True Blue Skip

In relative terms, our country is pre embryonic. As history has shown, any country can be invaded and populated by scores of other cultures and civilizations before the die is cast and a people are born. Then the cycle continues, the cast is broken, and another breed, another choice is offered.

We are lucky enough, all of us, to be witness to the planting of the seeds. Australia could be leading the way with ONE people, ONE race, and a GLOBAL culture. We are in the throes of a great opportunity to learn from each and every culture, an Australian way of life, while being guided and advised by the latest original Australians. Our Indigenous peoples, as scattered and fractured and depleted as they are magnificent, were themselves once refugees in this country, and now face the eternal choice made by generations of every culture and country watching the dissemination of their way of life with sadness and anger.

They have much to teach us. Embracing the varying racial influences in this country is a great opportunity. It’s just another ripple in the never-ending tide. We’re all a part of the same flow. Perhaps letting go of the past in order to embrace the future is a great piece of advice for each of us in every experience?

I’m a true blue skip with the atypical standard Australian ancestry story. The whispers in my bones echo from poverty stricken Irish convicts and outrageously wealthy English gentry – American Naval adventurers and Welsh servants – Celtic Princes and Yorkshire musicians. Illiterate and illegitimate. Educated and well mannered. Passionate and Desperate. Oversexed and Underfinanced. Overindulgent and Underdeveloped. Fueled with fires from each of their stories – one way or the other. One generation later, however, the blood of my children flows from a far more exotic Middle Eastern and European pool.

After a storm, the colors of a rainbow glow in pure brilliance. The children of the rainbow serpent, the melting pot of Australian immigrants, my Hibernian background and my Mediterranean offspring – we are all true blue skips.

As each day passes, another spice is added to the pot. We all make a shift and extend space to include another shade, another smell, and another taste. Other races in other places and times have experienced war and suffering, as will we. History not only repeats, it rhymes! Our survival and prosperity are linked to each other. This is a journey that all Australians take together. We all have something to lose and something to gain as life continues to be a series of profits and losses – positive and negative.

My true blue skip children – Our true blue skip children are just as much an answer as an unrelenting constant question.

Feeding a Global Economy

If we are fit, thin, eating well, exercising, happy, productive, low blood pressure, normal blood sugar, meet all benchmarks of health, follow all guidelines for bringing up children, behavior, have balanced relationships, wide social networks, wealthy bank accounts and profitable businesses and attend a designated spiritual brand regularly and follow all rules - then how do you make any money off us? How do you sell us your product?
How do you market your service?

You need us fearful, fat, depressed, fucked up, alone, questioning, stupid, naughty, and feeling bad. This is the perfect profile of a consumer. So whenever you feel so fucked up that you feel like you are a big fat failure - just remember that in that state you are feeding a global economy.

What if all states of being were simply part of the normal pattern of being human?

What if benchmarks were only set to establish commercial opportunity? 

What if there was actually never anything wrong with us? 

What if feeling dis ease was just as normal as feeling ease with both healthy parts of the rainbow of human experiences?

There are days when we are the meal!

State of our Resource

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands at times of comfort and convenience but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.

We see nature as a resource. It is. It is also a living organism just like our bodies. We too are a resource. Whatever we catalogue as resource will demonstrate where we ourselves are also resource. We label things as addictions when they are merely actions designed to effect a balance. Like a storm or a fire or a flood.

If addiction to comfort and convenience were real then why do we also have challenge and dis ease? The theory is flawed. When we label it is like cutting off your middle finger and examining it and making up a story about why and what without seeing where it fits onto a whole body and it is in that body that it has a purpose.

A label of cancer or diabetes doesn't consider the whole organism and the purpose of those symptoms of dis ease in ALL the systems.

It would be hard to find an enterprise, service or product that doesn't feed our addiction to comfort and convenience. Is it actually an addiction?

Isn't it actually a natural state?

Bully for Me

It is easy to judge a bully.But what if we ask these questions of ourselves:Where do we bully?Why do we bully?How does it feel to bully?How does it feel to be bullied? Well most of us remember that one from school however more and more people are feeling it in the workplace as adults.

Someone once told me that there were many benefits for people who had been bullied. Now before you get your knickers tied in a twist pull yourself out of the emotion and observe.

Leaders grow as a result.
Followers grow.

Fear is the greatest motivator as it kicks us into the survival adrenaline.Where is it beneficial to live in survival mode?If children feel weak this assists them to find their source of strength.Bullies need conspirators who align for safety.

You know where you see this most? BUSINESS......

Hang out in a customer service environment and witness a parade of bullies. Those who are ready for a fight regardless of the situation can bully the person at the end of the telephone who hasn't caused the problem but who has to stand in a torrent of abuse from a customer who has decided that no matter what they are being ripped off.

Talk to someone who works in a Service Department for a White Goods store.

Bullying is a complex intricate system incredible in it's ability to achieve it's goals and visions. Clear in its mission, the campaign of a bully is driven by a story so powerful they have attributed their power source to an external source. The bullying victim holds that power. 

People pay a fortune to Personal and Business Development Seminars around the globe to learn a strategy in how to get what they want.

Bullies at school are already conscious of this strategy and using it to get what they want from a variety of sources.

If only we could use their power for good instead of evil. :-)

One Side at a time

It's like whenever I make a statement I am only ever really showing one side at a time. To answer completely is almost schizophrenic as there are so many voices with opinions on every single subject.

I change structure and it is like moving furniture around and it doesn't stop the longing. My question is - what the hell is the longing and will it ever go away? Do you feel like that too? My heart is constantly wanting to be in three different places and a big part of me believes that if I lived in Italy and New York I would STILL long for something else. 

Are we designed to long always ? Is it possible to ever feel complete and at ease and in the right place? OR is there something wrong with me? Am I the only person who feels so incomplete and so wistful about the things that she wants but never feels like she can go after them otherwise so many people will be hurt and maybe just maybe I shouldn't trust myself?

So many programs tantalize us with slogans of following our hearts however do they actually work or are they designed for income as all business is and we put our trust and faith consistently in an external source in order to find our answers?

And as I write this all the voices with other opinions scream at me that what I just wrote isn't the whole story.

Ok everyone - only one side of me can feel fucked up at a time - take your turn! :-)

Yet I Am

I don't have time to feel that right now so I'm putting it away somewhere safe well secured and out of mind while I focus on what's more important - my business, my family, whatever drama is unfolding around me. As long as I feel needed. As long as I feel as if I have a purpose, I am ok. Putting out bush fires is second nature and the hit I get instead of caffeine or sugar.

I have fueled my body for the short term lurching from crisis to crisis justifying that there is no time for my body as this other drama holds far more value. So nutrition and core strength exercise consistently building to value my body longevity has been easily dismissed in the "I'm strong I can put myself last again this thing deserves more attention than me. I am more powerful than most people. My super powers keep me alive so I can keep others alive. (with the dangerous unsaid sub text always hanging in the air mocking all around) My body has kept me alive. The masculine hero on the white horse rescuing me from fire flood disaster time and time again. Shifting physical molecular breakdown centimeter by centimeter year by year through all the physical systems each sharing the burden of my defiance until one by one they stop no longer able to find that sliver of movement to carry just one more thing.

My whole being is heavy in burden. I carry the weight of the world and I display my feat for all the world to marvel and admire. "I don't need assistance like everyone else does. I'm not a victim. I'm self sustaining. I'm not a burden on my family community or society."

Yet I am.

Everything I have judged about others viewed as weaker than I am - starting and ending with my mother - I am the same.

My expression is secreted under layers of control holding my shame and pain deep within so no one sees just how much sacrifice I make.

Efficient Body

Pain is an indication of stored up unused suppressed energy.

Emotions that have been unsaid and unexpressed.

Shame that has been hidden.

Blame that has been pushed away to be stored and used later.

Emotions not felt are like toxins. 

My body is very effective at keeping them away from my organs. 

It senses the danger to the whole system so it stores them in fat.

THERE HAS TO BE MORE

There has to be more. 

Baubles shiny to distract are no longer enough. 
I am different OR am I on another frequency and they are as well in another form? 
Retail doesn't fill the void - jewelery, 5 star resorts, high fashion clothing, dinners in the right restaurants - nothing fills this void.
What is this void? 
Does everyone have it? 
What is its purpose? 

It is an echo that is drowning every other sound out..

What is my purpose? 
Why am I here? 
What is My gift to the world?

I see beauty in the most mundane of things. I wish to transform shame because it isn't even real. 

It's a manufactured response for no practical purpose other than for onselling  a solution.

Shed Old Skins

The best way to survive is to mirror nature and shed old skins, let leaves fall each autumn and appreciative the cycles of destruction and creation.

 Austerity is the new wealth.
 This is the new black.
 Going through this in the first wave prepares you earlier. Early adapters prosper and suffer first so the rest can follow.
Work from home.
Encourage staff in their own entrepreneurial visions and support them as they work as part of your collective.
Employ technology to support growth.
Use the resources that you already have around you.

Tighten your belt. Lean and Mean. Lean and Keen. Use Solar Power, Water Tanks, Backyard Vegie Gardens and Community Bulk Buys– there is so much we can do to save what we used to spend so unconsciously.

Looking after your own health. Focus inwards seeking the master and guru within.

Get creative and find new ways outside of the present money system.

Live as part of a village. Get cracking with community buying and allocating together in fair exchange. Build relationships as wealth.

Sugar is the hit you will crave when you tighten your belts. Prepare for that.
Make your own food.
Play your own music.
Create your own events.

 The real wealth is in Community where we share what we have outside of the limitations of government currency. This wealth is our leverage.

Looking back over the past 25 years of being in this business, it is clear that we have always worked and lived in Austerity. We have a value in every currency - creations, connections, resources, influence, stories, stock, flow and work.

To survive you need to learn to live on less. We will STILL spend money however it is in the choices of HOW we spend that determines what we truly value. Dis-ease happens when we subordinate our value for those of another. This happens so very easily. The one with the most certainty usually drives the car forward stuffed full of passengers eager to have the comfort of a driver willing to take them somewhere.

So do this exercise.
See where you honor your values and see where you do not.
See where you spend in every single currency.
See where you save. Saving is the new spending.
 Where is saving the same as spending?
 How does saving contribute to the economy?

 One thing at a time.
Add one austerity measure at a time until it becomes habit and the new benchmark then add another.

Look at it as an addition not a loss.

Fog

When fog descends I often wonder about its timing. 

Is there something we do not need to see in that moment? 

Does the fog give  us a timely breather just for a couple of seconds to re centre and refocus. 

If we saw everything as it truly is all the time then perhaps we might miss something. :)

I am that child

Today I drove into a car park during a storm and the water came up fast and flooded up to the top of the car. My very pregnant daughter was in the passenger seat. I froze for a moment in disbelief and she needed to shout at me to get me to take action.

It was unexpected and I was unprepared yet we escaped unharmed.

Now one car written off later I feel incredible shock in my head and body at the thought of putting her in danger that way. All the horror of what COULD have happened have flooded my head and I am swimming in unbelievable anguish as a result. 

I wondered if my own parents ever felt this same way with me and the whole notion of parental love is overwhelming me as a result,

Upon reflection I now understand how much mum and dad actually love me despite decades of me believing otherwise. It is quite possible that they have such a profound overwhelming love for me that it stresses them out and they cannot cope with the emotion as it manifests symptoms in their bodies. So they maintain a level of detachment to keep it all under control. After today I totally get that.

This would also therefore mean that there is a fantasy and nightmare - an imbalance in the perception - mine and theirs.

I have taken on their mental patterning. I have a recurring terrifying nightmare that my children will be harmed because I have a fantasy that I can control everything that happens to them. 

News flash Nicki - you am no longer responsible for them. They are adults responsible for their own decisions. I would love to spend time with my grandchildren however it is not my responsibility to raise them. This incredible job belongs with the parents alone. Pregnancy and Labour - also not my domain. I can be there if I can, to honour my children it is necessary for me to give them space as my parents have given me. But I'm not responsible. Say it again until you feel it - not responsible.

F&&Dk that's so hard to say and believe.

Geez Thank you Mum and Dad for loving me this way. It is exactly what I needed. I wouldn't be who I am today without you loving me in this fashion. I am not a victim of poor parenting. I  am part of a family team energy dynamic. I have all that I need. 

My big personal belief is that it takes a village to raise a child. I am that child. 

This experience brings me greater awareness of life conditions and how quickly they may change. I appreciate how my brave daughter handles herself in a crisis. She will make an excellent mother. Her son will be born into a loving safe family. She does not need my help. She knows how much I love her. She knows she is loved. This pattern of replaying and reliving nightmares shows an analytic mind searching for the key and the access sequence. This is how my mind works at times and this pattern is powerful in business and life. 

This experience is done. I no longer need to relive it. Over! Man I appreciate my vulnerability and see how life is shifting me into that space now. Some benefits of not being in control is to be in the moment. 100%. In the moment outside of fear I have all the tools I need to survive and thrive. If not someone around me will. Help will always be available. The car will be replaced. Our parking needs have diminished. Our costs will decrease. Our lives as a team will now grow more succinct. We live with less bringing us more time, resource, space and energy. 

There is nothing wrong with me feeling such shock. My questioning and even my victim hood brought exceptional value to an ever greater awareness. At every moment I have been everything. At every given moment I am both threatened and protected. I am safe right now. 

My body is the field of expression. 

Body what do you need to say to me? 

Let go. 

Stop worrying and trying so hard. 

Enjoy this moment as each one arrives. 

Live your life. 

Open yourself to the sun and the light in every day. 

Appreciate the faith you have in your parenting that has set up each of your children to live full lives. 

They are fine. 

They have the tools they need. 

Let go. 

All will be fine.

Perception Adjustment

I had a large family event yesterday. It's a regular occurrence. I've nominated myself as the person responsible for changing the culture in my family and keeping everyone together so I try to run a large event at least four times a year. There is a rhythm to the proceedings now after many years of trying to find my beat. Yesterday my father and stepmother attended. This is a rarity. He is a very grumpy angry man whose company is incredibly challenging to endure. However I unashamedly dangled the carrot of his very pregnant grand daughter to lure him here. I find my relentless commitment to obtaining his seemingly unattainable approval equal parts frustrating, nauseating and impressive. One of my friends yesterday is a seriously powerful deep tissue thai massage therapist. We call her the Princess of Pain. My grumpy old father who refuses to hug any of us not only allowed her to touch his head but massage various painful points on his face.

It was then I witnessed the miracle. 

He smiled instead of scowled. His face looked lighter and younger. He recounted funny stories from his childhood. He actually laughed - a sound I have not heard for decades. And he shared tales of my own birth with my children in the kindest most loving way I've never heard before. He and my mother divorced when I was 20 after a childhood of drama. Every memory of mine is filled with their war zone antics and it has been their relationship model that has haunted me my whole life. 

So you can imagine my surprise when I hear dear old dad speak of my mother in such loving glowing tones.

So I now question our perception as the divining rod in life. Have I painted a character and subsequent relationship portrait in certain colours based on behaviours ultimately driven by underlying unknown health issues?  Has my fathers demeanour and behaviour been influenced and coloured by an overwhelming long term pattern of survival pain? 

I wonder about how we judge others and we then therefore create these value structures in ourselves accordingly. I question the beliefs that we collect throughout our lives as factual. They can very easily be simply perceptions coloured by judgement - in short only one tiny part of a big picture.

I do not expect life or anyone in my life to be perfect. Of course to contrast I'm constantly working it out as I go along, I am the ultimate work in progress haha! :) I do believe however that we can have a relationship with pretty much anyone with shared values as long as the foundation to the structure of ourselves is sound. I think that I realise more and more though that my foundation in my twenties was based on the actions of a girl who had no idea what she wanted or who she was, who, in order to survive, simply made it up as she went along without truly considering the underlying structure driving the creation of her life. I was consistent in my efforts to prove that I was a better person than my parents and therefore was willing to tolerate more shit than you could imagine as a result of this misguided driving force in my life. 

So it's not about the person I perceive I'm in these relationships with. It's about my perception of the foundation of the relationship and the probability of being able to change the entire structure while still connected to that same person.

Thanks Dad for giving me much to consider x

The Tale of the Pissing Lemmings

There are several layers of story in this particular tale and the media beat up was closer to a tampon ad than actual truth. For so very many reasons. public comment was not an option for us at the time. Suffice to say several neighbours in our street experienced similar horrors and police and ambulance were very busy that night so we were not the sole victims of some random incident. We were merely the more convenient poster children.

The next day was spent in lockdown trying to catch up on sleep after being in the ER for hours, desperately attempting to recover, continuing to work to crushing looming festival deadlines in the face of a chaotic and disturbing media circus. Our son dealt with reporters from 7am as they stalked and threatened and broke into our home and office with stealth and determination. That experience alone is a greater more compelling tale. And yes they continue to stalk us even now sniffing a story to leverage for whatever their latest agenda needs.

After another visit to the ER later that day for a suspected brain bleed was conducted as if we were the perpetrators trying to escape the prying eyes of the media. My husband took a serious beating and is still recovering. An unworldly Herculean strength took hold of me and somehow I was able to hold four men off with my broom stick saving him from being kicked in the head and suffering far more serious injuries.

It's a crazy funny vision - me being the ultimate witch using my broom stick for good instead of evil. I can laugh at it uncomfortably now weeks later however at the time I was bused myself with terror.

But when I consider these events closely I cannot find any good humour and simply shake my head in horror gleaning the real tragedy here. Mob mentality ruled and amid jeers of "kick her she's a blues supporter" to "It's Tony Abbots fault that we lost - just kill them" , hundreds of people witnessed us being attacked and none came to help. I've never been so ashamed of the human race.

Many of you know that I have crafted the public legend of the Pissing Lemmings as one lighter strategy to mitigate a long term ongoing dangerous situation that we residents have been managing on our own despite repeated requests for assistance from authorities. There are many elderly neighbours in our street who are terrified and no longer feel safe in their own homes. And why? No invading foreign army. No alien invasion. No state of emergency. Just mobs of Humans just like you and me who are so disconnected from nature that they behave like actual animals.

Cancel every public event. Place 100 police on every street corner. Close every hotel and bar. Instigate prohibition on alcohol. It would make no difference. This is not about alcohol or league fans or lack of funding for police resource but watch how this story will be manipulated for all those agendas. This experience demonstrates our unfortunate current social culture. I witness atrocities on social media daily. Ordinary everyday people expressing violence in the same manner. Instead of physically urinating on the home of another and exploding into violence when asked to stop they are mentally and emotionally defecating and exploding on the virtual space of others.  

The dark moon on Wednesday night 28 April 2014 was a powerful one. A time when there is no solar reflection of the moon and in this dark phase allegedly posing an energetic influence not unlike a seed laying dormant under the snow just waiting to burst forth in the spring melt. Ironically I was scheduled to attend a Dark Moon circle at Palm Beach that night however due to a relentless festival workload I had to remain at home and work late.

I feel quite literally woken up. I feel as if the seed laying dormant has bloomed into the tallest strongest oak tree that no one can possibly cut down. 

Those animals masquerading as humans have families, jobs, lives and are loved by their parents, partners and children. They are the face of US when we lose our connection to the light that connects us to each other. So many things in our current culture quest to divide us instead of connect. This sense of entitlement is seeping through our society on every level. When we focus on our own needs without even a thought for another, we become our own version of the pissing lemming. When I telephone the Brisbane City Council and complain about being fined for parking in my own front yard and lose my shit at the poor man taking the call who later tells me that he gets death threats just for doing his job then in that moment I am that same pissing lemming. My indignation about what I believe I'm entitled to disconnects me from reason and I unleash a mouthful of well articulated degradation and I contribute to the stress experienced by this employee simply following the process and doing his job. Who knows if my words won't be the straw that gives him a heart attack one day?

This same sense of entitlement causes people I would normally consider sane and intelligent into raving political commentators.

How did we get to this place where our behaviour is so disrespectful of the humanity of each other?

After the game, we neighbours took our positions as usual, to ensure the safety of residents walking back to their homes through the marauding pissing lemmings. Our hose was destroyed by the tradesman building our fence that morning. Something told me to hold a broom and just sweep the driveway until the lemmings left the area.

That broom saved my husbands life.

The thing about a garden

The thing about a garden is multi dimensional and more often than not  about something totally foreign to traditional gardening. My grandparents were farmers and then in retirement gardeners. We stayed with them for a couple of years when I was a little girl. Each morning my Poppie would take me out in the back garden and would teach me the names of all the vegetables and herbs that he had planted and together we would water weed and harvest. The garden lay snugly under al large macadamia tree and was surrounded by a fence hanging with flowers and berries. In the afternoons my Grandma would take me through her garden and teach me the names of she flowers and shrubs, MIllie was all about beauty and Roy was all about function. 

Grandma has a tale relating to the people in her life to tell with each plant she introduced me to and Poppie regaled me with the general history of each plant. Each growing entity held a different meaning to each of my grandparents. It wasn't a garden it was a history lesson and a photo album and a story book of fairy tales and mythologies.

Now sitting in the Sound Garden 30 seconds away from my office I see profit and loss, marketing campaigns, economic structure, edifices of civilisation, human resource program's and market cycles. 

Without a constant strong connection to nature, it is all too easy to get caught up in the day to day ebb and flow of business. All it takes is five minutes to water and weed and harvest and I reconnect myself back to my big picture plan. I remember the cycles. I recall my vision. I reintegrate my goals and I recollect my courage and faith in myself to keep moving forward towards them. 

Imagine if every business had a garden - even just a couple of pot plants - to reconnect their teams back into the nature of what they are of there on the first place.

Anger

Yesterday we were jolted out of our busy ness by a loud violent exchange on the street just outside our office. A group of school kids were fighting. One of us stepped in and pulled them apart as the teachers run up to intervene. Whatever tensions were building inside, between or around these kids were expressed and given the opportunity to be released. Heated exchanges, threatening abusive words and violent physical punches created the classroom lesson for the day - for our business team, the neighbours and both the schools at the bottom of the street.

We all feel anger and we all have a need to express our rage. This is our nature. What strategies can we put in place to facilitate this expression?

This is less about the kids and more about all of us. This is feedback for a world in transition in a cycle of create and destroy.

Law suits, community groups, political lobbyists can easily leverage this experience to capitalise on a social issue. Through the ages at no time has this not been expressed or experienced. It is our nature.

Better out than in - that's what my Grandma always said. Get it out. Feel it. Say it. Let it out. Be listened to without judgement criticism or ridicule. Appreciate the expression form and teach our children how to be effective resource managers with their own shit so they can utilise it in their lives without shame. Lopsided perspectives where there is a victim a perpetrator and a hero room the basis of our heroes journey mythology and is the key to our function as consumers. 

If we teach our kids how to process their own nature imagine - if they could learn to use their power for good instead of evil :) - woe imagine what the could achieve.

I'm not sure I remember correctly?

Have you ever noticed that sometimes questions about shared memory or history may be answered with “I’m not sure if I remember correctly.”? Ponder this. Is it possible that when someone declares that their memory has faded when asked to clarify details of the past, chances are that the original story they told yesterday or 20 years ago was fabricated and constructed for a specific purpose? Like a Broadway show, it was created and produced to inspire a certain emotional response in a targeted audience. We all do this. Ever watched children fight in the backyard and then recall the “event” to their mother? Ever facilitated staff in the “He said She said” game? Ever watched the six o’clock news? 

Dr John F Demartini says “Memory and imagination is a lie.” Harsh and confronting perhaps, however John is not alone in his assessment of these functional mental tools of humanity. Napoleon, a master of the twist and sell, volunteered much about the nature of his own campaigns when he declared. “History is a myth that men agree to believe.”

In Maslow’s “Safety” zone, when we perceive pain in an experience, we subsequently slap a label of shame, guilt or blame on the story and its characters. The selling of a skewed “story” to a particular audience becomes a necessary survival strategy.

I’ve recently been asking my parents to shed light on information they shared with me as a child and am noticing a distinct “loss of memory” pattern in both of them when I press for specifics. The endlessly inquisitive serious minded Capricorn child had obsessively catalogued stories as her own means of survival repeating and retelling as primitive tribes pass down and preserve mythology. I was the child patiently going through the family photo albums researching investigating questioning and interviewing grandparents and family collating notating and collecting the family stories. As a young adult I joined genealogical societies and conducted family history research hunting and gathering seeds and fruits to preserve the family story like sweet jam in large glass jars each containing characters, plots, twists and turns of each episodic fantastic tale – my hi-story.

So imagine my surprise when I finally find the courage to face my parents and ask the tough questions about whats been fermenting in my glass jars only to discover that perhaps the original mythology sold to me as a three year old was about as real as the latest Harry Potter movie and probably just as expensive to produce! 

Did my parents all of a sudden lose their memory or was mi- story (or my-stery) – far more important for me to hold onto in my sweet sticky jars of memories?

How many of us have based our life beliefs on the tales we have accumulated from our childhood experience, and thus constructed a reality in accordance with these stories, crafted our own mythology about what is “good” or “bad” and established benchmarks to measure experience accordingly? What happens when we determine that these fables were engineered with an agenda in mind by the author of the story? What then of the certainty we have safely underpinning the structure of our own reality?

Voltaire declared that “History consists of a series of accumulated imaginative inventions.”
So let’s see just how imaginative we really are and test his assertion. Try this exercise. Declare your rules for life. Dig deep into the well of memory and list your benchmarks for relationships, finances, business and work, fitness and health, beauty, good and bad, family and friendships, influence, power, right and wrong.

Once you make this list, note the corresponding story at the foundation of each rule.
Note the patterns in your own childhood classification of each memory in accordance with your perceptions of reality at the time.

How does that look now? How does that feel? It’s an interesting exercise isn’t it? Oscar Wilde however needs the final word and believe me when I tell you that he is absolutely correct in his identification of the power of our memory. “Any fool can make history but it takes a genius to write it.” 

Getting What You Want

As Published in Inner Self Publication Edition 23 January 2011


For most of us, asking for what we want is the hardest thing that we can ever do. How often do we say: “I wish I had more money.” “I wish I had more time.” “I wish I had more love.” yet without making any real changes to the present structures of our lives. In New York recently I was fascinated by the increased number of beggars.  Anytime day or night, on the subway, in restaurants, at the Port Authority and at theatre entrances, people had no hesitation about asking for money in a variety of creative ways.  Some sang, some danced, some offered directions and many simply presented a binding obligation to feed them.

One late night, while walking home alone along 8^th avenue, one beggar grabbed my arm and asked me for money. He was imposing, taller and seemingly stronger than me, and with no one else around, I felt like I was in no position to ignore him.  But instead of allowing fear to reach into my pocket, I looked him squarely in the eye as if he was one of my clients and I asked him what he intended to do with the money. He replied that he would spend it on food. So I said “Then what?” His face twisted in annoyance and refused to answer so I defiantly repeated my question. “When the money is gone and the food is gone, then what?” Finally he muttered:  “I’m going to ask for more money.” So I asked again: “Then what?” His confused gaze asked:”Why do you care?” To which I responded:” Well if you want me to invest in your brand I want to know what I get out of it? You only eat once with the money I give you. Where’s the satisfaction for me? How much do I need to give you in order for you to eat for one week?”

“Um Twenty Bucks?”

“So in that one week, you now have the time to do something else – what will you do?”

“I will ask for more money.”

“What for?”

“Booze”

 So I asked him: “How much do I need to give you for one week’s worth?”

“Um Fifty Bucks?”

“Congratulations now you have $70. What will you do with that one week now your food and alcohol is paid for?

This man was very agitated now. “Why do you want to know?” I replied “If I’m giving you money and one week, I want to know what your plan is.”

He let go of my arm and stepped back away from me and said “I will ask for more money.”

With that I stepped closer grabbing HIS arm and looked him straight in the eye. “What you are doing right now is something that corporations and governments value highly. They need someone to relentlessly ask people for money. It takes exceptional skill to do this. Yet when I give you one week’s supply of food and alcohol, you continue to ask for money. You maintain the same high level of drive and enterprise. That level of determination, courage and persistence is regarded as one of extreme value to any corporation.”

Tears rolled down his face. “I’m just hungry”.

In essence, this down and out beggar on the streets of Manhattan was a finely tuned motivated focused sales manager in survival mode. His exceptional talent was crafted from a big challenge – he was hungry. He acknowledged his own need, made a public declaration, found the courage, taken action and invested his time in the pursuit of the fulfillment of this need.

When I shared my appreciation of the value of his expertise, he began to sob. “People don’t like me asking for money” So I asked him where he in turn failed to appreciate those same people. Did he value where they too acknowledged a need, made a public declaration, found the courage, took action and invested their time in order to survive?

The street hardened face that so frightened me late at night on the streets of Manhattan began to soften and lighten as he considered how the stressed, overwhelmed and harried suits of New York were exactly the same as him, hungry and in survival mode. And as I held his arm on this cold autumn night, I witnessed the extraordinary power of humanity to be able to dive into the depths of despair daily to find and apply courage, strength, determination and persistence in the face of guaranteed judgement.

So ask yourself, where do you acknowledge a need, make a public declaration, find the courage, take action and invest your time to get what you want? What is your plan? How do you value your time and skills?

To ask for what we want is merely the first step.

When we get what we want, it is our value of the time afforded us in the return of our request and the continued management of our needs that is our next important step.

Column Name	What’s Your Story?
Article Name	Asking For What You Want
Author	Nichola Burton
Date	8 December 2010
Words	833
Topic	Value Personal Development in Business

True Blue Skip

In relative terms, our country is pre embryonic. As history has shown, any country can be invaded and populated by scores of other cultures and civilizations before the die is cast and a people are born. Then the cycle continues, the cast is broken, and another breed, another choice is offered.


We are lucky enough, all of us, to be witness to the planting of the seeds. Australia could be leading the way with ONE people, ONE race, and a GLOBAL culture. We are in the throes of a great opportunity to learn from each and every culture, an Australian way of life, while being guided and advised by the latest original Australians. Our Indigenous peoples, as scattered and fractured and depleted as they are magnificent, were themselves once refugees in this country, and now face the eternal choice made by generations of every culture and country watching the dissemination of their way of life with sadness and anger.

Cracked Pots

A water bearer in India had two large pots, each hung on the end of a pole which he carried across his neck. One of the pots was perfectly made and never leaked. The other pot had a crack in it and by the time the water bearer reached his master’s house it had leaked much of it’s water and was only half full. 


For a full two years this went on daily, with the bearer delivering only one and a half pots full of water to his master’s house. Of course, the perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments. But the poor cracked pot was ashamed of its own imperfection, and miserable that it was able to accomplish only half of what it had been made to do. 

I Got The Power

I am a Control Freak - Need To Be In Control 101 - thats my life study program. I'm good at it too - I can bullshit myself into thinking that I have control at every given moment. Danging on the end of a pendulum, I can also completely lose it and swing the other way and only see myself falling - falling out of control - no power - nothing to hold onto - I'm falllliiiinnnnggggg.......

So it's just another week for me isn't it. The struggle between the polarities of IN CONTROL and OUT OF CONTROL. The Geminian glasses seeing POWERFUL and POWERLESS.