The Campfires of Gentle People

"...one never has to look far to see the campfires of gentle people." I just got done reading a great article in the May 21-22 edition of the Brisbane Courier Mail Beliefs flourish in a time of doubt by an Australian feature writer named Kathleen Noonan and thought I would share some of it. In a previous column, she asked the question, "What do you believe?" thinking for the most part that it was a rhetorical question - but the responses came flooding in and here are a few of them.

Some are pragmatic From a WWII veteran: "I believe you only have today. Stick your teeth in, smile, and get on with it."
Some are quaint: "I believe in dogs' faces when you put on running shoes"
Some are complex: From a detective: "I believe in pure evil and the unlimited capacity for man to commit unspeakable horrors on others and especially children. I believe that people 'can' die of a broken heart. I believe in the smell of boxing gyms. I believe in the sun even when it isn't shining. I believe in love, even when I feel it not. I believe in God, even when he is silent".
Some are funny: I believed in love until that last stinking mongrel left me and took the (car). So now I believe in Karma...cos it blew up just outside (the city)!
Some are born from facing ugliness: From a policeman: "I believe that smiles melt people and that eyes smile. I believe that every day could be your last and you should live life as if it is."

Ms. Noonan ends with: "Sure, winter is nearly here. The days darken early. Firewood is on sale around town. The headlines make you doubt the goodness of governments and individuals. But there's warmth and light in the campfires of gentle people.

A few of my own:

I believe in the purity of a child's love.
I believe that the only thing evil needs to fluorish is for goodness to be idle.
I believe strength and tenderness can occur simultaneously ~ ask my father-in-law, he'll show you.
I believe in the stillness of nature.
I believe there are angels among us.

You?

Goin' Troppo!

O.K. - here's the newest Aussie'ism - goin' troppo, as in, "it's so freakin' hot in here I'm going troppo!" I had so much fun with my Aussie students today with little phrases like that. One of the grad' students asked if they would use the relaxation techniques we were discussing, preventatively or after a patient "goes completely troppo" LOL! I had no idea what he was talking about so he explained that "going troppo" refers to when someone completely flips out, as if he they flipped out and lost their temper due to extreme heat, in the middle of summer or something. I said, "oh o.k., we have something like that also.... goin' postal". Bunch of students were like, "yeah, we've heard of that, in the movies and everything... what does that mean?" When I explained to them that every once in a while someone who works in the postal system completely freaks and snags a bunch of hostages or something, they were simultaneously laughing and wondering why mail carriers in the U.S. are so angry - it was hysterical!

BTW - Karen and the kids leave 2 weeks from today!

Grace's New Glasses

P1010256
Originally uploaded by ed_roth.

Look how gorgeous my niece is! She got her first pair of glasses last week and is trying to get used to them. Now those, are blue eyes.

Definitely feeling tired tonight (almost all day today). I haven't been sleeping all that much/well lately and this weekend there really wasn't much of a break. I hosted an all-day conference this Saturday for the Queensland Association of Music Therapists. My friend David also gave an overview of anatomy/kinesiology so I got to take about a 90-minute break and all went very well - they told me it was the best attended professional development event in the last two years. But I'm whipped now - this is not a good sign as I need to be accelerating the pace of productivity as Karen and kids will be on the way in two and a half weeks. Now THAT is something to get energetic about!