Voluntary Simplicity

This is the big concept in flashing lights I've had in my head the past day or so. Very complicated intense persons definitely should DO THIS....conscientiously make the effort to keep everything as simple as possible!!! So yes day one into the practice with renewed discipline and vigour has been good...caught up on DOWNTIME for the last crazy two weeks...why is it we modern people never know how to just...live...rather we always have to cram our schedules jampacked even in leisure so that we are just constantly exhausted and checking our planners and watches??

Today I really took pleasure in cooking a decent meal probably the first for the entire week! A sweet potato, chicken, silverbeet, parsley, spring onion and lettuce rice, okay with a small cherry tomato thrown in...(weird combo of veggies as those were what was ready to harvest from my garden)...then I mopped my floors a little..geez I am worse than a CAT- high maintenance re combatting the way I malt head hair!!! and then I settled on the couch for a couple of hours engrossed in reading THE HEAVENLY MAN...as my mother has a chinese expression to describe...I can't remember the words but it means something like "not a peep/sound came out"...then I took a nap...quick check of the email and then I will lay up on the couch to finish out the book...and then I will finish tackling KOYAANISQATSI...before heading to bed at a decent hour prepared for the early morning wake up for church. wow, what a civilised day. Good thing my friend was so exhausted she had to cancel our afternoon tea and dinner date...cos I am seriously pooped too and needed this day to myself...

So my conclusion is I love such a life devoid of drama and complications...I feel like I already got too much of the complicated drama etc under my belt by a young age so I'm totally enamoured by this revelation of sorts of the back to basics simplicity of life which is the way it should be except that the unhealthy culture of modern society tends to encourage us all to be crazy!

The best thing about the life of Voluntary Simplicity and hermitude is that sticking close to God it is very very easy to achieve a previously elusive consistent PEACE. Thank God!!!

Peace in Solitude

I think this is the thing I REALLY APPRECIATE lately.

I don't think most people get it at all though...they just think I'm weird. But BOY am I thankful for solitude, even experiencing the car crash of roller coaster emotions of other people by association that go nuts crazy and irrational due to social/romantic issues is just too much disturbance to the peace I am used to relishing in in my "sanctuary"! :D

So yeah I'm all into hermit escape mode in a bid to protect this peace while I recuperate and rest up from too much social interaction...life is just so much simpler and soooo luxuriously peaceful when you only have to cater for yourself...of course friendship is awesome but except for those minority few in the world that are quite contented by themselves...social relations with people that have messy social issues is one drain I don't need right now...of course no man is an island but I don't really like "the social network" effect either. So I guess my favourite people in the world are happily married people, happily single people, really old people and pre-pubescent kids...YAY!

So my best friends will be God and taking refuge in and indulging my interests...I think overly complicated people just really do need very very simple lives to balance them out...maybe that is why I am so drawn to farming...and nature, and animals...

I still need to add piano lessons to this I think. I love to zone out with music and film too...art perhaps but I hate the messy clean up after!!

Before I knew God...

My life was so silly, dare I say even idiotic, meagre and even in some ways perhaps...mediocre...

These days I am enjoying the peace and joy that is God and dare I say there is a new sense of....abundance of sorts in my life...

So anyway yesterday was the start of a new era (the "Over the hill" one historically haha-when I was little, 30 always seemed the "peak" of the hill and anything past was "over", lol) So anyway to mark this occasion I put up a Christmas tree since that symbolises the birth of my most favourite one too :-D

I would post a pic except after dressing the tree, the colours seemed wrong and it seemed a bit overdressed so hopefully I'll fix it to something that seems more fitting soon.

I also re-discovered a really awesome picture perfect SWIMMING beach and more perfect haunts when my b'day twin comes for a getaway so we can wreak havoc on the locals (hehe) so looking forward to going back then. It is so damn hot here now- Summer truly- so much so that that is why I can't sleep at 4am!!

Anyway it was a good day :-D

INTERNATIONALS.....Arghhhhhh!!!! :-D

THANK. YOU. GOD!!!!

May you and I all never forget that God is faithful and answers prayers :) ^^ ^^ ^^!!

So anyway I was *so so excited* I finally cracked through my monoculture no culture brains void bang head on brick wall issue here....

I seriously had had it up to HERE(motions 50cm above head) with the uncultured yob factor and Tall Poppy Sooks I get subjected to here...not to mention all the vacant stares...seriously, okay for sure it's elitist and Aussies have major overaffliction of Tall Poppy Syndrome and thus related oversensitivity but SERIOUSLY, sometimes it IS just about being able to converse with people at the SAME LEVEL of your understanding on various things...I don't know why such offense and discrimination is directed at cultured intellectuals in this country I mean I wouldn't have a clue what you were talking about if you talk engines and tools yet I don't get a CHIP ON MY SHOULDER because of admitting I'm ignorant about cars!

So yes Thank God for the Multi-cultured seemingly less neanderthal Internationals :)

I reflected on the whole debacle of how I CLASH so much with the majority of native locals left in this country these last few years since 90% of my friends went overseas...the solution I found had a lot to do with teeing up with a really really old friend of mine who went to the same infants, primary, highschool AND uni I did...all in all we received a pretty high and advanced standard of education as can best be expected in Sydney....she too has found herself less than ecstatic with the Aussies and in love with the foreigners!! Like just about all my friends...

And I realised it goes like THIS....once you get out of fairly academic environments you get presented with the REAL state of Australia...and that is one where there is a very very low level of education among its residents....by this stage many of the highly educated typically go overseas since their qualifications give them access to more promising encouraging environments. I guess it's also cos our population is not that big either and not to mention higher education is a bit costly :P so relative we have quite a small population of very educated people, maybe throw in we are marooned on a desolate island far removed from the rest of the world...and it is so easy to shelter in a kangaroo microcosm where that much sun fries the brains and that much water clogs the ears that people aren't that broadly informed either...

And that is why as highly educated intelligent minority ethnicity FEMALES we are subjected to a huuuuge amount of disfavour and discrimination by the dominant majority in this country...I guess being a male minded non submissive slightly feminist INTJ doesn't help either ;) lol the more minority you are I think the more of a rude shock it is for the average person to encounter ...like something they have never encountered...and they don't quite know how to handle you but lament you are weird and abnormal because you are such a rare and special minority...hehe...if people thought I was weird here I wonder how HO gets away with it??LOL Simple. SHE is in America the Land of the Free! lol and anYthinG really does go there!!!

But seriously...in the last few years as the success of the asians particularly the Mainland Chinese has really made a huge presence known in this city I have really felt a level of racism and jealousy never experienced before growing up just because of what I look like on the outside! Which in turn has naturally made me start to feel resentment toward the other side...I know it happens all over the world but for the first 20 years or so of my life it was seriously a non issue, which is how I would have liked it to stay!

Wow code cracked, I'm glad...it's been such a mystery my inner psychologist has pondered so much about why I clashed so much with locals especially Aussie men of my vintage and younger my whole life...

It IS a cultural issue. Anyway once you work out what it is that is irking then you can just avoid it as much as possible...yay! ...Happy days! :)

Shining Light...

It's been really weird since I settled in my new town, which is quite bizarre how someone like me would end up in. Prior to gaining faith and the Holy Spirit I was completely insensitive to what spiritual darkness and oppression resides in this area in general, but like my eyes were opened, suddenly I am no longer blind. In fact the oppression of the people around me and all their issues was bad enough that I was unable to sleep!(Noise, Chain smoking fumes setting off my smoke alarm and sending my lymph nodes into swollen fits etc)

...So definitely a lot of people with problems...one day last week or the week before I finally hit the hissy fit internally and got the kick up the butt to action...no longer could I be the lazy, passive non confrontational uncaring random stranger bystander...these people's icky vibes were starting to get on my nerves!!! Sometimes people get into this stagnant state where they are so deep buried in their own sh*t in a pit so deep and wide that they are helpless to help themselves and can't see past the fuzz of all the muck until someone drags them kicking and screaming out!

So this morning I started spreading the *Light* in a more concrete way to "clean up" and "lift" the general "dirty" "heavy" feeling of the area. In stark contrast to my apathetic keep to myself nature I started doing mailbox drops, like an activist LOL!!! Pamphlets along the lines of THE TRUTH WILL SET YOU FREE...JESUS IS YOUR ANSWER! lol

Non believers can scoff and snigger all they want, but when the sh*t hits the fan...where does everyone else go? What can everyone else do? NADA. There are so many problems in this world and people suffering afflictions that their greatest self sufficiency, ability or those of their loved ones, the greatest doctors, scientists, thinkers, philanthropists in the world have NO answer for! It is at that point when you have reached the end of the road that you can find the answer. So that's basically the message I wanted to share...that there is *Hope* and one who is greater than all and capable of all^^...God Bless :)

Fruits of the Spirit...A Meditation

love

joy

peace

patience

kindness

goodness

faithfulness

gentleness

self-control

May your life be filled with these :)

♥Zz

Children of God (o=

So JJ respects me mainly cos I have standards and that I don't compromise these despite what everyone else is doing or thinks.

But in any case just reflecting...definitely I've found that children of God with true faith have much higher standards especially in respect to human decency and conduct to others, and that it is not unreasonable to expect this :) So I am really grateful... It is nice that since we are accountable to a superhuman authority we aspire to higher standards and even if we may fail miserably-*cough* like being able to love our fellow human beings (lol), that AT LEAST it crosses our mind that we SHOULD be doing do...by virtue of the Spirit we have a conscience and a guilt if we don't which makes us at least want to try our very best to improve every subsequent time that same situation presents...

Anyway I take comfort in this that others with higher standards can be found still in modern day society...and that they do have some kind of marker on their head so I can at least seek them out when I feel like I need a team!

"But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love."

It's True!!!

It's true!

Since I came into the family all I have noticed is how arrogant, mean, closed-minded and what utter DHs many other people are...particularly atheists! To me atheist is almost synonymous with "only aware of self, therefore selfish". Of course that's a generalisation and not a fact...Thank God! lol

Blessed are the little children...

For they are the ones who see God :D (Okay, some of us child-like adults too maybe hehe...)

Happy Father's Day to the Ultimate Father! ;)

Not a Popularity Contest!

LOL, good thing I have a lot of miles in the unpopularity stakes...I guess that's what happens when you get stuck in a lot of circumstances against your will&thus enjoyment...crappy high school...crappy ALL GIRLS and hence petty bitchy environment high school etc etc. Being BRUTALLY honest in a country and culture that likes to hide behind superficial niceties also doesn't add to your likeability stakes...lucky it doesn't bother me as much as it perhaps should?

So anyway I've found since I got faith so drastically there is a chasm with unbelievers and even unbelieving believers! There's a lot that one either intuitively understands inherently via the Spirit or doesn't...I guess it's a good thing I'm a seasoned loner and I enjoy my own time and space....but yeah that being able to LOVE the average person deficiency I have weighs on my conscience, lol...I offer it up to you God :) Strangely enough the passage I got offered at the nunnery on the first day of this year was about making a heart of flesh out of a heart of stone, hehehe

I like cool interesting good nice people though...cool interesting good nice people are easy to like...just they are SO SO RARE TO FIND in this hemisphere and time period feels like, lol!

I had one of the most amazing, exciting, fortunate days today!!!!

It was amazing...THANKS GOD :)

I can't even elaborate so much happened and was so complex and kinda a little so amazing it was a bit mind blowing...or at least uncomprehendable.

FEEL GOOD - wonder if I will still feel this amazing when I wake up tomorrow...but seriously THANKS GOD it's almost like 20 christmases came at once...today would have to be in my TOP 3-5 things of amazingness that ever happened in my life....maybe tomorrow it might fall down the ranks but still...definitely makes the TOP TEN ever ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^!!!

The looong day started at 8am and ends now....almost 2am...it was A GREAT DAY :D

A Born Again...

Someone asked me what kind of Christian am I? I never understood why people seem to be so obsessed about denominations...so anyway in order to answer the question I had to look up what the terms meant...I found out I'm a BORN AGAIN, lol. I included the link cos I thought it was a good explanation.

So anyway the other thing I noticed is hailing from an all girls school I used to think I was "not your average girl"...now I"m starting to think I'm "not the average person"...not sure why people in general are so interested in other people's business and gossiping etc...I like to talk about IDEAS but I noticed most people just like to talk about other people....I don't get it, what could be more boring?? lol! Maybe it's cos of my INTJ-ness and lack of social bone in my body, loner disposition and lack of connection to most human beings...if I think about it with my own logical rational mind, the fact I am so disinterested is kinda disturbing....am I actually an alien? LOL

Recently I had quite a few long lost associates assume my drastic change of lifestyle must come with a guy that finally appeals to me enough that I have shacked up with them....

UM??!!

Which brings me to the fact that God is so cool and so REAL and so wholely fulfilling. I think the secret behind all the huge changes..well unbelievers just never get it!!! Which I think is a huge disadvantage to be one cos the one thing I seem to notice is they seem to think they need other people to fill the voids in their life...the answer for all holes that need patching is right there for the taking...the answer is God :)

What Constitutes a REAL Christian anyway?

This is the big thought niggling me lately. I look around at people that call themselves Christians, people that attend church...they often don't always meet what I think constitutes a Christian. Most modern Christians I think are "pick and choose" Christians. Most fallen Christians are people that believe if God is omnipotent why did he let them suffer? Therefore he must not exist or he doesn't care about me so I don't care for him is what I often hear. I am so tired of these people who blame all their misfortunes on God without realising that suffering is an inherent part of human existence. Partly though I can't understand how people have such a shallow understanding of God...or maybe it is because Knowing God requires having a real relationship and not just being sent to Sunday school?

The Norwegian terrorist is identified as "Christian" but how can acts of murder be called Christian?

There is so much hypocrisy. Then all the factionism. No wonder there is so much disillusionment with Christianity these days. I understand why if you say you are a Christian alot of the time people's eyes narrow and look at you distrustfully. I think in this modern world...alot of people are messed up and Christians aren't immune.

It IS nice though those very rare few times you meet REAL Christians...I don't know if it's something that can necessarily be "defined" in these modern ages though...it's rather more perhaps like an energy that people radiate...that of the Holy Spirit...but then apparently not every Christian has the Holy Spirit permanently indwelling in them either...does that make them not a real Christian? I don't know...it's all very confusing.

I happened across a passage in the bible describing the end times...it mentioned "famine and earthquakes"...seems like we're in the midst of them then...

My Christian family

I remember as an outsider I used to look upon this behaviour as "exclusivist"...now I'm on the other side I realise there is a real need for every Christian to have one. I'm not sure why not everyone can see God or has a God awareness. Maybe it is that thing that people throw around that "receiving a calling" business, as faith is definitely a gift which seems to only be given to a chosen group, or maybe it is only given to people that knocked. Maybe this atmosphere for the year can be explained by that thought that whatever you find yourself doing on the first day of a New Year, that's what characterizes the entire year to come...

On January 1 I was at a nunnery for the first time....amongst a whole bunch of pure uncorrupted spirit...blessed by the Grace of God. These are the only people I feel drawn to lately-cos other people just don't "get it"... so I'm happier in the company of the animals and the plants and the Earth...

Lately most people feel like draining buzz...I guess the losing touch with normal society thing....at least that is something that has always been fairly familiar, lol...

Thanks God :)

So I put out the distress call in the Please Santa Post just under 2 days ago...

And it's always amazing how God delivers :D

In that short time period it's pretty impressive what he managed to rustle up for me without seemingly a whole lot of effort on my part!...

2 New Actual Introvert^^ Connections E.g relate, share interests and have an understanding and dynamic beyond the "hi how are you, yeah I'm cold too" verbal diarrhoea.

A new Christian penpal I can relate to.

1 Very old friend- my best friend from year 9 who has been lost in an exotic country for the last 5 years just contacted me out of the blue!

A postcard from my German friend- actually apart from the exotic handwriting the part I got really excited about was P.P.S Probiotics seem to Work!!! (LOL once a health practitioner, always one...)

And of course my usual stable of loyal online friends from the wrong hemisphere :P

yup, although I rant and rave about my isolated predicament in the wrong country and culture, I have some pretty good company around, even if they are rather remote! ^^

Now maybe I should just put in some prayers about all those Swiss Alpine issues I referred to!

An aside, I just got a brand spanking new TV....OMG...LOOOove!!! don't blame me if I never want to leave the house again...right now though it's been hard to find enough time to sit through an entire show(!) Can't wait to test out those foreign subtitled films on the BIG SCREEN...no more eye strain-woooo!

Please Santa...

Send me a German for Christmas! :)
Send me a German for Christmas! :)
Send me a German for Christmas! :)

Or send some of my old Aussie friends BACK from the wrong hemisphere already! Pleeeeease...

p.s you notice I didn't ask God...cos I know God delivers and boy do I never know what I really want or what is really good for me, lol!

While I'm at it, Santa, please send my blogger friend and b'day twin James a hot Swedish boy! ;)

The Gift Of Faith

I grew up unaware if there really existed such a thing as “God”. Probably the term God didn’t even enter my conscious mind until perhaps the age of 11 or so when my aunt started going to church or when my brother’s best friend suddenly declared himself a Christian. All I remember was that both events were met with derision and ridicule and a further distancing from such “silliness”. Blindness had been thrust upon me since birth as well as a heart that increasingly became stone. Knowledge was power so therefore if it was any God I grew up with, it was Knowledge. Fallacies typical of being a child of struggling migrants were drummed into my head such as “if you work hard, good things will come to you”, and the most educated humans were the ones to look up to since they knew best about everything and hence were revered with an admiration fit for divinity.

For me growing up, my idea of God was just a nice fuzzy ideal that people with no thinking brains imagined for themselves so they could live in a happy fantasy world that was always rosey. A few attempts to bring me out of the darkness met with a closed, rigid “scientific” mind with more questions than could be answered, ready to dig a hole in everything, always ready to apply that "trusty" human rationale. A Big Ego, Arrogance, the only way I’d ever seen to be….your parents and people further up the food chain were your role models- the absolute authority and hierarchy- what they said you must do, all their truths became your truths…to question was insolence, obedience was a matter of respect…I was the last person to want to cause or be able to tolerate conflict.

Possibly three major life crises passed and I was none the wiser…my rock was my family. Exploration of various religions courtesy of a curious mind and an insatiable appetite to know more and more including some intriguing and respectful participation in dubious rituals was an interesting cultural appreciation and awareness expansion…more sweet mind candy –yum!

It had to be something BIG & relentless to open my eyes and wake me from my complacent slumber, and keep me awake long enough to acknowledge and recognize that perhaps these irrational and “wishy washy” faith believer type people sparsely dotted around me really were onto something…

It came in the form of 2010 – the Big Daddy of Annus Horribilis-es!

It started with crisis after crisis until I reached the end of my and everyone else’s resources…then, a sincere request. And like He says: those who seek, they find…

Spiritual warfare broke out as soon as the suspicion of there being just one true God & not some ambiguous overarching governor of the universe like my new age roots had endowed me with dawned …the praying started in earnest: friends, family, me...even all night 10 nights in a row-exhaustion-not giving in as would have seemed the easiest way out. The silencing crescendo came and peaked when Jesus came to me in a dream...touched me and I felt instantly spiritually healed to the point I woke up and felt it even in the conscious flesh and was left with 100% conviction along with a single spoken sentence from the figure in the dream that had touched me "I am the Way, I am the Truth, I am the Life"(pretty amazing for a non church goer who had barely opened a bible!): I finally HAD and finally UNDERSTOOD “faith”, that it was NOT religion and true faith involved a relationship with God, and that intellectual debates were completely irrelevant…Ever since then every day has been an amazing journey!

This Easter I’ve come full circle and I finally have the complete gift of 100% faith, with the revelation that God is No1. And everything and everybody else comes second!!!

That’s all…not my best piece of writing by any means, but you get the picture!

Happy Easter :)

Okay maybe I'm biased but...

This is my favourite song for 2011 so far. Have a listen :)

Offensively...Helpful :)

Saw a car with a sign in the window:TRY CHRISTIANITY.

Intrigued, my eyes lingered a while longer and saw that it was preceded by

"If you're stupid and don't understand science"...

(!!!) wow, that's pretty rude.

But then I realised, hey a *boon* for God cos the sentence was too long that bit was in small print so most people who glance, have no attention to detail or bad eyesight will only see the latter boldened part anyway!

Why thank you rude person for promoting the Truth! hehe :)

Continuing in this vein, had a message from God...

I was feeling kinda sad (surprisingly!) and a bit daunted today as the gravity of leaving sunk in...and I happened to see this in large print on a large sign...rather timely and fitting I think!!!

"WITH ENDINGS COME NEW BEGINNINGS AND OPPORTUNITIES. YOUR FUTURE OF SUCCESS STARTS NOW."

Wow. God is one cool dude :) What a reassuring and comforting message! ^^ ^^ ^^

A Clarification

At this unseemly hour I just wanted to make an earnest clarification on my thoughts re "religion". I really don't care for it...I don't really care for the rites or rituals on an ordinary basis I guess it is too steeped in tradition and too often insincere or meaningless for this liberated hippie boho.

I do however, by contrast love FAITH, and people filled with the Holy Spirit and the love and grace, peace and joy, courage and confidence they exude when they are truly connected.

And also although I have my Truth, I have respect and tolerance for people of all beliefs and value the right to individual preferences!!! Not only that, I am receptive to and appreciative of all places that contain high spiritual energy no matter what religious influence they may be affliated with.

Just wanted to vent that off my chest!