So long. Farewell. Amen. 2006...

2006 is fast winding to an end here.

I don't make New Year's Resolutions. They do not work for me really - too prescriptive and my life is anything but that! Life has a habit of turning on the head of pin most days.

I do like to reflect on my past year though and see how far I've come.

2006 saw a bunch of changes for me that have literally changed my entire life and perspective on many things.

January saw my family and I have our first really long holiday in many years. Travelling and going to places we'd never been before in our fair state.

February saw me preparing and undergoing personal surgery. The time off from work and the recovery process led me to rediscover my old loves of reading and writing again.

That process led me to the book "Is your genius at work" by Dick Richards.

Following the exercises in the book led me to the Genius Workshop here on the net.

I named my genius and began this blog which has opened doors for self-discovery, introspection and extraordinary friendship.

Through the Workshop I met, the very clever and multi-talented, Martin Spernau and have since become very good friends with him and his lovely wee family in Germany. I gained a precious new Goddaughter too! His daughter Feline. Wow! :) Isn't the internet fantastic for building relationships between people who might not have otherwise met? One day I shall meet these precious friends of mine in meatspace for sure :) My very limited German is going to significantly improve from now I should think! hehehe

I have received feedback and wonderful encouragement from Alexys Fairfield and EM Sky and Dick Richards himself. This has fed my desire to write.

I've had some stories published online at 365 Tomorrows and I've discovered the delights of photographic and digital art through DeviantART.com

I've also begun working fulltime again and planning, with my husband, to relocate our business into a new premises.

Our son finished Primary School and begins High School next year.

Our daughter has had a string of boyfriends and a hectic teenage social life. It keeps us young.

My organisational skills have taken a beating but I'm a lot less inflexible in my thinking on many things now anyway and can chill out a little more on some of that stuff. I still make a lot of lists but I don't let myself get as caught up in the "Have to's" and "Should's" of my world now.

I've relaxed a lot this year. I've grown enormously too. I've ridden on dragons and encountered coyote magic and its been one helluva ride!

Thankyou to all of you who read this blog. This blog may be very self-centred and introspective at times but I still hope that I say things that make you think sometimes :)

Above all... I thank God for 2006! Awesome year really :)

Addendum: Totally remiss of me to not mention here the wonderful & amazing week I spent with my beloved sister and her family in late June 06. Sorry Quits! *blush* It was the best time and I "fell in love" with my beautiful wee nephews and grieved terribly when you all went back home to Darwin again. All worth it though :) I can't wait to see you all again ASAP (that whole "Prosperous New year" thing HAS to come true for one of us some day huh? ;))

Bonbon Pearl no. 4

Confidence is the memory of past success.

As I get older, I do become more confident within myself. It's as if my life has been a giant preparation ground for some big event in the future. However, I have always loved the quote "Life is not a dress rehearsal" too. So the concept of being in preparation for something ahead would not be so true in that case. We are always "ready" for what life throws at us in the here and now. God never gives us more than He knows we can handle.

Life is. Unless you happen to believe in the reincarnation of the soul into other life forms, then, for those of us who don't... this is the ONE life we have to live for all eternity. A consistent and continual moving forward and an experience rooted in the self growing ever more confident and wise.

Growth in living our daily lives is the result of both mistakes and successes. Growing older can be fraught with all manner of physical and psychological ailments but growing wiser and more confident is gift of inestimable value.

We need both confidence and humility in balance. The memory of past successes helps us to help others succeed too. We've been there done that etc. But we also need to know the memory of our past mistakes to keep us humble and not too assured of ourselves. Confidence may be the result of knowing past successes but Humility and the resulting wisdom that springs from that is the result of knowing past failures too. Both are two sides of Life's coin and both are needed for a person to become beautifully whole.

Christmas Bonbon Quote no 3

You can be whatever type of person you choose to be. Your habits, your behaviours, your responses are all your choice.

****

Wishing everyone who might be reading this wee missive from me on occasion, a very happy, blessed and peaceful Christmas.

May your world be filled with Light, Love and Learning always.

The Peace of God that passes all understanding be with you all. :)

Thankyou for reading :)

Bon Bon pearl no. 2

Self-respecting people do no care to peep at their reflections in unexpected mirrors, or to see themselves as others see them.

Oh I sooooo need to heed this one! :)

Pearls in Christmas Bonbons...

I love the Quotes one gets inside on the little piece of paper. Sometimes you just get lame jokes, but occasionally you can get a real gem of wisdom.

I thought I would share any Quote I get for each Christmas Bonbon I open from now until after Christmas Day :)

These Quotes aren't attributed to anyone on the slip of paper so if you happen to know who said these pearls... please let us know :) They deserve to be recognised for the wisdom they've imparted.

So here is the first Christmas Bonbon quote of the day:

Many people realise their hearts desires late in life. Continue learning, never stop striving and keep your curiosity sharp, and you will never become too old to appreciate life.

Where be dragons?

Dick Richards has a poignant and almost difficult post on his blog this week.

Riding on Dragons

I call his post 'difficult' because its taken me four readings of it to really let all that is hidden underneath the words to "click" inside my mind and heart.

Don't let this blogs simplicity or charm fool you. Dick has honed in on a deep issue of our age. To leap from what is known into the world of unknown concepts, ideas and possibilities is now a frightening prospect for Dragons.

And Dragons do exist. They are real people, they look like ordinary men and women. They are not the riders but they are the Dragons themselves. They ARE Idea and Possibility; they are the drivers for positive change, for light and peace, hope and joy. They love to take us to new worlds of thought and new opportunities for discovery.

But Dragons are hard to find these days because they do not tend to advertise their nature. Martin Spernau

And why would they?

Because everything in this world is a market to harvest. A new dollar to be generated. A new Word-of-mouth meme to harness and control so it becomes yet another noisy slot-machine of marketing potential for the fat-cats and entrepreneurs at the top of our Westernised pile!

The Dragons are in hiding! In caves of their own making. They work odd hours and tend toward isolation and secrecy away from prying eyes and greedy souls. If a Dragon is found they are trapped and cornered by Professional Dragon Hunters and made to perform before the clamouring masses as if Life were a mere circus, their beautiful wit and charm and expertise becoming mere fodder for making money for everyone but themselves.

And so they are slain, driven into misery and despair because no one is really listening or caring about who they are or what they can do.

So yes! The Dragons hide away awaiting those who would approach them with respect and honour to ride them again toward new worlds of wonder and delight. Dragons are the hidden leaders, the quiet smiling gentle achievers who ask not for fame or glory but simply to be enjoyed, befriended and understood.

If you know a Dragon in person - you are to expect the unexpected, travel unknown paths often, experience new things, new ideas, new wonders. You cannot think small when you ride on a Dragon. You cannot be too proud nor can you be too humble - you must always be as you are for that is when they love you best.

If you know a Dragon in person, ask if you can ride with them high above the teeming realm of mundane superficiality and the baser human instincts of hatred, lust, greed and envy and become free, with them, to find Joy, Peace, Hope and above all incredible Love.

Make the leap into the unknown and ride a Dragon with a heart receptive to wonder.

It's all part of the process...

(the title for this post is deliberately stolen from one of my favourite Morcheeba tracks :))

The verb part of my Genius name is "Constructing".

I thought I'd spend a bit of time exploring just what it is about my genius that could be called "constructing".

Okay... first a disclaimer: When I say Genius, I am not referring to intellectual prowess. Far from it. Genius in this context is somewhat differerent. Dick Richards delineates Genius from IQ this way:-

Your genius can be thought of in a practical way: as the exceptional power that comes most naturally to you, as the process in which you engage so spontaneously and easily that you do not notice it, and as the business you are in as a person. It can also be thought of in a spiritual way: as the energy of your soul, and as an answer to the question of why you exist among the human community.

You can read more about what Dick says here.

When I chose constructing as the "doing" word of my genius I was very much aware that my "thing" that I do naturally and instinctively is never really just 'There'. I am often in the process of struggle to achieve what I set out to achieve and suffer a lot of frustration along the way when I can't seem to get to where I want to ideally be.

I seem to have to grow into things. I am the type that needs to experience first before instinct and knowledge come naturally. Each step in my lifes journey is a building block being carefully secured in place or shifted to fit better as time goes on. I cannot just "do" my genius of coherence instantly. If I could, I'd have a whole bunch of incredibly close friends instead of just a very small handful.

Time seems to be my ever present burden and brake for my genius to express itself properly. The construction process is a time consuming thing. Buildings, pyramids, art, anything constructed step by plodding step all take vast quantities of time. Time will be what makes or breaks my genius.

I've noticed that I seem to be "growing up" at long last. It's taken me probably close on 33 years to outgrow adolescence. I was always the dreamer, the idealistic romantic. Burdened by too much naivete and too much fear, I've constructed coherence between friends and loved ones through the strategic manipulation of invisible walls and unseen bridges. Now I want to see which of those walls need breaking down, which bridges need repair and which of both need total demolition. It takes time and maturity to even want to know this let alone actually go about the reconstruction of them. :)

And its primarily process that drives me. Construction is a process. A finely balanced set of principles and procedures that eventually lead to a conclusion. There is shift, change, adaptation, manouevering, building, laying of foundations, scaffolding, manipulation, composition, sorting and all manner of subtleties within the process that must occur before you achieve the end result.

My genius is not about end results - its about all the stuff that occurs beforehand. The process is what is important about what I do - not just the final results.

I am MOSTLY constructing... not merely coherence. In fact, most close to me would say that "coherence" is a word that really should not suit me as a person. I rarely make sense to most people it seems :) "Ditzy", "blonde", "A bit thick", - these are the refutes of my entire life and yet I can also wow people with tidbits of knowledge and understanding gleaned over the years.

Ones genius isn't rocket science but nor is it easy either. You either know yourself or you don't. Knowing ones Genius name isn't the end of the matter either. What really matters is the process you use to express your Genius in the world. Genius is doing not just being. It's a moving forward with your own unique stagger, wobble and stride to make what you do work the way you were designed to make it work.

I'm sure there are other people in the world who are about 'Coherence' but just how they go about doing that would be entirely different to me. Only Mitch from SE Australia has and does that thing called "Constructing Coherence". It's what I do and is so uniquely instinctive to me I can barely figure out just how I do it let alone why.

I have learned much about myself this past year, delving into this concept of Genius as described by Dick. This is also a construction process; a process of discovery, of understanding my own identity. The knowledge I gain about my strengths and weaknesses on this journey, will I hope, help me to understand others better.

Hey... I got tagged!

Yep...

Lots of people are chasing each other on the net these days and springing virtual thumps on arms or touching fingertips on backs and yelling "You're IT"

Virtual Tag is bringing the child out in all of us harking back to the days of our youth - no matter which generation - and reminding us of those times when bills and "work" were childs play and nothing in all the world mattered except your best friend and the teddy you cuddled at night in bed (in my case - it was a mouse rather than a teddy :))

We called Tag "Chasey" in my corner of Australia. It was fast, fun, furious and sometimes taken deathly seriously by the boys in my tiny primary school.

So anyway Dick Richards tagged little old me on his blog and I feel rather honoured really, to have been singled out for the attention.

So Five things you may not know about me huh?

Hmmmm

1) I can only see out of one eye. My left eye has gone blind from Glaucoma. No more to add on that one. I cope well. I can drive and have great mobility although I can't dance as gracefully as I used to be able to - my balance and kinesthetic intelligence have taken a beating along with losing some sight it seems.

2) I adore sci-fi television. I rarely watch a lot of TV these days but I make the effort to record the very late night offerings of whatever Sci-Fi series is going. I grew up in a home surrounded by a lot of sci-fi literature. But Doctor Who was my first great love on the TV - My sister and I will never forget cowering behind the couch terrified, as the Yeti Men stalked the Doctor and his female sidekick :).

I am currently collecting the entire DVD/Magazine series of StarTrek: The Next Generation *grin* - how geeky can you get really but I love it

3) I won a trophy for Weightlifting once. I was training for rowing actually, but got really interested in the process of strength building and went on to adopt weight-lifting as a sport for about 18 months when I was in my early 20's. In a small local competition I managed to clean and jerk my body weight (then a very lean 62kg) which earned me a trophy :) It's the ONLY trophy I've ever won for any sport anywhere.

4) I have always wanted to be a movie Director. Film has long held a strong fascination for me. My grand dream has always been to write and direct a big budget movie based on a classic sci-fi novel called "Out of the Silence" By Earle Cox (I am sooo excited to see it finally up on Project Gutenberg Australia! Whooo hooo! - If you can, make some time to read this story, it's incredible)

5) I have been a glider pilot and have flown solo. My dad is a non-commercial pilot and has flown gliders for close on 45 years (maybe more - I'll have to ask him). As a wee girl I used to go with him on Saturdays and Sundays to the local flying club and spend the day there playing in and around the aircraft.

I went solo 2nd September 1979 and earned my "C Badge" classification in gliding :). One of my most memorable flying expeditions was with a friend from the club and we sailed up the side of a thundercloud to around 15,000 + ft and then dived down straight toward a double circular set of rainbows in the the sky before the storm front. I'll never forget that experience.

Unfortunately, other interests got in the way and I never kept up with my flying which I regret now.

Okay... now I'm off to chase down Martin Spernau, EM Sky and Alexys Fairfield... they're getting TAGGED *grin*