#2012 - #Home

Personal reflection

Home is where the heart is. For me home is grounded in my connection with the divine. The Eternal Creative Spirit that permeates the universe. I want to imbue my home with a sacred character and live in a way that testify of my connection with the spirit of light, life and love.  This year I would like to bring more people of similar nature to visit my home and enjoy the hospitality of my home. My home is not a palace, it is not in mint condition but irrespective I can continue to fill it with divine love, make it a place of learning and a place where people can connect. My home will become a place of service to the community, a place where people feel welcome when they visit. My home must be a temple, a sacred place of safety for my family to come and feel at ease. My home is not always like that...my children often engage in sibling rivalry but that does not perturbed me in the quest of making my home a magical place where the divine can seep into the ordinary world. I will have to mentor my children on how to create a basic family unity that becomes a foundation from which life can be explored.

My vision for 2012 is that my home is a place of Light, Life and love

My mission is to foster the principles of light, life and love practically into the lives of my children so that it is for them a tangible reality.

My objectives are:

• To encourage my children to ask questions and  learn, show my children the virtue of patience and most of all let them experience love.
• To invite more people of like-minded approach into my house to visit, learn and share.

 Other entries for 2012:

2012 - Personality and ego
2012 - Life Values
2012 - Self Expression

#2012 - #Self expression

Personal reflection

Self-expression is how we show ourselves to the world....that which we communicate to the world. One can only express the self if one knows who you are. My self expression is always in terms of potential, opportunity and hope. I live cognitively a positive life with positive intent. I live in a world of abundance even when I do not have much. Lack is only a perception. For some time I focused primarily on my self-expression of my mental capability...but this year I want to move towards a greater emphasis in self-expression through my physical being. I want to continue to focus on expressing myself through meditative movement and breathing through both stav and Tai Chi. I want to express myself as a person of discipline and committed to achievement. Tai chi requires a commitment to build on slow and small steps of progress through regular exercise. In terms of this area I will have to build relationships with a mentor in order to acquire an acceptable skill level. I think it is a feasible goal to master the 24 Tai Chi forms in this year. The execution need not to be perfect but it must be sufficient that I can do the whole sequence with a level of consequence. At present I know about half of the movements, yet, our trainer is continually showing me small details through which my skills can be improved.  I have only recently truly realised how important health and physical conditioning is in order to express myself clearly.

My vision for 2012 is: I can perform the whole sequence of 24 forms in Tai Chi with relative comfort and confidence

My mission is to keep my body and mind healthy through regular exercise and meditation so that I can continue to express myself with confidence.

Objectives:

• Learn and master the 24 Tai Chi forms before the end of 2012
• A minimum of 20 minutes of meditation daily.

Other entries for 2012:

2012 - Personality and ego
2012 - Life Values

#2012 - #Life Values

Personal reflection

This year the emphasis of life values will be to grow further in my role as #father. My children are growing up quickly and my role as father is changing. Where being a father was one of expressing authority it is changing to of being a mentor. The time has come to move away from being an authority figure to one of a guide and mentor. This is a difficult transition to make because it is also a time in which I will have to give my children more freedom to engage by themselves with the world. I have to identify moments where my children where they show a sense of responsibility so that I can reward and compliment that behavior.  Freedom after all is earned by showing responsibility. My children still has a lot to learn before they are fully prepared to face all the challenges of the world. My role as father now is to help them discover their own personality and their own identity. I will have to invest time in what we have in common so that their is enough common ground for a foundation of love to strengthen and for communication to prosper.

This year my focus will be on #parenting. I want to show my children all that is beautiful. The ground work is in place for all my children has an appreciation for art, music and philosophy. This year I will be cautious against expressing negative emotion and focus on the positive, the hope and the possibilities that is there for them. I will endeavor to encourage my children to look in life for more than what can be experienced just by the five senses. True beauty is more than what we sense for it is also how we project our inner mind onto those senses. 

The means of connecting might require from me to act as the fool. At times asking them for advice and listening to them with more interest. Rather than telling them what to do, I will have ask them what they think should be done. I will have to take the focus away from just performance and achievement and introduce them to a thinking that will increase the quality of their being. Maybe it is time to go out and look at the stars with them. Arrogance coming from being more mature will not cut into the young rebellious mind. But sincerity that touch their core reality and self perception will ignite the fire of inner growth and certainty. They need to learn that we do not need certainty but that we need courage to face our challenges...that is the virtue I would like to encourage within them.

My vision for 2012: I am a sought-after mentor for my children

My mission: To empower my children with an appreciation for beauty as well as for taking responsibility.

My objectives:

1. To empower my children with responsibility, so that they gain more freedom to act independently in the world. 
2. To facilitate decision making through questions rather than by directing my children's decisions.

Other entries for 2012:

2012 - Personality and ego

2012 - Personality and Ego

Personal reflection

In #2012 my focus in terms of my personality is Survival - Leadership - Service

In terms of my #personality I am to eager to please people around me. I will often allow myself willingly to be used in order to please others. Often it is a survival strategy rather than a personal growth strategy. I always considered myself immune to wanting to please others but as I reflected on my life patterns I realized that I often sacrifice self-empowerment for acceptance. I will keep everything sacred but my own personality. I see myself as a survivor rather than a mover and a shaker. Off course however survival comes first ...one must first survive before one can conquer. 

This is an area that will need some work and effort since life would expect from me to take on more of a leadership role. This will mean more of a positive attitude and cultivating a more assertive character. In 2012 I will have to strengthen my own personality in order to be a benevolent leader that benefit those in my charge. I have assumed more and more leadership roles at my home and in society and for 2012 those leadership roles must be a source to assist in building within myself a character of being trustworthy and reliable. 

#Leadership is not for me one of just taking control and shunting people around. Service leadership has always attracted my style of leadership and it is service leadership that sets an example for others to follow. Service leadership leads from action and through example. There is a delight in serving others through the expression of leadership.  So I aim to work on an inner transformation that leads from being rather than from dominance.

So my vision for 2012: I am assertive and express a service based leadership style that inspire those around me to live their full potential.

My mission for 2012 is to put service before self-interest in my leadership style.

#2012 #Objectives:

• To lead my team more effectively at work to achieve the goals and objectives we set for ourselves.
• To lead in my Toastmaster community by assisting the Vice president Education with the follow-up on Toastmasters achieving their goals in terms of leadership and communication.

Happy New Year 2012

A new year, filled with hopes
minds vision already set on targets
A trajectory ignoring uncertainty
doomed to destruction.

Adapt, change, transform is the key
finding a road through the path of hazard
The unknown not feared by the warrior 
Fortune and misfortune lie in wake

Moving with predatory caution into a new era
Fortunes are made more than the fortunes stumbled upon
Courage is the virtue that will sustain
It's the sense of inner power that comes from within  

The now is the moment, the now is the time
transform
Make the choices now, act now, reconcile now
Now set the future in motion
Now has the power to transform 

My son gave today during a discussioon with friends a very apt definition of philosophy ' Philosophy is when you try to answer a question and end up with more questions'

#Dream Journal

27/11/11 - 29/12/11

28/11/11 - 1: I am fishing with a friend, on a boat at sea. I am traveling to a beautiful beach while it is raining. I am a bit upset because I did not put on warm enough clothes. 

28/11/11 -2:  I am practicing Tai Chi Forms 

29/11/11 : I participate in some type of exhibition. I must compete in a competition, but I am behind with my preparation. I woke up too late and I am late for the competition.

1/12/11 : I am a high priest, inaugurating a new era of rule for a Pharonic Queen in Egypt. 

3/12/11 - 1 : I a systems analyst and I am implementing the Oracle Business Intelligence suite.

2/12/11 - 2: I am practicing the 24 forms of Tai Chi

4/12/11 : I am a data analyst responsible for a major data base upgrade...I am solving a major problem that prevents the upgrade from happening.

5/12/11 : I almost vomited in my sleep when the data base I worked on chrashed.

6/12/11 : The word Majolo rings through my head as I learn to live in a new social community with a friend.

7/12/11 : I am a writer writing a script for a movie about somebody's biography.

8/12/11 : I am a detective at a race course for horses where I am searching for a German man. I am standing on a pavilion behind two woman looking into the crowd across the race course in the opposite pavilion hoping to spot the man.

9/12/11 -: I am seduced and bitten by a Vampiress

10/12/11 : I am flying. It is so easy and relaxing to fly. I illustrate to my Father how it is possible to fly.

14/12/11 : I witness a the commercialization of a macro-passenger glider that will overtake petrol driven Passenger airplanes  in the near future.

16//12/11 -1 : I am designing a pathway which makes it possible to research and explore human shadows.

16/12/11 - 2 : I am growing a vine so that it rank beautifully at a friend's house.

17/12/11 : Ninja in training - I am learning to master 10 deadly blows that can kill a human being instantly

18/12/11 : I am angling in a lagoon near the City of Durban.

19/12/11 : I am hypnotized by a siren's song.

20/12/11 : I am angling for a codfish  that I would like to give to somebody to eat.

21/12/11 : I am running a drug ring... analyzing where it would be best to distribute the drugs by segmenting the "market" per location in terms of drugs sold and used.

24/12/11 : I am learning practical Tai Chi fighting by sparring in a stable.

26/12/11 - 1 : I am determining where my boundaries/targets are for successful self-defense techniques.

26/12/11 - 2 : I am witnessing a passenger airliner flying through the sky with a huge bird's nest on top of it.

27/12/11 : I am learning in my dream how to control my dreams

29/12/11 : I am attending a gay marriage but arrived late because I was busy with some target shooting. While practicing somebody shot a nearby beehive to see where the bees will attack. The bees attacked when the shot was made from about 200 meters and we had to run and hide from the bees.

Dream journal 1/11/11-26/11/11

Sketch a day project (Day 80-91)

Pencil sketches

I have published some of my sketches of the last six months but no formal entry. My scanning and processing equipment can not be used since my computer's mother board crashed. Some of the pictures might look a bit dark. But is still give a full account of all the drawings so far. These were done in the last six months...so I was a bad boy in terms of sketching on a regular basis.

80) Silae Angel at Themenos

81) Mahatma Gandhi - Prince of non-violence

82) Tiger - Illusions of change

83) Old Sage - Man of wisdom

84) Ballerina on stage (Really not a good sketch but some work and others don't)

85) Washing clothes in the river

86) Buddha in meditation 

87) Man of the moment

8) The rune Fa means help

89) Female Saxophone player

90) Tai Chi master (Although my Tai Chi instructor said  it is ugly because the right hand in the whip position is drawn wrongly)

91) The smell of lavendar

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To view the full album click here

On the beach

Photo blog

It is holiday time and everybody is out on the beach. I went out today and took a few photo's, I hope you enjoy these photo's.

1) Redhead girl in the stream

2) Hoping for a bite on the rock

3) Lulling in the water

4) Mama takes a picture

5) Looking across the ocean

6) Curve next to the beach

7) Clouds and beach

Truth hidden in truth

May everybody sing a song. Each finding their own voice. Remembering their own truths. Remembering it is not absolute truth. Yearly at Christmas remember this truth. 

Come all those faithful to the truth. Hold on to doubt as a measure to guard against falsehood. Remind yourself to be open to the absolute truth. Inside the absolute truth reside the individual's truth. Stand firm in your own belief but do not be fooled that it is complete. Time will reveal all truths and unmasked that which is a lie. Mind plays with truth if unchecked and left to illusion. Accept that absolute truth is beyond the grasp of a single focus. Show flexibility to see multiple views and begin to discover more of the absolute truth.

MERRY CHRISTMAS