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

Camping trip and hiking in Southern Highlands

I celebrated my 43rd birthday by going on a camping weekend to The Southern Highlands.  Juni, a lovely, friendly girl from Indonesia kept me company on the drive.  The camp site was situated on a beautiful, tranquil river in the midst of nature, 45 km's away from civilisation.  We went on two hikes and on Sunday, visited a nearby tulip festival to enjoy a riot of colour.  A great weekend.

Hiking

Camping

 

Tulip festival

Birthday cake

Event highlights (2013)

Creating

• Wisdom Trove
• My Compass
• Reflections

Photography

• Exhibitions (Press, Antarctica, Wildlife)
• Photography trip to Hawkesbury
• Sculptures by Sea
• Presentation to camera club
• Zombie walk

Meet Up

• Meet up walks at ocean (Manly, Watson's Bay, Botany Bay)
• Hawkesbury hikes
• Jervis Bay weekend
• Southern Highlands weekend

Spiritual

• Intimacy Group (Abe)
• Eckhart at Jilly's
• Geraldine
• Buddhist group (incl anxiety workshop)
• Nic's Group
• Pathways to Intimacy

Dani

• Dubbo & Mudgee
• Hunter Valley
• Port Stephens paddling race
• Restaurants with (Spanish, Thai, Nepal, Radio Cairo, Spanish)
• Student Art at National Gallery
• Anniversary 
• Clothes and DVD shopping 
• Dragon Boat Racing 
• Paddling on harbour and trying Honu
• Sailing 

Social

• Tennis with Brendan & Frank
• Drinks and swimming with Helen
• Dinners with Roger, Andreas

Spiritual Moments (2013)

Epiphany

• Spiritual epiphany under tree. My purpose is to be a calm, loving, open space for the Consciousness I Am to flow into the world.
• Nothing real can be threatened

Release

• Spiritual releases and wonder at being alive 
• Crying deeply to beautiful music

Being

• Power of meditation (yawn, stretch, cry) to blits agitation
• Lie on floor and Be
• Daily mindful walking
• Music ( i-tunes lite, spiritual music, Spotify)

Peace

• Equanimity and peace of mind and presence during my Xmas trip
• Deep stillness on some walks

Love

• Love experiences so strong I wouldn't exchange for anything (won lottery)
• Deep spiritual wonder, LOVE, crying, release
• Love for God (car in Kiribili & Hazelbank)
• Wishing Dani well
• Compassion (press exhibit, homeless man, Carl, Chris's guy)

Release

• A tsunami of grief released to music
• Ability to feel and cry, especially to music and on walks.
• Power of music to make me feel (sad violin)

Wonder

• Wonder at night in Waverton
• Wonder of frog chorus
• Wonder at the Bush Turkey on walk
• Crying in the rain with the crickets
• Wonder on way up Brennan Park steps

Peace

• The peace of being (having yawned, stretched, cried)
• Driving when the mind is still (Blue Mountains, Newcastle)
• Deep peace in May (Hawkesbury camera outing etc.)
• By river in camp site (Southern Highlands)
• Mindful walks around Waverton

When you're a truck driver, you know you're having a bad day when ...

Hiding under the mattress

From Sculptures by The Sea 2013

Midweek City Hike

Mystical experience: Boundless love

 "It felt as if the whole universe was pulsating with limitless love. It felt as if I was dissolving into this love and becoming one with the universe. It felt as if the world had become a wonderland. It felt like I’d been given the most amazing surprise. And yet it also felt as if I’d remembered something I’d always secretly known."  Tim Freke

During 2013 and 2014, I was regularly transported into an experience of boundless, sublime love. If often happened while I was mindfully listening to beautiful music. Suddenly I would find myself suffused with love. Love for God. Love for Life. Love for the world. Love for everyone and everything.  Sometimes the love would feel so vast that I feared I wouldn't be able to contain it and my heart would burst into a million pieces. Other times it would feel infinitely peaceful yet unfathomably deep.  Usually it would be accompanied by an almost orgasmic emotional release and beautiful crying.  

I had never experienced love life this before and after a life time of numbing my emotions, it felt like the most priceless thing I had ever experienced.  It felt like I had won the lottery.  The love literally transformed me.  It was indescribably healing.  It felt like the presence of God.  It opened my eyes to the exquisite benevolence of the universe and the fact that underneath it all, All is Well.  It created the intense desire in me to surrender to Life and do Life's will. 

Cremorne Point walk with Neri

Little Wobby to Woy Woy Walk

A 13 km hike with great water views.  We got there by ferry after a lovely coffee at the Hawkesbury Marina.  We got lost half way through on the ridge and had to double back but it didn't spoil the hike.

This jelly fish was pretty amazing with its well marked cross.