What are you eating

What food do you take in through the ears and eyes to sustain your day, it does not have to all come into your mouth and will certainly make a difference in the way you do things.  I sit and ask God to give me my daily bread, a soft word spoken to guide me through the day.  We worry about calories going to our hips but forget the rubbish that we take in through our ears and eyes, yes calories will lead to death but rubbish through the ears and eyes may lead to psychological or soul death.  The rubbish we take in may also block our senses to other needs or to what is right, I will give you an example of my own rubbish deal.  I was troubled in my youth by my brothers suicides and LSD based schizophrenia (in one of them), I fastened myself to pornography at a young age.  This became my safe house in my teen years and produced a fantasy world where my action then hurt others.  I don’t blame my brothers at all, I have to take responsibility for what I had done and recognise what my weakness was therefore I can’t afford to go back to that food. Is a little wine for the rehabilitated alcoholic or a little tale for the gossip bad, it could be, only you know (If you are honest with yourself) how much you can take in before you revert back to the old-self. If we stumble, as many do, don’t give up we just have to take the small steps again but remember where the error was that caused it, you will do well. 

Forgiveness

Please forgive me I ask, I feel opened and as a guy I feel sometimes why I should ask as I am not at fault.  My dad told me “Take the blame son and just say sorry to your partner” (do gay guys have the same problem) I know my buddy wouldn’t expect it from me.  So let’s look at the situation, she is got a problem with you it may not have been the situation that she is looking for apology over but admitting you are wrong or being humble enough to admit shows a covering for herself.  The real thing you had done wrong may have been done years ago and you did apologise over that but she wants another one. Suck it up boys, not that I can talk, I sit for hours trying to wind down after one of the talks, maybe that’s what I do wrong I don’t react I just sit and listen, we all do things differently.  Forgiveness of sins as we forgive others, think.  Have I really forgiven them, what is it, it is so easy to take offence, have I forgotten it, can I forget it or should I forget it.  Is caution the second time round a sign of un-forgiveness what happens if they do it again, I think the truth of the matter is they will err again it is just how you deal with it, don’t just forgive the sin do something to help them stop but don’t destroy hope inside them.  So now I have it, it is not the act of asking for forgiveness, if I am right or wrong, it is have I the humility to forgive others.  So now I am stuck with the hardest thing to do ever, how do I forgive myself in a sea of despair, know who you are but who am I.

Is tradition dying

I don’t know about your country but in OZ I think family traditions are dying.  Since we have a pension for aged people tradition does not include the family support as it once did, this may change in the future as governments readdress the age pension for people with assets and rich families.  Let’s face it, honour your father and mother is a lot harder to do with contact and monetary support if you are struggling to feed yourself and live in a different state (or country as some do).  I don’t know about the Europeans as last time I was staying there it was still a custom for the entire family to live under one roof.  Reflectively many Australians are staying at home to an older age to avoid the rental or mortgage disposition although I don’t know if they do honour their parents by doing this.  Traditionally Australia is a big melting pot as many of us are not indigenous born and therefore have evolved new traditions as we come from or are first generation, we now stand without a tradition as slapping my thighs and dancing about in lederhosen does not appeal to me.  Because of our traditions, every one of us knows who he is and what God expects him to do (Fiddler on the Roof ), our beliefs use the traditions for this fact, we need to hand these down no matter what belief you have but don’t push the next generation as we remember when we were forced to do things we all wanted to rebel.  Traditions will show who you are but respect the country you are in, some places laws will stop your traditions, respect them so they may respect you. Additionally, if you choose to live there, your children will not necessarily hold onto your traditions, you can only change this through love and understanding, respect their decision show the right way, they may turn around and decide their parents were correct.  Traditions are also time related but the core must remain, you may need to adjust your traditions for the next generation that they can carry on.  If you find yourself facing tradition being lost in the next generation remember to re-visit the traditions of your parents and how much you changed them.
 

Secret stolen generation

The day I saw that the Stolen Generation was recognised by the government I celebrated for the indigenous people of Australia.  This moment was very important for them as I will explain later but many do not know about the secret stolen generation.  It was between the 1950-1980 many single mothers were forced to put their children into adoption or homes; in some circumstances the Torres Strait Islander indigenous were lucky because they had what is known as traditional adoption.  However, the single Caucasian mothers were not so lucky, they were forced to hand their children over to strangers or sent into homes, some of them were never to see their children again.  This is the story of my mum who was lucky in retrospect but she still cries over what happened to her sons and wonders if things would have been different.  When my mother was first married she had three sons to her first husband, after some time they separated due to violence but now single she would need to have a partner to have work and keep her children, as there was no single mothers’ pension.  So she stayed with a man known as Silver, he would kick the eldest son and so when my mother said she would leave him he held a shot gun to her head and told her that he was to do away with all of them, at that point she fainted. That was until she met my father and he took her away from that, he told me that Silver met him in a hay shed and picked up a pitchfork and was going to skewer him, my father turned to him and told him that if he missed or did not kill him Silver was to walk home with the pitchfork up a certain part of his anatomy.  As my father had a reputation of keeping his word Silver never crossed their paths again.  Unfortunately for my mother, times were still very tough and with a new child she was unable to keep her children of the first marriage. They were fortunate enough to go into a good boys’ home which was strict but close to the place she lived.  The boys and mum still had good contact, I remember that two of them won scholarships and went to Scotch College in Melbourne, the other later left for Queensland and stayed with his uncle.  Later at separate times the two older brothers who went to college ended their lives, the youngest however became a very successful salesman in Queensland with a great love of God. Mum wonders if she would have fought more to keep her sons from going to the boys home would they still be alive. Many more stories remain hidden in the lives of the older women today, fortunately the injustices were mostly recognised by the government.  So it is true that some Caucasian adults are a stolen generation but it is circumstantially different to the indigenous.  As I understand, Indigenous Australians need a belonging and to know their roots as it is through family ties healing can come for themselves and others.  I have seen indigenous family members argue and fight (visible people) until they meet then all is forgiven.  I think Caucasians could learn from this and understand if we got together and became “visible” instead of being “invisible” and hiding our feelings we could forgive and be healed.