From the category archives:

Gifts

A little help is needed

September 20, 2007

Nine years ago I gave a speech at the Australian national Students and Sustainability Conference and my opening remarks were: As you sit here now, charged in the belief that you can help sustain this world through your environmental activism, I want to ask you: What do you have in your personal belief systems that [...]

Read the full article →

A natural gift

August 22, 2007

Deer live deep in the forest surviving on water and grass stretching out under trees to sleep how wonderful having no cares but tie them up in a fancy hall and give them the richest of foods they won’t eat a bite all day and soon their loveliness fades Chinese poet Han Shan c. 800 [...]

Read the full article →

Community money

November 30, 2004

A round of applause to Hertz, Avis and Budget rental cars for boosting the spirits of the Roaring Beach community. Let me explain… Most Americans and Australians talk proudly of the rugged individual, the pioneer, the explorer and settler and will defend vigourously the rights of the individual over those of the community. I, for [...]

Read the full article →

Stoking the fires

June 15, 2004

When I lifted the lid on the Peace Fire this morning, overnight the eternal flame inside had almost gone out and only a thin trail of grey smoke indicated it was not yet dead. Carefully, thoughtfully, quietly, I tended to the fire’s needs and made the flame visible once again. The care of this world [...]

Read the full article →

Give and take

May 24, 2004

As a boy, I was told: “It is better to give than to receive”. This, hopefully, was to move my young, egocentric, acquisitive behavioural patterns into a more generous and compassionate way of being. The hidden message, though, in “better to give”, than receive is that it sets up “receiving” as the inferior of giving. [...]

Read the full article →

With a little help

September 18, 2003

Since first moving the Peace Bus onto the property, Windgrove, in 1992, I have planted one tree for every day that I have lived here. What I call my Earth Tithing. Each year the accumulated debt is accounted for in the month of September when the winter rains have softened the soil and the moist [...]

Read the full article →

Sacred work

May 20, 2003

A week or so ago I received from America a small, yet potent gift of Kentucky bourbon fudge made by the Gethsemani Trappist monks. The side of the box offered this insight: “The monks of Gethsemani are called to a balanced life of prayer, sacred reading and work”. I pondered and mulled over this for [...]

Read the full article →

Stone soup parable

April 25, 2003

No, this isn’t a story about having better eye sight as a result of drinking wine. It is about how small gifts are as coloured ribbons of celebration, gratitude and thanks. Pinned to an activist’s life, they lighten the burden of making oneself publicly vulnerable while defending the earth. Today, I received my new eye [...]

Read the full article →