A collage of CHAOTIC LINES …. somewhat organised into some kind of ORDER… to CREATE an IMAGE.
The “DOT”.
Aahh … I just love lines …
Let me ask you a question: what’s a drawing/sketch ?
Yep, a series of lines!
And here’s another question:
“What’s a line?”, I ask my kids …
yep, a series of dots!
“What’s a dot?” … the beginning, middle & end of a line. Right?
Well, one could argue that a “DOT” has no beginning, no end… it gives us a taste of INFINITY. If you can’t comprehend this idea, maybe in the 3rd dimension, that’s alright… it is definitely INFINITE in the 4th dimension.
I love drawing ✍️ and managing the fusion of ALL kinds of lines, mostly, to get lost … to become one with … to allow the love 💕 you have WITHIN … just waiting to be expressed…
… in an image that would hopefully be able to be understood and appreciated.
Life: Connections upon connections. A continuous pathway to … nowhere.
Line Drawing – My Life: in frames
Your task: draw your life in frames.
To LISTEN a little BETTER.
You see, after over 4 decades of practising the ART OF FINE-LINE Drawing ✍️, I have found that –
~ it allows me☝️ to LISTEN a little BETTER to my INNER voice … and ACCEPT my CREATIVE EXPRESSION … as I realise that LISTENING 👂…. TRUE LISTENING is a ….. FORM OF ACCEPTANCE
~ it allows me to …. NOT THINK 🤔 SOMETHING UP (some untraceable goal … I’m the clouds ☁️ somewhere up there ….) but instead encourages me to …. GETTING SOMETHING DOWN … GIVING SOMETHING
~ it reminds me that I am NOT DOING…. I AM GETTING…. I AM GIVING (hopefully, to an appreciative audience)
~ it reminds me that I AM ENGAGED IN “LISTENING “ … & that I have (still) much to learn and …. MASTER
~ it reinforces that I am not the CREATOR… I AM THE CONDUIT through which this Energy force .. this ESSENCE OF LIFE… this endless love 💕 … is TRANSMUTED.. into what eventually becomes an IMAGE… that hopefully RESONATES with the audience
Here’s are a number of picture of dots, lines and shades chaotically fused together into a somewhat orderly structure.
What do you see?
SIMPLICITY enfolds COMPLEXITY
One positive result of my fine-line work is that I CREATE or BRING TO LIFE … images that hopefully RESONATE with the heart is at least one viewer.
Many times, I don’t know what I will produce …. As I fuse and bring ORDER to the CHAOTIC lines …. The Art or image I produce is given life … and emerges on to the pages and fundamentally comes about because drawling lines allows me to TUNE IN to what is already there
Feeling the movement of my hand as I caress the ink pen to draw lines in the page …. gives me the strong belief of the POSSIBILITY that the UNIVERSE is helping me with what I am doing (always) … as I become a WILLING SON of GOD and accept his offer of help and guidance in all that I do.
Drawing ✍️ lines HUMBLES ME as it reminds me that GOD is the GREAT ARTIST 👩🎨… the GREATEST DESIGNER
You will see that for some drawings …. There is a lot of uncertainty. For example, In certain parts of the pages I began with chaos (scribbling lines & dots) & moved towards order & in other parts I started with order & transitioned to chaos (randomness).
It appears simple…
.. but Simplicity in this case, enfolds complexity (the picture communicates – symbolically, various aspects of life).
What can you see? (In my art)
Maybe life is just a sequence of layers of energy that reveals itself to us based on the level of consciousness we attain. Just like the many layers you see here in my line-art.
Does looking at my picture in portrait reveal something different to you? What about landscape? Upside down? What images get reflected in to your conscience?
In many of my drawings ✍️, randomness is interweaved with order.
My pictures/fine-like Art, are ultimately a fusion of chaos (random lines & “many mistakes”) & layers of unbalanced order) to produce (hopefully something that is visually stimulating & pleasing).
When does a drawing have enough lines? When is it one line too much?
My question to you is: When is enough, enough (could apply with most things in life)?
Thank you for your Attention.
Keep safe. Keep punching.
Until next time,
A fusion of chaotic lines managed into some kind of order.
Be the “light” for you, first and develop & strengthen your light 💡 So that you can brighten up people who can’t see in the dark
The inevitable Growth of Scientism or Evolutionism.
We’ve all read countless studies over the last decade telling us that Christian attendance numbers have reduced in many major cities of the world. There has been growing ‘Scientism’ or “evolutionism’ followers, hoping that Science, being a measure, can replace religion as a worldview and a touchstone.
It has been driven in the minds of people by various media sources , that there is no possibility that God exists (with great certainty)…. & have been pretty successful at this.
Celebrity atheists and authors like Stephen Hawking somehow claimed that we don’t Need God, saying –
“For God’s sake, it’s 2010: science and God are enemies, & science 🧬 has defeated God. In the light of modern scientific discoveries, belief in God is idiocy. If you picked religion, you picked the wrong team. You picked faith and fantasy over reason and evidence, so we are allowed to mock you.”
This seems to be the way science & religion has been playing in recent times.
Wherever the Mind goes, the body WILL follow. The key: get your mind “there “ first
“Choose a side!”
It says….
The thing is I believe Christians don’t need to choose between God and science. There is room for both because, firstly, they have both had a long-lasting relationship. They have been “good mates” for centuries.
Thing is … you have to believe in an ordered universe to be involved in scientific pursuit, and this is exactly what we find on page 1 of the Bible. “Page 1?’ you ask. Yes, in the Book of Genesis, describes how God fashioned the universe out of nothingness in six days.
Here’s the thing: I think there is room for both.
I believe Science is compatible with the Christian faith. God’s existence is either true or not. But calling it a scientific question implies that the tools of science can provide the answer like it tries to do ‘logically’ for everything else.
I believe you cannot use the same tools for God, just as much you cannot use 4th century weapons to win a modern-day war. God is ‘all-encompassing’.
As Professor Francis Collins, author of “The Language of God”, supports this too, saying –
“God cannot be completely contained with nature, and therefor God’s existence is outside of science’s ability to really weigh in.”
ok, first, to understand the present, What does History tell us?
Also bear in mind, Christians and Christians movements have been intimately entangled with the progress of science 🧬, and were in part responsible for the explosion 💥 of modern science 🧪 in the western world 🌎 in the 17th century.
Remember Galileo? The thinker that developed a telescope 🔭 to use to observe and measure Copernicus’ new “sun-centered “ view of the galaxy?
Well, contrary to what many believe, Galileo not only believed in God, but also loved his Bible & science and (most importantly) refused to choose between them.
He was a Hero for both science and God. And let’s not forget
Darwin and Evolution have become virtually synonymous; yet the basic concept of evolutionary change had been around since before Charles Darwin’s grandfather’s time. People forget (or simply do not know) that Darwin’s model (as was proposed in his book: “On the Origin of Species released in 1859) was rejected for decades and was never fully accepted. Even the so-called Darwinian synthesis of the twentieth century was very different from his original formulation.
Yes, Darwin, now rivals Newton as Britain’s major scientific genius even though he had never been an obvious candidate for the accolade of genius. He was a mediocre student, leaving university with a passion for bugs and geology and few ambitions. In his own lifetime he was a controversial celebrity and spent much of his life as a virtual recluse in his country home.
Is God outside of Nature or is he part of Nature?
The New Atheist crowd today
Chief protagonist Richard Dawkins makes his case In the “God Delusion” that it is impossible to be a logical, intelligent scientific thinker and a faithful religious follower at the same time. Big supporters of the Evolutionary Theory espoused by Darwin, even giving credit to Darwin for the catchphrase – “Survival of the fittest’.
The truth is, the reclusive semi-valid, Darwin left others to defend his theory for him. The catchphrase was invented by somebody else, not Darwin.
History shows that, like with many other examples, Darwin was affected greatly by prejudices of the time. And even though his evolution theory was accepted by 1900, his explanation seemed on its way out. His supporters had failed to come up with any mechanism for change, and rival theories proliferated.
Here’s the truth: Modern Darwin Evolutionism is very different from Darwin’s Darwinism.
Find your light. Light your path. It is YOUR path. No one can ride that path with you, but YOU.
Many scientists also believe in God.
Luckily, there are many scientists that strongly believe in a God, here are a few examples-
Francis Collins – was the head of the multi-billion dollar “Human Genome Project”
Professor Bill Phillips(Nobel Prize in Physics) – who was part of a bunch of other scientists who urged Barack Obama to invest $15B in clean energy research
World-renown Neurosurgeon, Dr Ben Carson who was part of the advisory committee to Barack Obama.
Obviously there are many smart scientists that don’t believe in God.
Francis Collins (above) stated –
“Science is powerless to answer questions such as – WHY did the universe come into being?” WHAT is the meaning of human existence?” WHAT happens after we die?”
Have no doubt. Help yourself first. You are more than just YOU… God will meet you half way … he ALWAYS does. All you ahve to do is: BELIEVE.
and … Atheists speak up
But the Atheist Leaders (like Professor Peter Atkins at the University of Oxford) say –
“Humanity should accept that science 🧬 has eliminated the justification for believing in cosmic purpose ….”
Let’s think about these atheists claims for a second ….
And ask science to explain –
Whether a song is good or painful /bad for you …. NO, IT CANNOT
Can science Put the day I got married under microscope so that I may thoroughly understand it?
NOT Likely!
Christians believe in Jesus Christ, their saviour. Do you believe in him? DO you believe in God?
Like, think about when you were born… think about all the key causes of that – I can think of 3 key ones :
your parents decision
The successful sperm that fertilised the egg
The safe & steady growth in the amniotic sack
And other causes ….
So, if we accept that everything that has a beginning has a CAUSE, then… it is just difficult to see that something caused our universe to begin.
Question is:WHO or WHAT caused the universe to begin? If you’re an atheist and say, nothing “causes” it to begin, then, you demolish the fundamental statement of Law of Causality.
The altar of worship. Some find their beauty, their truth in Religion of choice. Their search for beauty is being ONE with the ONE. Keep searching for your beauty. Your truth. No one else can take your journey for you, but you. Be brave. Slay your Goliath.
Religion and Science will always combat one another!
The market has been flooded with books, particularly over the last two decades, by Scientists describing a caged death match between Science and God. It seems, the latter (Science) winning, or at least chipping away at faith’s underlying verities.
Maybe, most people (like me), occupy the ‘middle ground’, we want it all: to cheer on science’s progress (for possible vaccination against the covid virus for example) but still practise humility on Sabbath; and also want access to MRIs and miracles …
Maybe, just maybe, there is widespread hope that science and God are actually in alignment .. in Harmony – that, indeed, SCIENCE IS OF GOD.
One way to know YOU is to understand God. God is in you. God is you.
There is room for both God & Science.
Science (my first degree was in Mathematics & Physics) & God should not be viewed as at loggerheads. Yes, it could be viewed that Professor Dawkins basic account of evolution is incompatible with God’s having designed it but I see differently.
I see Mr Dawkins basic account as being rather compatible with God’s doing. If God is external to nature … if he is outside the realm of Nature, then, it follows that he is also outside the concept of space and time.
So, if God can see the whole time continuum, even me writing this … it follows that he could see the future and still give us free will to carry out our own desires.
So, we could simply agree that Science 🧫 & God are asking a different set of questions. There is room for both God & Science.
Without a doubt , science is a great & noble thing to pursue but leave the “arrogance at the door”. Science certainly helps “unpack the universe that God brought into existence…
But ….
That is not enough, as we need to know God , personally.
And it is through Jesus Christ that we learn and understand God … through his life,.. his death at resurrection.
The most important thing is ….
Scientific knowledge is good & is only a fraction of the knowledge we gain.
The most important thing is … the personal knowledge or relational knowledge we have and make , through being human … through our connections
Personal knowledge of your friends, family, your Mum & dad … your world mates, your church members … your neighbours.
Ultimately, in life .,, that is the most important Thing of all – our Personal knowledge through connecting and sharing …
And … trying to know God. … through his only son, Jesus Christ.
So, what do you believe in?
I’ll stop 🛑 there ….
Cheers 🍻 & ahoy!
The old captain Viking Pirate 🏴☠️ ⚔️Evangelist muscled 💪monk …& the healthy co-existence of God and Science.
Questions … questions and more questions … as we sail through the Seas of Life.
In my experience, eating right can actually save you time. Save you, life.
It is winter in this part of the world (I’m live in the beautiful city of Sydney, Australia). Stop, project less than 12 weeks from now, when the next season arrives – ahhh, Spring. Picture this: people are getting out their spring/summer clothes from the cupboards and are feeling a little down because they can’t squeeze in to them like they remembered they did last year. It can be quite de-motivating for some.
Maybe , you’re in that spot of bother right now?
In this first blog of an 8.5 Reasons why Eating RIGHT should not take too much of your time.
My Tip # 1: Never Skip Breakfast!
In one of my earlier blogs, I state that imagination is key to the achievement of any worthwhile goal or goal you place value on . So, if achieving a more sculptured (tonned body) is what you desire you need to learn to use your imagination.
Yes, use your imagination to visualize (now) how you would like to look by summer. This is a very important step – ‘seeing’ yourself as you imagine yourself to be. Having a clear understanding of your destination (refer to earlier blog: “Don’t be a rudderless ship”).
The more vivid the picture of your destination is in your mind and the more it connects with your heart, the more drive and focus you will muster.
Champions practise a lot of visualisation and simulation. To create magic, you need to fuse the worlds of sanity (where you are) with insanity (where you dream/imagine you are, before you are). That is difficult. That is one of the key keys. Don’t stop. Trying. Believing. Keep on … keeping on. You’ll get there. Everyone always does. Especially, if you do it with your heart. and …. with LOVE.
And, with the help of “Coach Mo” (incidentally, that little voice on your shoulder, we can call Coach “Mo”) to start your steam train again …. Hoot … hoot … slowly towards your goal). Just like a steam-train, getting started in your body transformation goals, getting those wheels cranking at the beginning of the journey is the difficult part.
But when you pick up [Mo]mentum (Coach Mo), you, just like that steam train can smash through whatever obstacles that lay in your path. To smithereens! Because you have Big Mo (momentum) on your side.
Here we go again.
Its easy to put off things, to procrastinate. Don’t. Don’t leave it for September, it will be too late. That’s when the majority of people start panicking and joining gyms. Start now. Find your plan (or get help from the relevant professional) and work your plan. You don’t want Spring and then Summer time and Christmas to roll around and you not feel happy about the way you look in you clothes, now, do you? Or you can just buy bigger clothes to hide it all.
Up to you.
You’re the Captain of your ship through the seas of Life. Set you goal towards being your BEST and put a quality plan in place (includes your health & overall well-being) and set sail … Towards your destination.
Making better use of the 86,400 seconds given to us every day
I have said this before: no matter what your exercise goals are, eating healthy (well-compositioned meals), can help you achieve them faster.
And right now, time is ticking and time is your friend as we have just started Winter and have a little under 10 weeks to Spring. But, the question you’re probably thinking is how are you supposed to spend time preparing healthier meals. You barely have enough time to hit the weights, how are you realistically supposed to find time to watch what hits your plate? Right, I hear you …. that is why I wrote this blog to convince you to help you, help yourself more effectively.
Eating right is actually easier than you think.
How so?
Well, in my more than two decades in the health and fitness industry and helping hundreds of people around the world. It is one truth I have discovered. They have learned that, too. You can save more of your life. Here’s how …
I believe that spending a few minutes a day making the right decisions about your nutrition could save you from spending twice the time in the gym or four times as much time on the treadmill or aerobics. How so, Paul, you may be asking? I don’t have the time, you may say!
I argue that it typically takes less time to prepare a healthier meal than it does to work off the extra calories you would eat if you didn’t spend time watching your diet.Makes sense? Yes, it does!
Think about it.
You have 86,400 seconds of your life everyday to live, the way you choose to. But, my question is why would you spend more of those seconds sweating and exercising (and for many enthusiasts doing group classes – smelling intense body odour in small bacteria-infested rooms).
I pity these folks and their poor, poor nostrils. If you do like it, God bless you. Applying my tips could mean you spend less time doing those classes. Smelling those arm-pits. That would be good for you and your nostrils, wouldn’t it? Also, I see so many people lining up outside cafes and stressing about what they are going to have for lunch. How about I say, we take that wastage of time and thought pattern with my tip here?
Achieving a well-balanced physique should be understood for what it is: a masterful fusion of art and science. One should improve once’s “BODY Smart”knowledge. this takes time and deliberate practise.
Your daily eating habits
Ok, it isn’t always easy predicting how much time you’re going to have each day to pay attention to your nutritional habits. It isn’t easy. I realise that. Still, there is a smarter way you can make sure you’re getting the most from what ever number of seconds you can use each day.
What if I told you that there are ways to change your daily eating habits without making major sacrifices in your diet. What are you thinking now? For many people, they have tried everything, and ‘nothing works’ is a common frustration. What if I told you that these changes are very real and can be implemented in to your “all-day” eating routine. And the great thing is that you could implement these changes anytime you wanted to?
In the next series of blogs, I will be sharing with you my top 8.5 tips to successfully making changes to your daily eating habits with sustainability in mind. Changes that you can sustain forever. These Valentine Top 8.5 Tipsonly takes a few hundred seconds (a few minutes) to master, but I believe, when implemented, they can take months of unnecessary hard work off your schedule, provided you follow them each day.
This is the real challenge for you:Unlearning old habits that are not aligned with your new, ‘imagined self’ and learning these new habits, my Top 10 tips. Successful change is and can only be brought about through improvement in your self-regulatory behaviour . This is heavily dependent on the power of your imagination.
Changing habits – releasing bad eating habits and adopting some good ones is like facing an internal Predator. You need to ‘face the Lion’ within you. Having a conversation with a lion.
Spring/Summer/Christmas?New Year, here you come – You, only better!
How much time do you have a day to apply these tips?
How much time can you spare? Can you spare 30 minutes in your day or 1800 seconds of your 86,400 seconds? We will do a little maths exercise and count the amount of time each of these tips will take out of your day, starting with Tip # 1 in this blog. Doing all 8.5 of my tips would take less than 30 minutes tops each day. Yet they can give you everything you need to maintain a balanced diet. That’s not much time, is it?
Can you allocate that time to YOU? Simply because your life is important and you would like to do everything you can to not only add years to your life but more importantly, add Life in to your years.
It’s going to save you spending your valuable life, your valuable seconds, thinking and exercising unnecessarily to undo what you unknowingly – did in the first place!
How good is that?!
These tips are not meant to create more stress in your life, it is meant to help make your life a bit more manageable, a little less stressful, when it comes to eating a balanced diet with sustainability in mind. It is about making the best of whatever time you have. Allow me to show you how.
My Top 8.5 Tips will cover all main meals – breakfast, lunch and dinner and snacks in-between. We will begin with the first meal of the day – breakfast. So, I will go through your day, from sunrise to sun-set and piece together a sustainable, efficient and effective schedule for melting off fat, building muscle and having increased daily energy towards reshaping your body, not tomorrow or next week.
Right now.
Spring/Summer/Christmas/New Year’s here you come. You – only better!
Sunrise – you rise.
Education through a perception of the truth. Increasing your awareness, taking sufficient and appropriate actions and adapting accordingly is key towards self-improvement. Funny thing is that the process also applies to relationships and response. In the photo, Former Australian Wallaby Captain listening intently to learn key principles of my philosophy in to being your BEST, ALL the time, not some of the time. Great student. Great Champion. Great friend. Vv
Tip #1: DO NOT Skip Breakfast.
It should consist of a mix of the 3 basic macro-nutrients: carbohydrates (oats), protein (eggs – 3 eggs/1 yolk) and a little fat (avocado, peanut butter, almonds).
Estimated time spent: < 5 minutes.
Why not skip Breakfast, you may be thinking?
It is one of the best advice our parents and grandparents have given us when we were children. Missing this very important meal creates more hunger later on and increases your risk of ‘bingeing’ and taking in more calories than you truly need in later meals. With no food in your stomach, your body’s response is to take in whatever calories you ate the night before – and whatever you eat later on and … bingeing at lunch and like many reading this – at dinner. Just before bed.
Result? Guess what? All these ‘extras’ TURNS INTO UNWANTED BODY FAT!
Yes, around the gut ( as some call a ‘spare tyre’) for most men out there after they turn 30 and deposits around the butt and legs for the ladies. Very de-motivating indeed. Not exactly what you want, is it?
So, I insist, make this first tip if you’re skipping breakfast a part of you life. Make it your first habit to master: take 4 minutes when you wake up and eat a meal for breakfast but make sure that it combines all macro-nutrients. You will get sustainable energy all day long and lower your desire for extra calories from other food to provide energy later.
This is a very good rule of thumb you should apply for every meal during your day. Ask yourself – do I have a good mix of carbs, protein and a little fat.
Use what I’ve told all my past customers – my “eyeball method” or ‘I see with my two eyes’ method. Look at your plate, ensure the macro-nutrients take up space on the plate in this ratio:
P:C:F = 0.4:0.5: 0.10. ( where P = Protein; C = Carbohydrates; F = Fats)
Steve Reeves was a Master Poser. He imagined and built the Best Built & Aesthetically beautiful body in the world through synergistic awareness. He understood that optimum health of body & mind required the fusion of art and science. Become a scientific artist of YOU … of your life.
Homework: Lets keep adding the time needed to apply each tip I share in successive blogs and see if it requires you to spend less than half an hour of your day.
Let me prove to you using numbers (minutes spent) that Eating right actually takes less time than you think over the next month or so. Let you in on a secret: I love Physics and Mathematics. They were my first majors in my first University Degree almost 30 years ago now.
Let me show you how these little but significant 8.5 Tips can and will encourage an optimum environment that is a fusion of art and science, allowing for Synergy. This synergism is KEY: it is in the combining of the elements that creates a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts.
Repeat. Make it habit. Make this one change. Repeatedly, with enhanced self-regulatory behavioural change. Repeat.
Believe.
My triple A approach to the development of Self.
Ahoy & all the very BEST… allow me to guide you through my Top 8.5 Tips over the next few weeks.
Cheers & ahoy!
The old Captain Viking Pirate …. & Life Tips
SYNERGISM: The Critical Mind-set to success. Understanding that it is in the combination of key elements to create a whole greater than the sum of its parts. Create the BEST you firstly, through 1) Education and then 2) motivation.
Changing lives. Empowering people. One life at a time. 
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