of light science and its applications and how light-based technologies promote sustainable development and provide solutions to global challenges in energy, education, agriculture and health.

It is the year for thoughts and discussion around light to fill minds with bright opportunities and ‘light-bulb moments’.

Well that is quite a statement isn't it!

Light plays a very important role in my life.

My life hasn't always been as happy as it is now.  Many years ago I was caught in a very dark tunnel, all consumed with sadness and fearing I would never see the light at the end of the tunnel again.

I was struggling with a mental illness, my heart had been broken and I was ready to give up......it seemed like an endless state of despair.

Hitting rock bottom and surviving gave me the jolt I needed to ask for help from counsellors and anti-depressant drugs and also volunteering played a big role in my recovery.  Finally I had to find a way to remove myself from the people who upset me and take some control back.

Ever so slowly I regained my self-worth and that all important light returned to my life.

Light now fills my soul, as I hope it does yours, my dear blog friends.

"Mental illness is the last frontier.  The gay thing is part of everyday life now on a show like 'Modern Family', but mental illness is still full of stigma.  Maybe it it time for that to change"
~~ Eric McCormack

"Don't you know yet? It is your Light that lights the worlds" ~~ Rumi

The 11:11 Phenomenon

The 11/11/11 is a very special day, a date that occurs only once in a century.

Please join me and 3 of my close friends in sending light and love into the Universe....especially at 11:11am. By opening our energy centres to earth and sky we can become light conductors.

I believe the use of Light was once (or many times in our history) a very important component of everyday life, and that with time its knowledge has been lost and found time and time again.

Being a Lightworker is not a special dispensation reserved for just a few....we are ALL potentially Lightworkers.

So Lightworkers Unite. Our world could certainly use an abundance of light, love and peace.


Above photo taken at Sculpture by the Sea, Bondi on 8th November 2011. The artist, Alison Lee Cousland called it 11:11! Her statement about the sculpture said:
"All places on our planet are unique and special. As 'inner sacredness' is activated, we come to recognise a sacred place as if for the first time. 11:11, a universal gateway, dedicated to world peace. Releasing the past. Being grounded in the present. Welcoming the future"

My friend Stoneweaver, who is visiting from New Zealand, and I spent a wonderful day admiring the beautiful sculptures as we meandered from Bondi Beach to Tamarama Beach and back again.


"In every phenomenon the beginning remains always the most notable moment."
~~ Thomas Carlyle

Full Circle

After a long, long time, many years of soul searching, study and self-discovery I believe I have finally 'got it' and now understand the difference between the deepest agony and misery of the human condition and the greatest joy!

I 'know', from my own experience, that the difference is simply between feeling separate, isolated, lonely, lost.....and feeling 'at-one', whole, home.

I think many people live with a kind of homesickness; a sweet nostalgia which they can't quite put their finger on as if they were once in a place that they can't quite remember but desperately, somehow, want to get back to.

I believe that at our deepest level (our core, Being, essence, soul, DNA) we inherently know that we are one with each other and with all things.

The trouble is in our mental-minds. We have a deeply rooted idea that we are separate, a deeply engrained belief. This causes a split between what we think and what we intuitively know; a distance between our heads and our hearts.

From day to day we live from our heads, our thoughts.....and this causes all our problems, all our misery. We're going against our deepest instincts!

It is said that while in the womb (and also as very young children) we are in a natural state of one-ness, love, union, innocence, bliss. Then after a while, gradually as we grow up in the world, we begin to realise that "I am this and you are that", "I am here and you are there", "I am me and you are you". We start to feel separate, we become 'self-conscious', we become afraid.

We go on and on accumulating knowledge, identity, conditioning and this sense of 'Me' gets re-enforced over and over again. We develop an "Ego".

Psychologists reckon that this is essential for survival at this stage of our lives. However, although necessary, too much "ego" can eventually become a heavy burden.

As adults, we feel isolated, lonely, small, restricted and incomplete.
Trapped in this prison of a mind-made-ME, we long to expand, to grow, to melt, to merge with someone, something.....anything.

We ache to be back in that place that we once knew. This has all happened because we have forgotten Who We Truly Are. Our light has become hidden under the bushel of fear, a false self, a mask, a defence, and/or an idea.

THE CURE IS LOVE.

Love is the essence of who we are and it is our way out of this mess.

Love and fear are opposites. Fear was the problem, love is the solution. Fear means separation, love means union.

Love is freedom. Love heals us, makes us whole again.

So it seems that our lives are a journey from knowing, through forgetting, to (hopefully) remembering again. We start out open and free and end up open and free.

Somewhere in the middle we pass through a narrow tunnel. This tunnel is our identification with our small-self, "ME", a conditioned-ego, our cocoon.


"Life at any time can become difficult: life at any time can become easy. It all depends upon how one adjusts oneself to life."
~~ Morarji Desai


This sculpture called "Presence" was made by Steinunn Thorarinsdottir from Iceland for Sculpture by the Sea, Bondi, November 2008. His statement about the piece was "Look and See"

Let Us.........

Let us consistently choose the single goal of peace rather than multiple goals that lead to conflict.

Let us continue to practice forgiveness and to see each other and ourselves as blameless.

Let us look lovingly upon the present, for it holds only knowledge that is forever true.

Let us continue to be involved in a process of personal transformation in which we are only concerned about giving and not about getting.

Let us recognise that we are united as one Self and illuminate the world with the Light of Love that shines through us.

Let us awaken to the knowledge that the essence of our being is Love, and, as such, we are the Light of the World.

I choose the feelings I experience, and I decide upon the goal I would achieve.
And everything that seems to happen to me,
I ask for, and receive as I have asked.


I love this photo. I was outside the orphanage in Rwanda, Africa in Nov 2006 taking photos of the people walking by and was so lucky to capture this contrasting image of the different way people reacted to the camera.

The Light Is Always There

There is a small plaque in a quiet and picturesque waterside park in Northwood, Sydney, commemorating the exceptional Australian artist, Lloyd Rees.

For much of his life Rees lived nearby and used the bays and inlets viewed from the park frequently as an inspiration for his landscapes. I often walk to this park as it is one of my favourite spots.

Lloyd was a true seeker of light. His paintings, especially in the last twenty years of his life when his eyesight was fading, were filled with light and washed colours. The memorial plaque at Northwood records one of his beliefs, "If you look for light you find it."

The quest for light has always been important to me. Mine is not a search for literal light - more, the search for direction, a message, a cleaning away of uncertainty and the recognition of inner spirit and authenticity.

Occasionally, life seems to be a chasm - a pit I slip and slide into. There is sometimes a sense of overwhelming darkness and no light ahead. What I have learned is that there is always light, I'm just not looking for it in the right place. I am probably searching for it straight ahead, the most obvious place to look when, if I would only glance to my right or left, I would glimpse its radiance.

That special light can come from any direction. A chance remark, a line in a magazine which starts me thinking, the sound of children playing, the words of a song, a comment overheard on the bus - all and any can give insight and a way through. When times are tough I have now learnt to keep my ears and heart open.

Whenever everyday problems overwhelm us, it is a relief when we see a solution, when we know what to do, when we understand the reason for something and the lessons contained within it.

The light is always there......we just need to look in a different direction.

Lloyd Rees painting Northwood Point, Sydney Harbour, 1978