Category: thoughts

thoughts

~ The Poachers Of Life ~

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 ~ The Poachers Of Life ~

“I always found it interesting how we all united in contempt whenever there was a story about poachers in the news or on the television. Nothing was more disturbing than seeing a wild animal tamed, thrown in a cage, shot or hacked down for their personal treasures. But so often we were blind to the fact that the same thing happened to us. While migrating across the plains of life, so many of us were captured and thrown into the cages of fear, doubt, dogma and a constant chase of security. So many of us chose to live lives that were safe and acceptable, rather than living the life we truly wanted. The danger was relentless and the poachers approached from many angles. They didn’t always have guns and spears – but instead they were the people putting their hands on our shoulders and telling us to forget about our dreams and passions. Sometimes the poachers were the advertisers, the politicians, the teachers, the parents. Sometimes the poachers were those closest to us; some negative voices ridiculing and dragging us down. Sometimes it was even yourself – the man or woman staring back at you from the mirror – who was the greatest poacher of all.”

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(taken from my book ‘The Thoughts From The Wild’ available here)

thoughts

~ An Invisible Prison ~

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~ An Invisible Prison ~

“The blocks flew open and suddenly I entered into a race I didn’t even ask to be a part of. My immediate thought was of escape, but everywhere I turned it seemed the coordinators were there to usher me back onto the track of the rat race. I looked and looked for the alternative but it was near impossible to find. The people who called themselves alternative wore hippy clothes and tattoos, but were still tied down with careers and cars and televisions and credit cards. The track was hard to leave and even if you wanted to – the warnings were there. The homeless people on the side of the street. The mental asylums. The prisons. The cemeteries. Abandoning the arena of normality may have sounded grand in my head, but the reality was that it a dangerous and even deadly affair. Many a man or woman has hit the bottom after leaving the state-owned racing track towards death. Such an undertaking was not something one did lightheartedly. But on the other hand, what about the others who found the gold in the wilderness? What about the Kerouacs, the Dylans, the Edmund Hillarys? The wilderness of the world had many dangers, but the static life of the suburbs that awaited me seemed like a death sentence. Anything seemed better than being silently imprisoned in an invisible prison which no one else could see. How could you explain the pain of a prison which many people aspired for? The pain of a prison where the fridge was full but the soul empty? The pain of a prison which came with a shiny automobile, a high credit-rating, and a HD television?”

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(taken from my book ‘The Thoughts From The Wild’ available here)

thoughts

~ In Search ~

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 ~ In Search ~

“It doesn’t matter if you die in a ditch or a mansion; both have the same end result. The only that matters – the only thing that ever matters – is what you do with the time you have here. We all grow out of the universe but many a life is denied its full blossoming due to the fear of failure or being different. Too many of us abandon our passions due to the influence of others. Gripped by an urge to fit in amongst the tribe, we instead choose to dwell in the darkness of living a life untrue to ourselves. We settle for the mundane and our homes and buildings become populated with the ghosts of the lives that were not fully lived.

For me it was that haunted darkness which drove me out into the world. Whenever I was on the road, I often witnessed the blossoming of a wilted flower. I looked into people’s eyes and could see people finally shining in the light of an overdue dawn, living life with the kind of inner joy they knew they deserved. The air was filled with electricity and there was a sense that anything was possible. It was in moments like that when you realised the true power of picking up that backpack. It was in those moments when you realised the value of wandering over the horizon. It was in those moments when you stepped back and realised that the real journey – the real adventure – had only just begun.”

(taken from my book ‘The Thoughts From The Wild’ available here)

thoughts

~ Down And Out On The Road ~

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~ Down And Out On The Road ~

“I awoke with a dry mouth and my head aching with the aftermath of the previous night’s exploits. The girl was gone and I lay there, alone again, in a strange hostel room. I looked at my backpack, beaten and battered and bruised on the floor. I now only had a few items of clothes left and my wallet confirmed I had burnt through all my money again. There was a sadness in the air and the fading ink on my passport cover told me I would soon be a ghost. Eventually I dragged myself out of bed and roamed the streets in search of sustenance. After devouring some cheap street-food, I made it to the beach and stood there staring out into the ocean. Somewhere on the other side of that great mass of water was the land of home – the land where I could have been suited and booted up like a regular member of the human race. I imagined myself waking to an alarm clock, fighting through traffic jams, working a conventional job and chatting about the football down the pub. I imagined the routine, the television shows, the suburban lawns and quiet desperation as I slowly and statically sank into unfulfilled old age. Maybe I was down and out in foreign lands, but returning home to that would surely finish me off. I didn’t belong to that world and the only way to save myself was to dive deeper into the abyss – deeper into the chaos – deeper into the wilderness. With a hungover heart and a mind stained with madness, the only way out was to continue wandering into the wild like an abandoned dog trying to find his way home.”

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(taken from my book ‘The Thoughts From The Wild’ available here)

thoughts

~ Woods Of Wisdom ~

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~ Woods Of Wisdom ~

“Often you can learn more about life from a simple walk in the woods than you can from any institutional education facility or foot-long textbook. If you kept your eyes open on those walks then there was an infinite amount of wisdom to be found all around you. The falling leaves taught you the beauty in letting things go; the meandering streams taught you not to bulldoze your way through life in a linear and rigid fashion; the birds recycling the broken branches to build their homes taught you it was better to work with nature rather than trying to conquer it. A person who spends all their life studying textbooks but does not take the time to return to nature will lose touch with the greatest teachings in life. Keep your eyes open to the beauty of the natural universe and often you will learn more from a simple walk in the woods than any teacher or textbook could possibly convey.”

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thoughts

~ Contrast Settings ~

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~ Contrast Settings ~

“When the colour of your life begins to dim – seek adventure. For though the world can often appear bleak in the adult way of work and survival, the open road provides moments where the greyness fades and you return to the infant-like state of seeing. Suddenly, among new sights and new smells and new possibilities, everything is again magical and mysterious. Suddenly you face the world like a wide-eyed child in an amusement park of flashing lights. Suddenly the mist of monotony clears like early morning fog, and life shines bright in brilliant colour once more.”

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(taken from my book ‘The Thoughts From The Wild’ available here)

thoughts

~ The Contract Of Normality ~

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~ The Contract Of Normality ~

“The more I went through life, the more it seemed that signatures were life’s way of reeling you into a life of normality. The dotted lines were always there waiting. Whenever you started a job, you signed that dotted line. Whenever you rented an apartment, you signed that dotted line. Phones, cable TV, cars, internet and even marriage – that line was always waiting to hook you in and keep you fixed in one place. The way I saw it, all of those individual things essentially constituted an entire contract of normality which was offered to each and every one of us. The contract of normality much have been the most signed piece of paper in the world. The big question simply was: to sign or not to sign? Signing yourself over to a normal life had its perks after all. You were guaranteed of lifetime supply of steady small-talk and fitting in amongst the crowd. You got a TV, a car, a few weeks’ vacation each year and even a pension to fall back on. Your days and weeks may have had some surprises, but more or less you had your life schedule sorted on a spreadsheet right up until your funeral. It was a solid deal – a tempting one – as proven by its popularity. But did I want to sign? Life was safe and straight-forward if you put your name on that dotted line, but where was the thrill? Where were the surprises? Where were the moments where you weren’t sure whether you were going to reach the mountain top or fall into the abyss?

The more I thought about it, the more it seemed that signing the dotted line meant I was giving away all the excitement and adventure. So whenever the contract of normality was put in front of my face, I simply put the pen down and walked away from the table. Sure, I may have been residing myself to a life of unpredictability, discomfort and lack of security, but the journey into the wild was just simply too much fun to hand it all over to a life defined by rules and regulations.”

(taken from my book ‘The Thoughts From The Wild’ available here)

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~ A Rebellion Against Life ~

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~ A Rebellion Against Life ~

“In this life they call you a rebel if you live life your own way and not society’s. But to me there is no greater rebellion than riding the cultural conveyor-belt safely to the grave without ever questioning why. Often the people who do this are the people who ridicule others for breaking free and going out to explore their inner and outer worlds. I apologise to absolutely none of them for walking my own path. I am not a rebel; I am simply just another person following their heart and bliss through the wilderness. Now, to ignore your heart your whole life and play it safe to the end? To hide always among the crowd? To stick your fingers in your ears and never try to explore anything else other what you’ve been taught and told? Now that is what I call a rebellion. That is a rebellion against the very essence and beauty of life itself.”
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~ The Prisoners ~

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~ The Prisoners ~

“You do not have to be physically confined in a cell to be a prisoner in this world. Some of the most enslaved souls walk amongst us every day in our very streets and neighbourhoods. Maybe they dress normal, look normal and speak normal, but hidden behind a polished exterior can often lie a mind that has been beaten down and shackled into passive submission over many years. Perhaps they had an unwanted religion forced on them in childhood; perhaps they had their hopes and dreams degraded by their peers; perhaps they had been psychologically manipulated into a way of life that slowly killed them from the inside. Whatever it was, you never knew what was really happening behind a salesman’s smile or a cashier’s small-talk. You never knew who was out there silently searching for help. Whenever you stopped and looked around at the crowd that momentarily formed at the traffic lights, you just never knew who was trapped in a prison from which they could not escape.”

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(taken from my book ‘The Thoughts From The Wild’ available here)

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~ Out Of Character ~

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~ Out of Character ~

“I thought I was walking into the wonderful wilderness of life but suddenly I found myself upon a stage. The spotlight shone down on me and I was forcefully ushered in one direction. I was then given a state-approved script to follow and a character to play. Slightly confused, I looked down at that script, opened it up and read away. As I scanned through the lines I quickly realised I had little to zero interest in it. From what I could see it was a bad play. The plot was stale, the acts monotonous, and the characters one-dimensional. According to their script I was supposed to define my entire existence in the universe by a singular job title. I was supposed to buy things I didn’t need to seek the approval of people I didn’t like. I was supposed to save for a distant retirement while toiling away the best years of my life in some company that saw me as a number on the screen.

I was only young, and I faced pressure from people all around me to join their little stage act, but I decided to toss their script in the bin and walk off the stage. Screw them, I thought, and screw anyone who tells another person the way they have to live their life. I’m not sure why I was spawned on this planet with these strange humans hiding behind masks but it certainly wasn’t to ‘fit in’, pay bills and die. Life is precious and I will not waste it doing things I have no interest in just because it’s culturally expected. I will not allow my imagination and creativity to be slowly murdered by a blinking television screen. I will not sit in traffic jams every week of my life as the fire in my eye slowly fades. No, no, no: I will not allow any of those things to happen because I am here to make my life a beautiful adventure. I am here to help and inspire others to live a life true to themselves. Even if it means an early death, I am here to live a life that fills me with so much wonder and passion and joy that the flowers around my grave blossom with the colours of insanity and freedom.”

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(taken from my book ‘The Thoughts From The Wild’ available here)