206 luscious pages of amusement for anyone who likes a laugh and some thoughtfulness. Gathered from hundreds of unsolicited emails over eons of monitor-staring pleasure, these tid-bits of nonsense, sense and otherwise gritty, pithy and rather silly jottings of so many scribes, most called Anony Mouse, cannot go unheralded.For anyone with microseconds and micro-breaks, this is the perfect book to pick up, put down and read in between. Perfect for people in doctors' waiting rooms (to hit coughing patients with), coffee tables (under a broken leg) and for the car to amuse when stuck in traffic. Try it, you'll like it ... no, you'll love it and wonder why you hadn't bought it before as it will make you the perfect party-joker and you'll never be lonely any more.
Kings Cross. A place where criminals and call girls bid good morning to joggers and shopkeepers. Where parallel worlds operate side by side and all keep to their own agendas. Till the planet tips and sex, showbiz, Sydney socialites and a sleazy advertising serpent collide with a transgender beauty queen, hardworking Queens and an Asian criminal, deranged and intent on murder. And in the right corner, we have an American mogul and a whole town of country folk intent only on good ... and their dogs.
Without stories our lives would be dry, non-fictional decrepitudes; dusty, withered data-existences subject to the changing whims of those who think they know and seldom do. In fact, without stories, there would be no life, for even facts are a legend, a tale. For example, inoculations cured some people from some diseases so there arose the fable that all inoculations cure all diseases, despite the fact that some maim and kill people. Another fable that masquerades as truth or fact is about fluoride. Alcoa, the largest aluminium manufacturer in the world, was facing a $40 million law suit, in 1939, for polluting the countryside with the most toxic element known to man … fluoride. They "defended" that suit by establishing a scientific institute and, quickly and magically, "discovered that fluoride was good for teeth". Such is our desire to believe in stories, we continue to tell the same old lie, eighty years later. Whether it's about the world being flat, the planets flying round the earth, Jesus being a blonde pale-face or global warming, all facts are simply opinions, something to be believed in long after they're proven wrong. Opinions are like bum holes - everyone has one and few are interested in yours. Stories, on the other hand, are more honest than facts. They admit, quite blatantly, that they're a barefaced lie - a moving, humorous or fascinating barefaced lie. However, they're not totally honest for, within every made-up, fictional tale, is an eternal truth that touches our hearts and minds - if they're open to such truths - in ways that facpinions can't, for we're what our hearts remember. I challenge you to recall three salient facts from your least loved school subject, while knowing you'll have no trouble recalling a dozen stories or jokes from the same time. The reality is that we're story-remembering creatures and, true or not, we love to embrace, caress and polish any story that comes our way. There are the stories that arise when our egos (finances and reputations) are pricked and there are stories that arise when our egos move aside. These latter stories are not part of the game of survival but are the fecundity of life, the juice of the heart and a savouring for our taste buds. These are the stories told round the fire on balmy summer nights. Savour and enjoy!
A take-home course based, mainly, on A Course in Miracles."The 12-Step Miracle gives you the opportunity to create real and lasting change in your life in just twelve weeks!" Sarah Alexander - author, life/business coach, UK."With humour and simplicity, they offer a 12-step course that really can be a new beginning." Ian Patrick - ACIM facilitator, UK"Its simplicity and ease of use is testimony to the vast knowledge, wisdom and expertise that Anna and Philip have to offer." Riana Avis - life coach, UKIf this book has found your eyes and your heart, it knows that:• Your life is a mess,• Your life is becoming a mess, or• You want to stop your life becoming a mess.If things are not working out as you'd planned, there are two possibilities:• Your plan was wrong and/or• You're trying to achieve it in the wrong way - the way you've been taught by those in your world.You see, if you pull back the happy face of every human being, no matter how smart, wealthy, healthy and successful they seem to be, there's sadness, anger and guilt behind every mask. We were taught to cope in this world by other sad, angry and guilt-ridden people. Despite all the gurus, psychologists, life coaches and others out there to help us get on with our precious lives, the world's still a sad, angry and guilt-ridden place - there's just as much war, abuse, rape, theft, depression, violence and despair as there ever was. And why? We've all been learning from dysfunctional people on how to dysfunction in a dysfunctional world. We keep doing the same old thing that people have been doing for thousands of years and hoping for a better result - the definition of insanity!You're a perfect human being in an imperfect world, taught to operate imperfectly … and your life is, well, imperfect? It must be if you've kept reading this far.So, if the way we're all operating isn't working, what's next? Obviously, try another way. The chances are that that phrase - another way - has been haunting your waking and sleeping world. You've probably been looking for this other way for a long time. However, getting what we want, realising our dreams, is downright scary, for three reasons:Firstly, we all feel we don't deserve to have our dreams realised, despite our most ardent protestations to the contrary.Secondly, realised dreams mean that we have nothing to strive for and the worst thing to happen to any human is to take away the need for them to want more … of anything!The third problem with the other way is that it is another way. We don't know how long it took you to learn to tie your shoe laces, wash the dishes or wash yourself in the shower but, by now, you've got it down pat - you do these things every day, effortlessly, almost unconsciously. In fact, to explain how to do these things would be a challenge as we do them so automatically, so unconsciously, we're not aware of the process any more. Now, what we want you to do is learn to do these things the opposite way round. What your right hand did before, your left hand will now do and vice versa. Try it and see how difficult it is. Many years of practice are so ingrained that to undo that practice, that ingrained learning, is extremely difficult.This book, then, is set out in two sections:1. What thinking and actions have got us into the mess we're in,and2. What thinking and activities will take us out of our mess and into a life we both dream of and deserve.
The Hebrew name for God is VHYH, the ineffable name which should not be uttered. Instead, one may use the word Adonai (My Lord) in its place. Then there’s the boy who ran home from school, exclaiming that he’d finally learned God’s name - Harold. His mother asked him why and he patiently explained: “Our Father, who art in heaven, Harold be thy name.” We each have our own God, carved in the like of our own different self-images. Some are utterable and some are not; some are judgemental and some loving; some are savage and some kindly. The simple fact is that no one knows the true nature of God, not even Albert Einsten who spent his whole lifetime trying to work out how God thinks. We know as much of God as does an unborn child knows of adulthood and anyone pronouncing knowledge of God is fooling himself and guessing ... we’re all guessing, in fact. The established, male-dominated church holds that God is a bloke; Feminists that she’s a woman; others say God is without gender. I remember the horror and elation I experienced when I first came upon the possibility that God is not a being - human or otherwise - but a system, a process. This God doesn’t care or not care - we just live our lives, trying out what works and what doesn’t and, eventually, we hit upon the system and how it works. None of us have it down pat, yet, and it’s exciting experimenting with the possibility that we’re getting nearer and nearer to what makes life work. When what we’re doing flows with comfort and ease and when peace fills every bone and cell in our bodies, I suspect we’re coming close to the workings of God, whatever God is. There’s also a huge freedom in arriving at the place of not needing to know the shape, colour and mood of God ... just knowing what works is all that’s necessary. Living with the unknowing is not only peace-inducing, it just takes the angst out of daily life and the pain out of daily activity. I’ve come to a deep and abiding trust in what I call God and what I know as a consistent system; a system based on letting the past go, on realising that nothing is personal and that everything “out there” is a reflection of what’s “in here”; that taking self-responsibility for our thoughts and, when we do, God takes care of our lives. We do, however, need to give up control - one of the hardest things for a human to do.
The Writers of Ipswich are a group of writing enthusiasts who attended a 6-week summer writing school – in the middle of a heat wave! The stories in this book are a response to a weekly topic set by facilitator Philip Bradbury, and reflect the great diversity of style, approach and life experience of the participants. There are big ideas, small gems, touching accounts, high drama, satire and lots of humour.Topics including chickens, fairy tales with a twist, embarrassing incidents, ‘how to’ descriptions, and poems about clothing, have resulted in a unique collection of work which promises to be as much fun to read as it was to write, and contains something for everyone.Blood, sweat and tears were shed and shared in the creation of these stories and poems, (but mostly sweat on account on the heat wave) so take it easy and ‘chill out’ with Eloquence – an offering from the (Summer) Writers of Ipswich, Queensland, Australia.
What makes Philip’s book different, and a cut above the average, is not that it is based upon his personal experience, or even that he suggests that “we find out who we are by being who we really aren’t”, but that he provides practical exercises - he shows readers how to apply the insights and techniques that have proved helpful to him and others in their efforts to reclaim their freedom. Philip does this with an astute sense of humour, wisdom and encouragement.Philip suggests that our primary purpose for being here is to discover who we really are. Most of us are pretty confused about this - we have been programmed to believe that other people know our hearts better than we, and for the sake of being loved by others, we adopt the perceptions they have of us. These perceptions, suggests Philip, are usually based on fear. Self-empowered people cannot be enslaved by fear however, because they know what their own rules are. They know this because they have learned to listen to the whisperings of their own hearts.Philip suggests that thoughts only affect us emotionally if we choose that they should, and invites readers to observe rather than react to their thoughts. If the thought feels right, thank it, and give it the power of manifestation, i.e., express the thought and act upon it. If not, thank the thought for the opportunity it gave you to make a choice, and allow it to pass. Once we have taken this first brave step, says Philip, the universe will magically step in to synchronise events, people and assistance. At the same time he suggests that we always check our own inner knowing before embarking on the bus to somewhere, especially when someone else is driving.
53 SMILES is about life – your life, my life, our lives – and its tiny stories address the big questions of the human condition and tell of our simple greatness, our foibles and how to let go of the need to be something for somebody else. This book, then, has many uses:· For daily meditations,· For personal/spiritual development workshops,· For teaching children (of any age) life lessons,· As a coffee table book· For table topics for Toastmasters· A conversation starter, and· To remind you of who you are each day – simply great
This book, then, has many uses ...* As a coffee table book,* Conversation starter,* Daily meditations,* Personal/spiritual development workshops,* Life Coaching,* Table topics for Toastmasters,* Teaching children (of any age) life lessons,* To remind you of who you are each day – simply great!"This work is brilliant. It is darker than the 53 SMILES but it is thought provoking to the reader and causes them to question what is happening for them. Sometimes it gives the answer to the question and sometimes it doesn’t. The wording is poetic and beautifully written. This book is best delved into rather than being read from cover to cover and is less about being entertained and more about being challenged to grow personally. The writer shows understanding and maturity." ~ Anna Louise, life coach at www.annalouiselifecoaching.com"The master of A Course In Miracles tells us that we are, “Moving to a place beyond words on a journey without distance to a place we never left.” He’s literally helping us to “roll away the stone.” In his book 97 Smiles, Philip Bradbury is utilizing the era of less is more. He’s actually assisting us to cut our addiction to story by giving us just enough words to provoke a question or two. The tightly packed stories invoke more stillness and time to ponder, “And then what?” Illusions of despair and comfort may seem to come and go, but behind each story there is reality, there is God. Philip cleverly shows us our hidden fear of God by exposing our tendency to dive deep into fantasy whilst hardly daring to dip our toe in the waters of reality. I think congratulations are in order Mr Bradbury. I am looking forward to your account of what can happen when we drop the shackles of fantasy and dive headlong into God." ~Sallyann Gaelic, Writer and Teacher of A Course in Miracles
He was born with a defect he could not change. He was different and could never be like other boys, other men, other people. His disfigurement eventually drove him from his family, from the village and out into the world as a troubadour, a teller-of-tales … well, more precisely, a listener-of-tales. In solitude, with his trusty horse, he found a softer world without sniggers and demands and a world of peace and the silent whisperings of his soul. However, the solitude never lasted for long. The more he searched for that softer world, the more the sharp and abrasive one encroached upon him … till, one day, he met someone he didn’t want to turn away, someone who yearned for the disfigurement he had …In a world that demands conformity, he was lost. Shunned by a society that cared not, he wandered - not lost but lonely and curious - till he found talents he couldn't express in constriction. In freedom, his true self arose, along with connection with the same-hearted ones. A tale of long ago for those confused today.
This book has many uses:An exquisitely simple gift,For daily meditations,For personal/spiritual development workshops,For teaching children (of any age) life lessons,As a coffee table bookA conversation starter, andTo remind you of who you are each day – simply exquisite! I’ve collected the images appealing to my twisted sense of humour, over many years, and the words came about a little weirdly too ... in 2015 I heard about a local (Brisbane) competition for flash fiction, something I’d never heard of before. It was for the best short story under 50 words. I didn’t win the competition and, knowing that nothing is wasted and everything counts, I asked my muses why I had done this. Three days later, the thought occurred that I could write a book of short stories. Since I was born in 1953, I - or was it my muses? - decided to write a book of 53 53-word stories ... and here they are for your enjoyment, matched with the image that best fits each story.Enjoy!Short and to the point yet insightful. The stories within can be read at face value but if contemplated at depth can provide insights to the spirit of who we are as humans. Like the signposts in life hopefully the stories contained in 53 words can help you move in a direction and place to finding joy. Some are comical some are not but all provide the reader with a plethora of ideas to ponder.~ Julian Harvey, career consultantA collection of 53 smiles, just as the title promises. Some make you think, some have endings which surprise and others make you laugh out loud. In today’s world of constant hustle and bustle, this is a short and thought-provoking read. The stories are written with care, creativity and utilising strong descriptors which immediately draw in the reader. An enjoyable collection of stories! ~ Tia Mitsis, author of A Greek Odyssey.This book is thought provoking to the reader and causes them to question what is happening for them. The wording is poetic and beautifully written. This book is best delved into rather than being read from cover to cover and is less about being entertained and more about being challenged to grow personally. The writer shows understanding and maturity.~ Anna Louise, life coach at www.annalouiselifecoaching.com
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