I see our two dogs curled on the floor at my feet.
I see paintings by my wife and daughter hangin on the walls.
I see various items of furniture that my wife has chosen over the years.
I see various plants, mostly bromeliads .
I see various family photos.
I see various items of weaving, basket making, porcelain, and sculture.
I see the grand award that my wife won for Best overall in the Trash to Fashion show.
I see a house that is lived in, bits and pieces knocked and torn off various item, dog hairs on the carpet,scratches on the table, books, records, DVDs, clutter - signs of over a decades occupation of this house by our family.
I see the lights of town curving around the bay below.
I am very happy being here, and looking forward to Ailsa coming home from her music night with the "Belle Birds".

Someone call me and agree to fund www.solnx.org

It would enable all people to live in wealth and abundance, and in ecological sustainability, without restricting freedom.

It would empower people to develop life extending capacities.   I would love my 20 year old body back, without the aches and scars that this one is carrying.

It would be great to have the benefits and freedoms of free markets, while keeping clear of the incentives to damage the environment that a strictly economic system imposes.

It is pretty close just as is.
For about an hour I thought I might have made a major error in the system after getting a call from a fisheries officer that he had found significant errors in one client's reporting for the entire year.

After an hour's detailed examination, it turned out to be a combination of an error in his report logic, a misunderstanding of some of the reporting requirements on his part, and some overzelous reporting by some ministry observers creating anomalies.
So I got to go from thinking I may be bankrupt, to surviving to live another day.

Then I took the dog for a run down the hill and back up, and headed off to yoga.

Slightly over did the stretching, and cut off the blood flow to my legs on the forward bend and stretch; so that when I stood up again, all the deoxygenated blood from my legs took out my vision, and I wobbled on the edge of fainting for a couple of minutes.

Now I'm home eating a lovely dinner, breathing easily - a perfect day.

Here at home.

I know all of my direct neighbours, all the people on my street, most of those within 1 km radius, and about a quarter of those in the district (half an hour's drive in all directions.

There is a good feeling in the community most of the time.  We may have our occasional disputes, but if anything serious happens most pull together.

Good country people for the most part.

Lots of supplies and tools if things get bad.

When I do the things that I resist doing.

When I am very clear about what is so, and I give up all excuses.

When I accept that I am able to make a difference, and do so.

When I give up my judgements, and simply do what seems most appropriate.

I don't spend much time on nostalgia - I'm more like G B Shaw "You see things; and you say, "Why?" But I dream things that never were; and I say, "Why not?" "

More thinking about creating a world where we are past people creating scarcity to increase economic returns, and into creating abundance for all things that people require, in ways that work with our ecosystems.

I wouldn't use that term, and I think the answer is yes.
If not actively aware I am amazingly suggestable.
I find that if I am not fully conscious, I "go with the flow" of what is going on around me.

The first time I really noticed it was speaking to a group of about 2,000 unionists about 25 years ago.  Over a two hour period I found myself responding in ways and saying things that I would never ordinarily have said.
It was such a shocking experience that I withdrew from politics for several years, until I understood the effect.

After that I studied with a hypnotist, and taught myself how to counter the effect.

In some circumstances I find it quite appropriate to empathise with others, and mirror their emotional state, in other situations it is quite inappropriate.   Gaining some control of the effect has been an interesting journey.

From all sorts of sources.

Mostly from someone else's experiences, via writing or conversation.

Sometimes from my own previous experiences, most often my mistakes.

Sometimes from my intuitions, which in my understanding come from the way in which my brain stores and retrieves information as an interference pattern (holographic recall).

Most rare of all, by systematic logical deduction.

Becoming aware of my judgements, and actively suspending them.


Becoming present to all the sensations of what is.  My stance, balance, feeling of clothing, breath, heart rate, relaxing any tension stored in muscles, awareness of sounds, from those within my body, to those nearby to those further away, awareness of temperature, any heatsources near or far, which parts of my skin feel hotter or cooler, everything in my visual field, from my cheeks eybrow and nose at the periphery, inwards to the focal point, noticing how the resolution improves as I bring my wareness inwards.  Notice any scents, from my clothing, my body odor, the odor of others around me, the smell of the furniture, the dogs, smells from various trees nearby, faint remnants of cooking odors.  Notice any tastes in my mouth, tiny remants of past meals or drinks.


Then going within my mind, and noticing the conversations, the assessments, and (without making the wrong) just quieting them down, and bringing stillness.


Then taking my awareness right back out to the limits of perception, on all senses.


Takes a long time to write out, and when I started this discipline over 30 years ago it used to take 10 minutes; now it is almost automatic and can take just a few seconds, and sometimes even less than a second.

Huge.

I was not the sort to forgive easily.
Until my mid thirties I was what is known as a self righteous SOB.   I was very sure about what was right.

What I discovered about 15 years ago was that holding on to such declarations had huge cost to me.  Not forgiving others made me feel bad.
When I did the Landmark Forum I got to see this in a very practical way.  I learned tools that have allowed me to forgive me first wife for walking out on my son and I.  Since then forgiveness has been a regular part of my life, and I am far from perfect at it.

Writing this has got me to see the cost of not fogiving one particular individual, and what that is costing me.

Possibly more important has been forgiving myself, for being lazy, selfish, arrogant, and all the multitude of other less than enlightened attributes that I demonstrate from time to time.

As a famous actress used to remark in a long running british TV series - "There's nought so queer as folk!"

All of 'em.

It seems my pessimism and lack of trust is sufficiently entrenched to be able to make a worry out of almost anything.

Sometimes the habit of worry seems so ingrained that it hard to imagine anything without a worry of some sort attached to it.

Every now and then I manage to still my concerns, and simply be present to the magnificent possibility that is life, but mostly it is a bit like telling someone not to think about white elephants - DO NOT think about white elephants!

Did you think about white elephants?
I told you not to!
..........
;)

On the plus side, it does give my optimisim something to work out against, something to keep this hyperactive brain of mine working on.

Like many others, I didn't have a clue.
So much happens in my life that most days more than a week old tend to fade fade out of recall range, unless there is some event I can clearly recall that I can key into.

I went looking through my photos, and found that we did a tramp up to hidden lake up the Puhi Puhi Valley the day before, and took some great shots of the view that morning, so chances are I was home from playing golf, probably have just mowed the lawns.

Here is a photo of hidden lake.   Not the largest or most picturesque of lakes, and the owner of the property had owned the land for 14 years before he found the lake a few months before - it really is in a very hidden location.

Go back and visit a few places like these, and recharge the batteries.

I'm a bit like Jon, any time will do.  One of my favourites is sitting in my boat, about 4 miles out to sea, with a line on the bottom, watching the sunrise out of the ocean.

Quiet, peaceful, experiencing my own insignificance in the immensity that is reality, and at he same time the beauty and serenity of it all.

Most often these days it is walking the dogs last thing before bed, no lights, watching the night sky - the swathe of the milky way, the clouds of Magellin (our nearest galactic neighbours) and the immensity of time and space they all represent.  Sometimes hoping that some superadvanced alien will come down and say - "gidday mate - you've done well enough, I think we can assist you with the whole immortality thing from here" - and put an end to my concerns about money, warfare, pandemic, volcanism, .......

I say no if I don't think it worth the effort.

I don't get out of situtations I find uncomfortable, rather I stay in them for so long as it appears to be worth the effort.   I find that my greatest personal growth often comes at times of greatest discomfort.

I work at putting in place enough balancing options to stay within my boundaries, even if I get a bit close from time to time.

If I have to say no to get out of a situation, I attempt to do so as a contribution, and every now and then I lose it and throw my toys out of the cot.

Risk.
Our world today has become too restricted.   There are laws to protect everyone from the consequences of their own choices.
The legal system in particular encourages us to blame others rather than take responsibility for ourselves.

By the age of five I was driving tractors on the farm for my father.  Admittedly in the first instance, at the age of 4, it was by mistake - dad never thought I could do it, but after that, he allowed and encouraged me.  Today he would be prosecuted by Occupational Safety and Health, or some other busy body bureaucratic department trying to pretend that life can be lived without risk.

Rather than preventing people from encountering risk, we need to be encouraging people to learn how to manage risk; to learn their own limits, and to work as close to those limits as is necessary in their judgement.

We are over regulated, over protected, and our judgement is under exercised.
Judgement (in this sense) like all faculties, is a use it or loose it thing.

We are killing the human spirit with too many rules and laws, and not enough freedom or responsibility.

I find small talk a waste of time - part of why I don't socialise much.

I prefer trust situations where people talk about things that make a real difference in their lives - real issues - relationship, technical, political, emotional - whatever - lessons learned and shared, mistakes made, triumphs, tragedies.

The weather can be really interesting to pilots and fishermen, but not nearly so critical to most people.

Most people seem scared of real issues - scared to acknowledge reality - preferring some illusory world of illusory safety instead.

We may not all share the same reality, we may all have our own takes on what is real - and wouldn't it be more authentic to share what is real to us.

I guess that is part of what I love about this website - every evening - I get to be real with a community of very diverse people who all, in their own ways, care about integrity and making a difference.

Love to all
Ted

Not exactly.
My full name is Thomas Edward, but shortly after I was born dad and Tom had a major falling out, so I got called Ted instead.

For many years I was called "bear" (as in Teddy Bear) and my nieces and nephews even called me uncle bear, but not too many do that now.

At school a friend gave me the unflattering title of Goof which morphed to Super Goof (as per the cartoon character).  FOrtunately that one ceased in my late teens.

These days Ted works just fine - short and simple.

Quite a journey.

I would like to travel the world, walking through many wild places.  I would have my family with me for so long as they wanted.
I think my wife would be with me for the whole journey.

From time to time we would team up with others going the same way, at other times we would be on our own.

I'm guessing it would take at least five years to complete a first cut of the high priority areas.  I imagine we could keep going indefinitely. 

Walking the grand canyon, the Atacama, Yellowstone, the Alaskan tundra, Thai jungles, the great rift valley of Africa, europe, ....

I'd like to have www.solnx.org completed first - then I would feel a lot safer - a lot less bandits around in what are now the poorer regions.

For me, all it takes for a good conversation is a willingness on the part of both parties to try on the understanding of the other person.

If both parties take on being fully engaged in taking on the possibility being spoken by the other party, then conversation works.  It goes into new places, via the interaction of interpretations.   For me it is magic when it works.

One can have a great conversation with anyone, from any culture, at any level of awareness, if one is willing to take on the reality of the other.

And some things often add a certain spice to a conversation, humour, novelty, passion.

It is an aspect of what engages me in this website - the variety of authentic expressions.

Somewhat.
My home is full of stuff.  I am prepared for most eventualities, tools and stores.
My body is not superbly fit, yet I know if I point it at a 5,000ft climb it would do it in about 4 hours.  I can carry about 80 lb, and have a head full of facts and ways of being that work in most situations.

Both me and the house are a bit nondescript and messy, and the view from both is superb.

I wanted to a scientist.  From the age of 7, growing up amongst my father's WWI and WWII veteran friends, and during the Cuban missile crisis, I wanted to be able to contribute to eliminating war from human culture, and to creating technologies that deliver peace and prosperity to all.

I hadn't experienced war directly, and I had been a small child with a flap of skin under my tongue that prevented me making "r" sounds - so I was teased and misunderstood a lot.   I took warfare and being picked on by someone else very personally.

Today - I am who I am.
Like many millions of others I am a stand to build systems and technologies and ways of thinking that support everyone living in peace, prosperity, abundance and diversity.

I make a stand for long term thinking and actions, that are in the interest of self and others - whereever and whenever I see an opportunity that seems to be worth the time and effort.

I know that such a future is possible.
I am sometimes overwhelmed by the gulf between the current levels of understanding and behaviour between many of our so called leaders, in business, politics, religious and other social institutions, and what is required to bring peace.

I see my own behaviour, as my own level of awareness shifts - as my focus and attention goes to one aspect, everything else is, by definition, ignored to some extent, and suffers accordingly.   As I focus on writing this, the dog becomes an annoyance, with her insistence on wanting to go outside (even though it is raining steadily).  Same sort of thing seems to happen at all levels of consciousness.

I want to create a space where I do not feel the almost crushing sense of obligation that somehow the future of billions of lives relies on me making some sort of super human effort - I'm tired. I hurt, my life is as much mess as it is privilege.

I want to be able to look into the probable future and see security, peace and continued evolution, which while still just possible at present, isn't high on the probability curve.

Looking out my window this morning, I cannot even see the sea, let alone the moutains beyond, it is driving northerly rain, a cold spring morning; a dull grey day - sort of seeped into my mood I guess.

Family, awareness, all my experiences, every one of the millions of people who have contributed (directly and indirectly) to my life, the layers and levels of systems that give me life, love and experience.

Most of all, my wife Ailsa - for her extreme patience and commitment - putting up with my off the bell curve ideas and actions; and still being at my side after 20 years.

Missing my son.  He's 23, and only been in China for just over a week, and it is a bit weird having him so far away.

Hard to answer.
I am confident that almost anyone who had experienced my life experience would become much like me.  Yet my life experience is most uncommon, therefore there are few like me.
I have one friend, Caspar, who comes closer to understanding many of the technical ideas that anyone else I have met, and thre are some significant variances between us (though he is one of my closest friends).

I probably feel most similar to a character from a novel - Dune (by Frank Herbert) - one of the mentat philosophers, or one of the Nexialists from A E van Vogt's "Voyage of the Space Beagle".

In the past I have tended to use a different form of stress to make the body aware that what it thought was stress, wasn't so bad at all - like going out to sea in extreme conditions, taking a 4WD vehicle where it really is marginal, or something similar.

Now I tend to use context shifting.
If one context seems too difficult, then I consciously choose or create another context that puts the previous one in a different perspective.

I still feel tense and stressed from time to time - it is a big part of what lets me function as I do, there is a lot of power available from mind and body when that stress can be channelled in a useful direction.   Maintaining some sort of mental and physical balance is the difficult bit - tends to oscilate a bit in one way or the other.

TV can be a bit addictive.

I think that guides or angels as classically understood are highly unlikely to exist.

What I believe does exist is a holographic storage and retrieval system within each of the processing centres of each of our minds.   This method of storing and retrieving information forms associations or intuitions, which can occur within individual minds as hearing voices, seeing visions, or simply knowing without knowing how one knows.

This intuitive facility is the most creative aspect of being human, and it serves us well in most everyday situations, but can lead to beliefs that are untrue in situations where information and experience is limited.

That holographic intuitive facility connects us with all things in an infinite number of ways.

I believe that we must each learn to listen to and to test our intuitions in reality. We are all much safer if we believe our own inner knowing, than if we follow someone else's.   I believe that this belief is compatible with a deep metaphorical understanding of all major religious traditions - even though I have personally come to the belief that it is highly improbable that any god has an active interest in directing or assessing human affairs.

I think we are each well served by learning to listen to our own inner voices, and learning when they are trustworthy, and in what situations the probability of error increases.

Know yourself, and to your own self be true!

That is a really hard one to answer.

I really have no idea.

Many of the things I have tried to change have proved very difficult to change.

Perhaps the most difficult thus far is giving up the notion that I know for certain how anything is.   However intellectual I get about it, I still find myself become attached to my expectations about how something "ought" to be; and getting upset when it seems not to be that way.
Very easy to intellectualise that it is not a powerful way to be; far more difficult to get off it in reality, and simply allow all things to be as they are, without making anything wrong.

That attachment to right/wrong seems to follow us to every new level of understanding, and show up in some new disguise.

Life is so much lighter, sweeter, and easier when I can just be with what is - particularly about me, and my actions (or lack thereof).