I’m not sure what to celebrate about being Australian. I know there are a lot of things we can be grateful for. One is that we are girt by sea. As well as providing miles of beautiful beaches, it keeps any potential enemies at a disadvantage. Yet more and more people are becoming concerned, not that we are vulnerable from outside attack, but that we are vulnerable from attack from
I was happy to hear of the announcement by the New South Wales government that it intends to ban greyhound racing as of July next year, and the Australian Capital Territory’s decision to follow suit. I wasn’t quite ecstatic for a number of reasons. One reason is that there is still another year of racing, during which time an estimated 180 dogs will “suffer catastrophic injuries such as skull fractures
Jon and I went to see Fleetwood Mac in concert during the week. As I waited for the band to come on stage, I was feeling a bit sleepy, and I was wondering whether maybe I was getting a bit old for going to concerts. This feeling lingered at the beginning of the concert, but I also got the feeling that the band was a bit slow to get started,
One of the books for my course in Native American Spirituality at AIHT is Ed McGaa, Eagle Man’s book, Nature’s Way – Native Wisdom for Living in Balance with the Earth. Each chapter uses an animal in nature to illustrate the author’s point, which is that we must learn from what the animals and the rest of nature have to teach us, if we are to survive the destruction which
I was reminded yesterday how much I’ve changed over the years. Yesterday I heard about the stick insect that my great niece has been keeping as a pet for 6 months. I had no idea that stick insects could be kept as pets, so I was interested to find out all about it, and when I got home I googled and found this: http://australianmuseum.net.au/Care-of-Stick-Insects/ I remarked when I heard about
How would you like to be remembered? A lot of my writing in recent weeks has been about the fact that we are all one: we are all part of the one God, the one creation, the one community on Earth. Despite our different religions or different beliefs, we all have the same needs, not least of which is love. Although we are all one, and can think of ourselves
During my studies of other religions, particularly Islam, I have been reading about the history of nations and societies. In the process, I have come to consider the freedoms which we sometimes take for granted in this country, Australia, and without which life could be less than fulfilling, or perhaps even miserable. As I considered all of our freedoms, I wondered firstly how much do we really appreciate