sketches of the mind

Two new documentaries that I’m excited to watch. Both are about raising social awareness to a new phase in humankind.

The Shift Movie

There is no release date as it appears the film is either still in production or is being scrapped/held due to lack of funding. I hope it gets completed!

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Dalai Lama Renaissance

I tried contacting the Toronto International Film Festival group to see if they are planning to screen Dalai Lama Renaissance and their reply was:

The complete list of films will be released in mid-August.

Hopefully I can see it sooner (even if that means I need to host a pre-screening myself!).

After our trip to Presqu’ile Provincial Park last weekend I have a re-discovered love for camping, and like most trips the company can really make the difference.

So on Friday afternoon/evening Neesa, Nadja, Maria and I packed our bags and things into the Maria-mobile and headed off for Presqu’ile. Being the fun people that we are we tried to remember camping songs along the way. One song that we all knew, well except for Neesa who had never been on a camping trip before (yes, she was mega-excited as you could imagine), was The Ants Go Marching. This song would become the anthem for the trip.

The ants go marching one by one, hurrah, hurrah
The ants go marching one by one, hurrah, hurrah
The ants go marching one by one,
The little one stops to suck his thumb
And they all go marching down to the ground
To get out of the rain, BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

With tents, sleeping bags, overpacked backpacks (I’m talking about myself here), food, water, games, bug repellent, cutlery, and other camping items in the back seat and boot (”trunk” as the North Americans refer to it) of the car and now armed with our new anthem we were on our way.

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So how is it possible to attract wealth and money into your life?

I’ll answer that. First of all realise that it is possible to attract wealth and abundance into your life. Yes, it’s possible. If you don’t believe me, just ask somebody who’s doing it. Rags to riches stories are everywhere - Robert Kiyosaki, Donald Trump, those are a couple of guys who were able to do it, lose it, and do it again - so they’re great examples to learn from. I’m sure there are millions of others.

Ok so it is possible. Got it? Right.

Now that we agree that it’s possible, let’s shift your focus.

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Why do I punish myself so? I’ve averaged five hours of sleep all week and last night was no different. Today I have yet to eat a real meal and I’ve been awake since 8 am. Instead I’ve been stuffing myself with white chocolate macadamia cookies that my last surfers gave to me as a gift last weekend (so sweet of them!). I’ve been procrastinating on working my goal sheet and leaving things until the last minute (like my third photography assignment which I finished 30 mins before it was due last night).

What in heavens is going on?

Perhaps this has something to do with the news from my father three days ago that my mum has been diagnosed with some form of ovarian cancer, something which has attacked her liver and caused her stomach to bloat (which she had to go to hospital for last week and have the fluid drained). She’s also lost twenty kilos since I last saw her in October last year. My cousin sent me a photo of her and she looks frail and starved. She hasn’t been eating. My my mum told me that herself when I was on the phone with her last week. It hurts for her to try. She hasn’t been sleeping either. I could hear her cry practically the whole time that she was on the line with me. I didn’t know what to say, other than “you need to take care of yourself” and that I’d be in Sydney to vist in May.

The day that I had heard the news I had no idea how to deal with it. I was numb really.

I have since accepted this event for what it is, an event. How I choose to perceive the event - positive or negative or neutral - is completely up to me. Same as how you choose to perceive it is up to you. There is no inherent good or bad in somebody getting cancer, it’s just natural and it happens.

I choose to not go down a negative emotional path. Moderm medicine will do its thing and she’ll need to determine whether she has more to experience of life. I can only hope that she feels that she does and recovers from this stronger than she was before.

Now if only I could get my act together and just do the needful.

I was meant to attend a CS boardgames night tonight but that’s not happening. Instead I will resign myself to a pizza from Mammas (it’s been a while), catching up with editing and sharing some photos that I took ages ago but never got around to completing, doing some work towards my goals, and perhaps catching up on Survivor, Lost and reading a bit of Chicken Soup For The Soul (great great book!) before turning in for a reasonably early night.

Early start tomorrow and a full day of events ahead.