Message via the Sea

The other day I went down to the sea to swim in the freezing cold water and on my way across the sand I found, just before the waterline, this beautiful rock.  It seemed to be waiting for me.  When I picked it up I noticed how light it was and on closer inspection deduced that it was volcanic.  Now there are no active volcanoes near Sydney as as far as I know, so I started thinking of how this rock came to be in just that spot.

It could have come from many places and travelled along ocean currents over many months or even years.  What did the rock have to say?  What was its message to me?  At the suggestion of a friend I put it under my pillow at night and waited to see what came to mind.  In the end I decided it was my writing rock - to help me write a book I am working on and perhaps many more books to come.

So welcome dear Writing Rock, you are a gift from the universe.  (Or it could mean I should go on a trip to Hawaii and that would be pretty good as well!)

The Front Door

Some time ago I had a house energy clearing done.  These are some of the flowers placed by the practitioner at my front door.  There were other arrangements on the stove, in the bedroom and lounge.  She rang Balinese bells to clear energy and gave me a beautiful brass ball to shake happy energy into the walls with.  It makes the loveliest sound.  

Your entrace says a lot to visitors about how welcome they are and you can also attract in good energy by arranging these things well.  The other thing I learnt was to put a red crystal over the door frame to bring in the North energy and hopefully luck and wealth.

Some time ago too, a friend who is an architect from Holland told me to put something just inside the front door that represents you, so when people visit they can see what your interests are.  I have a work bench that I use as a side board - and that indicates my interest in woodwork and carving.  There is a great book on the environments people like to live and work in by Christopher Alexander that I would recommend, called A Pattern Language.

You can get it at Amazon by clicking the link below

http://www.amazon.com?_encoding=UTF8&tag=theperofpau-20

Lake Argyle

Last night I was at a birthday party for a girlfriend with 11 other women.  All of us are swimmers and we were relating funny travel stories as we have been away together on various trips to participate in swimming races.

These adventures are great.  It's nice to travel in a group (even though there can be some friction at times).  It's good to have a shared interest and then the wonderful memories that bond you together.

The photo here is from Lake Argyle in the Kimberleys.  A group of us went there to participate in a 20km swim.  I was in a squad of 4 and we did 10 minute legs.  The locals from Kununurra hosted the event and provided safety boats.  What a fantastic trip.  We saw rock paintings near ancient waterholes, boab trees and the colours of the landscape all around was fantastic.

There were lots of social events: a full moon festival starring Marcia Hines and many informal gatherings as well.  We went to a rum distillary and to the local markets.

The photo is of one of our teams in the lake.  It is very large(about 65km long) and can even be seen from space.  There are apparently a lot of fresh water crocodiles in there but I didn't see any - probably just as well.  They aren't really dangerous, it is the salties you have to worry about.

Anyway, just reminiscing about a great time.  It took many hours to complete this race and I feel proud that I did it.  It's fresh water so a lot harder than the ocean swims we usually do - less buoyancy.