An inspirational video

A beautiful inspirational video which reminds us that we are all one. Nature is one of our greatest gifts. It gives us oxygen, resources, beauty etc. We are depended on it, but we are taking to much from it over and over and over again, without any respect, without thinking about the future. We are abusing our greatest treasure. Nature gives but as we have seen here during the earthquake it also takes. We can't temper it, we can't control it so just treat it with the greatest respect. We don't need to take all from nature. We need food, we need water, we need each other.

We could live in harmony. Are there still any places where there is still that understanding? Someone I know travelled the world and he met people who didn't owe anything and lived very basically. What he was most surprised about was that these people actually laughed more often in a day then anybody he knew in his own rich country had done in years. These people were not distracted by gathering more and more. They just lived and nature gave them what they needed. This was a long time ago. Things might have changed as more and more of nature's abundance is taken away and is being destroyed.

We lost touch with each other and nature and we are not doing our children a favour. So let's think about it and let us regain our awe for mother nature, let's stop taking from her and she will nurture us and will spoil us with her beauty.

2012 a year of power

Major Bob Parker of Christchurch had a briefing with seismologists as quakes keep rolling through Christchurch since the 6 magnitude aftershock before Christmas. For example yesterday we had a 5.1 and a 5.2 in the afternoon and last night we woke up from a 5.2 magnitude along with heaps of smaller ones .
The outcome from the briefing was that the earthquakes won't decline in a year or more but it will take decades. So basically we will have to live with it for the rest of our lives. Yes we have considered moving but we have ties to Christchurch.
We've got jobs, houses are not easy to sell, we have friends here and the children do too. Although my daughter is moving up to Wellington for study. But we always loved Christchurch and we are not ready to give up.
The chance on a damaging 7 is very small the seismologist said so that helps.
This is going to be an interesting year but we will make the best of it and their is a good vibe hanging in the air as well.
With 2012 a year of power I don't refer to the earthquakes but it is the title of the video underneath which has beautiful pictures and a soothing voice bringing out a positive message. It felt like a sort of meditation. It helped me to regain my strength.
Monday I am going back to work so I will post less frequently again.

The paradox of our age

Spring joy in our garden

The Paradox of our Age

by the Dalai Lama

"We have bigger houses, but smaller familes

more conveniences, but less time.

We have more degrees, but less sense

more knowledge, but less judgement.

More experts, but more problems;

more medicines, but less healthiness.

We've been all the way to the moon and back

but have trouble crossing the street to meet the new neighbour.

We built more computers to hold more information than ever

but have less communication.

We have become long on quantity

but short on quality.

These are times of fast foods

but slow digestion;

tall men, but short character;

steep profits but shallow relationships.

It is a time when there is much in the window

but nothing in the room."

A must see speech

I stumbled upon the following speech. Charlie Chaplin known from the silent movies impressed me with this speech which is from the movie "The great dictator" from 1940 directed by him. The leaders of the world can learn a lot from this. A must see or read for everybody!!

"I’m sorry but I don’t want to be an Emperor – that’s not my business – I don’t want to rule or conquer anyone. I should like to help everyone if possible, Jew, gentile, black man, white. We all want to help one another, human beings are like that.
We all want to live by each other’s happiness, not by each other’s misery. We don’t want to hate and despise one another. In this world there is room for everyone and the earth is rich and can provide for everyone.
The way of life can be free and beautiful. But we have lost the way.
Greed has poisoned men’s souls – has barricaded the world with hate; has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed.
We have developed speed but we have shut ourselves in: machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge has made us cynical, our cleverness hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little: More than machinery we need humanity; More than cleverness we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost.
The aeroplane and the radio have brought us closer together. The very nature of these inventions cries out for the goodness in men, cries out for universal brotherhood for the unity of us all. Even now my voice is reaching millions throughout the world, millions of despairing men, women and little children, victims of a system that makes men torture and imprison innocent people. To those who can hear me I say “Do not despair”.
The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed, the bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress: the hate of men will pass and dictators die and the power they took from the people, will return to the people and so long as men die [now] liberty will never perish…
Soldiers – don’t give yourselves to brutes, men who despise you and enslave you – who regiment your lives, tell you what to do, what to think and what to feel, who drill you, diet you, treat you as cattle, as cannon fodder.
Don’t give yourselves to these unnatural men, machine men, with machine minds and machine hearts. You are not machines. You are not cattle. You are men. You have the love of humanity in your hearts. You don’t hate – only the unloved hate. Only the unloved and the unnatural. Soldiers – don’t fight for slavery, fight for liberty.
In the seventeenth chapter of Saint Luke it is written ” the kingdom of God is within man ” – not one man, nor a group of men – but in all men – in you, the people.
You the people have the power, the power to create machines, the power to create happiness. You the people have the power to make life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure. Then in the name of democracy let’s use that power – let us all unite. Let us fight for a new world, a decent world that will give men a chance to work, that will give you the future and old age and security. By the promise of these things, brutes have risen to power, but they lie. They do not fulfill their promise, they never will. Dictators free themselves but they enslave the people. Now let us fight to fulfil that promise. Let us fight to free the world, to do away with national barriers, do away with greed, with hate and intolerance. Let us fight for a world of reason, a world where science and progress will lead to all men’s happiness.

Soldiers - in the name of democracy, let us all unite!"

Arohanui, marja

Wild Geese

Landscape seen from Pirongia Forest Park

Julie, a friend passed this poem on to me today. I think it is so beautiful it touches your soul.

Wild Geese
By Mary Oliver

You do not have to be good.

You do not have to walk on your knees

for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.

You only have to let the soft animal of your body

love what it loves.

Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.

Meanwhile the world goes on.

Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain

are moving across the landscapes,

over the prairies and the deep trees,

the mountains and the rivers.

Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,

are heading home again.

Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,

the world offers itself to your imagination,

calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting--

over and over announcing your place

in the family of things.

Arohanui marja

A brief for the defense

A few of my friends read my blog and once in a while they provide content for it. I got the text underneath from Elizabeth and was touched by it. I straight away snapped out  of a bit of a down feeling and thought "cheer up girl, I am not supposed to feel down. Feeling a bit tired and having teenage kids who are on a different wavelength (in the Mars region) is completely normal.
I am a very privileged person. I have a  family who is  healthy, I have friends, I have enough money to do all the things I want, I have a job I like, a nice home, I live in a beautiful country, I can do things I love like blogging, tramping and making photos. I am very privileged. There is a Reason for what life gave me and I owe it to give back to live. The least thing I can give back is to be happy and be alive so that other people can be too.  I challenge you to do the same and be inspired by the following and bombard you with smiles if you want it or not :0)   :0)  :0) :0) well 4 will do.

 artwork in Addington, Christchurch

A brief for the defense

Sorrow everywhere. Slaughter everywhere. If babies
are not starving someplace, they are starving
somewhere else. With flies in their nostrils.
But we enjoy our lives because that’s what God wants.
Otherwise the mornings before summer dawn would not
be made so fine. The Bengal tiger would not
be fashioned so miraculously well. The poor women
at the fountain are laughing together between
the suffering they have known and the awfulness
in their future, smiling and laughing while somebody
in the village is very sick. There is laughter
every day in the terrible streets of Calcutta,
and the women laugh in the cages of Bombay.
If we deny our happiness, resist our satisfaction,
we lessen the importance of their deprivation.
We must risk delight. We can do without pleasure,
but not delight. Not enjoyment. We must have
the stubbornness to accept our gladness in the ruthless
furnace of this world. To make injustice the only
measure of our attention is to praise the Devil.
If the locomotive of the Lord runs us down,
we should give thanks that the end had magnitude.
We must admit there will be music despite everything.
We stand at the prow again of a small ship
anchored late at night in the tiny port
looking over to the sleeping island: the waterfront
is three shuttered cafes and one naked light burning.
To hear the faint sound of oars in the silence as a rowboat
comes slowly out and then goes back is truly worth
all the years of sorrow that are to come.

Jack Gilbert, from Refusing Heaven

Christchurch: Tagore's 150th birthday at Hornby High School

My friend at work, Bhaswati,  invited me to the 150th bithday of Rabindranath Tagore next week. She designed the above poster. Clever he.

Tagore is one of only 106 people to receive the Nobel Laureate in Literature, which he received in 1913.

Amit rajit, my friends husband wrote that "he is the only person to have written the national anthum of two countries- India and Bangladesh. He was a great poet whose work include dance drama, songs stories, poems etc. He mostly gave own music to his songs.

Bhaswati and Amit are two of the organisers of the event in Christchurch which celebrate the work and life of the poet. The high point will be a dance based on a mythological story.

I can't wait and will show you all about it.

If you live in Christchurch come and celebrate with us as it is a free event and there is nice food for sale.

Underneath a video with one of Tagore's poems It is so beautiful

This morning I visited my friends in the childrens home and tonight I have a party at a fellow bloggers home.
At work I am about to set up a course to make calendars with pictures and quotes. Love it. Already started practising. With all this excitement how do I get time to write If only the day had more hours.

A reason, a season or lifetime

A Reason, a Season, or a Lifetime

People come into your life for a reason, a season, or a lifetime.
When you figure out which one it is, you will know what to do for each person.

When someone is in your life for a REASON . . . It is usually to meet a need you have expressed.
They have come to assist you through a difficulty, to provide you with guidance and support,
to aid you physically, emotionally, or spiritually. They may seem like a godsend, and they are!
They are there for the reason you need them to be.

Then, without any wrong doing on your part, or at an inconvenient time,
this person will say or do something to bring the relationship to an end.
Sometimes they die, sometimes they walk away,
Sometimes they act up and force you to take a stand.
What we must realise is that our need has been met, our desire fulfilled, their work is done.
The prayer you sent up has been answered. And now it is time to move on.

When people come into your life for a SEASON . . .
Because your turn has come to share, grow, or learn.
They bring you an experience of peace, or make you laugh.
They may teach you something you have never done.
They usually give you an unbelievable amount of joy.
Believe it! It is real! But, only for a season.

LIFETIME relationships teach you lifetime lessons;
things you must build upon in order to have a solid emotional foundation.
Your job is to accept the lesson, love the person,
and put what you have learned to use in all  other relationships and areas of your life.
It is said that love is blind but friendship is clairvoyant.

Author Unknown

Arohanui, Marja

Magical moments

courtesy of google

"There are occasions when this vision of the world takes us by surprise, the mind having slipped unconsciously into a receptive attitude. It is like the oft-recurring tale of coming upon an unexpected door in a familiar wall, a door that leads into an enchanted garden, or a cleft in a rock that gives entrance to a cavern of jewel. Yet when one comes back to the place again, looking for the entrance, it is no longer to be found. It was just in this way that late one afternoon my own garden became suddenly transfigured - for about half an hour, just at the beginning of twilight. The sky was in some way transparent, its blue quiet and clear, but more inwardly luminous than ever at high noon. The leaves of the trees and shrubs assumed qualities of green that were incandescent, and their clustering were no longer shapeless daubs, but arabesques of marvelous complexity and clarity. The interlacing of branches against the sky suggested filigree or tracery, not in the sense of artificiality, but of distinctness and rhythm. Flowers - I remember especially fuchsias - were suddenly the lightest carvings of ivory and coral." Alan Watts

Did you experience such magical moments? Some do and most of you did. Many forgot about it. When we were children we absorbed the world through our senses and picked up the magic. Children don't think, plan or worry. Children are in a state of flow. Of course we need these skill for our survival but actually they have taken over who we are. Our mind is a problem solver but often we created the problems in the first place. People think they have to be rich, successful, smarter, skinnier etc in order to be happy, accepted, loved . All their senses are focused on the stones to pave their road towards it. They fail to see the flower or the child alongside the road they are building. Or they might see the flower but not on a level that they process the colour, the shape the smell. They might see the child but they don't really listen to what's on their mind or watch with them the butterflies in awe. When we remove the filters by questioning some beliefs in our mind we will be opening up again to love and beauty and receive what we need. To put our trust in this will take a while but it is the key of the door to the enchanted garden.

Inner peace

I would like to catch this decease

Symptoms of Inner Peace By Saskia Davis

Be on the lookout for symptoms of inner peace. The hearts of a great many have already been exposed to inner peace and it is possible that people everywhere could come down with it in epidemic proportions. This could pose a serious threat to what has, up to now, been a fairly stable condition of conflict in the world.
 
Some signs and symptoms of inner peace:

* A tendency to think and act spontaneously rather than on fears based on past
  experiences.

* An unmistakable ability to enjoy each moment.

* A loss of interest in judging other people.

* A loss of interest in judging self.

* A loss of interest in interpreting the actions of others.

* A loss of interest in conflict.

* A loss of the ability to worry. (This is a very serious symptom.)

* Frequent, overwhelming episodes of appreciation.

* Contented feelings of connectedness with others and nature.

* Frequent attacks of smiling.

* An increasing tendency to let things happen rather than make them
   happen.

* An increased susceptibility to the love extended by others as well as the
   uncontrollable urge to extend it.
 
WARNING:
If you have some or all of the above symptoms, please be advised that your condition of inner peace may be so far advanced as to not be curable. If you are exposed to anyone exhibiting any of these symptoms, remain exposed only at your own risk.
 

Teaching

Last week I've assisted at school with teaching Dutch and spent time in a class about entrepreneurship. I love the school environment.

What I find amazing is that some kids automatically pick up on knowledge and advance in a short period of time. Others, no matter how hard you try to motivate them don't make any progress at all. But give them something they are interested in and they fly.

In my kids school the students search for their own strength and find their own ways. Once they found their way, their strength and knowledge appears. Some pick up the guitar the first time and it seems they aready know each other. Some automatically move gracefully with the music and others straight away understand the world of numbers. I think there is a lot of truth in the words of Khalil Gibran which I will give you underneath. Wouldn't it be great if all schools would be explorers of the child's unique abilities and strength. The result would be a community with much more passionate people and these passionate people would lateron become the teachers and coaches of young people who found their passion and strength. There would be special schools which would stay open for life for people who take longer to get there, like me. Education would be a priority for the government and ....................... Yeh I know how my Utopia would look like but here is the beautiful writing:

Than said a Teacher: "Speak to us of teaching." And he said: No man can reveal to you aught but that which already lies half asleep in the dawning of your knowledge. The teacher who walks in the shadow of the temple, among his followers, gives not of his wisdom but rather of his faith and his lovingness. If he is indeed wise he does not bid you enter the house of wisdom, but rather leads you to the treshold of your own mind.

The astronomer may speak to you of his understanding of space, but he cannot give you his understanding.

The musician may sing to you of the rythm which is in all space, but he cannot give you the ear which arrests the thythm nor the voice that echoes it.

And he who versed in the schience of numbers can tell of the regions of weight and measure, but cannot conduct you thither.

For the vision of one man lends not its wings to another man.

And even as each of us stands alone in God's knowledge, so must each of one of you be alone in his knowlegde of God and in his understanding of the earth.

Khalil Gibran

The mirror

Last week I couldn't let go of something and was trying to figure out why? The following gave me the answer. I saw something what I didn't like about myself.

"Others are merely mirrors of you. You cannot love or hate something about another person unless it reflects something you love or hate about yourself." From the 10 lessons of life.

The Mirror

The World Is Your Mirror

The good you find in others, is in you too.

The faults you find in others, are your faults as well.

After all, to recognize something you must know it.

The possibilities you see in others, are possible for you as well.

The beauty you see around you, is your beauty.

The world around you is a reflection, a mirror showing you the person you are.

To change your world, you must change yourself.

To blame and complain will only make matters worse.

Whatever you care about, is your responsibility.

What you see in others, shows you yourself.

See the best in others, and you will be your best.

Give to others, and you give to yourself.

Appreciate beauty, and you will be beautiful.

Admire creativity, and you will be creative.

Love, and you will be loved.

Seek to understand, and you will be understood.

Listen, and your voice will be heard.

Teach, and you will learn.

-- Unknown Author

The ripple effect

Each time a person stands for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he or she sends forth a tiny ripple of hope. And crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance. Few are willing to embrace the disapproval of their fellows, the censure of their colleagues, the wrath of their society. Moral courage is a rarer commodity than bravery in battle or great intelligence. Yet it is the one essential vital quality for those who seek to change a world that yields most painfully to change.

Robert F Kennedy

I really believe that we have a great impact on live but we often under estimate that. We often look at higher powers and wait for them to make changes in the lives of people. I often feel powerless when I realise that there are so many families and children in need . To change society how much would it help that enough money would be invested in children and at risk families. This would be much cheaper for the government than wait till these kids get off track and pay for their daily life in prison. But as mother Theresa said "do not wait for leaders, do it alone person to person."

How do I know that I can affect the lives around me? Because somebody affected mine as you can read in this letter. When I work with the children in the children's home I hope that I get the change to affect one of these lives as much as mine got affected. When only one live gets changed this will affect whole future generations. They will pass it on too their children, families and relations.

We have however already an effect on people by focusing on the strength and beauty in the people around us. Telling them can help these people to see that as well and when they can identify with it they will affect many others with it. If we are all able to pass on a smile, encouragement etc. these ripples can become waves and we all become stronger. I actually found a beautiful video about this principal on the Internet. If we all would be aware than we can change the world radically. So have a look at this video and be aware today of the people around you and give them a bit of your love.