She asked a neighbour if she would follow him to school in the mornings, at a distance so that he wouldn’t notice her. The neighbour agreed, and said that since she was up early with her toddler anyway, it would be a good way for them to get some exercise.

The next school day, the neighbour and her little girl set out behind Timmy as he walked to school with another girl he knew. She did this for the whole week.

As the two walked and chatted, kicking stones and twigs, Timmy’s little friend noticed the same lady was following them, as she had every day all week. Finally she said to Timmy, ‘Have you noticed that lady following us to school all week? Do you know her?’

Timmy nonchalantly replied, ‘Yeah, I know who she is.’

The little girl said, ‘Well, who is she?’

‘That’s just Shirley Goodnest,’ Timmy replied, ‘and her daughter Marcy.’

‘Shirley Goodnest ? Who is she and why is she following us?’

‘Well’ Timmy explained, ‘every night my Mum makes me say the 23rd Psalm with my prayers, ‘cuz she worries about me so much. And in the Psalm, it says, ‘ Shirley Goodnest and Marcy shall follow me all the days of my life’, so I guess I’ll just have to get used to it!’

May Shirley Goodnest and Marcy be with you today and always!

Sent in by Marg Coombes-Pearce. Thanks Marg.

Some time into the journey, the train entered a long dark tunnel and, over the noise, other passengers in the compartment distinctly heard a kiss followed by a loud slap. A few moments later, the train rushed out into the light again.

The young woman thought, “Fancy that old General trying to get sweet with Grandma like that … well, she certainly showed him how to mind his manners.”

Her grandmother thought, “Indeed, the cheek of that young officer kissing my grand-daughter … still, it’s good to know she’s got some old fashioned principles.”

The General was thinking, “How do you like that, my Aide steals a kiss, the girl swings, misses him and hits me.”

And the young Aide said to himself, “Perfect, I kiss the back of my hand, clout the old geezer and get away with it!”

Each of the Quakers had his or her own train ticket. But the Baptists boasted that they needed only one ticket for all of them. The Quakers felt this was very dishonest and murmured their disapproval. The Baptists ignored their mutterings.

Then, one of the Baptists said, “Here comes the conductor.” All of the Baptist students piled into an adjacent bathroom. The Quakers were puzzled.

The conductor came aboard and collected tickets from all the Quakers. He then went to the bathroom, knocked on the door, and said, “Ticket please”. One of the Baptists inside stuck their only ticket under the door. The conductor took the ticket and left. A

few minutes later, the Baptist students emerged from the bathroom. The Quaker students felt really stupid.

On the way back from the conference, the group of Quakers decided to buy only one ticket for the journey home. They sat quietly and smiled knowingly at the Baptists, who seemed unconcerned that they had no ticket at all!

When the Baptist lookout shouted, “Conductor coming!”, all the Baptist students again piled into a bathroom. All of the Quakers crammed into another bathroom.

Then, before the conductor came along, one of the Baptists left the bathroom, knocked on the other bathroom, and said, “Ticket please.”

“Aha! You waste your time like this instead of ploughing and planting for the Party.”

“But, Commissar,” the worker replied, “I’m praying for the Party.”

“Praying for the Party! Huh, and years ago you probably prayed for the Czar and his corrupt ministers who oppressed and exploited the peasants.”

“I did, Commissar.”

“Well, look what happened to them.”

“That’s right.” The man replied.

So you are the flame, and you feel your way into the very source — down the wick into where the oil is, inside yourself. That’s the place, the source, so if anything is new, creative, then it has a fragrance of the source.

Somehow, humans, even humans who are still very much identified with their mind, many of them are touched by when they see or hear or whatever — come into contact with — something that came out of that deeper level, whether it’s a work of art, or a piece of music, or it could just be somebody talking. And the words come from that deeper level.

It could just be somebody who has a good sense of humor — even that is already a form of creativity. Spontaneous humor is to suddenly see something that one wouldn’t normally see — a connection between two seemingly unconnected things, and suddenly you connect them and everybody laughs.

Some people have that. Some people have one small area in which they can be creative, and that can be enough to provide you with fulfillment and an income, for the rest of your life — and to contribute that gift to others.

Great stand up comedians, for example, have that gift. Of course, not everything they say is spontaneous, but when they prepare their stuff, they have to be creative. Now I don’t know if you’ve ever tried to be a standup comedian, but it’s difficult. Many people try. It’s hard to be funny. But some have it, and it’s amazing — those few that have that gift. And there too, the sense of humor is spontaneously something arises, and there it comes. It’s being in touch with that.

It’s wonderful to be able to be in touch with that, and feel the power that flows from there, out into this world. Now for that, of course you need some kind of vehicle, because the power needs to flow into some kind of form. You can touch that place also, within, but it may not flow into creativity, because you haven’t developed a vehicle for it.

The very same power that gives rise to creativity can also manifest itself in different ways that we would not call creativity. It could be a healing power that comes into effect the moment you enter into relationships with others. Healing in a wider sense, not just physical healing.

You will not suddenly become a great musician if you have never touched an instrument, just because you touch that place within yourself. It’s not going to manifest as a great scientific discovery in my case, because the vehicle is not prepared for that. My mind is not prepared for that. It doesn’t even work that way.

So for me to expect to come up with the Unified Field Theory that Einstein didn’t come up with — he tried after the theory of relativity, he tried for the rest of his life to come up with that — I am not going to come up with that. It’s very unlikely. The vehicle has not been prepared. I am not going to be a great pianist, because I don’t know how to play the piano. So no matter how deeply I go within, it’s not going to flow into that. You need to prepare the vehicle for creativity.

More important than that is the place — to be able to go within to that place of vibrantly alive stillness, where creativity arises. And you can go in there, and if there’s no vehicle, it will not express itself in any form of creativity, not any conventional form of creativity. But it may actually express itself in different ways.

I just mentioned one, which is an outflow in human interactions — an outflow of … very hard to put a word to it, but you can sense it, when you meet a person who is present in the interaction. It’s a different energy frequency that operates. And that is healing. It’s so formless that it does not require a previously prepared vehicle. You can just be. And you emanate Being.

~ Eckhart Tolle www.eckharttolle.com/

Getting the dates wrong on an email newsletter is a relatively minor mistake, but I still feel annoyed with myself. I prefer it when I’m pleased myself, of course. Yet I also feel there is something precious in the humility that arises when I see my innate fallibility … with both the big and little things in my life.

Humbly embracing my flawed humanity has been a theme of my life in recent years, and is a major element in my new book that is coming out next year. For a long time my spiritual journey was about waking up to the deep self and the oneness of life, and this remains an on-going adventure. But now I find myself also focusing on coming to terms with the limitations of ‘Tim’ that show no signs of miraculously disappearing!

As I get older I am struck by how ‘Tim’ still stumbles and falls. Humility and embarrassment seem like old friends. And there is a vulnerability and authenticity that arises from the recognition of my human fallibility that I’m learning to appreciate. Connecting with each other and with life from the deep self is a wonderful experience. Yet embracing each other in our vulnerable, fragile, tender humanity is equally important.

It seems to me that I’m profoundly paradoxical. On the one hand so big and on the other so small. Within me are unfathomable depths, yet ‘Tim’ is also necessarily limited and imperfect. On my spiritual journey I once believed that I could one day perfect ‘Tim’ into some sort of enlightened being who was always at his best. Now it feels to me that the journey is about embracing all that I am.

This means both awakening to the deep self and humbly accepting my human limitations. It’s when I’m able to do both that I’m truly authentic. And then something beautiful and tender happens. There’s this unconditionally love of myself just as I am … a love of others just as they are … a love of life just as it is … a deep love of being.

~ by Tim Frele www.timothyFreke.com

“All that a guru can tell you is: ‘My dear Sir (or Madam), you are quite mistaken about yourself. You are not the person you take yourself to be.’” ~ Sri Nisargaddatta Maharaj

“A man’s errors are his portals of discovery.” ~ James Joyce

“Never confuse a single mistake with a final mistake.” ~ F. Scott Fitzgerald

“There are only two mistakes one can make in regard to the road to Truth: not starting, and, not going all the way.” ~ Adyashanti

There were five places of worship in this part of the city: a Presbyterian Church, a Baptist Church, a Uniting Church , a Catholic Church, and a Jewish Synagogue.

Each church and synagogue was plagued with pesky possums that generally distracted worshippers and caused more than a little damage to property.

One day, the Presbyterians called a meeting to decide what to do about the possums. After much prayer and consideration they determined that the possums were predestined to be there and that God’s people shouldn’t presume to interfere with Divine Will.

In the Baptist Church, the possums had taken up habitation in the empty baptistery. The deacons met and decided to fill the baptistery in the hope that they could drown the possums, but they escaped somehow and took up noisy residence in the cavity under the roof.

The Uniting Church oversight committee got together, and decided that they weren’t in a position to harm any of God’s creation. So they humanely trapped the possums, and set them free a few miles away (nearer one of the other churches). Three days later, the possums were back.

The Catholic priest consulted with his bishop and together they came up with a fairly effective solution. The following week, the priest had the possums in his area rounded up, confirmed and registered as members of ‘The True Church’. Now he only sees them on Christmas Eve, Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday!

Not much was heard about the response to the incursion at the Jewish Synagogue, but finally the word got out that they had captured one possum early on and, before they let him go, the Rabbi and a few elders had a short service with him called Circumcision … and they haven’t seen a possum on or near their property since!

~ sent in by Marg Coombes-Pearce. Thanks Marg.

2nd. If you drink a diet soda with a chocolate bar, the kilojoules in the chocolate bar are canceled out by the diet soda.

3rd. When you eat with someone else, kilojoules don’t count if you don’t eat more than they do.

4th. Foods used for medicinal purposes NEVER count. These include hot chocolate, brandy, toast and cheesecake.

5th. If you fatten up everyone around you, you look thinner.

6th. Movie related foods — buttered popcorn and chocolate covered nuts, do not have additional kilojoules because they’re part of the whole entertainment package and not part of one’s personal fuel.

7th. Pieces of chocolate biscuits have no kilojoules. When the biscuits are broken, there is leakage of kilojoules.

8th. Things licked off knives and spoons have no kilojoules; for instance, when you are preparing something such as ice-cream on a spoon when making a sundae.

9th. Foods that have the same colour have the same number of kilojoules; for example, spinach and pistachio ice-cream, mushrooms and white chocolate.

Note: Chocolate is a universal colour and may be substituted for any other food colour.

Sam was sitting solemnly at the deathbed of his business partner, Bernie.

With his last reserves of strength, Bernie raised his head from the pillow. “Sam … Sam …”

“Rest, rest, Bernie,” Sam counselled. “Save your energy.”

“No,” insisted the dying man. “I can’t. I must clear my conscience before I die. I’ve been a lousy partner, Sam. A lousy partner. It was me who sold the secret formula to Birmbaum; it was me who stole the $100,000 from the safe; it was me who reported you to the tax inspectors … It was me!”

“Don’t bother yourself, Bernie,” said Sam. “Don’t worry. It was me who tampered with the brakes on your car.”