Thoughts on the Way

Do you know where you’re going?

Read Time:3 Minute, 42 Second

After a day on Noppharat Thara Beach in Thailand, I decided to take a walk back to the hotel to do some work. It had already threatened rain, but just a few drops were falling, so I felt comfortable walking rather than taking a tuk tuk (taxi). I even felt pretty confident that I knew the way to the hotel – although I had been driven that morning by the hotel owner, it seemed pretty straightforward – just follow the road.

About five minutes into the walk, the heavens opened. Quickly putting the cover on my rucksack to protect Tigger and Snuff, my soft toy travel companions, and to guard my precious journal against damp, I set off up the road. As I walked, though, the road started to seem less and less familiar – and it seemed to be much further away than I thought it was going to be. All the little shops and hotels by the side of the road were strangers to me – and I began to doubt my plan. By this time, I was totally drenched. I’d got no money in my pockets for a taxi, and the locals were too busy getting where they needed to go to stop and pick up a drowning tourist.

“So, do you turn back or do you carry on”, I asked myself. I wasn’t sure how i could have made a mistake – I thought I knew where I was going – and I thought I had started off in the right direction too. As I thought back, I was still pretty certain that I had started out right – so why did everything look so badly wrong?

I’m not sure why I carried on going. It might have been that I couldn’t see an alternative – it might have been sheer bloodymindedness – it might have been despair – or it might even have been faith that I had got it right after all. The rain carried on pouring down in sheets, and the crackle of thunder and lightning echoed off the hills. And as I walked further, still nothing seemed familiar. There was a lake that I had not seen, a hotel that wasn’t in my memory of the street.

And then suddenly I realised that the 7-11 store I could see was the one I was expecting, and the fairground sign was exactly what I was looking to find. I was right after all. A few minutes later, I was in a hot shower.. I’d made it.

So, here’s the thing. How many of us set out on our journeys and give up? We set out in confidence, thinking we know what we’re doing – but after a while we begin to doubt ourselves. Perhaps things are harder than we expect – perhaps a little rain starts to fall. It all looked so easy when we set out – but now we are in unfamiliar territory, and nothing’s as we thought it would be.

And it’s taking so much longer than we thought it would – so we panic and turn round. But just a little more patience – just a little more faith in ourselves and in our judgement would see us safely home – would see us reach our goals.

For me, when I set out to create my own business, I thought it would be easy. I thought I would be in profit by the end of the year. I was severely tempted to give up. It was harder than I thought, and I really felt I had lost my way – I was going in the wrong direction. All I had to go on was my original plan, my intention, my inner knowing – and I had to reach back and trust that.

So what is it for you? It might be a dream that you’ve given up on – the feeling that you must have been wrong in the first place. You might be thinking that it should be happening by now – that you must have got it wrong.

Hang in there. Trust your dream. Trust your desire. Trust your plan. Sure, you might have to adjust it from time to time – but the heart of it will be right. You’re going in the right direction… and you’ll get there. Probably sooner than you think. Keep the faith. Hold on to what you know. And trust yourself – you are wiser than you think.

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Under the sea

Read Time:4 Minute, 42 Second

Doing anything new causes us to take a new view on things, helps us to look at the world in new ways – to hear God speaking to us, if you will. Even taking a different route to work can create a change in our perspective that causes us to see things in new ways – I’m certainly the sort of person who likes to vary things (a friend of mine called me a nomad the other day, and, like her, I do wonder about what things will be like when I get back from this trip).

I know that for me God speaks in all sorts of ways – sometimes I can feel a tingle down my spine, and I know to pay attention to what’s been said, or to what’s going on. Other times I feel a fizzing in my brain, almost as if I am connecting to another world, another dimension. Sometimes the voice seems so loud as to be a shout – but mostly it’s a quiet whisper.

Sometimes, for me, that voice comes in the words of a song, or the lines of a movie. Sometimes it’s in the pages of a book, or the voice of someone precious to me. But each time I am left in no doubt that God has spoken.

And it was like that when I was diving off the Great Barrier Reef. Now, I’ve been diving before, just a little – but this was the first real dive adventure for me, and also on one of the best dive sites in the world. I was excited, anticipating something spectacular – and also very conscious that God would use this time to speak some more to me.

Diving is a magical, unique experience. The underwater silence creates a sense of being alone even when surrounded by other divers – the light makes it an other worldly experience, as the warmth of red light is absorbed by the water, leaving tones of spooky blue. Out there in the distance, just beyond visibility, might be anything – and so might there be down in the depths… as a certified diver at present I am only supposed to venture 18 m down, although I have ventured further with my instructor, down as far as 28m, and other divers can only manage 30m or so before the risks become too great.

It’s a different world, too, with hills made out of coral in a thousand colours and even more shapes.. and wonderful creatures with unearthly shapes free floating above the landscape, or hiding under a rock – or even lying, concealed, in the sand.

So diving, somehow, takes you out of yourself and into another world. And maybe all of us need that – some experience that takes us out of what’s normal, and forces us to think in new ways – to take a different perspective. The peace under water is astonishing – cut off from sound apart from the sound of your own breathing, the occasional sound of an engine, or the nibbling of parrotfish on the coral. Even surrounded by other divers, the solitude is incredible, lost in your own magical universe.

And maybe, like it did for me, as you stay open to things changing, your perspective will shift – so that the new world grips you.. that moment when the alien and threatening environment of strange creatures, the inability to breathe without assistance, the sense of being out of your safety zone suddenly shifts and you feel at home in the new world… and for me, the sensation of soaring, of flying over the surface produced a new exhilaration, an excitement of realising a childhood dream. Truly, I was flying – only the medium had changed, and I could even control how high I flew simply through my breathing..

And it was so important, too, to relax. Nothing is gained underwater by fighting the ocean… so breathing becomes slow and relaxed – the more peaceful the breathing, the longer it is possible to stay under water…and so resistance ceases, and we learn to stay in the flow, to go with what’s happening rather than force circumstances. We see what turns up – maybe there’ll be a turtle, maybe not – maybe we’ll find Nemo, maybe not, maybe a ray will flap lazily across the ocean, or maybe not… maybe there will be a special surprise of something unexpected.. who knows. But there’s nothing to be done to change it – what happens will happen, and for us, the thing to do is simply to enjoy the experience – to allow ‘what is’ to be absolutely perfect, to stop resisting and just glide along on the current of the experience. Sure, we have to keep an eye on what’s going on… but most of the time, if we just let what’s happening happening.. then the magic will be there…

So, learn to go with the flow of what’s happening around you. Like the aikido masters who can use the energy of their attacker to create the energy to defeat them, we can use the power of the flow of what’s happening to enjoy the experience, to see the hand of creation in it – and to hear the voice of God, the core of the Universe, the heartbeat of Love speaking. And as we become more open to possibilities – then more possibilities are going to present themselves…

So the ocean seemed to be whispering to me… “learn to stay open…. learn to listen to your heart… and to your feelings….let things flow…and you, too, can hear the voice of God”.

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From My Journal

On the road–warning… deep thoughts

Read Time:5 Minute, 59 Second

Being around the Brisbane area has helped me see what it’s like for people who have found their lives ruined, and there was a huge sense of compassion that went out from me to them – to have your livelihood destroyed, to have everything you own taken from you: your home destroyed, your possessions lost or destroyed…. and I heard the echoes of my own experience too.

Many of you reading this blog have seen the incredible joy that I have had in the experience… how much, perhaps, I have grown through the adventure – the sights I have seen, the wonders I have known, the thrills and the joys I have had. And it has been absolutely incredible – I have felt hugely blessed through the experience.

But there have been darker moments too. And it would not be truly honest of me if I didn’t talk about the tough times.

One of the reasons I am actually ON this adventure is that my coaching business wasn’t as successful as I would have wanted – although people who worked with me loved the results that they got, there weren’t enough clients to pay the bills. Marketing myself (and actually believing in myself) wasn’t a strong point. Although the books I had written were well received, with one coaching company wanting to make ‘Jump Start Your Coaching Business’ part of their workshops, and with a number of publishing companies very interested in ‘Free Your Mind’ – none of those ventures took off. I closed ‘The Inspiration Centre’ as a business in 2010. I see, now, having stepped away from it all, that I had been thinking too small, limiting myself – and so when I get back I will be wanting to do things very differently – with much more power, much more energy – and much more belief in who I am and what I bring to the world. Of which more another time perhaps. There are some very exciting things that I have planned.

The failure of that business led me into some financial difficulties too, mainly because I didn’t succeed in getting back to work despite trying hard (10 months of applications, and several months of Job Seeker’s allowance) – I’d been out of IT for too long, but overqualified for other opportunities. A failed joint business venture with a friend led to me choosing (very) early retirement just to create some security in my life. All of this, I know in my heart, is simply leading me to true mission and purpose – almost as if the Universe knew that if any of those things had been successful, then I would not have looked for something bigger, more dramatic – more true to myself, and with a bigger impact on the world’s stage. These experiences, although painful, have led me to who I am today – and so I embrace them as being stepping stones on a journey into my own truth.

So this adventure has been an opportunity to take a break from that – to interrupt the pattern, if you will.

And, really, that experience has also brought me into a deeper relationship with the Divine Force at the centre of the Universe. I do not believe I would be where I am without that experience.

So now, I have let go of my home, and most of my possessions – my books, my synths, some oddments of furniture are in storage.. but not much of that is really particularly precious to me. I have always been more about the experience of being alive – about the joys, the experiences, the people, the friendships, the impact I am having – about what I am BEING rather than what I HAVE.

So the whole process of stepping into this adventure has not been easy. Add to that the fact that I have had to leave my family behind, and have not been able to be there for them in some ways, has made this a very difficult decision to take. .. and on occasion I am haunted by the feeling that I am running away – and also that I can’t do much about starting my business while I am travelling.

On occasion I miss my family a lot – my boys and I have become very close over the last few years, and not seeing them has been hard. There are also people that I miss too – friendships that were growing, old friends that I have become very close to, the sense of family. I miss dancing, too, and all those wonderful people I know through dance. And sometimes it does get really lonely.. and just knowing that there are people out there that truly care is incredibly important.

There is a sense that a lot of things are ‘on hold’ until I get back – learning West Coast Swing or Tango, my aikido and karate training, keyboard practice, runs in the park, cycling…

And it’s not all that comfortable sometimes while I am travelling. I’m not on a huge ‘do anything’ budget and I am living a backpacker lifestyle – dorm rooms,, noodles and pasta, watching the daily budget closely. (I discovered ‘goon’ or ‘boxie’ the other day – the Australians invented wine boxes, but you can actually by alcoholic stuff in a wine box which actually isn’t CALLED wine anywhere on the box. Needless to say, this will not be an important part of my shopping).

So, I can’t simply do whatever i want. There are days when I walk rather than take a cab, take the train rather than fly. There are days when I am counting the cents/pesos/ringgits..

And yet this experience has been amazing, and I feel like the luckiest man on earth. The people I have met, the things I have seen, the insights I have gained have been unbelievable. And I haven’t GOT to Asia yet. I hope I can bring it back and use what i have learned and what i have become to help others, I really do. And I hope that just the sharing of some of this adventure will help my readers to feel just that little bit encouraged.

So, for those of you looking on with envious eyes – there has been a price to pay to have this experience. There is a price that I pay every day that I am out there – and I wouldn’t trade it. I know I am learning and growing, I know I am exactly where I need to be right now, and I know I am a richer being for all of this.

Often, the tough times are simply opening up something even greater for us.. I have so many friends that have said the same thing to me.. so embrace those moments and look for the blessing within. It’s there. Often, when our life looks like it is falling apart, it is actually falling together. Often, when things look darkest, it is just when we are about to step into something huge, beautiful and exciting.

For each of us, if we let it, life has something incredible in store – more than we can possibly imagine….

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Learnings World Tour

In search of the spirit of Uluru

Read Time:5 Minute, 21 Second

One of the places I have wanted to visit for a long time is Uluru… the haunting pictures of the rock, the aboriginal stories from the oldest living civilisation, the mysterious ‘Dreamtime’, the isolation of the outback… so what was my experience?

I sensed that part of the visit would be a passage from one part of my life into another – much as this trip has been, but at a deeper level. I sensed that somewhere I would learn something key to my purpose and destiny, for I do believe in those things – in, somehow, the calling and hand of God on my life. I sensed that there was something to learn, here, that would have a major impact on my understanding.

But it wasn’t where I thought it would be.

The first and pressing decision to me was whether or not to climb the rock. Part of me felt that this was truly part of my transition into the next part of my life – in the same way as the aboriginal youngsters would move from boy to man. And yet, as I looked into it, that isn’t what climbing Uluru was about – the rite of passage was ore around the base of the rocks, and a three year journey into the wilderness. And that, it seemed to me, I had experienced – three years of struggle, of hardship, of discomfort. Everyone who has lived a significant life on this planet has experienced this – from Jesus and Moses, to the disciples, right up through history. The people who have impacted the world have been those who have stared into the face of destruction and found that it can no longer hold a fear – can no longer limit them. The aboriginals knew this – the only way their men would prove themselves worthy of having a family would be if they demonstrated, in that harsh land, that they could fend for themselves.

And slowly, also, I realised that no place is more sacred than another – and every place is as sacred as another. Unless we choose for it to be different. Uluru is a sacred place simply because the Anangu have chosen for it to be so. It’s a good choice – visually stunning, completely unforgettable, a magical, wonderful, beautiful place. It’s etched with character – animals represented in the face of the rock in the Tjurkupa storyline, the ripples of a snake carved in the rock, the ashes of an ancient mythical fire staining the rock – so many creation stories (I will not call them myths, for that doubts their truth… and at some level, the aboriginal creation myths are true, revealing a deeper truth).

But, in truth, the world is what we make it. We experience the world through the filter of our beliefs. For many of us, Uluru is sacred. For many of us, Uluru is beautiful. For many of us, Uluru is magical. And I think that such places act as focii – points where we are drawn back to a deeper place, a more spiritual place.

Now, I didn’t say that all places were the same. Uluru has a huge, massive energy, and it feels as if the rock itself holds secrets and mysteries – truth that we can hear if we listen. I’ve found that in other places too – in Grand Canyon, in Kata Tjuta – and each of these also bring a huge sense of calming certainty – a real ‘groundedness’.

As I have blogged elsewhere, I chose not to climb. And, in the end, the climb itself was closed. And yet I still knew that something had changed inside, just being out in the bush. One of the girls on the trip handed me a clue that reinforced what I want to do – and, in truth, what I know that I love. I need to find out the reality of that, but the broad stroke picture is there. I found myself becoming far more the leader of that group than of others before, but also far more of a servant to that group too.

I did take on some of my shaman training – one of the things that a shaman will often learn is the concept of ‘grokking’ – taking on some of the characteristics of an animal, or of a natural feature. (The term comes from Robert A Heinlein’s ‘Stranger in a Strange land’). In Peru, they look at the three parts of man – the Condor, the Jaguar, the Snake.. and so I let the eagle within me soar to experience the heights of Uluru – to soar over the monolith, to experience the heights, while the Jaguar in me padded round the base, and the Python experienced the rock. Is it true? At some level it is for me. Because in watching the eagle in my imagination, I could at some level experience the rock from above – what it would be like to soar above it. In experiencing the Jaguar, I learned how to walk softly on the earth, to become more aware of everything around me, and yet poised for action. And in blending with the python, I learned how to be truly connected to the rock, to be close to it, and understand its lessons. Often we fail to truly experience what’s going on – and so these creatures helped me to know more truly what the experience was. In fact, I also put away my camera to more closely experience rather than attempt to capture the moment.

And I learned a little more about the power of story – how at a very deep level, story grips us, can hold us locked into where we are by considering our current stories as fixed – or move us into a place of creation as our new stories take us into a new place.

And so I found myself moving into a new level of teaching, even later that evening at the celebration party. And something, deep inside me, has changed – and it seems that I feel more in control of who I am, and what I am about, than ever before. Not dependent on the environment, on the place, or even on the others around me – but simply on my own connection to Tjukurpa – my beliefs, my Dreaming on this place – to Anangu – the people – and to Ngura – to the land, to the animals, to nature.

Am I wiser? More powerful? More confident? We will see.

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Announcements

A blessing for the new year

Read Time:4 Minute, 19 Second

I guess it’s the time of year for musing and pondering – so now that the fog and haze of the New Year celebration has worn off, and the reality of that New year resolution is kicking in – let me add some thoughts to the mix.

Change is what life’s all about – while visiting the Great Ocean Road between Christmas and New Year, it was truly in evidence for me. The beauty of the Ocean Road is in the remarkable cliffs, the breath-taking seascapes, the stacks and arches and islands created by the energy of wind and water, the abrasion of sand and stone. And perhaps that’s a little bit of what life’s like – nothing truly beautiful is created without energy – without something that stirs up the elements into action. And nothing of beauty is really created without friction – those big events or little day to day matters that work away at our lives, getting rid of those parts of our lives that are not really serving us working away at changing us little by little.

But even these huge stacks and sea chimneys, the arches carved over time, are not immune to the effects of change. The amazing beauty of the Twelve Apostles is changed daily by the sea, the wind, the effects of that power causing the coast to recede at a rate of 2cm every year. The rock pinnacles carved into extraordinary shapes are not immune to the relentless pressure of the elements – eventually, each of them will collapse into the sea… one of the reasons why there are only 8 Apostles now (the other reason being that there never were 12 in the first place). The same effect caused one of the arches of the London Bridge formation to collapse.. in fact, the collapse of a sea arch is what creates the stack in the first place.. it is necessary for one thing of beauty to be transformed into another.

And yet the sea is still at work creating new works of art – there are more sea stacks and arches being created even now.

Instead of writing my goals for 2011, I wrote down what I wanted the year to be like – a series of feelings and emotions that I wanted to experience, characteristics that I wanted to find in my life this year. Sure, from these goals will emerge.

And I wish the same for each of you this year. So let this be my 2011 blessing on each of you.

May 2011 be full of the kind of joy that makes you glad to be alive, that sets your heart soaring and makes your soul dance. May you have adventures that you never dreamed of, that take you to places you never thought you’d go. May it be truly fun, so that you laugh, and clap and cheer just for the sheer exuberance of it all. May it be a year of growing.. where you learn things you never thought you would, where your life becomes richer and fuller because of the way that you develop through it. May it cause you to go deeper – to become more thoughtful, more in tune with the Universe, and more truly you than ever before – where you discover a new meaning to your life and to the world.

May this year be a year of miracles and magic for you – where you create the sort of luck that changes lives – including your own. May it be a time when your faith in yourself, in your God, in Love, or in the Universe becomes real and powerful. May it be a time of healing for soul, for mind, for body. May it bring you close to family, to friends, and to people you have never met before. May it be a year of blessing, as blessings come to you and as blessings pour from you to others, and as love flows in ways you have never experienced before.

May it be a time of romance – perhaps the rekindling of a romance that may have become stale, or a time for new romances that take your breath away.

May 2011 bring freedom – freedom in your finances, freedom in your lifestyle, and freedom to do the things that you love. May it be a time of true wealth, where success and prosperity and abundance become easy friends to you.

And may it be a year when you step into your own truth – where your life’s purpose becomes real for you and you emerge from the shadows to claim your rightful place on the world’s stage, a place that you may never have dreamed you would take, a place of leadership, a place where the blessing of Love flows from you, a time of passion and of commitment – a time when you know you can be confident simply being yourself – that glorious, wonderful being that’s unique in the world and whose gifts the world longs to experience.

May 2011 be a year when you truly become you – and where your dreams, your hopes, your longings, your plans begin to come wonderfully, beautifully, magically, incredibly… true.

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Observations

The Path of the Wizard

Read Time:6 Minute, 14 Second

Many of you will know that for a long while I have an interest in magic. It’s often the word I use when I want to refer to miracles, to the spooky, to the supernatural. I’m not talking here of the art of the showman, the David Copperfields of this world. I’m talking about something far more primal, more connected to the true power of the world, to the energy flow that runs at the core of our universe. It seems to me that a real connection to that energy will produce effects so outside of our current expectations of the behaviour of the world as to be indistinguishable from magic.

(An apology to my female readers – for some personal reason, probably connected to literature and media, I don’t like the word ‘witch’, and so I avoid it – but whatever I say applies to both men and women alike (and probably our more open and sensitive fairer sex will find the whole concept easier).

Some of my closest friends have recognised that in some way I am following the path of the wizard – at some level perhaps supernatural, magical (as Dr Hew Len, the Hawai’ian shaman from Zero Limits, remarked when I met him), at some level perhaps very natural in the way I work with people.

I’d warn you, though – the path of the magician is a deeply uncomfortable one. When you find someone with the magician’s stamp on their life (or the visionary, the prophet or the healer) – anyone for whom the gap between the seen and unseen is paper thin – then you will find someone whose life has been taken to the very edge of destruction. That might be through debilitating illness, or through emotional turmoil – their life may have been devastated through circumstances and events – but somewhere, you will find that they have been taken to the very edge of existence: they know that life is tenuous at best.

I’ve been fascinated by the real magicians of the world – people like Jesus Christ, perhaps, or Merlin, but also the archetype that’s alluded to by Gandalf from "The Lord of the Rings" or Ged from "The Earthsea Chronicles". I think these archetypes are so permanent in our myths and in our stories because they speak of a truth that’s part of our genetics… we know this is at some level real. We know at some level that we are all magical beings.

There’s no space to go into it here (perhaps later!) but it’s my belief that our calling is to remember that our basic nature is that of God – as Jesus himself said "those things that I do, you will also do”. Or as Paul wrote in his letter to the Romans, "all creation stands on tiptoe just to see the sons of God come into their own". This, I know in my heart, is our heritage, our birthright – it is what we are called to. Perhaps this is where evolution takes us next.

I believe at some level we are all capableof magic. It’s the wizard in each of us, the sorceror (as Castenada called him – truly connected to the source). We are all capable of extraordinary miracles. It’s a part of our true nature. As Tom Holt observed in the wickedly funny "The Portable Door":

"It was at that moment that Paul realised the simple, basic truth. The world ought to work properly, there was nothing wrong with it, but sometimes it stuck or it wouldn’t start in the mornings. Magic was the confident, well-placed clout on the side of the casing, the clip round the carburettor that got it going. Magic wasn’t changing the world or making it do impossible stuff; magic was persuading it, by force of will and a little controlled violence, to stop fart-arsing about and get on with what it was supposed to be doing. Simple as that."

Magic is normal, natural, part of life. We experience it in so many ways – and as Arthur C Clarke famously observed, "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." – it’s just, perhaps, that we don’t understand ‘how it works’ yet.

So my poor scientific brain has had to deal with learning and understanding energy work as demonstrated through the science of the Emotional Freedom Technique (www.emofree.com) or chakra work – or through technologies such as Reiki (I’m a reiki practitioner too) – technologies that in a rudimentary way explore the use of energy fields. I think this is the next huge technology leap for humanity – we’re only just scratching the surface of what this means right now: but I can see the control of these energies (and I don’t know if ‘energy’ is the right word for it) is the key to the fossil fuel crisis, to health and healing, to the environmental puzzle and more.

But back to magic…. We know that the magician has the power to create, producing something from nothing; the power to transform, changing one thing into another – and the power to destroy – to make things disappear. I think, along with many of our more coherent thinkers, that when we chose to live on this planet, we chose to forget who we truly are, what we’re truly capable of…and sometimes, we remember, just for a moment, what incredible power we truly have at our disposal. Sometimes we remember that we actually are made in the image of God.

Or as Neil Gaiman put it in "The Graveyard Book" "You are alive. That means you have infinite potential.. You can do anything, make anything, dream anything. If you change the world, the world will change."

Christmas, it seems, is one of those times when the walls between the ‘real’ world and the ‘magical’ world become thinner – when we start to truly believe that magic can happen. And magic appears at all sorts of levels. From the things that we write off as ‘coincidence’, to the magic of a love affair, or a new born infant – to amazing healings, to remarkable restoration of fortunes. Somewhere, it seems to me, something is happening at a level that we can’t quite understand yet. Somewhere, magic is happening.

I don’t think we know who we are yet – still children, not yet fully grown into our true potential, still not understanding what we are truly capable of, not yet understanding the power that we have at the core of our beings. Perhaps, even now, we are waking up.

The last word, perhaps, goes to Richard Bach, from his wonderful true love story ‘Bridge Across Forever’.

"We think, sometimes, there’s not a dragon left. Not one brave knight, not a single princess gliding through secret forests, enchanting deer and butterflies with her smile. We think sometimes that ours is an age past frontiers, past adventures. Destiny, it’s way over the horizon, glowing shadows galloped past long ago and gone.

What a pleasure to be wrong. Princesses, knights, enchantments and dragons, mystery and adventure … not only are they here-and-now, they’re all that ever lived on earth!

Masters of reality still meet us in dreams to tell us that we’ve never lost the shield we need against dragons, that blue-fire voltage arcs through us now to change our world as we wish. Intuition whispers true: We’re not dust, we’re magic!"

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Announcements

Merry Christmas, everybody . . . .

Read Time:2 Minute, 33 Second

So here it is, Merry Christmas, everybody’s having fun….

For me, there really is something spectacularly wonderful about Christmas. I’m the guy who deliberately goes out shopping on Christmas Eve because I love the atmosphere (it’s not so much fun in Melbourne – can’t quite get in te Christmas spirit when it’s bright and sunny)… who gets all sad when the Christmas adverts disappear as soon as the shops shut on Christmas Eve. I’m convinced Santa Claus is still alive and well and planning a comeback tour (that’s OK, but he needs to leave the elves behind). I love the sparkle, the lights, the cuteness of it all… and (in the UK at least) we manage to brighten up a dismal time of year with lights, and tinsel, and angels…

I don’t miss ‘Lonesome this Christmas’ playing on rotation in supermarkets – but I’ll be lining up The Pogues, Wizzard, Slade and all those fabulous Christmas hits (including, to my eternal shame, the ‘Girls Aloud Christmas Bonus CD’). Picnic time for Christmas dinner this year though.

Somehow, Christmas is one of those times when the barrier between our usual world and the magical world starts to grow thin – when, somehow, anything might be possible. When it just might be possible for one man to travel round the world in a night and bring hope and happiness around the world. Where it might just be possible to deliver presents down a chimney that’s been blocked for years. Where happiness is real, and love is guaranteed. And where ‘anything is possible’ here might be where love, finally, breaks through. Sure, sometimes Christmas can be a real tough time, putting a huge strain on relationships and bank balances.. And it can be a time when love finally wins through – when we actually try and be kind to each other. And who’s to say that’s not the reality, anyway? So let’s just reach out to one another.. Let’s be kind to each other.. Let’s enjoy each other’s company..

So to all my friends across the world – wherever you find yourselves, whatever you find yourselves doing – I am eternally grateful that you are part of my life in some way. The world is a richer, warmer and more wonderful place simply because you are in it. So, this Christmas, wave that magic wand. Make a difference. Share some love. Make a friend. Reach out to someone. Tell someone you love them. Call someone you haven’t seen for ages. Give someone a hug. Give lots of people hugs. Get good value out of the mistletoe. Forgive people. Love people.

And if that makes you feel good… carry on doing it. Create magic. Create miracles. Bring heaven to earth.

I may be a long way away from many of you (and probably sufficiently close to some others of you that you’re actually starting to get nervous) – but thankyou for who you are. Thankyou for what you’re doing. Thankyou for being part of this wonderful, glorious,beautiful world. And thankyou for being a part of mine.

It’s time for magic . . .

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Announcements

Merry Christmas, everybody . . . .

Read Time:2 Minute, 40 Second

So here it is, Merry Christmas, everybody’s having fun….

For me, there really is something spectacularly wonderful about Christmas. I’m the guy who deliberately goes out shopping on Christmas Eve because I love the atmosphere (it’s not so much fun in Melbourne – can’t quite get in the Christmas spirit when it’s bright and sunny)… who gets all sad when the Christmas adverts disappear as soon as the shops shut on Christmas Eve. I’m convinced Santa Claus is still alive and well and planning a comeback tour (that’s OK, but he needs to leave the elves behind). I love the sparkle, the lights, the cuteness of it all… and (in the UK at least) we manage to brighten up a dismal time of year with lights, and tinsel, and angels…

And watching ‘It’s a wonderful life’. On the big screen. Outdoors. Now, if I can just find that Nunnery copy of ‘Love Actually’

And if that makes you feel good… carry on doing it. Create magic. Create miracles. Bring heaven to earth.

It’s time for magic . . .

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Stories

A journey in Tasmania

Read Time:3 Minute, 42 Second

Many of the stories I tell are ‘Journey Stories’ – because we are, all of us, on a journey through life. Some of those stories are based in myth, in story, in invention – and others are based on experience. Some of those stories make an obvious point – and some of them mix metaphor and hidden meaning. Those of you who’ve been part of an event I’ve taught at will know what I mean…

When I was out in Tasmania, I took a walk through the Larmairremener tabelti aboriginal cultural walk in Lake St Clair National Park…

Now, sometimes, you know exactly what to expect on any journey – and sometimes you don’t. But often it’s the things that we don’t expect that we remember. Sometimes, we can’t even put our finger on what was so amazing about the journey, but something, somehow, has changed at a very deep level inside each of us.

Throughout the Larmairremener tabelti walk, there are panels, here and there, little signposts to give us some history and explain the walk. Some of those panels explained the way that people can live in harmony with the land. Some of them tell of the pain of their experience – of imprisonment, sickness, of feeling lost, alone. There is a panel that tells how the aborigines used fire to regenerate the land – how seeds would remain safe and hidden throughout the fire, and would grow and blossom once the fire had passed – and without the fire, nothing would happen, and the land would remain barren.

Yet it wasn’t what we read as we travelled – not what we experienced, but an inner voice that spoke to us and said “Listen, with all your senses. Hear what is going on around you. Feel what is happening in your heart. Enjoy the experience, and still remain open to learning, to hearing. Sometimes that voice will be evident – and sometimes it will be a quiet whisper deep in your heart, a gentle touch on your soul.

As we journeyed round the trail, sometimes the path was easy to follow… and sometimes it wasn’t immediately obvious which way we should go. Sometimes the route was paved, or a wooden boardwalk had been constructed for us to walk on – and sometimes we were left to make our own path over gravel, or over the bare earth. Sometimes we could raise our eyes to the sky – and sometimes we had to concentrate on every step we took, to avoid tripping, or falling as an unexpected rock, or a straggling tree root threatened to upset us.

Sometimes, even, it felt as if the forest was closing in – as if we were alone on the trail, with only the birds for company.

Our road led us up hills where we felt as if we were scrambling, and down easy slopes. Sometimes we could see little but the trees and branches in front of us… and sometimes we could see for miles, as suddenly the view cleared and revealed a beautiful sight. Sometimes we just wanted to stop and take a closer look at something that occupied us – and sometimes we wandered off the trail to explore something else for a moment.

And sometimes we could hear the faint echoes of other voices – people who had travelled this path before, who had lived here, who knew more than we did, who had lived at peace with the land..

And as we journeyed further, as we walked more and more down the trail, we seemed to go deeper and deeper… and I felt myself becoming still and quiet inside, as if a voice was speaking to me. And where that voice came from, I don’t really know. Was it from deep inside our beings – or was it the voice of God? Was it the voice of our souls – or did we simply make it up? But something in that voice created a new peace, a new tranquillity and a new calm.

And something in that moment said “It’s time. It’s time to take what you know, deep inside, and share it. It’s time to open up to others – to become more transparent, to let people know what you feel, what you know. It’s time to live from a place of freedom, and a place of power.. it’s your time.”

Sometimes, a journey is more than it seems. But as we learn to listen to our inner being, then somehow the journey will change us.

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My journey

Read Time:2 Minute, 27 Second

When I set out on my journey round the world (see www.exploretheadventure.com) I knew that it wasn’t just about seeing the sights, about experiencing different cultures, about having adventures, about fun and friendship. I knew it would be about enlarging my world vision and about finding my place in the world. It would be about experiencing my God in a new way. It would be about dicovering who I am, and my purpose and mission.

In some ways, I knew this would be a bit of a pilgrimage – visiting sacred, special and holy places, and allowing some of the world’s great faiths to wash over me, changing my worldview and creating greater understanding.

I knew that this trip would change me at the deepest level – in some ways, I had found myself lost (and I will talk about that in some more detail at some point). There were many things I needed to let go of – many of them wonderful, but no longer serving me. I had beliefs about me that were limiting me, relationships that needed to transform.

As I write, I have felt like a caterpillar that’s retreated into a chrysalis. Inside the chrysalis, the caterpillar changes into mush as the cells reconfigure themselves into the beautiful butterfly that will emerge. Right now, I feel like I have just broken free from that chrysalis – I’m a new creature, different yet the same… but I am still trying to dry my wings before I can fly off. In some ways I feel stronger and more powerful than ever before – and in others I feel weak & helpless.

But I know more what I am here for – and I know what God has called me to… at least as far as I need to know for right now! My experience on this path is that God continually surprises me… just when I thought I had it all figured out.

So, I will hope to share some thoughts and some insights with you. I will hope to deepen your understanding and my understanding of Life, of Love, of God, of Humanity.. of anything that comes up.

I’ll share some stuff from my journal, I’ll share some stuff from what I am reading. I’m learning lessons from the experiences that I have and the people I meet, from the sights I see and the wonders that take my breath away. I’m learning from culture, from experience – and from my day to day walk with God.

This blog is open… comment, ask questions, share stuff, help each other. At some point I will share some thoughts on what I have planned for when I return… meanwhile, please accept my thoughts in the spirit they are shared. I do not have the answers. I do not have my life together (ask my kids, ask my closest friends!). I am simply a fellow traveller on the journey that is Life. Let’s explore that adventure together.

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