Freedom Beauty Truth

Following from my previous two blog posts in this mini-series about my recent decision to leave South Africa, country of my birth, and return to Australia where I had lived for many years... Here is the list of the main things I loved about living in South Africa (again). The first three are also the reasons we decided to move back there in the first place.... 1.  Family and friends Of course. It goes without saying that it’s much nicer to be closer to family and friends and have the opportunity to see them more often. The opportunities I had to reconnect after 10 years living out of the country I grew up in were much treasured, and I have so many happy memories – including our wedding on Noordhoek beach; my best friend from school days flying down to help before my wedding, and again to meet my newborn daughter a year and a half later (this could not have happened if I was still living overseas); my surprise baby shower with family in the Eastern Cape; a Christmas in...

“Creativity can solve almost any problem. The creative act, the defeat of habit by originality, overcomes everything.” – George Lois Who has all ‘the answers’? With New Year fast approaching, I have been looking back over the past year’s events – personal and worldwide – and thinking about the mess humanity is in, how we got here, what the year ahead holds in store for us (environmentally, socially and economically) …and of course where I fit into it all: how I could help in some way to improve the planet, or at least my little corner of it. This is an ongoing ‘musing’, actually - and what most of my ‘blog’ posts are in some way attempting to discuss. But there is also a strong reflexive component to this ‘blog’ - so far unacknowledged, which I would like to briefly refer to and explain today (before continuing with the wider discussion). Basically, the very act of ‘blogging’ assumes a few things: that people would be interested in what I have to say; that I have something useful to...

The mountain whispers to me when I lift my eyes from the cityscape, and I feel at once comforted. This unfamiliar, discordant place becomes suddenly inviting, and wise...as the mountain calls to me. From my balcony, the mountain beckons - and I long to run and climb...my lazy body sips coffee, my muggy head has no desire to be challenged...yet the mountain continues to draw me. Since early weeks in this new city , I have felt surrounded...and unexpectedly alien...to the land, the culture, the very weather, which has it in for me! But the mountain - how it sings, how it lovingly gazes down at me, whispers sweet nothings into my heart... The mountain is a woman! She is mother, and dances as I circle her each day...until the evenings, when she becomes the lullaby that fills my bedroom window...and I nestle to sleep at her feet.

In the middle of an article on 'resisting consumerism', I hopped off the bus, just to buy that hat I had been thinking of for days. Because I don't have enough hats! Clearly. I walked into the shop wearing the hat I had bought there only a few days ago! Two new hats in a week - and I already had too many to start with. Not only that - I had no money, and still no job. Yet there I was again, at the altar of hyper-consumerism. This altar doesn't even require you to kneel. It's all too easy. It strokes and panders to your ego, and the more you play this game, the easier it gets to drop $200 in a week - a week in which you weren't making any more money.... The buying impulse seems to manifest most strongly at times like this, actually. Self-destructive tendencies. Infantile attempts to placate the raging three-year-old within, who is demanding to be entertained, demanding attention, demanding every toy in the shop. Or perhaps it's my crazy way of tryin...

The ocean's salty breath caresses me as I step out of my cluttered little world of cabin-fever cats and unread books piled high (their shrill voices demanding attention even from the other side of the city)... I step out, and the big wide world greets me, the moody green ocean is eager to wrap me in salty embraces - "never mind all that...come and be with me, breathe deeply, I am already a part of you...remember..."

Why I believe in a Loving, Personal, Creator God 1. Design The argument for design is well-known in philosophical and other intellectual circles – it is the belief that the universe in all its complexity, order, and precision, could not have happened by chance and evolution alone. The more scientific knowledge we gain, the more it becomes apparent how little we really know about the hidden reasons and causes behind everything. The most honest scientist will admit that these questions cannot be solved by science, but must be left to the realm of metaphysics, philosophy and religion… We struggle to explain and predict aspects of even the material world through quantitative experiments and logical reasoning – let alone the spiritual and infinite dimensions beyond our reach. When I look at the ocean, or an underwater reef with its kaleidoscope of life, or a kitten at play, or stare into another person’s eyes, I cannot believe anything other than a magnificent and al...