The winter tree

The winter tree gives us just enough
hope for leaves
in the spring.
Six months of dark magic
pulling life up from the earth.
Bury my dreams
bury my body
beneath the cyprus tree.

© "Neon Veil" (All rights reserved) 

From XMAS-Wallpapers

Soaring clouds

We took one piece of

Magic rhinoceros horn

And could not sleep all night long.

All night the cock’s gorgeous crest

Stood erect. All night the bee

Clung trembling to the flower

Stamens. Oh my sweet perfumed

Jewel! I will allow only

My lord to possess my sacred

Lotus pond, and every night

You can make blossom in me

Flowers of fire.

by Huang O (1498-1569)

© Jennifer Phillips

Weight

I’ve been starting over for a long time

I’m not ready for another day

I feel, I feel renewed

Time is right, I’m only getting older

I’m not ready for the second wave

The way you’ve seen it through

Don’t be bolder, golden life of mine

Sing for love, full force in my life

I’m not ready for the way you dance

Tie the money hold on for a long time

There’s an answer for another man

I’m yet to find the way

Wasting years or waiting for a saviour

I’m not made up for the simple path

Don’t take it day by day

Don’t be bolder, golden life of mine

Sing for love, full force in my life

I’m not ready for the boulder

I’m not ready for the dry cut jeans

I’m not ready for the sirens

I’m not ready for the fear and shame

I’m not ready for the waking

Take me from myself

From myself

Holding on to something I don’t know

I’ve been starting over for a long time

I’m not ready for the second wave

The way you’ve seen me cry.

by Mikal Cronin

Adulthood

I go outside

Ask the air if it would like to hide

Take a deep breath

Walk inside my prize

In my lungs I still feel young

But my body won’t play along

I’m thinking this must not be where we belong

And the world

Split in two from the throng

Of every living soul

Screaming at the top of their lungs

Singing this is my word

But somehow we never get heard

There’s just an echo

From a lost and lonely world

And I dare you to survive

Being grown for the rest of your life

From adulthood no one survives.

Ten billion feet

Pounding at the ground each week

Every secret, every burden they keep

Each one’s waiting on the chance

To be lifted off the ground but then

To discover that we’ll all be dust again

And I dare you to survive

Being grown for the rest of your life

From adulthood no one survives.

…And I dare you to survive

Being grown for the rest of your life

From adulthood no one survives.

From adulthood no one survives.

by Jukebox the Ghost

People

No people are uninteresting.

Their fate is like the chronicle of planets.

Nothing in them is not particular,

and planet is dissimilar from planet.

And if a man lived in obscurity

making his friends in that obscurity

obscurity is not uninteresting.

To each his world is private,

and in that world one excellent minute.

And in that world one tragic minute.

These are private.

In any man who dies there dies with him

his first snow and kiss and fight.

It goes with him.

There are left books and bridges

and painted canvas and machinery.

Whose fate is to survive.

But what has gone is also not nothing:

by the rule of the game something has gone.

Not people die but worlds die in them.

Whom we knew as faulty, the earth's creatures

Of whom, essentially, what did we know?

Brother of a brother? Friend of friends?

Lover of lover?

We who knew our fathers

in everything, in nothing.

They perish. They cannot be brought back.

The secret worlds are not regenerated.

And every time again and again

I make my lament against destruction. 

by Yevgeny Yevtushenko

On marriage

Let there be spaces in your togetherness,

And let the winds of the heavens dance between you.

Love one another, but make not a bond of love:

Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.

Fill each other's cup but drink not from one cup.

Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf.

Sing and dance together and be joyous,

but let each one of you be alone though they quiver with the same music.

Give your hearts, but not into each other's keeping.

For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts.

And stand together yet not too near together:

For the pillars of the temple stand apart,

And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other's shadow.

By Kahil Gibran

The Sahara

Written many years ago, on the flyleaf of a beautiful copy of the children's book "The Princess and the Pea", by Hans Christian Andersen:

That I, the poor, lonely, lost man that I am, might have the temerity to even believe I could write these words is the greatest symbol I will ever offer to you. For while the oceans have passed between us, and though the miles that have separated us have felt like the ever-increasing span of the Sahara, I never lost hope that you could be my princess.

May this object be that symbol that says "I love you". May it tell you that of all the women in this enormous world, you are a true princess to me. All the times and memories that have shaped us while we have been apart are untouchable. And therefore know that there is no other to whom I will turn and offer my heart to nurture, to teach and to love.

by S.P.

Daisies

The stars are everywhere to-night,

Above, beneath me and around;

They fill the sky with powdery light

And glimmer from the night-strewn ground;

For where the folded daisies are

In every one I see a star.

And so I know that when I pass

Where no sun's shadow counts the hours

And where the sky was there is grass

And where the stars were there are flowers,

Through the long night in which I lie

Stars will be shining in my sky.

by Andrew Young

Plumage © Susara Phillips

Put insecurities to sleep

"It was rather beautiful : the way he put her insecurities to sleep. The way he dove into her eyes and starved all the fears and tasted all the dreams she kept coiled beneath her bones."

by Christopher Poindexter

Moments of sadness

"When someone is always constructive, always positive, active, moments of sadness are more noticeable. They're also more moving - the sadness of someone who never complains is more touching than the sadness of a moaner." 

- Carla Bruni-Sarkozy

Kissing you

Pride can stand a thousand trials.

The strong will never fall.

But watching stars without you, 

my soul cried.

Heaving heart is full of pain.

Oh, oh, the aching...

cause, I'm kissing you, ohh

I'm kissing you, ohh

Touch me deep, 

pure and true, 

give to me forever.

cause, I'm kissing you.

Oh, I'm kissing you, ohh.

Where are you now?

Where are you now?

Cause, I'm kissing you, 

I'm kissing you, ohh.

by Des'ree 

(Soundtrack from William Shakespeare's "Romeo + Juliet")

A sigh from a staircase of jade

Her jade-white staircase is cold with dew;
Her silk soles are wet, she lingered there so long....
Behind her closed casement, why is she still waiting,
Watching through its crystal pane the glow of the autumn moon?

 - Li Bai (701-762 A.D.)

 Pearl moon © Gemstone Universe

Teenagers

"When you're young and you want to have a baby because babies are so cute and everybody else has one, nobody ever takes you aside and explains to you what happens when they grow up. Maybe they all think it's obvious. I mean, if you know enough about biology to know where babies come from, then you should know that sooner or later they turn into teenagers, but somehow you just don't ever think about it, then one day, bang, you've got these total strangers living with you, these children in adult bodies, and you don't know who they are. It's like they somehow ate up those children you had and you loved, and you keep loving these people because you know they've got your child locked up in there somewhere."

by Ann Patchett in "The Magician's Assistant"

Six decades of a warming earth

A 15-second NASA time-lapse video shows the steady and rapid warming of the planet since the middle of the twentieth century, with regions in the Arctic and Siberia warming as much as two to four degrees Celsius (3.6 to 7. 2 degrees Fahrenheit) above a long-term average:

The animation begins in 1950, but the intensity of the yellow, orange and red colors shows how much temperatures have increased compared to baseline temperature data collected from 1880 to the present.

NASA said that nine of the planet’s 10 warmest years have occurred since 2000, and worldwide surface temperatures continued to rise in 2013, according to satellite and meteorological data.

Since 1880, when atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide  (CO2) were 285 parts per million (ppm), the average global temperature has risen 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit; atmospheric CO2 concentrations crossed a milestone of 400 ppm last year.

“Long-term trends in surface temperatures are unusual and 2013 adds to the evidence for ongoing climate change,” NASA climatologist Gavin Schmidt said. 

Text: EcoWatch

And a lie

The asking was askance.

And the tell all told.

So then, in tandem,

Anathema, and anthem.

The truth was on hold,

Seeking too tasking.

And the wool was pulled

Over as cover.

No eyes were kept peeled.

My iris I missed

The truth, now mistrust

All things seen, and this

Distrust, the sounded distress signal

Called and called and culled from your damsel.

by Hannah Sanghee Park

Eyes © Jennifer Phillips

Tonight's blood moon...

The moon’s orangey-red appearance tonight in Australia is due to a syzygy (lunar eclipse) — or a perfect alignment of three celestial bodies — of the sun, the Earth and the moon.

A former blood moon ... amateur astronomer Doug Robertson took this photo
from Hahndorf, South Australia, in January 2008. Source: News.com.au

Pressure to have children...

Tim Minchin - Peer Pressure & Hippos

The shadows

Shadows drifted over your face in the wind.

I was hanging on to a dream of us,

but it kept escaping my clutches,

and morphing into a nightmare.

I was just staring into nothing -

shadows in the darkness of your mind.

I saw clearly in the night for the first time -

There’s nothing there for us anymore.

You were there but not there -

you looked right through me,

clear through the other side,

and the other side was blank.

There’s no one to understand

that when we gave it, we gave it all,

but now we are sucked

dry as shells empty on the sand.

You drew me gently

into your moonlit world -

a world of dreams -

of light and sweet surrender.

Our days of drifting dreams  -

and barefoot loving  -

freedom in the silky moonlight

passed like raindrops, all too soon

No substance, no depth -

you had me so deep.

Now you're a wail into nothing,

and a drop off the edge.

You will not fight for me

and I am tired of fighting for you.

I bow and turn my back,

leave you to sink, as you choose.

Because I choose life.

I choose substance, and light.

No longer will I drift in your shadows,

like a waif, hoping for a pearl.

And now I see clearly you have no core.

So, with memories to sustain,

I walk with ever-lightening heart away

from what once was, but was never really.

The depth of our connection

was just moving shadows,

drifting, dreaming, distracting - 

insubstantial in the wind.

You are without substance or grace - 

just broken, too lost to piece back together.

I choose life, in peace, and grace.

One day you might find it too.

© Jennifer Phillips (All rights reserved)

© Tammi O'Hair Photography

On overrating a perceived goal...

“The great source of both the misery and disorders of human life, seems to arise from over-rating the difference between one permanent situation and another. 

Avarice over-rates the difference between poverty and riches: ambition, that between a private and a public station: vain-glory, that between obscurity and extensive reputation. 

The person under the influence of any of those extravagant passions, is not only miserable in his actual situation, but is often disposed to disturb the peace of society, in order to arrive at that which he so foolishly admires. 

The slightest observation, however, might satisfy him, that, in all the ordinary situations of human life, a well-disposed mind may be equally calm, equally cheerful, and equally contented. 

Some of those situations may, no doubt, deserve to be preferred to others: but none of them can deserve to be pursued with that passionate ardour which drives us to violate the rules either of prudence or of justice; or to corrupt the future tranquillity of our minds, either by shame from the remembrance of our own folly, or by remorse from the horror of our own injustice.” 

by Adam Smith, The Theory of Moral Sentiments 1759

Old farmhouse near Castlemaine

© Jennifer Phillips

The War on Terra - Canada vs Australia

It's 2013 and the world did not end by meteorite or by Mayan calendar. But fear not: we might just be able to get the job done ourselves. Join Robert Foster as he sets out to discover where Civilisation™ is making the fastest progress towards annihilation. In this edition of the Civilisation Report, Robert learns about Australia and Canada - two oft-neglected pioneers of peace, progress and prosperity - in conversation with our antipodean colonial correspondent Ken Oathcarn and his Canuck counterpart, Fagin Heighbard. Dear viewers, consider this a fair warning that in terms of language and affront to the dominant culture this could get fucking messy. 

- Written & created by Giordano Nanni & Hugo Farrant in a suburban backyard home-studio in Melbourne, Australia - on Wurundjeri Land.

Photograph of me outside my house

Only joking.
This is taken outside "Buda" - a historical homestead
in Castlemaine, Victoria - Australia.

Jen outside Buda © S. Phillips

To the moon

Art thou pale for weariness

Of climbing heaven and gazing on the earth,

Wandering companionless

Among the stars that have a different birth,

And ever changing, like a joyless eye

That finds no object worth its constancy?

by Percy Bysshe Shelley

Moon © Jennifer Phillips

On children

Your children are not your children.

They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.

They come through you but are not from you, And though they are with you yet they belong not to you. 

You may give them your love but not your thoughts.

For they have their own thoughts. 

You may house their bodies but not their souls,

For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, nor even in your dreams. 

You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.

For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.

The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far.

Let your bending in the Archer's hand be for gladness;

For even as He loves the arrrow that flies, so He loves also the bow that is stable.

by Kahil Gibran

My kids when they were small

My kids when they were littler © Jennifer Phillips

In pursuit of happiness

Prof. Daniel (Dan) Gilbert is trying to nail what on earth we mean by "happiness" by charting the ups and downs of 5000 lives worldwide.

Data is based on over 5,000 people from 83 countries. Track Your Happiness is a research project that uses smartphones to collect information.

We now know that once you earn about $75,000 per year, your happiness won't increase with more income, but your satisfaction will.

Most of us think that it is fun to let our minds wander (which happens about half the time). But our data show that when the mind is wandering, people are less happy, not more. People are happiest when thinking about what they are doing and not something else. This is true even when commuting or washing up.

Happy thoughts do not make us happy. People who are "here and now" seem happier than those who aren't. That's one reason why social interaction makes people happy. When you talk to someone, your mind rarely wanders because you are listening and thinking about what to say. Interaction keeps us tethered to the moment. It doesn't allow us to float away.

The list of what else makes us happy includes friendships, health, money, sleep and sex. The only real surprise is children, who have a small but reliably negative impact on happiness.

We found that people are much happier with irreversible than reversible decisions because we rationalise the former but not the latter. Someone mentioned this was the essential difference between living with or marrying your girlfriend. If your wife does something mildly annoying you shrug your shoulders, but when your girlfriend does it you wonder if you should keep shopping. As soon as I saw that result I went home and proposed.

Extracts from an interview with Daniel (Dan) Gilbert from "In pursuit of happiness" in the New Scientist - 16 April 2011

"To me, life is like an orchard. You pick the fruit when you see it. For years, I bummed around the world looking for happiness. Then one day I realised happiness isn't something you find. All the happiness in the world is between your two ears." 

By Jim Unger "Herman - The Third Treasury".

For more...

view TED Talk: Dan Gilbert on the surprising science of happiness

Harvard psychologist Dan Gilbert says our beliefs about what will make us happy are often wrong — a premise he supports with intriguing research, and explains in his accessible and unexpectedly funny book, "Stumbling on Happiness". 


The Action for Happiness project states that despite big increases in income, UK and US citizens are no happier now than in the 1950s. The reasons are fairly clear. While people care about their income, they value more how income relates to the prevailing norm. But since it is impossible for a society to improve relative income, long-term economic growth is not a feasible route to a happier society.

Compared with the past, people are less happy with their marriages and, in most countries job satisfaction has fallen. There has also been a collapse of trust in the UK and the US. In the 1960s, around 60 per cent considered that "most other people can be trusted"; now it is around 30 per cent.

Mental health is worse today than in the 1960s. Twice as many adolescents have emotional or behavioural problems as in the 1970s, with similar trends seen in students in the US and Australia.

Action for Happiness asks people to commit to increasing happiness and to decreasing misery - and equips them with the tools to do so.

From Richard Layars - Programme director of well-being at the London School of Economics

Daffodil © Jennifer Phillips

I'm in love with you

“I’m in love with you,” he said quietly. “I am,” he said. He was staring at me, and I could see the corners of his eyes crinkling. “I’m in love with you, and I’m not in the business of denying myself the simple pleasure of saying true things. I’m in love with you, and I know that love is just a shout into the void, and that oblivion is inevitable, and that we’re all doomed and that there will come a day when all our labor has been returned to dust, and I know the sun will swallow the only earth we’ll ever have, and I am in love with you.” 

by John Green, The Fault In Our Stars

Plumage © Jennifer Phillips

Rules for being human

Rule One - You will receive a body. 
Whether you love it or hate it, it's yours for life, so accept it. What counts is what's inside.

Rule Two - You will be presented with lessons. 
Life is a constant learning experience, every day provides opportunities for you to learn more. These lessons are specific to you, and learning them 'is the key to discovering and fulfilling the meaning and relevance of your own life'.

Rule Three - There are no mistakes, only lessons. 
Your development towards wisdom is a process of experimentation, trial and error, so it's inevitable things will not always go to plan or turn out how you'd want. Compassion is the remedy for harsh judgement - of ourselves and others. Forgiveness is not only divine - it's also 'the act of erasing an emotional debt'. Behaving ethically, with integrity, and with humour - especially the ability to laugh at yourself and your own mishaps - are central to the perspective that 'mistakes' are simply lessons we must learn.

Rule Four - The lesson is repeated until learned. 
Lessons repeat until learned. What manifest as problems and challenges, irritations and frustrations are more lessons - they will repeat until you see them as such and learn from them. Your own awareness and your ability to change are requisites of executing this rule. Also fundamental is the acceptance that you are not a victim of fate or circumstance - 'causality' must be acknowledged; that is to say: things happen to you because of how you are and what you do. To blame anyone or anything else for your misfortunes is an escape and a denial; you yourself are responsible for you, and what happens to you. Patience is required - change doesn't happen overnight, so give change time to happen.

Rule Five - Learning does not end. 
While you are alive there are always lessons to be learned. Surrender to the 'rhythm of life', don't struggle against it. Commit to the process of constant learning and change - be humble enough to always acknowledge your own weaknesses, and be flexible enough to adapt from what you may be accustomed to, because rigidity will deny you the freedom of new possibilities.

Rule Six - "There" is no better than "here". 
The other side of the hill may be greener than your own, but being there is not the key to endless happiness. Be grateful for and enjoy what you have, and where you are on your journey. Appreciate the abundance of what's good in your life, rather than measure and amass things that do not actually lead to happiness. Living in the present helps you attain peace.

Rule Seven - Others are only mirrors of you. 
You love or hate something about another person according to what love or hate about yourself. Be tolerant; accept others as they are, and strive for clarity of self-awareness; strive to truly understand and have an objective perception of your own self, your thoughts and feelings. Negative experiences are opportunities to heal the wounds that you carry. Support others, and by doing so you support yourself. Where you are unable to support others it is a sign that you are not adequately attending to your own needs.

Rule Eight - What you make of your life is up to you.
You have all the tools and resources you need. What you do with them is up to you. Take responsibility for yourself. Learn to let go when you cannot change things. Don't get angry about things - bitter memories clutter your mind. Courage resides in all of us - use it when you need to do what's right for you. We all possess a strong natural power and adventurous spirit, which you should draw on to embrace what lies ahead.

Rule Nine - Your answers lie inside of you. 
Trust your instincts and your innermost feelings, whether you hear them as a little voice or a flash of inspiration. Listen to feelings as well as sounds. Look, listen, and trust. Draw on your natural inspiration.

Rule Ten - You will forget all this at birth. 
We are all born with all of these capabilities - our early experiences lead us into a physical world, away from our spiritual selves, so that we become doubtful, cynical and lacking belief and confidence. The ten Rules are not commandments, they are universal truths that apply to us all. When you lose your way, call upon them. Have faith in the strength of your spirit. Aspire to be wise - wisdom the ultimate path of your life, and it knows no limits other than those you impose on yourself.


Above is a brief summary and explanation of Dr. Cherie Carter-Scott's 'Rules for Being Human'. Dr Carter-Scott's book, 'If Life is a Game, These are the Rules', explains that Cherie Carter-Scott developed the 'Rules' quite a long time before her book was published in 1998, specifically during the mid-1970s, while in the process of designing a three month training program for consultants learning how to deliver her 'Inner Negotiation/Self-Esteem Workshop' and related teachings.

In the crescent of the moon

In the crescent of the moon I see your face 

In the sound of thunder I hear your name

In the beat of my pulse I feel your presence 

In the shadow of the night I imagine you

And in my weeping eyes I long for you

by Samar Bekai

Crecent moon ©  Wade B. Clark Jr.