Family Pictures

Family pictures are great to keep.  They conjure up many memories.  They make us remember of who we were, who we are, and think about who or what we will be.  As the children grow and mature and take on families of their own, it is good to look back and from there maybe have a clue of what might happen to the branching families.  Memories, especially good ones, bring us to a kind of focus.  We get tied up with a lot of worries now and when we ponder on those old days, o how they seemed so much relaxed, so much filled with joy, it brings us immediately a connection to past.  The past becomes real now and more memories then come up and they complete a bigger picture for us.  Somehow in all these memories lies some kind of plan, some order, some mission even you might say, some purpose.  We might sometimes lose sense of this purpose when we come across problems, and yes we have seen many of that in the family.  But we know that it is not finished and that we should go on and move forward and just do the best that we can.  Do the best that you can... with whatever you have... now.  Those words ring in my ears.  When faced with trials, it is good to remember that behind all these there is a purpose and I have been commissioned by God to co-create with him and shape my life towards a purposeful life.  If you feel that you have lost that purpose, then maybe you are not doing enough.  Maybe the centre of your life is just you and the whole universe spins around you and that the sun will not rise until you wake up in the morning or whenever you decide to wake up.  When we lose that sense of purpose, it feels that our daily living is just like Groundhog Day and the days repeat themselves with no variation... just routine... go to work... eat lunch... go home etc etc.  Even our pastimes might get tangled in the same trap if we do them regularly.  But here's the thing - this life is not about you.  Your purpose in life is not about you.  Your successes are really just stepping stones so you can do even greater things - not just for yourself.  The picture of a big family reminds of the bigness of our purpose and that it is not just about me.  There's a whole bunch of children, a couple to guide them, until they decide they have enough and can take care of their own.  Then they go and build their own families.  I am just proud of the way my family has progressed in its own way.  Not perfectly but still I am proud of it.  There have been blunders and mishaps along the way and who hasn't had them?  But the thing is we have looked at the struggles in the face and made up our minds that we are not giving up because there is love to shared, there is beauty to be enjoyed, there is goodness in everyone's heart despite a contrary appearance.  I like the family picture with the different expressions on the faces. It tells me of the different expressions we will all have for our lives but somehow we are still connected and somehow we are really doing this thing together in some kind of co-operative, co-creative manner.  We are not really apart. We are family.  Problems come, problems go.  Challenges appear out of nowhere. Or we might actually manifest those challenges ourselves because we know of the inner strength and conviction that we can face them head on.  Always look on the positive side of things, no matter what happens.  All things work for the good for those who love God.  Trust in that greater power that is within us.  Do not be fooled by the whispers of desperation and cries of weakness which amplify as you feed them by agreeing to them.  Think of the picture of the family.  We are really all in this together.  We are all pieces of this big puzzle called life.

Love's Not Easy

When I talk of love, I talk about relationships. It is never easy and that is for the following BMW (build, maintain, win) reasons.


1. Love is something you BUILD.


Funny how when you look back and how you fell in love with your special someone, how you thought that was the best thing that ever happened to you. This is of course reinforced by intimate moments with one another. Not necessarily sex but plain intimacy when you learn more about each other and how you want to spend more and more time with one another. You thought that this was it, that you have found your soul mate, and that there's no need to do anything further. However over time you would learn that there many things you have not learned about each other. Once you enter into a deeper relationship, more things are revealed like onion layers being peeled one at a time. This process could take a while for some people. And so the relationship goes deeper, like foundations are being overhauled each time and more reinforcements are being added to make the foundations stronger. Your life together is like a building. You build and build and as the years pass the building gets bigger and stronger. You never stop building. You take the positive things that the two of you can bring together and lay them as bricks one of top of another. Your understanding of one another reinforces the foundations. Taking positive things for your building is important. What does not work has to be thrown out and replaced. Here is where there is the process of constant revelation and reconciliation to make the building stronger. Over the year as you see this relationship progress, both of you become more confident even when there are difficulties for there is the synergy of working together with amplified results. If you are going to picture your relationship now as a building, how do you see the foundations: Are they sturdy or crumbling? How do you see the building? Growing or stagnating? Build on the positive things that are happening to you. Learn from your mistakes. It is always give and take. It is always the two of you involved. Love is not looking at each other but looking together in the same direction - so you can live a happy life together.


2. Love is something you MAINTAIN.


Building is one thing. Maintaining is another. What you have already built on, you have to look for possible improvements or prevention of nasty things that may happen. This involves a litte bit of foresight, intuition even, having a feel for what might be happening. You may be content with the relationship you think is going on swimmingly and you haven't looked at the danger signs. These signs you can feel from the conversations or lack thereof, from the way you communicate with one another, if there is anything strained or stressed or muted, these are danger signs and they must be addressed as part of the maintenance and they cannot be ignored. One thing though, you have to talk about it and be honest about it. There is no use just keeping quiet to yourself and hope that the right thing will happen. Your relationship is a two way relationship. It's not just about you and the other person. It's about the two of you and if there are children involved then they are also brought into the equation. So talking to one another is very important. Don't assume that the other person understands you. Don't assume that the other person should be able to predict and should know. Some people don't get it - for various reasons which we will not get into here. The thing is to bring into focus what should be resolved and have a common ground that will benefit not just you or your partner but something that will benefit both of you. Remember it is not just about you. Insisting this is selfish. If you like to be the champion all the time, then you will surely lose. You both have to be the champions. So don't just be quiet. Don't just write notes. Bring the matter to a hearing between the two of you. You can even involve the extended family so they have your support. Do this lovingly conscious that this should be of benefit to both of you and that this is a process on maintaining your relationship.


3. Love is something you WIN.


Winning is positive. Everybody wants to win. Winning gives you confidence to go on further winning other things or other challenges in life. You have had already some success with money or with your work but you also have to be a winner in this love relationship. You both should be winners, not losers. You both need to get that confidence to go further and win more and lead a better life together - as winners. This is not like a lottery. When you love one another, make one another confident, encourage one another all the time. When good things happen - celebrate. And celebrate together as winners. For example, it is not just you who got promoted. Your partner is in there too. You both win. Otherwise it will feel like there's a competition between the two of you. If the other person earns more, then he/she appears to the winner. It is not that way. Your successes are as a couple and not just one person's,. Your failures are also shared but look at your failures are lessons that teach you something so that you do things better the next time, so that you will not repeat the same mistakes, which some people do by the way, like the dog returning to its vomit. Celebrate successes - whether big or small. They become opportunities for you to tell yourselves that you're on the right track and that you are looking forward to more successes. If one is successful in some respect and decide that they are better off alone so they can be successful in their own way is on the way to perdition. They might not realize it now but that is where they are going. Winning, in the context of a relationship, is always for both of you. So go win together. Give each other the prize.

Sacred Space

This morning I woke around 7am and decided that my walk has been long overdue. The last time I walked for exercise was the other week with Mel. We walked down to the Meadowbank Wharf and came back out to the corner of Domino's Pizza at Station St and Victoria Rd.

Today I did something similar. At 7:40am I grappled my 3.5 kilo weights and took the stairs and walked out to West Parade. I crossed Victoria Rd and at the lights I walked along Maxim St which was in the direction of the Church of St Michaels where Mel and I were married just over a month ago. Along Maxim I went down a slope into Bank St and from there I followed a pretty much straight line to Meadowbank Park near the wharf.

The cool air tingled my senses. It was a pleasant morning for almost anything. I slowly moved to the edge of the water and did my stretches and energy gathering using some old Korean techniques from Chun Do Sun Bup, gathering with my hands from as high as I could reach and down to the Dan Tian just above the groin. Then I would gather bending down and scooping energy as low as I could and bring my hands again to the Dan Tian. Then I just did a free-form grasping of energy from around me.

Energy flows all around us. Energy connects us to the world, to the universe and to each other. We ourselves are Energy. Then I sat down on a slab of rock where Mel and I have sat down for quick appreciations of the view in front of us, the humble river, the overhanging railway bridge towards the left, the quiet view of the Olympic grounds on the right, the protruding cranes over Rhodes, the unhurried passing ferries gliding by creating gentle waves that lap on the banks of Parramatta River.

Sitting down, I closed my eyes and commenced a meditation someone taught me on the weekend. Starting from the root chakra, I visualised the colour red disappearing and I replaced it with a fresh colour red, vibrant and spinning. Then I proceeded to the sacral chakra above groin and did the same thing with the colour orange. Then on the solar plexus the colour yellow. Then on the heart the colour green. Then on the throat the colour blue. Then on the forehead the colour indigo. Then on the crown the colour violet.

That was the extent of the meditation, a conscious wordless prayer of clearing and centering. At that time and place that was my sacred space, my connection with myself and the Divine. It is important for us to be grounded and prepared for the day. We are not just flesh and bone but also mind and spirit swimming in the sea of energy pretty much the same way that fish swim in water. The fish however never asks, "What and where is the water? " The fish just swims. We as humans however have the capacity to ask, "What and where is the energy? " and contemplate on the power of the Divine that is around us. But really what happens most of the time is that we forget this vast sea of energy that God himself has created for us as as a kind of boundless Eden.

After a few minutes of silence, oblivious to the morning joggers and bike riders, I opened my eyes to a team of eager rowers who have stopped at the distance in front of me. I lifted my heaviness up from the sitting rock and ambled on to Shepherd's Bay then all the way up Bowden St. At the junction with Victoria Rd I turned left to walk on home trudging the beaten footpaths. The familiar sight of many cars passing by, the faint smell of the petrol fumes, and the friendly sound of footsteps of people passing by filled my quickened senses. I thank God that I made my walk today.

Intention is creation

Intention is creation. Nothing can be created without intention. No event will occur without intention. Intention can be individual, when one person produces it. It can also be collective, when more than one person produce it. The greater the collective intention, the greater the manifestation. When we write our intention, the energy to create the intent is captured in the letters or images. When we voice out our intention, the energy is triggered by your words, but they have to match the true intention. You cannot fool intention. You may say that you want to be healed which is a positive energy. If you however carry a lot of negative baggage, the healing does not happen. It gets bogged down and may even sink as in a quicksand. Some healing modalities use symbols. What is important is not the symbols but the intention behind the symbols. That is why you have to understand what the symbols stand for so that they can be effective. You can actually make up your own symbols, those that appeal to your heart. Meditate on your symbols or draw them on paper and look. Or you can draw them on the air and send the symbols as energy coming from you. Positive energies always pierce through to manifest. Negative energies that you send out will return to you in greater force. So don't send out negative energies. When God began his creation work, he started with the intention, and followed it with his words: Let there be light. The intention preceded the pronouncement which confirmed the intention.