What are we Truly Looking for?

On a cold and wet November evening whilst posting a letter, I was approached by a young man. He smiled and pointed to his ears to show me he had no hearing ability and I observed his movements without any sense of concern despite being a lone female on a dark road. He then handed me a piece of paper to read.

I put my glasses on and read the note as he stood before me and I could feel an urgency he was trying to convey. But as I stood still and read the note, I realised it was at odds with what I felt in him.

My Relationship with my Mother: Walking Out of My Self-made Prison

Looking back over our lives we often search for reasons why we did this or that, and sometimes we come across difficult or challenging experiences…

Occasionally we muster the courage, or the will, or even the self-love to ‘go there’ again. To unpack what we remember, to apply our adult knowledge, experience, perspective and understanding to the child we once were who was hurt by the deeds or words of a loved one, which imprisoned us in the lovelessness of our own doubt, self-judgement and denial of our own senses, locking us away under deep layers of self-imposed protection for fear of being hurt further.

Choices, Responsibility and Beyond…

Making Choices

Have you ever considered what the impact of chronic illness or severe injury might be on your ability to work, earn income, support yourself, and conduct the affairs of day to day life? I know I didn’t think of these things when I was younger. I was strong, fit, full of energy, motivated, level-headed, into life, working full time, volunteering, in relationships, and in community. It never occurred to me how much could be swept away at any time by a serious incident or illness… Elderly people say this to younger ones, but how much of it sinks in?

What it comes down to is being responsible for our choices from the youngest possible age. But it’s never too late to begin.

The Lie of Being Good

I am a fifty-two-year-old woman who has spent most of her life being what the majority of people would consider to be a ‘good’ person. I have spent thirty years working with people with severe intellectual disabilities, a job that without fail draws gasps of admiration and praise from anyone that discovers what I do for a living.

My second job for the last twenty years has been as a yoga teacher and I know that when people hear about my second job they tend to naturally believe that I am helping others to be fit and well, whilst also supporting them to consider the deeper aspects of life. We all assume certain things about others based on our beliefs about what’s good and what’s bad, but what if good and bad don’t really exist? What if good and bad are figments of our imagination, conjured up out of our own connotations about what each word means?

‘Whatever’ – A Movement Towards Giving Up

I’m sure most of us are pretty familiar with the classic stereotype of teenagers who, when called out by their parents for not being responsible in some way, would retort with an emotionally charged reaction of “Whatever, I don’t care!” Even though this may simply seem like an attempt to get out of taking responsibility and doing what is needed in that moment and may be frustrating as a parent to hear, I have found that when I hear other people use the term ‘whatever’ in their expression, there is a deeper reading to access.

When I have really allowed myself to feel the truth of this matter, it hurt to accept the fact that when we use ‘whatever’ in reaction to the stresses and harshness of human life, we are really just saying “I give up!” And to be honest, when I ‘went there’, I started to see all the ways that I have done just that in my current and past lives that have affected how I currently view and live in the world.

Foresight is 20/20

I imagine most people have at some point heard someone say that ‘hindsight is 20/20’ after an event that typically left someone feeling a certain level of guilt, shame, remorse or desire that whatever unfolded would have ended with a different result. The phrase denotes a sense that once we experience the outplay of a life event that may have resulted in something we did not necessarily want to happen (like an accident or mistake), it is easy to look back in time, so to speak, and understand all the factors and decisions that led up to that negative experience occurring, hence the 20/20 perfect vision connotation.

But I have noticed a repetitive pattern, and thus a correlation between the times that I have had these ‘hindsight is 20/20’ moments, where I felt awful about something that happened and that I was responsible for, and my initial negative emotional reactions to someone or a previously unforeseen circumstance that life presented to me. It’s as if these reactions that were based on things like doubt, fear of judgment from others, lack of self-worth or low confidence set off a chain reaction (pun intended) of events that culminated in my having those ‘could have, should have, and would have’ moments as an end result.

Stranger Danger? I don’t think so!

A little girl innocently walks up to a man sitting quietly on a bench in the park as she has chased a butterfly that landed next to him and she asks him if he noticed it too. But chasing behind her is her mother who, after a sheepish smile to the man takes the little girl’s hand and walks away with her, whispering that it was not safe to do what she did because that man is a stranger and “We don’t know him, so he could be dangerous,” asking her to never do that again.

Building Loving Relationships in our Communities

A while ago I started noticing a number of shops closing down or just sitting empty. I wondered why. So I started talking to the people who felt they had to close their shops.

The common theme that came up was that their rents have been raised and they can’t afford to pay what the landlords are asking for. Some even felt they were being pushed out because they were not of a certain nationality.

This all got me reflecting on what has happened to equality for all, what has happened to decency, respect and care for our fellow brothers, no matter what nationality they are, or whether they are skinny, overweight, rich, poor, Australian, Chinese etc?

Where Are We Going and What Are We Doing?

This is a question that we may ponder on.

Sometimes we may feel lost. It feels as though we have lost our way and don’t know where to turn.

I base this feeling on what I have been feeling for some time and this is that I have become so caught up in looking outside of myself that I am ignoring the loss of contact with my innermost feelings and I sense that I am not alone with this particular feeling.

The Consequences of our Choices

What determines the choices that we make and are we as free to choose as we think we are?

I have been aware for some time that the way that we choose to think, speak and move governs the thoughts, speech and movements that will come next, but it wasn’t until I experienced this for myself that I really knew it to be true.