Listen with curiosity. Speak with honesty. Act with integrity. The greatest problem with communication is we don’t listen to understand. We listen to reply. When we listen with curiosity, we don’t listen with the intent to reply. We listen for what’s behind the words. ~ Roy T. Bennett Hey, Lovelies. Maybe I’ll speak to […]
Shhhh….
The world is quiet here. Lemony Snicket Hey, Lovelies. Let’s not disturb the magic of this quiet morning. Let’s sit together in companionable silence, and let our sense of each other and our friendship, and our deep listening to the quiet around us fill us up with peace. Love, and an expansive feeling of connection, […]
It’s Okay To Hermit
Progress isn’t achieved by preachers or guardians of morality, but by madmen, hermits, heretics, dreamers, rebels and sceptics. Stephen Fry Hey, Lovelies. I was talking with my Inner Circle yesterday in one of our Open Office Webinars – it’s a session where we all jump online and I answer questions about spirituality, intuition and navigating […]
What I did after Retreat
“How much better is silence; the coffee cup, the table. How much better to sit by myself like the solitary sea-bird that opens its wings on the stake. Let me sit here for ever with bare things, this coffee cup, this knife, this fork, things in themselves, myself being myself.” ~ Virginia Woolf It was a […]
The Gift of a Quiet House, Away from People
“Have you ever heard the wonderful silence just before the dawn? Or the quiet and calm just as a storm ends? Or perhaps you know the silence when you haven’t the answer to a question you’ve been asked, or the hush of a country road at night, or the expectant pause of a room full […]
The Importance of Solitude
“Our language has wisely sensed these two sides of man’s being alone. It has created the word “loneliness” to express the pain of being alone. And it has created the word “solitude” to express the glory of being alone.” ~ Paul Tillich, The Eternal Now We’re on Retreat right now, walking a path of meditation and […]
Travelling With Bukowski
“One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words.” ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe I always travel with a book. Sometimes several. But this trip I decided to load e-books on my kindle, as […]
A Gentle Morning
“Have you ever heard the wonderful silence just before the dawn? Or the quiet and calm just as a storm ends? Or perhaps you know the silence when you haven’t the answer to a question you’ve been asked, or the hush of a country road at night, or the expectant pause of a room full […]
Morning Rituals To Greet The Day
“The greatest thing in the world is to know how to belong to oneself.” ~ Michel de Montaigne, The Complete Essays It’s cold this morning. Four am meditation finished, the house still silent with sleep. Last night’s fire rendered down to ash. I push the back door of our little farmhouse open and am […]
Sleepy Morning
“I like it when it rains hard. It sounds like white noise everywhere, which is like silence but not empty.” ~ Mark Haddon, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time I woke to the sound of rain. It was soft at first, a comforting patter of drops on the old iron roof. […]
Unplugging for the Super Moon
“Sometimes I feel like if you just watch things, just sit still and let the world exist in front of you – sometimes I swear that just for a second time freezes and the world pauses in its tilt. Just for a second. And if you somehow found a way to live in that second, […]
Gentle Rain
“The only noise now was the rain, pattering softly with the magnificent indifference of nature for the tangled passions of humans.” ~ Sherwood Smith I’ve lain awake for much of the night, listening first to a thunderstorm, and later, to the gentle sound of rain falling. I can hear the gurgle of rain in the gutters, […]
View From My Windows
“Set wide the window. Let me drink the day.” ~ Edith Wharton, Artemis to Actaeon and Other Verses My windows are both real and figurative. The picture above is the view from my bedroom window. This view changes hour by hour, and affords me much pleasure. In the early mornings the sky is grey, before becoming […]
A little Solitude is good for the Soul
“Language… has created the word “loneliness” to express the pain of being alone. And it has created the word “solitude” to express the glory of being alone.” ~ Paul Johannes Tillich, The Eternal Now If you’re energetically sensitive like me, then you might already understand the importance of time on your own. Interacting with others draws […]
An Afternoon Walk On My Farm
“When I woke up I was changed. The land had recognised me again.” ~ George Djilaynga, Neil Murray, Warumpi Band I’m home again, at my little farm at Possum Creek. Yesterday I went for a walk in the late afternoon sunshine. The wind was rustling the branches, the giant wedgetail eagle flew above me, fat […]
Red Dust and Wattle
There is a wide arc of blue sky above me. Beneath my feet the ground is stones and dust and tufts of brittle grass. The air is filled with birdsong and the thresh and shuffle of wind in the treetops. Apart from that there is nothing. Just sunshine and space and peace. Kangaroos sleeping under […]