Eli’s family celebrated his day of baptism on Sunday. Besides being a day to share food and conversation with my children, grandchildren, and the extended family, I felt a deep meaning to the ceremony at the church, where Eli’s special day began.
It’s been a while since I went to church. I used to go there quite often when my children were little, yet over the years, as my family left school and started lives of their own, the need to visit church for their benefit came to an end.
The church where Eli was christened on Sunday is the same church where my two youngest children were christened, and where all of my children had their first Holy Communion and Confirmation.
I enjoyed visiting the church again, even though I didn’t know the priest. He was quite an elderley man and when he read the passages from the bible his voice took on a singing tone, which at first I found prevented me from understanding his words. It only took a few minutes though for me to get used to his sing-song tone and I relaxed into absorbing his message.
Aurora and Braxton
It hadn’t been pre-planned, but he involved the other children in the service as well. Braxton and Aurora held the book for him to read from, and he draped a sash over their outheld arms to carry to Eli. Braxy seemed quite shy at first, but after Aurora grasped the idea that they had been given special responsibilities, they took their role very seriously.
For me, it was meaningful to see the next generation of my family taking part in a church service, just as my own children once had. It surprised me when I realised I felt that way too. I’m not Catholic, yet I found everything about the service for Eli’s baptism to be extremely meaningful.
Luckily Eli loves water!
The message the priest delivered calmed me in a way that I haven’t felt in a long time. He suggested that adults might like to consider being more like children. To clarify, he explained that he wasn’t suggesting adults should act in an immature way, but suggested they might like to try viewing the world through the innocent eyes of children.
Arlo and Raiden ~ Eyes of Innocense
The priest’s message made so much sense to me and I believe it is the reason why I felt so calm, listening to him deliver his message. Adult minds are far too cluttered with conflict and problems, especially these days. If you remove the noise of the world from your mind, you are able to view the world as a place of beauty, which is the same way that children see the world.
The priest’s words acted as a poignant reminder for adults to clear their minds, yet it wasn’t in any way a religious message, nor did the priest insist his message be heard. He asked the assembled adults to take from his message what they wished to take, if anything.
What a beautiful way for Eli to begin his spiritual journey. ❤
It has been another warm day today. Even when I went outside before 7am to take a few photos the air felt warmer than it has for a while. Don’t be fooled by the clouds, I’m sure they just appeared to add interest to the early morning. By 8am, the sky was mostly blue.
The clouds looked so interesting that I decided to zoom in on them. When my current uni semester is over in five week’s time I’m thinking it would be interesting to learn more about the different cloud formations. I know they all mean something, just what though I really don’t know! All I know is that dark grey and black clouds signify rain, but I think most people know that.
After zooming in on the clouds I decided to get as close as I could to Mount Warning. According to Aboriginal legend, the shape of Mount Warning is the profile of the warrior chief of the mountain.
Going off-topic, I found some words recently from French philosopher and author Albert Camus, which I thought meaningful in these strange and unsettling Covid times, which I will share today –
“In the midst of hate, I found there was, within me, an invincible love.
In the midst of tears, I found there was, within me, an invincible smile.
In the midst of chaos, I found there was, within me, an invincible calm.
I realised, through it all, that in the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer.
And that makes me happy.
For it says that no matter how hard the world pushes against me, within me,
In the year 2000 I started up a machine embroidery business in our local shopping centre, inheriting the brightly coloured shelving and cupboards from the previous business that had been there. Whilst I could cope quite happily with the bright yellows and the vivid reds in the shelving, that royal blue colour simply had to go! How could I arrive at work each day to be greeted by that colour? It would be downright depressing!
If you look carefully, you may just see a tiny lighthouse, away in the distance.
What seemed to me to be a rather odd reaction, (from myself!) could have had some psychological bearing on it. My new shop was to be a fun and uplifting colourful business, and that deep blue colour was way too conservative for my liking!
With that in mind, it should come as no surprise for you to read the following passage about dark blue ~
“Dark blue is the colour of conservatism and responsibility. Although it appears to be cool, calm and collected, it is the colour of the non-emotional worrier with repressed feelings, the pessimist and the hypocrite. Dark blue can be compassionate but has trouble showing it as its emotions run deep. Dark blue is a serious masculine colour representing knowledge, power, and integrity, and is used quite often in the corporate world.”
So that’s why the dark blue colour wouldn’t work for me in my new store, my new feminine shop, where I expected to (and did have!) great enjoyment in choosing embroidery thread colours to match with articles of colourful clothing, to be added into logos on caps and shirts, and my favourite part of the business, choosing colours for adding designs and monograms to bath towels.
The colours of nature.
Blue is a colour associated with peace and tranquility and its presence creates a calming atmosphere. Think about the last time you sat beside the vivid blue ocean or a blue river, doesn’t the whole atmosphere of the blue waters make you feel calm? I know it has that effect on me. And when Mount Warning appears to have a tinge of blue haze, overpowering the green trees, there’s nothing quite so calming.
During an early mist morning, the colour blue overpowers all the other colours of the valley.
The colour blue suggests devotion, loyalty, trust and honesty, encourages self-expression and is also regarded as a spiritual colour.
Did you realise that blue is the most universally liked colour out of the whole colour spectrum? Perhaps the reason for this is that blue is regarded as a non threatening colour which promotes calmness.
The blue sky likes to overpower the white fluffy clouds sometimes.
People who favour the colour blue are slow to trust others, preferring to get to know a person before they trust completely. They also wish to be trusted themselves, and beneath their outwardly confident persona may lie a person lacking in confidence.
Blue loving people are usually genuine and sincere, prefer to enjoy the company of a close set of friends, are sensitive and caring towards the needs of others but also need their “alone” time, to reflect and contemplate their lives. Blue is a colour associated with meditation.
Four Galahs with not a care in the world when the sky is so blue!
Blue people tend to be guided by their heart, can be sensitive, emotional and sentimental and cry easily over sad movies. On the other hand, they enjoy order in their lives, cannot work amid chaos and can also be stubborn and set in their ways.
They have a thirst for knowledge and wisdom, are friendly and approachable people and have an ultimate need for inner peace and harmony in their lives.
A happy Butcher Bird, singing out loud to the blue autumn skies.
I wonder if any of you, who would name blue as your favourite colour, can identify with any of these characteristics? Although I wouldn’t claim blue as my favourite colour, when I see the colour blue in nature, a bright blue sky on a sunshiny day, the gradual changes of the colour blue as it reaches down into the depths of the ocean or even blue flowers, I can feel quite overwhelmed and emotional by the majesty of nature.
All of my children are blue-eyed, and I think it really goes without saying that when I look into the varying shades of blue in their eyes, I can simply melt like butter!
The Blue Willow.
Another object of my deepest affection when I think about the colour blue is the Willow Pattern design I have loved since my childhood days. Seeing my Willow dinner set in my cupboard gives me a sense of comfort and security. (Wait a minute, security is one of the characteristics associated with the colour blue!) There is a story to the Willow pattern design, which goes like this ~ “Koong-She, a mandarin’s daughter, loved her father’s secretary, Chang. Father, having arranged a marriage with a wealthy suitor, shut her in a terrace house, to be seen close by the temple on the right of the plate. Chang rose to the occasion and rescued the maiden, although hotly pursued by the father across the bridge.
The couple lived happily, almost ever after, in Chang’s little house across the harbour. However, eventually the frustrated suitor found them and burnt the house down while they were sleeping. True love never dies, and Koong-She and Chang arose Phoenix like from the ashes, in the form of two doves.”
There is a poem of the Willow pattern story, which apparently many children learn at school, although I didn’t. Fortunately though, I do have a copy of the poem ~
“Two pigeons flying high, Chinese vessel sailing by, Weeping willow hanging o’er, Bridge with three men if not four, Chinese temple, there it stands, Seems to cover all the land, Apple tree with apples on, A pretty fence to end my song.”
A Brahminy Kit, soaring through the great blue sky.
“Listen, God love everything you love – and a mess of stuff you don’t. But more than anything else, God love admiration.
You saying God vain? I ast.
Naw, she say. Not vain, just wanting to share a good thing. I think it pisses God off if you walk by the colour purple in a field somewhere and don’t notice it.”
~ Conversation between Shug and Celie, as told by Celie to her sister Nettie in a letter. From the book The Colour Purple written by Alice Walker.
If I were asked to pick one colour as my most favourite of all colours, I know that I would not choose the colour purple, yet I can totally relate to the quote above from the book “The Colour Purple”. I’m sure my heart skips a beat when I see a purple flower, or anything in nature showing the colour. I even love to see purple in the sky, although it is usually a sign of imminent, or earlier, bad weather.
After wild weather, the colour purple shares the sky with an orange sunset.
As a child, one of my girls absolutely loved purple, everything she owned had to be purple, there were no if’s or but’s about it, so I did a bit of research on purple to find out, if anything, what a love for the colour signified. The one thing that struck me the most all those years ago was how purple was regarded as a spiritual colour. My daughter, who was crazy for the colour, could look deep inside a person’s soul. Even today, at age twenty, she “feels” her way through life, like no other young person I have ever met.
In the Catholic Church, the colour purple is worn by cardinals and bishops and during lent is regarded as the colour of pain and suffering. Up until the mid twentieth century, purple was regarded as the colour for mourning in England.
Thought of at one time as a regal colour, purple fabric was so expensive that only the rich in society could afford clothing made from purple, therefore purple became a status colour, worn only by the wealthy or privileged.
Buddleia’s are also known as the Butterfly Bush. If I were a butterfly I’m sure I’d love to sit in the sunshine on this flower, enjoying the colour.
So having established that purple has enjoyed quite a colourful history throughout the centuries, what effect does the colour have on our personalities?
Besides being a spiritual colour, purple, and the lighter shade of violet, are both connected to the imagination and intuition. Lovers of purple will want to run their own race as individuals, are often surrounded by mystery, can be psychic and can live in a world of fantasy, needing to escape the realities of the world. Purple lovers are often the daydreamers among us and being around the colour has a calming effect on the person.
The negative aspects of the colour purple, especially a liking for the darker shades, can be that the person is possibly immature, can be cynical and arrogant and can at times be seen as a social climber. It can also represent loneliness and mourning.
I love the plum coloured beading on this lamp.
But lets not dwell too long on the negative aspects of this most distinguished of all colours. Something that you may not know about the colour purple, being a combination of the colours red and blue, it possesses the strength of the colour red, combined with the integrity of the colour blue.
And here’s another thing you may not know about what I have written here, and the photos I have added showing The Colour Purple in my life ~ this is my contribution to Karma’s “Colours of Your World” photo assignment. And it gets even better, after Karma red read my last post here, “The Psychology of Colours ~ Featuring the Colour Red”, it gave her the inspiration for her latest photo challenge!
It’s lilac, and it features nature, so this picture gives me great enjoyment.
Karma has set the deadline to get the assignment in by April 28th (but she’s pretty cruisy about deadlines!) so if you too feel inspired, why not join in the challenge and add a post with photos of some of your favourite, or not so favourite, colours.
I’m enjoying learning about the psychology of colours so much, and there seemed to be quite a bit of interest in my findings on the colour red, so I’ve decided to feature a new colour each week, (until I run out of colours!)
How do you feel about the colour purple, do you love it, or loath it? It could be fascinating to look at the reasons why you feel the way you do. 🙂
These tiny violets are a beautiful ground cover in my garden.
The Violet ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (Written 1773)
A violet blossom’d on the lea,
Half hidden from the eye,
As fair a flower as you might see;
When there came tripping by
A shepherd maiden fair and young,
Lightly, lightly o’er the lea;
Care she knew not, and she sung Merrily!
“We are all visitors to this time, this place. We are just passing through. Our purpose here is to observe, to learn, to grow, to love… and then we return home.” ~ Aboriginal quote.
The sound of the didgeridoo being played, as the throbbing sounds reverberated around and around the walls of the Jamieson Valley at Echo Point in Katoomba, New South Wales, is perhaps one of the most haunting sounds I have ever heard during my lifetime.
I cannot imagine anything more iconic in Australian culture than the didgeridoo, or yidaki, as it is known by the Yolngu Indigenous Australians from Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory.
When I visited The Three Sisters at Echo Point in the New South Wales Blue Mountains eighteen months ago I took the photo above, and tonight, whilst searching for a link to add here so you could all hear the magical sounds of the didgeridoo, I just happened to find this very same man on YouTube, playing the didgeridoo at Echo Point!!
Click on the link and listen as you read, it will open in a new window, and here also is a photo I took of The Three Sisters while I was there, to help your imagination along. Of course it never is the same as actually being there and experiencing the sounds, but you should see and hear some of what totally enraptured me.
The Three Sisters, Echo Point, Katoomba.
If you watch the YouTube video it shows some scenes around Echo Point as well.
Just before Christmas arrived I spent a week in Noosa, Queensland and whilst there I visited the Eumundi Markets. Maybe I visited the markets more than once. Okay, I went to Eumundi for all three days that the markets were open during the week I was there!
The attraction may have been the atmosphere. It could also have been the old-fashioned ginger beer (a non alcoholic ginger flavoured drink we have here in Australia). Kenn may have also played a big part in why I felt the need to return.
At Kenn’s shop at the markets could be found any shape, size or coloured didgeridoo imaginable.
This photo shows my son on my second visit to Kenn’s shop. I felt sure that Adam would enjoy learning how to play the didgeridoo, being musically inclined, and I told Kenn about Adam on my first visit there. (Adam was with his brother and father that day, the boys had gone fishing.) He offered to teach Adam a thing or three about the techniques required to play the instrument (as opposed to blowing into the hollow piece of wood like a trumpet!)
On my next visit, with Adam in tow, we must have spent at least an hour with Kenn, Adam trying out various didgeridoo’s, under Kenn’s instruction. Whilst Adam put into practice what his teacher was telling him to do, Kenn and I chatted.
Kenn himself is a healer and a mystic, qualities inherited from his Aboriginal ancestors. I felt saddened to learn that there are only a few full-blooded Australian Aboriginals left now, compared to years gone by. When an Aboriginal chooses to marry outside of his race, he must leave the tribe. And many have decided to leave, choosing love over heritage.
The didgeridoo is traditionally played at ceremonial events by the men of the tribe only. Women do not play at these events, although they are permitted to play at other times.
Adam soon worked out the breathing style required to play the didgeridoo and amazed Kenn by how quickly he had picked up on actually producing something similar to the correct sound the instrument should make! Adam had a favourite didgeridoo, which he wanted me to buy for him there and then, but I told him he would have to save his money and buy it on our next visit to Noosa.
Adam returned home the following day with his father and I stayed at Noosa a few days longer, during which time I paid my third visit to Kenn. I bought Adam’s favourite didgeridoo, to give to him for Christmas.
Adam at the Eumundi Markets, being instructed on how to play the didgeridoo.
Kenn told Adam he had taught him all he could for now. The rest would be up to Adam, to remember what he had been taught, then practice, practice and practice! That’s all there is to it!
Next time we visit Eumundi we will visit Kenn again, to talk, to learn and then learn some more.
In My World 