- ‘GOD IS IN THE DETAIL’
- A CHRISTMAS THANK YOU!
- JESUS AND HIS FATHER
- MY LORD IN MY HEART, a Guitar and a Knife -a true story!
- Chillin’ For a Few Weeks!
- CARTOONS by Narvie and Nityangi
- BERT and MARTHA
- COLLECTING & DECLUTTERING – Living & Dying
- DECALCOMANIA (Decals) – Guitar Decoration Part. 1.
- ANZAC DAY, MY FATHER and ‘REGIME CHANGE’ WARS
- GOD ALWAYS LOVES US
- UNCONDITIONAL FRIENDSHIP & KINDNESS – A true story
- ALL IS RIGHT IN THE GARDEN – For Now!
- HOW TO MAKE A PYRAMID BRIDGE Part 1. Introduction
- HOW TO MAKE A PYRAMID BRIDGE Part 2. 20th Century Pyramid Bridge
- HOW TO MAKE A PYRAMID BRIDGE Part 3. Truncated or Chicago Bridge
- HOW TO MAKE A PYRAMID BRIDGE Part 4. 19th Century Pyramid Bridge
- The DUNNING-KRUGER effect – when incompetent people think they are amazing!
- I cured my IRRITABLE BOWEL SYNDROME (IBS) with an ANTIBIOTIC (Amoxicillin)
- HUMILITY IS NOT A WEAKNESS
- TOOL CADDY for my grandson
- A BIG THANK YOU!
- GOSSIP & RUMORS
- “I’VE SEEN THE ELEPHANT!”
- CARTOONS by my 14yr old grandson
- THE BLIND MEN & THE ELEPHANT
- GETTING OLD!
Category: Miscellaneous
UPDATE
This is Jane again. We could not believe that by the time notifications went out about the last post we had already exceeded the goal we needed for the surgery so I stopped the fundraiser. We were blown away but did not want to accept more than we needed.
So thanks to all who tried to donate but could not. Charles goes into hospital tomorrow for about 2 weeks and I am much relieved. Hopefully I will have time to keep you updated.
All the very best
Jane
From Charlie’s wife:
Hi, this is Jane, Charlie’s wife. No doubt if you are a regular subscriber to this website you will have noticed Charlie has been relatively quiet lately with his posts and also at answering emails and comments.
You will know that he has been dealing quite successfully with prostate cancer for the last 22 years but late last year he was also diagnosed with bladder cancer. Since then he has had a round of chemotherapy and some immunotherapy, however this has proved unsuccessful.
Now he has been presented with an option of a cystectomy operation – removal of the bladder (and the cancer) and replacing it with an artificial external one. Charles and the doctors agree this is his best chance to stop the cancer spreading. This is booked in for next week and is a serious operation that takes 6 hours plus. It is tribute to Charles’ 73 year old general health that the surgeon thinks that he is up to the ordeal.
The surgery has hit us like a thunderbolt. After 23 years of keeping ahead of the medical bills, we now are facing these new surgery bills. Even though we have private health insurance our finances have been drained over the years and with this operation we will be out of pocket about Australian $13,850 or US$8,960 Money we do not have.
I have set up a “Go-Fund-Me” page where Charles’ many friends and relatives can contribute to this amount if they want, no matter how small:
Obviously there is no pressure to do this, and I appreciate you taking the time to read my message. Any help you can offer will be so very appreciated, and every dollar will go towards the medical costs . We are hopeful Charles will come through this as he has many times before, and continue on with his family , friends and website!
All the best and good health to all,
Jane Robinson
GETTING OLD?
WHEN I STARTED SEEING MYSELF AS ‘OLD’.
I remember exactly when I realized I had reached ‘old age’ — or rather my body had reached ‘old age’.
You would think in my seventy’s I should have reached that point long ago. But up until my late sixty’s I felt I was keeping it together. But then an incident occurred that changed that perception:
THE BLIND MEN & THE ELEPHANT
Stories have been used to illustrate important ideas in different cultures for thousands of years, with some of the same stories appearing in more than one culture. This story comes from the Vedic tradition and was told by Srila Bhaktsiddhanta Swami, the guru of the guru of my guru (spiritual teacher).
The Blind Men & the Elephant
A group of blind men heard of a strange animal called an ‘elephant’ from some elderly people. Naturally they had a very strong urge to have first-hand experience of such an animal via the sense of touch. Walking sticks in hand, the blind persons arrived at the elephant stable in the royal palace, and requested the elephant keepers to permit them to touch the elephant’s different limbs.
“I’VE SEEN THE ELEPHANT!”
The first elephant to arrive in the USA was in 1796, and was exhibited around the country, so it was a question people asked — “Have you seen the elephant?”
In the mid 1800’s it was an idea often expressed in the West of America when someone was dying — “You’ve seen the elephant!”— meaning they’ve seen and experienced everything worthwhile in this world and it was now OK to die. http://www.awb.com/dailydose/?p=1097
GOSSIP & RUMORS
One day a parishioner went into the church to see his priest for confession. The priest asked what he wished to confess, and he stated he had been gossiping about someone.
The churchgoer was not thinking this to be a serious sin and expected to be asked to say a couple of “Hail Mary’s.” However, the priest said to him, “Go onto the highest roof-top you can find in the community with a feather-down pillow, cut it open, and let all the feathers fly into the wind, then return to see me next week.”
A BIG THANK YOU!
Thank you to everyone, especially my subscribers, for hanging in there on this website. It has been 5 years now since I started it and it’s a surprise to me I am still around.
I realize that with the variety of subjects with my posts that they are not all going to appeal to everyone, but what surprises me is the many emails and comments I get in support of what I am doing. And although I have my email address charles@koolaru.com in many places throughout the site, in all those 5 years I have only received one negative comment. And it was a pretty pathetic one at that!
So, a big thank you for the support of everyone who reads my posts, especially those who have subscribed to receive notification when new material is posted.
TOOL CADDY* for my Grandson
(* One dictionary definition of ‘Caddy’: a container or device for storing or holding objects when they are not in use).
I have 4 grandsons and 6 granddaughters. All are amazing! One of my grandsons is 14 and loves to build things and is what I call “an ideas person”. Always thinking about how things work and thinking of different ways of doing things.
He lives in the USA and I live in Australia, so I do not get to see him nearly as much as I like.
I have a range of interests and vintage guitars is only a small part of my life, but I’ve always worked with my hands and I have a workbench that reflects this:
My grandson has only a few tools so I decided to give him some small hand tools as a birthday gift and a ‘tool caddy’ to keep them in. I made it ‘flat pack’ so he could put the caddy together himself, and it made it easier to send.
HUMILITY IS NOT A WEAKNESS
It is a quality in developing love of God
Today our children are taught, directly and indirectly, that humility is something that does not get you far in this world. They are told they are “special” – better than others – and that the world owes them.
But for one who is trying to develop love for God, ideas of ‘specialness’ or self-importance go against all spiritual concepts:
Continue reading “HUMILITY IS NOT A WEAKNESS”
FORGIVENESS – a true story
Holding onto anger and bitterness towards someone who has caused us grief hurts me much more than the person my anger is aimed towards.
I want to tell a true story that is well known in New Zealand. It is about a lady who showed great love and forgiveness to those who caused massive upheaval and pain in her life:
In order to help get this story out to a wider audience, I tell it here in my own words. It is a powerful account that can change lives. There are references at the end of the story if you wish to read more about it.
In 1996, a group of Black Power gang members attacked a rival gang member in Taranaki, New Zealand. It was a brutal attack in which the victim’s face was slashed and several of his fingers were severed with a tomahawk.
The attack occurred outside the house of a family man, Christopher Crean, who’d witnessed the attack as he mowed his lawn.