Rotanga Junction

Having great fun doing adventurous rides at this fun park.

Pavarotti concert in Hyde Park

It was a lot more enthralling than the photo indicates!

Neale Donald Walsch and "Conversations with God"

With his "Conversations with God" series of books, Neale Donald Walsch transformed my conception of God.  He also introduced me to the concept of life being God's experience.  His first book was bought for me by Rosemarie Saunders, a moment of synchronicity.  I read it in The Himalayas while hiking The Annapurna Circuit. I also immersed myself in his books while on holiday in Barbados. 

Quotes on Wisdom Trove

His books I read

Some favourite quotes

• It is the purpose of your soul to announce and declare, to be and to express, to experience and to fulfil Who You Really Are. And who is that? Whoever you say you are! Your life lived is your declaration. Your choices define you. Every act is an act of self-definition.
• The deepest secret is that life is not a process of discovery, but a process of creation. You are not discovering yourself but creating yourself anew. Seek therefore not to find out Who You Are but determine Who You Want to Be.
• You are always and forever in the moment of pure creation. The point of life therefore is to create—who and what you are, and then to experience that.
• You do not live each day to discover what it holds for you, but to create it. You are creating your reality every minute.
• My moments of awakening can come at any time, and through any person. These are my moments of grace, when clarity and wisdom, love and understanding, guidance and insight are brought to me and through me. My life has been created to bring me just such moments. That is why I do whatever it takes – meditate, exercise, pray, read, write, listen to music, whatever I find works – to ignite my awareness daily.
• You cannot create a thing—not a thought, an object, an event—no experience of any kind—which is outside of God’s plan. For God’s plan is for you to create anything—everything—whatever you want.
• I truly want what you truly want—nothing different and nothing more. Don’t you see that is My greatest gift to you?
• If there is some aspect of creation you find you do not enjoy, bless it and simply change it. Choose again. Call forth a new reality. Think a new thought. Say a new word. Do a new thing.
• Your job on Earth, therefore, is not to learn (because you already know), but to remember Who You Are. And to remember who everyone else is.
• You think of yourselves as humans searching for a spiritual awakening, when in fact you are spiritual beings attempting to cope with a human awakening. Seeing yourselves from the perspective of the spirit within will help you to remember why you came here and what you came here to do.
• Your soul doesn’t care what it does for a living – and when your life is over, neither will you. Your souls cares only about what you’re being while you’re doing whatever you’re doing. It is a state of beingness the soul is after, not a state of doingness.
• In creating “something else” – namely the realm of the relative – we have produced an environment in which we may choose to be God, rather than simply be told that we are God, in which we may experience our Godness as an act of creation, rather than conceptualisation, in which the little candle in the sun – the littlest soul – can know itself as the light.
• We are all God, Godding – experiencing Our Self through the experiencing of Our parts. We are God expressing Our Self.
• My purpose in creating you, My spiritual offspring, was for Me to know myself as God. I have no way to do that save through you. Thus, it can be said that My purpose for you is that You should know yourself as Me.
• You cannot experience that Which You Are in the absence of that which you are not. Therefore, know that when you experience that which you are not, it is not a failure to experience but a way to experience That Which You Are.
• The parable of the soul and the sun: There was once a soul who knew itself to be the light. This was a new soul, and so, anxious for experience. “I am the light,” it said. “I am the light.” Yet all the knowing of it and the all the saying of it could not substitute for the experience of it. For in the realm from which this little soul emerged, there was nothing BUT the light. Every soul was magnificent, and shone with the brilliance of My awesome light. And so the little soul in question was as a candle in the sun. In the midst of the grandest light, of which it was a part, it could not see itself, nor experience itself as Who It Really Is. Now it came to pass that this soul yearned and yearned to know itself. And so great was its yearning that I one day said “Do you know, Little One, what you must do to satisfy this yearning of yours? You must separate yourself from the rest of us and then you must call upon yourself the darkness.” “What is the darkness, oh Holy One?” the little soul asked. “That which you are not.” I replied and the little soul understood. And so this the soul did, removing itself from all Yea, and going even unto another realm. And in this realm, the soul had the power to call into its experience all sorts of darkness. And this it did. And yet in the midst of all the darkness did it cry out, “Father, father, why have you forsaken me?” But I have never forsaken you, but stand by you always, ready to remind you of Who You Really Are, ready, always ready to call you home.
• Be a light unto the darkness, and curse it not.
• The act of resisting something is the act of granting it life… the more you resist, the more you make it real, whatever it is you are resisting.
• God is love. God accepts you as you are. God expects nothing of you. God does not judge. Nothing makes God unhappy. God would never condemn anyone. You do not need to change anything or “get better” to be seen as perfect and beautiful in God’s eyes.
• God is love. There is no judgement and there is no separateness. And the only ‘hell’ is the one we create for ourselves here on Earth.
• I do not love “good” more than I love “bad.” Hitler went to heaven. When you understand this, you will understand God.
• God offers friendship, not lordship—and in return asks for friendship, not worship.
• See God in everyone and help everyone to see God in themselves.
• God is in the sadness and the laughter, in the bitter and the sweet. There is a divine purpose behind everything—and therefore a divine presence in everything.
• God’s greatest truth is that there is not one way only but many ways Home. There are a thousand paths to God and everyone will get you there. Indeed, all paths lead to God. This is because there is no other place to go.
• There is no such thing as an incorrect path for all paths lead to the same place eventually
• I have sent you nothing but angels and miracles. See the perfection in this moment. Your soul chose your life to create the opportunity to fulfil your soul’s agenda. There is no such thing as a chance encounter. Everything is occurring in perfect order, as it should be. 
• The universe is conspiring in your favor. It is placing before you in every moment all of the right and perfect people, circumstances, and situations with which to answer life’s only question: Who am I? Have you decided yet?
• A master understands that life is perfection and always prefers what is occurring.
• Enlightenment is understanding that there is nowhere to go, nothing to do, and nobody you have to be except exactly who you’re being right now.
• Each moment of your life is a holy moment, a moment of creation. Each moment is a new beginning. In each, you are born again.
• Do what you do for the sheer joy of it. Do what you choose, not what someone else chooses for you.
• The purpose of a relationship is to decide what part of yourself you would like to experience and express.
• In all relationships, there is only one question that has any importance to your soul: “What would love do now?”
• A five-word sentence that could change the world tomorrow is “What would love do now?”
• All you have to do to have love is be love.
• What you do for your Self, you do for another. What you do for another, you do for the Self. This is because you and the other are one. And this is because…there is naught but You.
• When you see others who appear separate from you, look at them deeply. Look into them. Do this for a long moment and you will capture their essence. And you’ll meet you, waiting there.
• Life proceeds out of your intention. Your true intention is revealed by your actions, and your actions are determined by your true intention.
• Have intentions but don’t have expectations, and certainly don’t have requirements. Do not become addicted to a particular result. Do not even prefer one. Elevate your Addictions to Preferences, and your Preferences to Acceptances.
• He who does not go within, goes without.
• FEAR is an acronym in the English language for ‘False Evidence Appearing Real’.

Sam's 1 st birthday

Thanks for the photos, Jo.

Jo, Anthony and Sam visit us in London

fx

Mum and Mike visit us in London

 

Favourite movies watched (2001)

• The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
• Moulin Rouge (2001)
• Amelie (2001)
• Shrek (2001)
• A Beautiful Mind (2001)
• Enemy at the Gates (2001)
• Enigma (2001)
• A Knight's Tale (2001)
• Bridget Jones Diary (2001)

Event highlights (London years: 2000 - 2003)

Siegelgale  (April 2000 - June 2001)

• Infuzer
• Safehost
• Synthesising financial services
• Bank Hapoalim in Tel Aviv (brand strategy, literature strategy, site review, flash)

Travel

• Africa trip: Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Tanzania, Kenya (2001)
• Nepal: Annapurna Circuit hike and Chitwan National Park (2001)
• Istanbul to Cairo tour leading (2002)

Hammersmith Grove life

• Touch rugby & roast lunch
• Rollerblading
• Many plays
• Visitors (Jo & Ant, mum & Mike)
• Cycling
• Thai Chi
• Landmark forum

Volvo.com project (2003)

• Project communication
• CMS training and documentation
• Webcentre site
• Trips to Asheville, Gothenburg, Curitiba and Iguazu Falls in Brazil (2003)

Holiday

• Barbados (2002)
• Croatia (2003)

Cape Town

• 2001: In advance of my trip through Africa, Dirk wedding, Rotunga
• 2002: Mum and Mike wedding, meet baby Matt
• 2003: Jo & Steve wedding

Hiking

• Climbing through Steenbras cracks with Russell
• Annapurna circuit (21 days)
• Malawi to waterfall

First trip to Cambridge

Visiting Amanda and Johnathon

My beloved MiniDisk player

Ally gifted me this beautiful device and I absolutely love it. It allows me to put several albums on a disk. I take it on the train with me, listening to lots of David Gray and classical music.

Branding for Bank Hapoalim

At Siegelgale, one of the main projects I worked on was to help Bank Hapoalim, a leading Israeli bank, to  rebrand.  I worked with Peter Gilson, the CEO, and Anita, a very effective senior consultant.

The last project necessitated weekly trips to Tel Aviv which I loved.  The project took well over 6 months and and our project team and clients became a very close knit group.

My involvement

• Helping with brand strategy (brand vision, mission and values). 
• Helping to simplify their literature system with the new brand.
• A review of their web site and recommendations on improving it in line with the new brand.
• An online flash presentation promoting the new brand strategy.

Highlights

• Flying business class from London to Tel Aviv each week and getting to recline completely on the chairs.  We needed to sleep as we flew at night and arrived early in the morning before starting our workshops.
• Working closely with Tali, a marketing person at Bank Hapoalim, and earning her respect.
• Dinner and after-dinner discussions with Peter and Anita at the Hilton Hotel.  We all got very close to the extent that Peter shared one night his "imposter syndrome."

 

Affirmation (London years: 2000 - 2003)

Siegelgale

• Safe Host project
• Intelligo
• Hapoalim web review
• Literature model
• Tallie really sorry to see me go
• Ken Winsor thought a lot of me
• Peter: Synthesis is your gift
• Speaking course - "natural genius"

Tourleading

• Having the courage
• Conquests
• Personality
• Donna - crack me up
• Offered South American trip by Oasis

Volvo.com project

• Courage to go for Volvo job
• Slide showing volvo.com fragmentation and integration
• Site businessl-line descriptors
• Volvo.com training, including trucks
• CMS training manual
• Volo.com web-centre support site
• Volvo.com presentations to web group, especially on usability principles

London life

• Bulk up at gym
• Rollerblading
• Personality with Adam

Courage

• Barclays interview
• Prudential presentation
• Going with tour-leading job
• Going with Volvo job

My 30th birthday (London)

Challenges (London years: 2000 - 2003)

Finances

• Head in sand re finances
• Bewailing Euro

Siegelgale

• General anxiety that I'm not good enough
• Make promise in performance review - then fear not living up to that
• Hapoalim flash site
• Hapoalim presentation to board (pretend to be ill)
• Long hours, go in on weekends, Mary Ann sees me looking ill
• Hapolaim site audit (invent accident)
• Presentation of strategy to Hapoalim - not prepared and it's noticed
• The end at Siegelgale with Old Mutual brand audit coming (invent New York)

Volvo.com

• First volvo.com meeting: little disagreement with Sharon, realise Matt highly strung

Out of work

• UK unemployed - despair in mornings
• Going to interview while dreading working again
• Paintball martialling: $5 an hour, run in with girl
• Trying to avoid Siegelgale people

Tour-leading

• Initial anxiety when started tour-leading: Resign after few weeks
• Lose all my information on PSION
• Egypt: Forget to fax form ahead of arriving
• Forget to tell group to pack ahead of desert night
• A couple of complaints: forge the feedback forms
• Bladder infection in Turkey on 2nd trip
• Diarrhea in Egypt on final tour

Special connections (London years: 2000 - 2003)

Siegelgale

• Peter Gibson, Anita, Becky
• Gerry, Kate, Brad, Aaron
• Tallie (Bank Hapoalim)
• Ken 
• Javed

Volvo

• Caroline
• Matts
• Andrew
• Richard
• Andrew Titley
• Helen
• Mark Vikner

Friends

• Colleen & Steve
• Mike
• Carol, Gus & family

Therapist

• Eve Dolphin

Extended family

• Adam and Michael

Travel

• Nepal (Sanjay & Grania, Nick & Izzy)
• Africa (Chris, mama, Carl, leaders)

Touch rugby

• Gareth, Wheels, Tanya, Mike

Tour-leading

• Kerin, Ryan, Garry, Donna
• Shona, Niki
• Gus
• Chris
• Paul (sheep farmer)

Love and appreciation

• E-mail to Eve Dolphin
• Mum and Mike wedding speech
• Ally's unwavering support (depression, tour-leader)
• Email to Gramps
• I love you on the ice frosted window of our hired car

Samantha - childhood years

All blog posts related to Sam

Posts of me with Sam

Letter (May 2014)

Dear Sam

I am now back in Sydney and missing you guys an awful lot.  As always, it was so wonderful to spend time with you in Cape Town and laugh and do fun things.   Thank you for making my time in Cape Town so special like you always do.

To help me banish my missing-you blues, I thought I'd write down my favourite memories of you from your life so far.  I thought you might like to read them too.

Here they are ...


As a baby

• Seeing you for the first time after you were born and holding you in my arms.  You were so tiny and so beautiful that you completely took my breath away. 

As a toddler

• Your mum and dad visiting me in London with you in tow - and lying with you tucked in my sleeping bag.
• Playing "spider spider" with you in the garden.  I'd point at a pretend spider in the bushes and say "spider!" and you'd scream and laugh at the same time.  I hope it didn't give you a fear of spiders for life!!
• You dancing with mum, dad and me to loud Abba music - you were such a great little dancer even at age 2!!

From your childhood years

• Trampolining together and playing all sorts of "fall down" games.  So much fun!!
• Watching you in your nativity play - you made such an unbelievable cute little angel!!
• How you loved to invent "let's pretend" games and then ask me to play them with you.  You were so inventive from a really early age.
• Going miniature car racing with you in my car.   You had a real love for speed and kept shouting "Faster!  Faster!" even when we were hurtling around the corners.
• Playing many games of hide and seek in the house and garden - you were extremely good at hiding, especially in small cupboards!!
• Playing with you at the Play Centre - especially the fun we had on the blow up slide.
• You dressed as a precious stone for your school concert - what a gem you were !
• Ice skating with you on my shoulders.
• Teaching you how to do Myburghian leaps at St James - you were so good at it too! 
• Your love of barbie dolls and The Brats and your wonderful Brats Party.
• Your love of Hannah Montanna.  My hasn't Miley Cyrus changed a lot since then !!!  
• Playing lots of fun games in the pool like Marco Polo and pushing each other in.
• Tobogganing together with you in the same car.  You didn't believe in applying the breaks even on corners and terrified the hell out of me!    I reckon you're going to like fast cars one day!!
• The amazing art that you did at school that your mum put on the annual calendars she sent me.
• Photos of you dressed up in paint for the World Cup football and blowing like crazy into your vuvuzela!!  Wish I'd been there!

As a young women

• Listening to your latest favourite music in the car - always such great tunes.
• Your love of One Direction - and a certain Harry Styles!!
• How amazing you are with younger kids, always patient and kind and attentive.
• The incredible reports you get at school and your sensational final junior school results - you've clearly got the brains as well as the looks!
• How amazing you were on the Orange River, in your own boat, so much calmer and chilled on the rapids than most of the adults.
• The amazing videos you took in Vietnam and how you edited them with text and music - so cool!
• How tech savvy you are with computers and phones and gadgets - and helping me out on several occasions.
• Seeing how much you enjoy travelling the world, experiencing new things and places (especially London!!) 
• How amazing you looked as a cat walk model in your school fashion show and at your Farewell Dance - you've blossomed into such a beauty.
• Your prowess on the hockey field and basketball court - you go girl!

From this latest trip

• Leaping with you at Llandudno.
• Your love of the Vamps - and especially the song "Can We Dance."  The theme song for my trip.
• Doing the Slingshot with you at Ratanga and seeing who would be the first to scream.  Man that was scary, I'm so glad it was you who had to release the cord and not me!
• Doing the Monkey Falls over and over and getting really, really wet!  So fun except when the boat got wonky on the way up - that was freaky!!
• Being really impressed by how calm you are before your orals and exams - you're amazing!!
• How animated you get when you talk about something you believe strongly in - like genetically engineered babies or the rights of teenagers today!  It's great to see.
• How affectionate and loving you are with your friends.
• Playing in the back-seat of the car with you and Matt and pushing into each other on the tight corners.
• How animated you get when you talk about a book or movie that you really like, like "Divergent" or "The Hunger Games."
• Making delicious  custard - you've inherited the awesome Granny Sorrell custard making genes.  
• How much you seem to enjoy your new school - I'm so glad.
• You and Matt searching for marshmallow eggs on Easter morning.  Glad you guys found the one in the toaster!!  Can't believe you wouldn't eat the one in your dad's sweaty running shoe!
• How excited you got when you discovered that One Direction are coming to Cape Town!!  Who cares about Afrikaans exams when you Harry will be here :)
• Your loathing of injections and needles.  Ha, ha - I think you've inherited that from me!!!  
• Introducing me to Dilanddau.com - what a great site!
• Your wonderful sense of humour, always ready to laugh.

It's been such an awesome privilege to watch you grow up and mature into the amazing, beautiful, confident, loving person you are today.  I'm so proud and happy to be your uncle.  Thank you so much for all the priceless memories. I look forward to many more memory-making moments in the future.

With love and hugs,

Your uncle, Graeme


Yet more memories

• How Ally adored little Sam as much as me
• Sam's cute little dimple on her chin as a baby
• Visiting us in London - and Sam tucked in my sleeping bag with me
• Playing the "spider game" - I'd point at a pretend spider in the garden and Sam would scream and laugh at the same time (age 3)
• Sam dancing with us (Jo, Ant and me) to loud music - I think it may have been Abba. (age 2)
• Playing with Sam with her toys, including her miniature tent (age 2)
• Spending Xmas 2005 together - and Sam running through the sprinkler with me (and then with Granny Jill!)  (age 5)
• Watching Sam as a cute little angel in her nativity play (age 5)
• Playing at the Play Centre - especially the fun we had with the blow up slide (age 6)
• Picnics on Llandadno Beach whenever I visit and one of my favourite photos of Sam watching the sunset
• Teaching Sam how to do Myburghian leaps at St James - she was really good at it too!  (age 6)
• The family all dancing uproariously to Abba - and how much Sam enjoyed it (age 6) 
• Sam in the bath with spiky hair - she looked so cute.  (age 6)
• Sam dressed as a precious gem for her school concert (age 9) 
• Spending Xmas 2009 together - especially playing lots of fun games in the pool (age 9)
• Visiting the Waterfront Oceanarium (age 9)

Milestones

• Sam is born
• First trip overseas (to London)
• Sam's 1st birthday
• Sam's 2nd birthday 
• Sam starts big school 
• Sam's 7th birthday
• Sam's 8th birthday
• Sam's 9th birthday
• Sam plays her first hockey game and scores her first goal 
• Sam has her ears pierced
• Sam's 10th birthday
• Sam's 1st poem
• Sam's 11th birthday

Art

• 2011
• 2010
• 2009
• Various

Related links

• Family portraits

Portraits of Sam

Proud Grandparents

Proud Great Grandparents

With mum and dad

Sam with her brother  

 

Proud Uncle