Loss leads to grieving and the reward for having lost and therefore having had to grieve is gain, such is the natural order of all things in the natural realm. There is no loss without gain, there is no gain without loss and the grieving is the period of digestion and evaluation. It’s the time period given over to you to wallow in self-pity, to agonise over what went wrong, to put yourself through the ‘guilt’ thing. In the case …
Looking Ahead, Looking Up
Christmas is that time of year when we all look to festival, catching up with family and of course the giving and receiving of all manner of gifts, while we prepare for the coming joy. We are distracted from the pain and sadness that some members of our community have to deal with, every year, at this time of year. This totally understandable as most of us have our own stuff to deal with and we can’t always be thinking …
Life Changes
Yes it does and yes there are! Something for all of us to ponder, absorb and hopefully learn from. Shopping is always a chore, not always fun but mostly entertaining, I have noticed more and more, these last couple of weeks, the goings on or should I say the behaviour of people at the local malls and shopping centres, not always good but for the most part entertaining or at the very least informative. Like many older people in recent …
Left of Centre
The dictionary defines centre as ‘the middle point, a pivot, a point of concentration or dispersion; a nucleus or a political group holding moderate views. I’m not sure if I qualify as ‘centre’ or not but if I think about it I would be inclined to describe myself as more ’centre‘ than not. I’m not extremely ’right‘ nor am I extremely ’left‘ in my thinking and my political views. After recent events I’m glad I am that way. Recent events! …
LAW and ORDER
Law and Order is the subject for today. This week myself and seventeen others started a course, each Thursday for four weeks, called CAPP, Community Awareness of Policing Program. We will learn what it is like to be a Police Officer, if it’s at all possible that you can learn this in virtually four days! Each day we will experience different aspects of policing and what it takes to function as a member of our Police Force. We will take …
Kokoda
Kokoda, the very name conjures up images of a truly dramatic romantic adventure. Romantic in the real sense of high drama, impending peril, gloriously brave heroics, danger and life lived to the fullest when all that stands between ourselves and oblivion are the bravest of men doing the seemingly impossible. The history of those boys, youths, young men is there, documented in many books for all to read and having been there. After reading of the campaign, I am of …
Innocent, Innocence, Innocents
The dictionary defines innocent like this: …free from moral wrong, sinless, not guilty (of a crime), free from responsibility for an event yet suffering its consequences (innocent bystanders). Simple; gutless; naive; harmless, (from the Latin) innocent, ‘not hurting’. So who protects the ‘innocents’, whose job is it to protect them?.. Yes, ours of course!.. It is our responsibility! Yours and mine! The news, in recent times, has been awash with examples of how innocents are suffering. From the victims of …
Journeys and How to Take Them
I am about to embark on a journey and in July I will return to Kokoda to take another. The one that I will take soon will be to participate in a story being filmed for SBS. The series that was shown last year is called “Go back where you came from” and it follows a group of Australians around the world to some of the more desperate of places where refugees wait in camps, waiting to get a chance …
In Search of God
There is great sadness in the world today. It seems that not a day goes by without hearing of yet another tragedy. A policeman or policewoman is injured or killed in the line of duty; another soldier is shot by a supposed ally or blown to pieces while carrying out their duty, for their homeland, but also while trying to protect people in a foreign land, so that these people may have a better life. ‘Schoolies’ has become a terrifying …
Hypocrisy
The dictionary defines Hypocrisy as: the making of false claims to virtue. It defines Virtue as: moral excellence: goodness, chastity. esp. of a woman. I use an Oxford Modern dictionary as a reference for my definitions. I am aware that both Hypocrisy and Virtue have come to mean more, to most of us, than these narrow definitions, just as so many of our words have these days but the Oxford definitions are at least a good place to start are …