Have you ever noticed how much of our lives are impacted by boxes?

Consider this:

• we live in separate countries within rigid borders
• we live in box-like houses
• we travel in box-like vehicles
• we work in box-like buildings
• we spend alot of our time watching a tv box
• we find it challenging to think outside of the square
• we end up in a box when we die

There are numerous other examples however you get the idea!

This is unusual because if you look “around” you will notice that nature and the universe seem to prefer circles. We live after all on a ball in space which has as neighbours a round moon and a round sun. Other planets in our solar system are also similarly round.

Nature also comprises many revolving concentric patterns like day and night and the change of seasons. Continue reading →

“Intelligence is not to think of the past and not to bother about the future – the past is no more, the future is not yet. Intelligence is to make the utmost use of the present moment that is available.”

Osho

What do large power and money hungry international commercial corporations have in common with dinosaurs?

They are both predators focussed on devouring anything in sight with no thought to the future and both have at some stage ruled the world!

When you think about it they also have other similarities:

• large in physical size but small in brain
• no sense of humanity or compassion
• no conscience
• have voracious appetites
• are intensely competitive
• leave a large “footprint”
• destroy precious non-renewable resources
• are self-perpetuating

British Petroleum (“BP”) is a good example of a large international petroluem player that currently is showing all the attributes of a prehistoric dinosaur.

There’s an old saying that says “if you play with fire be prepared to be burned”. If  “BP” was prepared to participate in deep sea oil drilling then it should have ensured that it had the means available to deal with any potential risk that it may experience as a consequence of a rig  “blow out”. Continue reading →

When you approach the end of your life it is likely that you will look back on how you have lived your life.

It should come as no surprise to you that one of the things that will matter the most to you will be the quality of your relationships. It’s unlikely that you will care about the Mercedes parked in the garage or the share portfolio!

In your life you will be involved in a number of significant and important relationships. the most important of which is with yourself! It follows that the quality of your self-relationship will pretty much dictate the quality of your other relationships. Continue reading →

Our perspective drives all our actions or lack of action. The problem is that our perspective or habitual attitudes come into play without our even knowing it. Why?

Our conscious mind is responsible for only 5% of our mental processes however this is where we can exercise creative choice and imagine what might be. The remaining 95% of our mental capability is contained in our sub-conscious/unconscious mind. The data contained here has been acquired through conditioning – familial and social. When information is stored there is no quality control.

How does this work in reality? Take the example of driving a car. You may be consciously involved in a conversation with a passenger yet you still manage to drive the car and arrive at your destination. Yet you don’t remember consciously focusing on the journey. The reason this happens is that the sub-conscious mind takes over without you being aware of it.

This is obviously a very useful thing as it means that we don’t have to relearn how to drive a car every time we get into it and we don’t have to study a map to work out how to get to our destination if we have been there before. However, there is also a downside. Continue reading →

These days we are not only faced with environmental disasters of epic proportions we also face the more insidious global diseases of superficial commercial and political expediency!

What I am alluding to here is the use of creative talents and gifts to support commercial and political imperatives.

For example: for the last few months I have been following American idol on TV. Why? Because I’m also a musician and I am passionate about music. So it warms my heart to see talented individuals being brave enough to shine their light in public in the face of critical scrutiny.

Given that it is a media driven “talent competition” which is reliant on members of the public to decide who is the winner maybe I should not be surprised that in the last two “Idol” programmes the most deserving and talented musicians were only runners-up! Why – because of superficial appearances. Continue reading →

“Don’t worry about what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive and do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive” – Dr Howard Thuman.

Your life should be dedicated to delivering your gifts, talents and skills with confidence. Often we hide away our gifts because to us they seem insignificant yet to others they can be so valuable. Our secret talents and abilities are our greatest gifts to the world.

Our biggest fear is that if we shine brightly then our families and friends will not like us. Instead we hold on to inauthentic personalities and roles in the hope we will will be accepted and will fit in.

Society is designed so that uniqueness is minimised and uniformity is paramount. There is at the base of this driver an economic imperative to ensure an ongoing supply of unquestioning “worker drones” who will keep the wheels of commerce moving and generating more money and power for those whose prosperity and wealth have been built upon the backs of others.

When you embrace your authentic self you may well find that you no longer fit in and that others will look at you strangely. Dare yourself to skirt the fringes of society and be a fringe dweller who is true to Self. Always be true to yourself. That is the road to happiness and fulfilment.

Life is not a problem waiting to be solved. Life is a mysterious celebration of living. At this level of consciousness problems are are no more!

Imagine being in a dark room – the lights are off and you cannot see! Turn the light on and all is revealed. So does darkness really exist or is it more just an absence of light?

Problems are very much like being in a darkened room. A problem is a lack of understanding about a particular situation or event. When we understand that everything is as it is meant to be – the good, the bad and the ugly – then we become enlightened and start to look for the possibilities that exist in all of the stuff that happens to us in life. That doesn’t of course mean that we won’t feel pain or discomfort from time to time just as we will also experience joy and pleasure. Continue reading →

It could only happen in Tinseltown. In LA a standup comedian who was sued for making mother-in-law jokes has had the last laugh after a federal judge threw the case out of court!

The comedian whose act for years has been to describe her life as a half-black, half-Swedish woman who marries into a Jewish family was sued by her mother-in-law, sister-in-law and brother-in-law claiming that her jokes held them up to public ridicule.

In a 21 page judgment, the US District Judge concluded that the examples they cited including one in which the comedian says her sister-in-law’s voice” sounds like a cat in heat” fell under the category of protected speech as being statements of opinion and not fact and therefore protected by the First Amendment.

The added twist to all this being that the comedian’s husband is a partner in the law firm which represented her and is quoted as saying “he’s excited about the win but he is not happy about the legal fees his firm had to incur!”

Obviously no familial love has been lost here!