GUY MICHAEL KNIGHT

THE PASSING OF GUY

This week saw the passing of a former love of mine. The man I followed to the Tweed. He was in his mid 50s. Shedding some tears.

CANON PIXMA MP 210 PRINTER

Promised myself and the world around me that I would not be so DISAPPOINTED in 2009 and seem to be Ranting and RAVING more than is even MY norm. Best get it all out in the first month or so and perhaps I will be done with the grumbling for the rest of the year. Following the impressive and kindly Centrelink Experience of yesterday I sat down to print out fotos for my Hostess of Xmas Day 2008 on my new Canon PIXMA 210 (having finally trashed the HPs in despair). Now the CANON is defunct, subject of many internet forums(a) and sending ERROR 5 and no longer printing anything for me. Great Heavens ! I am over it !I had been recommending the Canon Bigtime and now it looks like another over the cliff job. The 21st Century and me are not doing so well. No matter. The breezes are blowing, the day is hot, as I like it, and yesterday I saw a grown and ‘hard’ man touched to the heart and the edge of tears by a Chocolate Cake from his friends and a Happy Birthday Song. In addition, I have the promise of a cake from a young pastry chef. Therein lies the essential beauty of any century.

CENTRELINK COMES GOOD

A brief but heartfelt acknowledgement of intelligent, courteous and really decent treatment by a delightful Centrelink Officer at Murwillumbah. Hope now lives in this home. Sanity, Security and Salvation. Thank you indeed.

AUSSIE DAY EVE AT ILNAM

CHECK IZZY FOREAL’S SITE

http://izzyforeal.wordpress.com/

 

LiveJournal Tags: CAROOL,BILAMBIL,AUSTRALIA DAY 2009,ILNAM ESTATE WINERY,LIVE MUSIC,COMMUNITY,BRING A PLATE,IZZY FOREAL,MARK QUINN,JOHNNY CARR,ROB BROWN,DIGGER REVEL,JOHNNY SUTTON,1960S MUSIC

STRANGE IDEAS OF AUSTRALIAN

Went last night to a Community Gathering up at Ilnam Winery in Carool. THAT seemed to me truly Australian. We brought our own plate of food. Local Musos played. The mightiest and the most humble mingled at random. One issue that came up was the Aussie Flags on cars etc. Do so, if you wish, fly the Flag from wherever you please. I had been feeling an edge of Vietnam Era fear and malaise at even THINKING that Aussie day had become a little odd. Well, the evening was a delight. The Mayor and the Malingerers mingled with ease. Noone appeared to be falling down drunk and towards the end of the night I was introduced to a gentleman who looked respectable and ‘Australian’ who said – ” What is it with all these flags on cars ? It seems a very UN-AUSTRALIAN thing to do! ” Ah ! Thought I. There’s the essence of the unease I have been feeling. “If we are to fly any flag it should be the Eureka or somesuch. Surely”. Added my Australian Man.
I was brought up by a medal wearing Australian 2/3 Pioneer and he would have considered it most un-Australian to fly the flag as we drove along in our automobiles. He, along with his mates, refused to stir from their tents to go one row along in the Western Desert to cheer Winston Churchill on his way in WWII. And when the WINDSOR coffin was recommended to him for my mother’s cremation he clearly said ‘She won’t be getting buried in anything with THAT family’s name on it.”
I am happily at ease with the gatherings and picnics and etc, even with the Flag being raised in strange and random places. And I am just as happy with the rebels and old hippies who ‘bring a plate’, listen to local Musos, are up dancing with the little kids, cross several generations in one room, share stories, skills and memories and study Colonial History and Literature in immaculate detail and look a little less like the American Inaugral cavalcade as one man described his trip from the Sunshine Coast back down to NSW.
My own feet have never actually left these shores. narrow minded and shallow perhaps but most certainly AUSTRALIAN.I have never even breathed the air of another land. Pity but definitely AUSSIE.

WISER AND BROADER MINDS

ALBERT SCHWEITZER The fundamental rights of [humanity] are, first: the right of habitation; second, the right to move freely; third, the right to the soil and subsoil, and to the use of it; fourth, the right of freedom of labor and of exchange; fifth, the right to justice; sixth, the right to live within a natural national organization; and seventh, the right to education.

ALBERT SCHWEITZER Civilization can only revive when there shall come into being in a number of individuals a new tone of mind, independent of the prevalent one among the crowds, and in opposition to it — a tone of mind which will gradually win influence over the collective one, and in the end determine its character. Only an ethical movement can rescue us from barbarism, and the ethical comes into existence only in individuals.

ANATOLE FRANCE The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread.

http://www.wisdomquotes.com/cat_justice.html Take a look at this page for more concepts of SOCIAL JUSTICE including DOM HELDER CAMARA When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist.

And one Roman Catholic Priest. I am a lapsed childhood Methodist but I like this man. http://www.ronrolheiser.com/ Inside of everything that’s best in us, we hear an invitation to join him there: To live in pain rather than lower our standards, to risk being alone rather than compromise who we really are, and to be lonely, mighty lonely even, rather than to sell ourselves short.

Any definition of a culture of peace must address the problem of achieving justice for communities and individuals who do not have the means to compete or cope without structured assistance and compassionate help. Mahnaz Afkhami http://www.cultureofpeace.org/quotes/justice-quotes.htm

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter. MARTIN LUTHER KING.

I have friends who do considerable good in the world, and I don’t seem able to do that but I just read this; “Whatever you do may seem insignificant, but it is important that you do it.” — Mohandas Gandhi Important perhaps for the single mother who on becoming PARTNERED found SHE was not eligible for a training course, only her new male partner was. Lucky he was a nice bloke. Take a look at the amount of personal power that a young woman loses when partnering as a single parent and at the pressures it puts on all members of the newly forming family.

“We don’t have to agree on everything but we should be known for disagreeing well and respectfully.” – Shane Claiborne I wish I did that better. More moderately and without bursting into tears.

Daniel Berrigan, SJ “… we are that small and assailed and powerless group of people who are nonviolent in principle and who are willing to suffer for our beliefs in the hope of creating something very different for those who will follow us. It is we who feel compelled to ask, along with, let’s say, Bonhoeffer or Socrates or Jesus, how man is to live as a human being and how his communities are to form and to proliferate as instruments of human change and of human justice; and it is we who struggle to do more than pose the questions—but rather, live as though the questions were all-important, even though they cannot be immediately answered.” —from “A Dialogue With Radical Priest Daniel Berrigan” in Time(March 22, 1971

“It is better to be generous than just. It is sometimes better to sympathize instead of trying to understand.” ~ Pierre Lecompte de Nouy

Now I’m going back to my SILVER THREADS AND GOLDEN NEEDLES Site of quotes and proverbs with images. The theme will be continued there.

CENTRELINK PONDERINGS

http://lynnesheritage.wordpress.com/

The preceding post graphically illustrates some of the historical aspects of my Centrelink Tremors. Include standing before a magistrate at the age of 54 or so – atrembling amongst other ‘felons’ and being fingerprinted by an apologetic constable and my attitudinal problem with authority makes more sense – ” to me “.  Sutherland Shire Crofters driven from their miniature farms, Irish Convicts, Glaswegian thieves, London counterfeiters. They’re all in there plus more. Most likely, James Bell DID attempt to rob the Oyster Bar. Most likely, Hannah Hutchings DID hide the figured poplin under her skirts. Sentenced to death she was for that one. I only received a one year good behaviour bond for my ‘overpayments by Centrelink’ and am repaying it at a never ending $30 per fortnight from my pension of $530 per f.  John Curtis probably did make his own coins and was sent to Portsmouth for his cruise to NSW. I don’t know what Ann Moran or Johannah Ready did to have them transported for 7 years but there is a good chance that ‘THEY DUN IT’.

But the Devil is in the Details.

Did attempting to steal some figured poplin warrant a death sentence?

Did coinage warrant loss of family, home etc FOR THE REST OF HIS LIFE?

Does doing a PhD warrant no Government Support?

Does failure to attend a Job Network Training Course ( ‘how to write a resume’) warrant a breach and withdrawal of payments?

Does not reporting a day’s work really require the consequences that now occur?

I have years now of anecdotal and proven Centrelink responses and initiatives in my case and in many others around me. For years I have felt ashamed of my failure to thrive or fit within the parameters of either the workforce or welfare system. Fairly sure that I deserved to be paying back $30 per fortnight from my pension. Fairly sure that if I dared to say anything, then things which were already intimidating and frightening would get worse.  Pretty much convinced that I must be basically flawed and possibly even an inherent criminal to have come to such a place. I might well be having mature age onset Irish Rebel Disease. I WAS fined $82 for dipping my headlights at oncoming traffic to warn them of police presence and that was only a month or so back but I think there would be wiser and broader concepts here if I only had the words for them. Something about Social Justice. Something about compassion.

I come from the Anti Vietnam era of the late 60s and early 70s and the Hippy Society. I do not have the skills of the politically correct, “stay calm” era. As the years have passed, the things which I saw happen in the last 21 years or so seem more outrageous not less. It now seems outrageous to me that ANY person is refused the very bottom line of subsistence such as Newstart for ANY REASON AT ALL. Just from a quick memory scan, these are a few of the distressing recalls I have. More Later. I have over the years looked like a Loony in hysterical reaction . Now I am old enough to not care. 

• A young country man app 17 years of age was required to report to whichever Job Network thingummy bob was in vogue at that time. He was, as is common, required to report to a town which he could not reach without a vehicle other than by hitching. Having given him and some other lads a lift, I waited outside said agency while he completed the Forms. Out he comes and says to me, pointing to the very first question, ” Lynne, Do I have a psychiatric illness ?” Not a question I would have thought to be asked without medical supervision and support.
• A young woman residing in a rural community was flooded out on the far side of the Centrelink ‘ handing in form’ office. Phones were out. No way through. Her mother called the Centrelink office to notify them that the girl would be unable to hand her Form in on that Day. The Response included. “She should not live that far from town if she wants benefits.” And ” we will not record your call because she has not made it herself”.

 

• Dole forms were often required to be handed in the day before the ‘Clients” were to be paid. Often the Centrelink office was in the nearest town and in rural centres it could mean many kilometres for people without vehicles or money. Often, all that was then asked was that the “Client’ place the form in a box at the entry to the Office and then attempt the reverse journey.

 

• On one occasion, when I was considering retraining from Primary School Teaching, due to the illnesses which have now led to my being on this pension, the Job Agency Case Manager breached me for not reporting to an interview whilst I was on a heart monitor in the Local Hospital. By that time, I was familiar with the hazards of the Welfare World and actually had the nurse call him but he breached me nonetheless.

 

• When 2 people PARTNER in Centrelink Terms, their needs of a sudden appear to become much reduced. Check the amounts on the Centrelink Site.

DAMN! I SHOULD NOT HAVE HIDDDEN THAT FIGURED POPLIN UNDER MY SKIRTS !

I have barely dared to complain over the last non-compassionate years. I have a feeling that perhaps more people are tasting the bitterness of life down here on the ground. Maybe understanding will evolve from that.  I shall recall some more of the Centrelink Encounters in small doses. The memories are Traumatic as is the Present.

DRAT! I THOUGHT THIS WAS HOME, BUT CLEARLY ITS MORE IMPORTANT THAT THE LORDS AND LADIES CAN HUNT FOR DEER!

http://lynnesheritage.wordpress.com/2008/10/05/sutherland-shire-scotland/

And to wrap it up for the day, other than locating some SOCIAL JUSTICE quotes by the Wiser and Broader, even when the Centrelink Officers and Departmental Assistants are truly trying to help us, their clarity on the issues, the legislation and what process we should follow right now in our present situation seems confused, minimal and variable. Three times we have followed Centrelink Advice with assurances that we were doing the correct thing, only to reach final interviews and be told that we did not qualify for payment. This time we have been asked to bring a ” part time enrolment form’ for Peter’s PhD. A PART TIME ENROLMENT FORM ! Not common at this level of Academia.

I say;

TAKE ME TO MORETON BAY AND PUT ME IN A STRAIT JACKET.

As Rev Samuel Marsden said of my GGG Grandfather John Ready;

I HAVE CONSIDERED JOHN READY TO BE INSANE FROM THE FIRST OF HIS CONFINEMENT IN PARRAMATTA JAIL.

and David Murray writes of the same ancestor;

AT THE PERIODS WHEN HE IS MOST VIOLENT IT IS NECESSARY TO SECURE HIM IN A STRAIT JACKET WHICH IS TAKEN OFF WHEN HE BECOMES MORE COMPOSED”

Ah Lordie, is this to be my fate?

 

CENTRELINK AGAIN

 

Well – not actually anything new from Centrelink. Simply some ponderings on the Fear Factor and the Sense of Original Sin which arise in me every time I deal with them – or rather they deal with me.

 

 

JONATHON CAINER

JONATHON CAINER

Here’s a reading for me as a Libra which is indicatory of the subtleties which bring him into my life each morning.

What do you know? Enough. Who do you know? The right person. How do you know that this is so? Well, ask yourself how you feel deep down. Down beneath the surface layer of self-suspicion that often furrows your brow, down past the churning, complex rhythms and patterns of thought that leave you never sure what your ultimate opinion about any matter truly is. Deeper down. Further down. Down to your heart, to your bones, to the very private, profound part of you. You feel certainty there. Trust that. There’s a Solar eclipse on 26th January. Be ready for this life changing astrological alignment

http://www.cainer.com/

PITHY MORAL SAYINGS

Compassion is the basis of all morality.
Arthur SchopenhauerI say that a man must be certain of his morality for the simple reason that he has to suffer for it.
G. K. Chesterton

CENTRELINK PAYMENTS

Bear with me ! I am now involved as I have been many times over the years, with life at the ground level. Here at the ground level – I present the concept with which so many are now familiar of being unable to obtain Centrelink payments in ANY FORM AT ALL. There are surely pithy philosophical statements to describe this situation and I shall look for them. For now – for now – In our personal circumstances, one 59 year old member of a de facto relationship is on a reduced disability pension – reduced directly as a result of “partnering” and the other at 59 years of age is 3/4 of the way through a Doctorate of Philosophy and unable to receive a payment of ANY KIND AT ALL unless he ceases studying for this PhD. What we are seeking is NOT a scholarship. Not a luxury exec payment. We are after the DOLE. The very bottom row of income. Define for me a society that doesn’t provide the most basic assistance to its people. Define for me a society which allows people to go under because ‘ its in the legislature’ or ‘ not in the legislature’. Define for me a system which says – stop studying and we might give you a welfare payment. Keep studying and we will not. Keep in mind that this is a man who has worked throughout his entire adult life ( not to mention delivering bread in Yennora as a kid and also newspapers)
I do not care what the legislature says. I do not care what Centrelink’s policy is nor do I care about their appeal process. When we are not providing the basic payment to our people – we are a seriously flawed society. I have no intention of attempting to couch it in the departmentally correct language which is asked of us and all other “clients” – a language we don’t speak well. I shall dredge up a few more of the ‘outrages’ for me. mine and others which I have seen over the last 21 years and perhaps the ‘mistakes’ we make will not be seen as valid reasons to withhold support and the fear of consequences which have included court cases has become outweighed by outrage and disbelief!

HEADLINE NEWS

Fishermen survive almost a month in esky
January 20, 2009, 4:40 am. Now that conjures up an image or two.

10 GOOD THINGS WHICH HAVE ALREADY HAPPENED IN 2009

How’s that  for a positive mental attitude?  Lets see how long  that can last into 2009. Okay then – looking for the good things. One week of sun, sand and salt suits my makeup very well. A fine treatment for depression.  Throw in a true Summer Holiday with my son and his family and all is truly and deeply well in my world.

Ten things – good things and more than 10 by far.

1		Grasshoppers landed on the succulents in my garden.
	The spiders, grasshoppers, mantis, and moth larva are all back:  the summer crowd has returned!
2		Dragonflies also landed on the succulents and shed their wings in the pool.
	We hope that, when the insects take over the world, they will remember with gratitude how we took them along on all our picnics.  ~Bill Vaughan
3		A black spider built a home at the base of my front door light. The good thing is that I know its there and might be fortunate enough not to forget and put my hand on it.  In addition – its beautiful.
	If you want to live and thrive, let the spider run alive.  ~American Quaker Saying
4		We went en famille to  Glengarrie which is exquisite and exotic. We listened to music, swam in a very deep pool and all in all were sub-tropically  delighted.
	Mandalay Rudyard Kipling By the old Moulmein Pagoda, lookin’ eastward to the sea, There’s a Burma girl a-settin’, and I know she thinks o’ me; For the wind is in the palm-trees, and the temple-bells they say: “Come you back, you British soldier; come you back to Mandalay!”
5		Mad O’Brian and Jo filmed the YESTERBEATS in rehearsal at GLENGARRIE while Nana and the girls swam in the pool and in addition the family heard Izzy perform for the first time.
	And sure there is music even in the beauty, and the silent note which Cupid strikes, far sweeter than the sound of an instrument; for there is music wherever there is harmony, order, or proportion; and thus far we may maintain the music of the spheres. Sir Thomas Browne
6		WE went to the beach at Kingscliff as we did when the O’Brians lived there. We collected shells and  wore sarongs and chased seagulls and things were splendid.
	A real friend is someone who takes a winter vacation on a sun-drenched beach and does not send a card. Farmer’s Almanac
7		A lizard stood beside the track back from the beach and remained there as we aproached. Just stood there and stared at the camera.
	“Precisely the least, the softest, lightest, a lizard’s rustling, a breath, a flash, a moment – a little makes the way of the best happiness.” ~Friedrich Nietzsche
8		We learned about banana growing in Bilambil and saw a hand ripening before our eyes.
	Te audire non possum. Musa sapientum fixa est in aure – I can’t hear you. I have a banana in my ear
9		All manner of flowers have bloomed in the gardens and around the pool.
	With a few flowers in my garden, half a dozen pictures and some books, I live without envy. -   Lope de Vega
10		AND we went to ILNAM ESTATE for lunch. Again – en famille ! Feted and Dined and very wel pleased.
	No animal should ever jump up on the dining-room furniture unless absolutely certain that he can hold his own in the conversation. – Fran Lebowitz

SUMMER HOLIDAY

A good few New Year wishes are already faits accompli with a for real summer holiday with the Mad O’Brians. Sun, water etc and lots of family. Bravo 2009. keep it up !

CELEBRATING EN FAMILLE

In memory of Christian the lion and the people who love him.

10 DESIRES FOR 2009

Man often becomes what he believes himself to be. If I keep on saying to myself that I cannot do a certain thing, it is possible that I may end by really becoming incapable of doing it. On the contrary, if I have the belief that I can do it, I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it even if I may not have it at the beginning. – Mahatma Gandhi

1		Life on a big River.
	You can’t step twice into the same river. Heraclitus of Ephesus
2		Flowers and more flowers.
	The temple bell stops but I still hear the sound coming out of the flowers.  ~Basho
3		More good gigs.
	Music has been my playmate, my lover, and my crying towel.  ~Buffy Sainte-Marie
4		Flame trees, jacarandas and more new towns.
	Keep a green tree in your heart and perhaps a singing bird will come. - Chinese proverb
5		Family meals and barbecues.
	He who eats alone chokes alone.  Proverb
6		Travelling and camping and  adventures.
	Even in a time of elephantine vanity and greed, one never has to look far to see the campfires of gentle people.  Garrison Keillor
7		Loved ones and beautiful people.
	Many an Irish property was increased by the lace of a daughter’s petticoat.  Irish Proverb
8		A new driveway into a new home as beloved as this driveway and this home.
	One of the oldest human needs is having someone to wonder where you are, when you don’t come home at night.”  Margaret Mead
9		60th Birthdays.
	Everyone is the age of their heart.  ~Guatemalan Proverb
10		The Sanctuary of other Centuries and Old Stories.
	If you want to understand today, you have to search yesterday.  Pearl Buck

Do not wait; the time will never be ‘just right’. Start where you stand, and work with whatever tools you may have at your command, and better tools will be found as you go along. – Napoleon Hill

10 THINGS I HAVE DONE BEFORE AND WOULD LIKE TO DO DIFFERENTLY IN 2009

 

“We are all visitors to this time, this place. We are just passing through.
Our purpose here is to observe, to learn, to grow, to love… and then we return home.”

These 10 things are things which I have done or which have happened to me and which I wish had been different. Mebbe I shall handle them better this year.

IF I DO ONE THING DIFFERENTLY EACH DAY, THEN BY THE END OF 2009 I SHALL BE IN A VERY DIFFERENT PLACE FROM WHERE I AM NOW, DOING THINGS VERY DIFFERENTLY WITH VERY DIFFERENT PEOPLE.

1	A Papier Mache man on the streets of Uralla almost next door to another WHITE ROSE CAFE in 2008.	I once owned and operated some shops. We called them the WHITE ROSE TRADING COMPANY. They were pretty good. Antiques and secondhand goods and food and books in URUNGA in the 1970s. Now with the Uranus/ Saturn opposition back, I would like to open another WHITE ROSE TRADING COMPANY, perhaps in ULMARRA on the CLARENCE. And I would like to do it even better.
	“Vision without action is a daydream; action without vision is a nightmare.”
2	Izzy went to University at Wollongong and now is a Learned Man. A Master. A PhD Candidate. He knows Lots of Things. Lin Yutang Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is the noble art of leaving things undone. The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of non-essentials. .	I once went to Teachers’ College but I did not go to University. I studied something I was not specially interested in because it was an easier softer and quicker option. Now I wonder about going to University when I turn 60. OPEN UNIVERSITIES AUSTRALIA is what I am considering. I do not intend to take the easier softer option this time nor to study something I am not optimally interested in. And if by the age of 60, University study seems to be a non-essential I shall not do it. If, however, walking the Halls of Academia truly appeals to me then I would like to really do it full on and do it well.
		Mahatma Gandhi As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world — that is the myth of the atomic age — as in being able to remake ourselves.
3	A backyard.	I can’t ride a bike. I ran into a pomegranate plant or mebbe a monsteriosa deliciosa bush in front of my siblings and cousins when I was a kid. That’s what I recall anyways and was too embarrassed to ride a bike again. I am by nature a tricyle rider. I don’t dance in public either although I do now dance at home. I would like in 2009 to DARE something new like riding a bike or dancing. I did wear the Xmas hat at Lorraine’s Xmas party and in 2009 – I shall try something a little more daring.
	I’d like to go by climbing a birch tree, And climb black branches up a snow-white trunk Toward heaven, till the tree could bear no more, But dipped its top and set me down again. That would be good both going and coming back. One could do worse than be a swinger of birches. -   Robert Frost, Birch Trees	Beside the Tweed River.
4	On a Countrylink Train on the North Coast Line.	Twice I left my children. I am not impressed by that. I have done a lot of leaving in my life. I need, I think, to leave less or at the very least to LEAVE BETTER. Although we are in different boats you in your boat and we in our canoe we share the same river of life. Chief Oren Lyons, Onandaga Nation
	“If you live on this land, and you have ancestors sleeping in this land, I believe that makes you a native to this land. It has nothing to do with the colour of your skin. I was not raised to look at people racially. What I was taught is that we’re flowers in the Great Spirit’s garden. We share a common root, and the root is Mother Earth.” Oh Shinnah	With Ancestors in Frederickton Cemetery.
5		I haven’t placed my parents in Urunga Cemetery where I think they would want to rest. One third of their ashes is in my wardrobe – combined one with the other. In 2009, I would like to bury each of my dead where he/she or it is meant to be.
	“When it comes time to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with the fear of death, so when their time comes they weep and pray for a little more time to live their lives over again in a different way. Sing your death song, and die like a hero going home.” Tecumseh, Shawnee	Gramma Pie at Fredo.
6		Kindness hasn’t been a natural asset of mine. Nor the ability to love the truly good and gentle people. In 2009, I shall seek to understand a little more of the Love which is biblical in nature. ie. forgiving,forbearing etc.
	PAUL WRITING TO THE CORINTHIANS. If I speak in human and angelic tongues  but do not have love, I am a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal. 2 And if I have the gift of prophecy and comprehend all mysteries and all knowledge; if I have all faith so as to move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away everything I own, and if I hand my body over so that I may boast but do not have love, I gain nothing. 4 Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, (love) is not pompous, it is not inflated, 5 it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, 6 it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. 7 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never fails. If there are prophecies, they will be brought to nothing; if tongues, they will cease; if knowledge, it will be brought to nothing. 9 For we know partially and we prophesy partially, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I used to talk as a child, think as a child, reason as a child; when I became a man, I put aside childish things. 12 At present we see indistinctly, as in a mirror, but then face to face. At present I know partially; then I shall know fully, as I am fully known. 13 So faith, hope, love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
7		I have been transient in my home making. I do live, as Robbie once said, in  POSTCARDS and I make homes which I like but now I would like to COME HOME. To really make home with perhaps even a living room and spare room and a river with a jetty and security perhaps and mebbe a kitchen and definitely a bathtub. Perhaps a longterm home with a booklined study. I might perhaps move on swiftly as usual and in that case shall purchase a mobile home and travel but I would like in 2009 to try a big old gracious home on a big old gracious river where family came and study was done and PhDs were completed and I had filing cabinets and vegie gardens were grown and music was written and played and recorded and community dropped by. Lace curtains at French Windows for me.  And a skilling ( now known as a skillion). If I am to become a North Coast Academic Specialist, I shall need the Grafton Sleepout as well. And a grapevine. I have one here but I need the REAL north coast black grapes.  I am doing pretty well with this one but will do it even better in 2009.
	“Compassionate the mountains rise Dim with the wistful dimness of old eyes That, having looked on life time out of mind, Know that the simple gift of being kind Is greater than all the wisdom of the wise.” – DuBose Heyward	Hut on Rushforth Road.
8		Living with a musician has introduced elements into my life which either haven’t been there before or which I had dealt with in a very determined and singular manner. I shall look now at ways in handling things better. improved in 2008 over 2007. Good Music doesn’t mean I have to mingle with Bad Drunks. And some venues I am best staying away from. Some gigs are best seen as “WORK” and I simply let Him go to Work and don’t even attempt to accompany. Others I enjoy. I take the fotos. If Pokies are yelling at me I stay away.  2009 can see a honing of the Musical Companion’s Way of life.
	There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it.  ~Minnie Aumonier
9		As well as leaving things i perhaps ought not to have left or ought to have left differently, I have also continued to do some things which I would prefer not to have continued to do. To stay in places I would rather have left and been with people I didn’t want to be with doing things I didn’t want to do.  I am pretty refined and quite ruthless at it   and have been for a long time but fine tuning in 2009 will suit me VERY WELL INDEED. Not ONE MORE lousy meal disguised as real food, O Jamoze. Not one Major internal compromise from me. If I ain’t an Elder now then when will I be one ? Let it begin right now ! Farewell to Shite.
	Truth has not such an urgent air. Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux
10		I am not sure what to do about a family who spend Xmas sticking their fingers in an electric shock machine.  I could, perhaps, join them in 2009 or simply continue to photograph them. One thing I haven’t been doing as well as I would like is taking Fotos with the eye of a Photographer. I might indeed become more conscious of what I am doing with a camera and Maybe I will get a GOOD CAMERA someplace in my 60th year !!!!!
	Artificial Intelligence is no match for natural stupidity. Author Unknown

Quote of the Day:
If your number one goal is to make sure that everyone likes and approves of you, then you risk sacrificing your uniqueness and, therefore, your excellence.
–Anonymous

2009 – 10 THINGS I DID IN 2008 AND WOULD LIKE TO DO AGAIN IN 2009

ONCE MORE WITH FEELING.

1		I would like to hop off a train into the sheer joy of family reunion. All smiling. All laughing. All Glad.
	“May God stand between you and harm in all the empty places where you must walk.” Babylon 5: Ivanova
2		I would like to once more lie flat backed on a camp stretcher and stay in caravan parks in places where I have never been before.
	Meandering leads to perfection. -  Lao Tzu
3		I would like to walk some more. With my Crumpler Bag. I would like a new Crumpler Bag. And new walking boots. I would like to walk.
	Travelers, there is no path, paths are made by walking. -   Antonio Machado
4		I would like to create  another fine living space with  a great desk and chair and view. Good sleeping space and all my affairs in order.  Another place of great beauty.
	we shall find a cleanly room lavender in the windows and twenty ballads stuck about the wall. Izaak Walton The Compleat Angler 1653-55
5		I would like to fill my home with more roses, especially white roses, and other old roses with ancient perfumes and colours.
	Won’t you come into my garden? I would like my roses to see you-Richard Sheridan
6		I would like to walk on many more bridges across creeks and rivers and also to cross them again on car ferries.
	A man of wisdom delights in water. Confucius, Analects
7		I would like to see more lighthouses and perhaps sleep beneath one as I once did in Kiama.
	Books are lighthouses erected in the great sea of time.  E.P. Whipple
8		I would like to picnic at another table in a flooded lake – or river – or creek. Perhaps on a boat. or houseboat.
	Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world’s great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time. On some of the rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs. I am haunted by waters. Norman Maclean, A River Runs Through It
9		I would like to eat more fresh vegies from our gardens and read more books Jim or Kate have lent me. Or Jamie and Laura.
	Shall I not have intelligence with the earth?  Am I not partly leaves and vegetable mould myself. Henry David Thoreau
10		I would like to play some more with children.
	Crowfoot, Blackfoot warrior and orator “What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night. It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime. It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset.”

An ant can do more than an ox that is lying down.
Quote of the Day:
The degree of one’s emotion varies inversely with one’s knowledge of the facts – the less you know the hotter you get.
–Bertrand Russell

 

LiveJournal Tags: armidale,quotes,2008,new year 2009,children,rivers and lighthouses,floods,wishes,new year resolutions,desires

10 SMILERS OF 2008

Quote of the Day:
The happiest people don’t necessarily have the best of everything. They just make the best of everything.
–Anonymous

Now I am going to gather 10 smiling moments of 2008. I am running a couple of days late on my annual assessment process. So be it.

What I’m looking for is a blessing that’s not in disguise. 

Kitty O’Neill Collins

1		The verandahs of Kati B and IMMs’ house at Kalang brought some smiling moments in 2008. Big broad verandahs.  Scene of the Great Waterfight of 2008 and the TUPPERWARE party.
	Live well, laugh often, love much
2		Visits from Daughters were  bright spots and T shirts such as this one purchased in Showcase Coolangatta for an eldering father.
	“Happiness sneaks in through a door you didn’t know you left open.”  – John Barrymore
3		Papier Mache people on the Streets of Uralla. Now – how good is that ?  There was also a bakery which sold pink marshmallows in cones.
	ALBERT CAMUS: When you have once seen the glow of happiness on the face of a beloved person, you know that a man can have no vocation but to awaken that light on the faces surrounding him; and you are torn by the thought of the unhappiness and night you cast, by the mere fact of living, in the hearts you encounter.
4		Music with Johnny Carr was a smiler. And with Scrubby and Mike F and many more. So was the new Yamaha PA and Pete Jaggle.
	Those who can’t laugh at themselves leave the job to others.
5		Water Fighting in Kalang was a Smiler. The family that plays together stays together.
	If a man who cannot count finds a four-leaf clover, is he lucky?  ~Stanislaw J. Lec
6		Being back behind a pool cue was a smiler.
	If only we’d stop trying to be happy we’d have a pretty good time. – Edith Wharton
7		Cheese and pineapple toasted sandwiches at Wadeville Woolies brings smiles especially when just behind the cafe lurks a recording studio in a nissan hut.
	“If you want happiness for an hour — take a nap. If you want happiness for a day — go fishing. If you want happiness for a month — get married. If you want happiness for a year — inherit a fortune. If you want happiness for a lifetime — help someone else. – Chinese proverb
8		Surviving the January Floods down at Bilambil Blues Club was funny. Nearly washed them away so it did. Steve slept on the pool table and Jacqui was rescued by Kate and Les on Tractor.
	She gave me a smile I could feel in my hip pocket. Raymond Chandler
9		If a pink banana chair cannot induce a smile at least and even possible hysteria, then there is likely to be little that could achieve that effect.
	“We are never so happy, nor so unhappy, as we suppose ourselves to be.” La Rochefoucauld.
10		Children – always the children- for sheer joy and delight. It’s never too late to have a happy childhood.  ~Berke Breathed
	“Peace is a daily, a weekly, a monthly process, gradually changing opinions, slowly eroding old barriers, quietly building new structures.” John F. Kennedy

 

Man must search for what is right, and let happiness come on its own.  Johann Pestalozzi