Sorry Day- This is what Katrina and Carol felt on the day…

A picture paints a thousand words and we all shared many tears and smiles and hugs on this historical, momentus day.   

Peace, Prosperity, Passion and Power~of~Love for 2008

May all your Dreams Come True…Christmas 2007

 

Mum and Dad…50 years married and still laughing and playing together…
 

Our beautiful twins…my Niece and Nephew..Ben and Louise…born in 1989 bringing infinite Love into our Family…
 

Louise and Aunty Carol
 

Ben and Aunty Carol
 

My lovely sister Chris and her gorgeous partner Greg..
  

Ben and Grandma fought over the Kris Kringle Bubble Maker…Ben overpowered Grandma with his youthful zest but Grandma put up a good fight!
  

And my gorgeous old, beautiful cat Yamatji (Yami) found a piece of discarded wrapping paper and settled down for a looong nap -as cats do! 15 years old, blind in one eye, Yami moved from the gold-wrapping long enough to munch on prawn scraps and ham-skin before returning to his crinkly-gold cushion where he remains as we speak!    

Aboriginal Elders in Australia are calling to the world for help…

Thankyou to filmmaker Sinem Saban – for empowering the voices of Aboriginal Australia that are not being heard…

Growing the Future…Spring is in the Earth and Air…

Spring is in the air and I spent the weekend in a small island community running a workshop called “Growing The Future”…

The theme of the workshop was moving forward by developing the Imagination, dreaming bigger dreams and letting go of the anchors of the past.

Each participant has her own terra cotta pot along with the Mandala and Affirmation colouring in sheets. On the first day we painted the undercoat and background of the pots and the following day everyone created a design that symoblised her personal Vision for the things that will begin to grow in her life as a result of forming a clear vision and reclaiming her capacity to Create…

We then sprinkled seeds of many different flowers into the soil and at the end of the workshop everyone took home her Growing the Future potplant which will begin to seed and sprout and push forth new growth……… so long as it is watered and given sunlight, warmth, care and attention of course…

Here are some of the images from the two days and many thanks to the Women of the Island community who gave me permission to share their creations with others…

The Beauty in the Sorrow….

On September 8th it is the 6th Anniversary of the death of my childhood friend…she was killed by her husband, who then killed himself…

In unrelated circumstances I was recently invited to facilitate a five week Women’s Art project Always Remembered…creating empowerment Art and Badges to distribute to shelters to honour the memory of Women and Children who have died in domestic violence….I also acknowledge the pets who have lost their lives at the hand of rage also.

I work extensively with Women whose lives are affected by violence and addiction and am privileged to hear many stories of courage and resilience and hope that never dies….and Women who identify where they can create changes and how so much of their past can be rescripted so that fear and subjugation is transformed to resilience and courage to resist….and hopelessness and worry become determination and empowerment.

And then there are the Women who come to my programs who are the perpetrators of violence…often the daughters of violent Mothers and, to quote one Woman…”mean, mean Grandma’s”… and their stories challenge the stereotypes that are so prevalent in the human services sector…but that’s another Blog-Story for another day………

As I was driving to the second session I was pondering how my friend ran out of chances to leave….this was the second knife attack she had endured in five years, the first by another man who eventually committed suicide after his release from prison…..
My friend had a many-years-long pattern of choosing badly when it came to love and happiness…she did not get to break the pattern that formed during years of low self esteem and drug addiction….

But she was more than just her tragic story and we laughed a lot over the years we spent together in the wild-70’s and during our early childhood days…

As I neared the venue, I pulled up at the traffic lights, immersed in contemplating both my friends path, where her children are now and the fantastic Art work we were about to create, when the Sun, on this cloudy winters day, appeared from behind the clouds…
My partner Sal has instilled “Carry your camera everywhere” in me and so I was able to capture the moment…..

The image mirrored my reflections and I was reminded of how important it is to be able to embrace all that happens in life, denial and resistance only adds to the stress of moving through the pain….
“I am large I can embrace paradox”- Walt Whitman

Part of the empowerment Art process is to create simple pieces that reflect aspects of who we are, where we have been…and where we are going.

I did this glass painting (on the wall in the following photo) 10 years ago….

Immersed in the Ocean creatures, surrounded by the Eagle and the hand offering the light of the candle I realise that at the deepest level we all know who we are and what brings inspiration and love to our life….it’s just that we often end up with who I~Am~AMnesia….and the Journey to peace of mind and happiness is something we can paint into our life…by just remembering who we already are….

Moogey ~ Ngarrindjeri Nation

This is a small and very heartfelt photographic tribute to a man who I have come to love and admire greatly over the last few years.

Moogey works tirlessly for justice, cultural renewal and healing here in South Australia. He is a member of the global archaelogical society and responsible for returning the remains of the Ancestors whose graves were robbed and bones shipped to museums across the globe….

His traditional land, like all Aboriginal Land in Australia , was invaded and stolen during settlement and for many years the Ngarrindjeri people have been dispossessed of the Land which was in their custodianship for thousands of years.

With his Talkinjeri dance group Moogey and his family perform many of the ceremonies and cultural events around the state and overseas.

These photos, taken over the last few days, depict the scope and range of Moogeys calling.

The first photo was taken on the Coorong…Moogey’s ancestoral land.
We filmed there this week as part of the oral history recording of Ngarrindjeri culture…

Moogey is demonstrating how this grass-spear is used for antiseptic healing:

This is the bush that, when dried, is used in the smoking cermonies:

Video and audio recording with an Archaelogist who was able to share his research based knowledge of Ngarrindjeri culture with Moogey and in doing so, triggered some of the forgotten memories he had of hunting and fishing along the Coorong as a small child…

Today members of the first Nations gathered to on the steps of parliament house to commiserate the absence of Aboriginal representation in South Australian parliament.
A letter is to be presented to parliament and prior to handing over of the letter, Moogey performed the smoking ceremony:

Community worker, Elder, cultural consultant, performer, ambassador, healer and talking circle-facilitator….Moogey is all of these things… He is also a Husband, Father and Family Man ….and Grandfather to his gorgeous little “Mimini”….

You can learn more about the Ngarrindjeri nation by clicking here….

The Sha’manic. The Manic. And the Mists of Madness in between…

*This piece is shared here for my friend on the Lonsdale Street Tram who has asked many questions over the years about my view on “Energy Management” and why I think that energetic and Emotional Mastery of the often chaotic forces within is such an important part of our journey to reaching our fullest potential.

For a number of years I had several highly creative, highly emotional, charismatic people in my close inner circle. Some have remained and others have taken a different path.
During one particularly chaotic year three of my friends were diagnosed as having bi-polar (manic depression)..a state that highly creative, often emotionally unresolved people experience as the sharp side of the brilliant Sword of creativity and a highly imaginative Mind.
I have never experienced that place myself, though the mirrors of my relationships reflected back the choas that often accompanies the highly creative state and I sometimes had a “there but for the grace of god go I” perspective.

These days, unswayed, uncharmed and unconvinced by the hyper-energetic excitations of another’s “wow”, I am ever mindful that once sleeplessness begins, it is often followed by a gloriously seductive technicolour dream that is merely a nightmare awaiting to enter centre stage..

I read and researched widely during that chaotic time and have no doubt that much of the entertainment, paintings, movies, stories and ideas we enjoy collectively were birthed within and as a result of the hyper-manic realms and from the depressed and darkened place that most often follows.

Those books I bought are now boxed away and happily removed from my everyday life but I remember what I have learnt and am Thankful for the lessons though I have no need to return to that place of learning ever again..
Through those many journeys that I walked with friends and family and in my work in the areas of homelessness and welfare, I came to realise that there is a “Mist” of ‘madness in this realm of “mania” / hyper-mania, bi-polarities and chaos.
One of my friends ( we were Thelma and Louise in our teens) finally realised how seasonal her manic-eruptions were, that was the beginning to transcending the chaos that visited her every winter for several years.

It is not a ‘line’ that one crosses from ‘sane’ to ‘crazy’…it can begin with a little thought here or an odd reaction there droplet by droplet like when we begin to enter a fog that we can see in the distance and suddenly realise the fog has consumed us and we can no longer see a single foot in front of us.

What is ‘crazy’ anyway?
The Shaman and time travellers of Indigenous ways of old – and not so old – required the altered state to access their gifts and the Other Realm.
Our mental health system is one based on pathology and sickness not the Mythological state and individual giftedness, which is often defined by those ‘manic’ currents and imPulses.
Our visionaries, shaman, mystics and time travellers are most often sedated, mislablled, interned and squashed by medical practitioners and therapsits who are themselves uninitiated into those higher, precarious realms.

There was a time in my life when the seemingly Shamanic erupted into the Manic so brilliantly and outrageously that I barely had time to grab my floaties and goggles before the tsunami of a thousand volts of creative and chaotic currents crashed down upon my world and swept me to the outer realms of the human Mind…

At the time I referred to the “Demon” who entered our home and whilst I may not use that term today …I am not so sure I would not still refer to the Demonstration of such chaos with anything less than dislike and take great care in its unpredictable presence.

 

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The Mists of Madness…
A semi-fictional Story remembering all of those who I walked with upon that crazy path over 10 years ago…

Remember how much I used to hate your snoring? Well I’ve never told you this but sometimes I welcomed the raucous rumbling with delight! I would prop myself up on one arm and smile as I watched you sleep. I’d stroke your hair and pull the sheets over your shoulders, serenity in the beauty of our Love.

It was at those times that I welcomed your snoring like a reliable old friend.
You see I had come to understand that you never snored when the demon was nearby.
Your snoring told me that you were resting deeply and your mind was not stinging with the relentless attack of whirlwind thoughts, paranoia and tormented thinking.
The raucous racket of your snoring told me that we were in for a peaceful night.

We laughed that time I video taped your snores as they went from a quiet hum to a hullabaloo. After that you didn’t doubt me when I said I had to leave the room in order to sleep. You even looked a little embarrassed that such an undignified racket was beyond your control.
We were both convinced that you had gifts from God and we were in agreement that much was expected from one to whom much had been given!
Snoring was outside of this dignified realm.

I knew that when the demon was nearby you would not sleep. You would be pacing the floor, bouncing up and down on a crazy see sore of euphoria and tragedy.
You might wake me up with that crazy secretive look that alluded to mysterious knowledge of far away thing – no time for sleeping, no time for eating and no time…absolutely no time… for me..

In fact unbeknownst to me I may have turned into the enemy whilst I was sleeping. That took some adjusting to!

When the demon was in our house you would watch me sideways, seeking out the signs that would confirm to you I was now foe and not friend..

I was a cryptic enemy to be decoded
When the demon was in our house even our animals were plotting against your Divine purpose and none of us were to be trusted.
Except our beautiful dog who walked tirelessly by your side.
When she panted with thirst you no longer saw the need in her eyes…all you saw were the things you thought were true.
Even when they weren’t.

When the demon wasn’t in our house I tread carefully lest it be merely slumbering and ready to pounce at us from behind the madness veil.

Although the demon spoke to you, spoke with you and saw through you …it was not you who stood before me…you had disappeared in the mists of time.
Where did my snoring, contented mate go when the monster was here?
The moments of brilliance and knowledge twisted in a frenzy of certainty and not.
When did they merge to become one big knot until your thinking confused you and your thoughts were like rattle snakes stinging wild monkeys in the prison of your mind?

Sometimes I found myself drawn into your swirling, twirling mists of madness.
It was easier to pretend the bizarre to be true, than to plunge into my heart break alone.
Then I would cry and beg you to come back, rest, sleep, slow down.
Return to me and the world we will never again share.
You looked at me with brash confidence.
Your new world was far superior to mine.
You said my tears were cleverly plotted to draw you in…you weren’t to be fooled by the hysterics of one such as me!
I lay there sobbing and watched the tears turn deep velvet red.
My heart had split open, broken on the bed.

You were euphoric in your mania, swinging recklessly through unexplored terrain.
You invited me to join you, oblivious to my pain.
When the demon was in our house there were messages in unseen things.
Sometimes we had to go to the bathroom to speak lest the enemies were listening through wires thread through neighborhood yards.

Your look suggested I was your co-conspirator but I misread you, I was so pathetically happy to be on your side again that I joined you in whispered secrets made safe by a running hot, noisy shower.
Whatever it takes!
And it took my peace of mind.
Puffed up with bravado and conviction you were ready to confront those spies who were cleverly hidden in a neighbor’s disguise.
You had begun to burn things and you abandoned objects in the street.
The mists of madness now consumed you in a swirling, fog in your head.
Not even the incense could rid our sacred scarred home from the acrid odor of fear and dread.

I called you and I called you ….“Please come back, don’t leave me here. .. don’t let them take you away”.
……and when I realised you were no longer with me I yelled at that demon to return you to me.
I thought it was too late, you had gone but then I saw a glimmer of you in your eyes.

Teary, weary, fearful eyes, I grabbed your hand and brought you home. You only stayed for a minute or two.

Your body quivered and shook from the tremendous bolts of energy that charged forth from the darkness and wrapped you in tentacle embrace.

There was fear and euphoria, confusion upon your face.
Electrical currents surged through the once peaceful, reflective place.

The demon barged into our scared home and wouldn’t leave
…so I had to call the police and have them take you both away.
I no longer had a choice.

And you looked at me with a little smile that said… “See, I knew I was right…you were plotting against me”.

And I stood there and I shattered before my own eyes and bled into tomorrow.
Much was lost and too little was gained when our home was invaded by the demon from the unrequited past.

Grandiose certainty lay shattered and smashed in the debris of our life.
The demon mocked all that we once believed in.
We were once so confident about tomorrow…but were left with shattered yesterdays.

Forever in my heart you will remain
and I close the door on that place knowing that
we all learnt was needed
for where we were
at that Time….

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Finding our Sacred, Peaceful Pathway….spending time in Nature enables us to Breathe once again…

A New Batch of Warrior Women…Strong Mind and Peaceful Heart

Each week in my ART of Change ~ Law of AttrACTION program we make a piece of Art /Craft the embodies that weeks discussion…

As an artist and life coach I place a great deal of importance on the visual /auditory AND kinestic process of learning – Seeing, Hearing and Doing- CREATING …the way we learnt as young children in a visually rich, imaginative and engaging environment works for adults in ways that sitting passively with a white board and speaker does not engage with all of the preferred learning styles….

e.g. When looking at the “Poverty to Prosperity Consciousness” week we make a ProsperiTree:
Click here to view…

When embarking on the journey to call on the “Warrior Woman Within” we create her as we discuss who She is…
They are made from a basic black and white template…

These are some of the new flock of Warrior Women that were birthed in a domestic violence outreach group that I had the privilege of facilitating over 5 weeks….

The headress symbolises the importance of developing Strong Thoughts forms and controlled Thinking
The Heart is the importance of connecting with Feelings but not solely driven by emotional responses to the world
And the wings demonstrate that when we are centred and balanced and understand the Power we have to create our Reality….we can fly like \never before…..

My wonderfully-creative Mother even made a couple of Warrior Women of her own…they now travel to workshops with me and inspire others with their creative gorgeousness….
You can see her with them here…….

Statue Comes to Life!!

I was given a cute little statue of three groovy cats a few years ago and it has sat on top of my fridge ever since.

As you can see the calico, marmalade and black and white cats are all set for a day in the sun.

Well something very strange happened last year when two little kittens appeared in my back yard…brother and sister they were remarkably similar to two of the Fridge Cats.
Well as they say in the stories…By and by…within a month a THIRD cat appeared, abandoned by the chaotic family who moved out without him……a black and white cat…who I called Billy (after William Shakespeare – Billy purred like a poet).

I was able to find him a home because fluffy purring Shakespearean cats are in high demand during non-kitten season…
The other two, Gabrielle and Raphael – Gabi and Ralphy….come and go in the yard.

As you can see by their photos….my statue came to life with amazing replication!….. and true to the Law of Attraction my warm feelings for cats combined with my statue that imprinted the images in my subconscious mind every time I opened the fridge…resulted in my statue coming to life with in a meeowsy-furry-purry way!

Law of Attraction instructional Music…”Time”…Magic!

The following link will take you to one of the most powerful ‘state altering’ pieces of Law of Attraction lyrical~instruction that I have ever come across.
Have others heard this magnificent piece before?

Read what the lyrics have to say about the Mind:

” A Mind that is in its natural state of order
is in harmony with the Universe,
and such a mind is timeless.
Your life is an expression of your Mind.
You are a creator of your own Universe”

This is a very significant piece of music and when I came across the free-mp3 on the net a couple of years ago, I was thrilled as I had only ever heard it played once late at night on a radio show.

It is best listened to with earphones on….(Angelfire does not allow direct links from blogs so you will need to copy and past the following URL)

http://www.angelfire.com/fl3/Defymcbeth/songs/8_The_Theme_From_Time.mp3

~ The Theme from TIME ~

Stand before me on the Sign of Infinity all you of the Earth.
With the granting of the “Law of Provenation”
comes the application of change.
I will give you the key.
And with this knowledge, please realize,
comes the responsibility of sharing it.
I will show you the way (it’s very simple).

Throughout the Universe there is order.
In the movement of the planets…in nature…
and in the functioning of the human mind.
A mind that is in its natural state of order
is in harmony with the Universe,
and such a mind is timeless.
Your life is an expression of your mind.
You are a creator of your own Universe,
for as a human being you are “free to will”
whatever state of being you desire through the use of your thoughts and words.

There is great Power there.

It can be a blessing or a curse.

It’s entirely up to you, for the quality of your life
is brought about by the quality of your thinking.
Think about that.

Thoughts produce actions.
See the pettiness and the envy and the greed and the fear
and all the other attitudes that cause you pain and discomfort.
Realize that the one thing you have absolute control over is your attitude.
See the effect that it has on those around you,
for each life is linked to all Life and your words carry with them chain reactions like a stone that has been thrown into a pond.
If your thinking is in order, your words will flow directly from the heart,
creating ripples of love.

If you truly want to change your world, my friends,
you must change your thinking.
Reason is your greatest tool.
It creates an atmosphere of understanding which leads to caring which is Love. Choose your words with care.
Go forth….with Love.

Our Thoughts water the Garden of our life and barren Thinking can never create a bounty of Love…