As we are all recovering from holidays parties and getting ready to greet the New Year , I thought I’d share some ideas for cheese platters. It’s about Taking Time…

This world is way too rushed. We try, try, try to do everything and we don’t see how we are destroying ourselves and our world. We all complain about headaches and tiredness, and not being able to relax. Why? Who is holding that gun to our heads? But we are all victims of our illusions, our ego, the script our parents gave us. We need to stop everything. Think about who we are and where we want to go, and then go there.We may not have the time we think we have. It’s an old adage, but what would you do today if you found you only had six months to a peaceful demise? What would I do? Firstly I would spend and give away all that I have, mainly to my kids and to charity. (Well, maybe I’d check the diagnosis first!) Then I would write letters to all my friends and relations telling them to either (a) understand how much I appreciate and love them, or (b) grant me forgiveness of any hurt I have caused them, or they me. For anyone who has seriously caused me pain I might tell them to ‘go forth and multiply’ but not in those exact words! 

If I have the funds, I would go to my bucket list (which is getting short, by the way) and choose the one thing I would be sad not to have done, and make plans to do it ASAP. Mind you, I have experience. My life has hung in the balance more than once and the last time I crossed something off my bucket list was when I decided to become a lawyer! It was the one thing I would regret if I didn’t do it. Well of course it was not the end of my life but the start of a whole new life, and live it I did!In the last few years I made another decision or two. One was to establish ways to help women get through menopause more safely and more comfortably.
The other was to smell the roses, although sitting here in a Broadbeach cafe there are precious few roses to smell. The third decision was to go with my instincts and tell people about my abiding interest in using the mind as a way to re-shape reality, or change it altogether.

From childhood, or at least from about age 10-11 I have been asking the question of how to alter my reality. Are there parallel universes? Can the pathway through this one be changed? Could I really see the wonders of the world although I was trapped in an Irish village whose most distant collective thoughts were of the aunt who went to America thirty years before and was never heard from again? Other than that, the only thing to be considered was the trip “to town” at Christmas for shopping.
But the treasure I found in my grandfather’s imagination changed my reality. He told me (and my sisters, but these were always understood by me to be mine alone) stories of far lands, with lions and tigers, elephants and monkeys and great adventures to be had. Small wonder I jumped at the chance to go to Africa with the Red Cross. That was a turning point in my life as I married the handsome Frenchman and although the husband is history, I have my sons who love me.

Imagination can and does change lives. Learning to use your imagination may not be as easy as it sounds. Some people think that they are unable to visualise things. Some people are so hidebound by their current problems in this reality that they cannot conceive of anything else. I have been blessed with not only a vivid imagination (which caused ructions when I was a child) but also the opportunity to teach others how to reach out into the future. Why, just this morning I wondered what it would be like to afford all the different cars I wish I owned. The gift of imagination cannot be over emphasised as it is of such enormous importance. To the children of the multi media world, imagination seems to extend only to the newest electronic game toy, the extended war games played with unknown and unseen companions on the Internet.

The extended possibilities of our own imagination are rarely. My experience of what goes on inside schools is fairly out of date but listening to children discussing their projects, imagination and personal wish lists are not featured very often or stressed as a tool to develop imagination. Yet with this one tool, immediately available to everyone who has taken the trouble to develop it, we can truly be free.
Now that we know time can speed up or slow down, we should take a moment to create or recreate our lives. True security, as in “seeking the truth and being of service is more important than winning”.  Thank you, James Redfield.

Blessings to you all and Happy New Year!
Maura