Cecil's 90th birthday picnic in the park

Cecil is a special friend of Chris.  It was a lovely celebration.

Andreas's belated 50 th and Octoberfest Party.

As usual, the kids had a ball!

North Sydney pool

I've started doing lengths at North Sydney pool every day.   What a beautiful, soul enriching place it is.

Wild wins and sweltering temperatures

Wild winds swept Sydney.  Here is the harbour looking more turbulent than I've seen it in a long time.

The combination of high winds and 36 degree temperature brought many fires to Sydney.  The clouds over the city here are clouds of smoke!!  Hundred of houses were burnt in Hawkesbury and the Blue Mountains.

Chatswood to Eastwood Park (18 km)

A fun evening with Roger in The Rocks

Roger was in town. Always so great to catch up with him.

Pathways to Intimacy Workshop

Hi Denise 

 I just wanted to thank you for an absolutely beautiful workshop on Sunday. I enjoyed every single minute of it and found it transformational in so many ways. Your facilitation was just perfect - you created such a warm and safe space to open up fully. The deep sharing you did about your own life also touched me to the core and helped give me the courage to share more deeply about myself in the exercises and start doing more of it in my own life. Thank you so much for the blessing you are, the work you do and for making such a difference to the lives of those you touch.

 Thank you again from the heart,
 Graeme


 Hi Abe 

 I just wanted to thank you again for the Pathways to Intimacy workshop on Sunday. It was a truly beautiful experience, full of revelations and discoveries and insights that are precious beyond words. I can't express how glad I am that I went. Thank you for all the immense hard work you did in making it possible and bringing such a blessing into the lives of all us who came. Thank you also for doing your Meet Up groups, for without that, it may have passed me by. Thank you for your calm, loving presence and the personal sharing that you do when we meet - you always inspire me to share more of myself with others.

 Thanks for all this, Abe. You're a great blessing.
 Graeme

Discomfort (2013)

Pain:  3.4

Jervis Bay long weekend

This weekend I went camping in the Jervis Bay nature reserve.  It was beautiful with pristine beaches and a beautiful botanical gardens.  The highlight was a swim in the emerald green ocean, bracing but wonderfully invigorating.  

Botanical Gardens

  

Point Perpendicular

On the way home we visited this beautiful old lighthouse, nestled on some very impressive cliffs.  Absolutely beautiful.

Email to Kerri (Oct 2013)

Hi there Kerri

Would you believe it, it's me, a blast from your past!! I was thinking about you the other day, as I often do, and I just wanted to send a quick email to say hi.

I'm so sorry about my silence over the past few years, since Ally and I split up.  I've always been so very fond of you, and what happened between me and Ally never changed that in the slightest. But after our break up, I went inwards and shut off from reaching out to anybody.  And then weeks turned to months to years as so often happens.

Anyway, I just wanted to say hi and that I often think of you and always enjoy getting news about your life from Ally. I've also got some news from my mum - thanks so much for sending her the emails that you have. I heard from Ally the other day that you're working on the coca cola account - that sure is an iconic brand to have on your CV!!  It's great that you're working in North Sydney too.  Aren't we lucky, not having to cross the bridge every day!

Life on my side is good. I'm doing work I enjoy with plenty of free time to go hiking and camping on weekends.  I have a passion for tennis and play every week. I meditate every day and it's made such a huge difference to my anxiety and blessed me in many ways. I still enjoy photography.  Mack is also still the great love of my life - he's as gorgeous as ever and hardly slowed down at all, still full of energy and always got a drop of pee for every bush on his walks. Thank you so much for bring Mack into my life like you did - I just can't imagine how much poorer life would have been without him!

There's no need to send a long reply to my email, I know how busy things are. But know that I wish you all good things including happiness, joy, laughter and fun.

Love,
Graeme

Jo looking great

David Hawkins and the map of consciousness.

Nic introduced me to David Hawkins and the map of consciousness. It just immediately intuitively felt right and I then went on to read most of his books.

Some favourite quotes

• That which you resist stays.
• Power serves others, whereas force is self-serving.
• Why give the ego more power by resisting and opposing it?
• The more we give love, the greater our capacity to do so.
• I just realized that I don’t have to have an opinion about everything–what a relief!\
• Everybody is like a magnet. You attract to yourself reflections of that which you are. 
• The radiance of God is the light of awareness that reveals the divinity of all that exists. 
• Great leaps in levels of consciousness are always preceded by surrender of the illusion that “I know.”
• Over the ages, it’s been noted that merely observing the mind tends to increase one’s level of consciousness.
• Energy fields are so powerful that they dominate our perception. They are really portals out of which we see the world. 
• It is rewarding to give up the attachment to the glamour of ‘being spiritual’, ‘holy’, or ‘special’. Truth has no trappings.
• The alignment of one’s goals and values with high-energy attractors is more closely associated with genius than anything else.
• We change the world not by what we say or do but as a consequence of what we have become. Thus, every spiritual aspirant serves the world.
• To become more conscious is the greatest gift anyone can give to the world; moreover, in a ripple effect, the gift comes back to its source.
• Love is misunderstood to be an emotion; actually, it is a state of awareness, a way of being in the world, a way of seeing oneself and others.
• Every act, thought, and choice adds to a permanent mosaic; our decisions ripple through the universe of consciousness to affect the lives of all.
• All judgment reveals itself to be self-judgment in the end, and when this is understood a larger comprehension of the nature of life takes its place.
• Power is associated with that which supports life, and force is associated with that which exploits life for the gain of an individual or an organization.
• What the people in the world actually want is the recognition of who they really are on the highest level, to see that the same Self radiates forth within everyone.
• The body is like a companion, a friendly pet that follows one around…One can continue to own the body and be responsible for it without identifying with it as one’s identity.
• The true destiny of man is to realize the truth of the divinity of one’s source and creator which is ever present within that which has been created and is the creator—the Self.
• Force has an insatiable appetite, it constantly consumes. Power, in contrast, energizes, gives forth, supplies, and supports. Power gives life and energy—force takes these away.
• It’s best to heed the traditional wisdom that tells us not to fear evil or fight it, but merely avoid it; yet in order to do so, one first has to have the capacity to recognize it.
• Non-attachment is not the same as indifference, withdrawal or detachment…. In contrast, non-attachment allows full participation in life without trying to control outcomes.  David Hawkins
• There is absolutely nothing in ordinary human experience to compare with the joy of the presence of the Love of God. No sacrifice is too great nor effort too much in order to realize that Presence.
• The ego has to be first accepted as though it is a reality in order to be dealt with before it can be transcended. At the higher levels, the ego is seen to be an illusion, without any innate reality.
• Identification solely with the content of consciousness accounts for the experience of self as limited. In contrast, to identify with consciousness itself is to know that one’s actual self is unlimited.
• Just one instant in a very high state can completely change a person’s orientation to life, as well as his goals and values. It can be said that the individual who was is no more, and a new person is born out of the experience. 
• The energy of a loving thought is enormously more powerful than that of a negative one. Therefore, the traditional solutions of love and prayer have a sound scientific basis; man has within his own essence the power of his own salvation.
• Freedom to evolve requires a world which affords the greatest opportunity to ascend or descend the spiritual ladder. Viewed from that perspective, this is an ideal world and its society is constituted by a wide range of experiential options.
• Spiritual evolution occurs as the result of removing obstacles and not actually acquiring anything new. Devotion enables surrender of the mind’s vanities and cherished illusions so that it progressively becomes more free and more open to the light of Truth.
• The inspiration to evolve spiritually is already a manifestation of the presence of God within, and it’s certainly indicative of good karma. Just to want to know truth, to evolve, to improve oneself, to become a better person, to fulfill one’s potential – those are all inspirations. And the person doesn’t make them up; they just come to them. It’s like an innate desire to fulfill your potential.
• David Hawkins quotes on Wisdom Trove     
• "Power verse Force" quotes on Wisdom Trove