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Circles of Separation: Odin of the Great Valley

Circles of Separation: Part 3 begins.

Part 3 – Borderfirma Mountains – The Inner Circle
Odin of the Great Valley

Chapter 62: Tree House

img_9038The boys lay on the wooden floor of the tree house and gazed up into the moving leaves. It was a grand tree house; three stories, with a flag at the top, and lights that came on every evening. It was fit for a king which is just as well because the boys were royal. Malik was fourteen. He looked over the nearby palace roofs into the Borderfirma Mountains. This land belonged to his mother and the surrounding Borderfirma lands belonged to her siblings. The Borderfirma lands, together, made up the Inner Circle. Continue reading “Circles of Separation: Odin of the Great Valley”

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Breath of God

This is the beginning of my book, The Love of Devotion. It describes two pivotal spiritual experiences at ages 22 and 26, covering three different countries – Australia, America, and England.

Chapter 1: Solutions are Spiritual
Breath of God

The fruits of serious spiritual devotion have an unmistakable flavour, sometimes, even more so in retrospect. It had been a challenging few years. I was twenty-six. I had been progressing through an existential crisis, an involuntary falling apart of life’s meaning. I felt a deep human aloneness and with all my praying I failed to feel the love of God in any way which could help my state of being. Other than the care and protection of my two little children and my spiritual studies, I had no interest in anything. Everything seemed trite to me; meaningless and often painfully intolerable. I had lost faith in everything human to give solace to my soul. It was not intentional. It is just what happened over the space of a few years. I was at the bottom of the valley – all things lost but nothing yet gained. Continue reading “Breath of God”

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Not As It Seems

How can we see things as they really are? Thought is very powerful and the underlying intention is everything.

How can we see things as they really are? It’s important, don’t you think? For example, honesty can seem like meanness when, really, it may be love. Niceness can seem loving when, really, it may not be at all. People can wish us dead and still be polite to us and people can, sometimes, seem harsh when, in fact, they would give their life for us. The behaviour of a person does not necessarily correspond with their underlying intention. If we can’t see people clearly, we can end up trusting people and situations that are not in our best interest and dismissing people and situations which would make our life better and happier. It is not just in regards little things but if we understand the far reaching and powerful effect of thought, we realise that it can even be a life and death matter. Thought is very powerful and the underlying intention is everything. Continue reading “Not As It Seems”

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How To Become Real

“Once you are Real you can’t become unreal again.” The Velveteen Rabbit.

A2983C5E-72E5-4613-AE50-D7F5D44D9D2COn a recent drive to Daylesford, I went into the old bookshop with its rows and rows of books in peculiar little off-shoot rooms. Although the books looked like they were undoubtedly loved long-time by their master and shop owner, I wasn’t so sure that they were going anywhere else in a great hurry. I picked up a used copy of a children’s book which was published almost one hundred years ago. It is a moving, ageless story for children and their adult readers alike. I read it to my children but they may not remember. 28270363-B6DD-4E5B-83CC-EE2ECF1031C7Books like this one go into the back recesses of our consciousness and help form our collective consciousness. It is called The Velveteen Rabbit (or How Toys Become Real). I have recorded it in this video for anyone who ever wonders if becoming Real hurts and if it is worth it.

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Circles of Separation: In the Air

Peace, he thought, how unassuming you are. Yet, you are king of all the feelings.

Chapter 59: Forest Royalty

Amira looked out her kitchen window to the magnificent magnolia tree in her front garden. It had been the usher of spring with its graceful, pink petals since it was planted by Amira’s parents forty years ago. Back then, most of the houses in Waldmeer had lovely, loved gardens with flowering trees and shrubs and colourful bulbs and annuals. As so many of the houses in Waldmeer were now holiday houses, the original gardens were disappearing. Amira’s father, Lenny, would talk about the new gardens with contempt. “That’s not a real garden,” he would say as he pointed disparagingly to the en masse, clinical plantings and stretches of cement, tiles, and stones. “They are soulless places for the heartless.” He took it as personally offensive when the gardens of his long-time friends had been sold, along with their accompanying houses, and “improved and updated” for the new occupants with busy lives in the city. He would mumble to himself and go out into his own garden until he felt better. Each year, when the magnolia blossomed with fragrant majesty, he said, “You go through a dull winter when there’s nothin’ much flowering. It all looks pretty ordinary and then the magnolia comes out and you know that spring is in the air. It’s the kinda thing that makes a fella glad to be alive.” Continue reading “Circles of Separation: In the Air”

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Circles of Separation: Protection

“At a time when Ide was totally dependent on the goodwill and skill of other people, she felt acutely grateful to everyone, everywhere, who does their best by giving what they have to give, no matter what issues they are facing in their own lives.”

Chapter 57: Sweet Ruthlessness

As Amira walked out of Handspun, she bumped into Gabriel and some of the Boys of Darnall who were taking a short-cut through the Arcade. The Boys included some women, two of whom were walking with the group today. No one in that group was, generally, friendly towards Amira, although, some were more polite than others. Gabriel, however, stopped to talk to Amira. Despite their problems, he did love Amira. Even if he didn’t, he was not a rude person. As Gabriel was talking, Amira could feel the eyes of one of the women boring into her back. It was Bridgette. She didn’t live in Darnall. She was an artist, like Gabriel, and lived in the city. Continue reading “Circles of Separation: Protection”

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Circles of Separation: Handspun

“We’re our own worst enemy,” said Wolfgang.  “We’re, also, our own best friend.”

Chapter 54: Best Friend

Tonight was the last Dementia Unit dance class. Wolfgang was in fine form and had been talking nonstop. “I like making a noise,” he joked. “I should have been a politician. Do you know that I come here every morning to have breakfast with my Madeline?”

“No,” said Gabriel. “That’s devoted.” Continue reading “Circles of Separation: Handspun”