Honey time is yummie time

honey final
The hive consisted of ten frames. They were overflowing and dripping with the most delicious, pure, raw honey.
A blessing. A miracle from the bees.
I took out four frames of honeycombs and left the rest for the bees. Then I put a Super extension onto the brood box adding another ten frames.

Dripping with honey

After I had squeezed the honeycombs and gave the wax back to the bees I had three and a half litres of sweet, liquid gold to see me through winter.

the ‘waiting’ in between

By that I mean the time ‘in between’ that it takes before I get what I want.
What if that waiting is actually just in my mind?
From the moment I want something until I have it, the clock ticks. But, should I really be a waiting?

You see I have this thing about time. It’s a dimension humans have created to dissect the present and in the process forgetting the whole.
Time is an industry that thrives on measurement and disruption. Time is fashion and villain. It’s impersonal and a pain, and it’s relative. Of course time is also a foundation block of my current reality.

Anyway, I like to simplify stuff. Therefore I like to remove one component from my universe: time.
No other living creature lives by a tik-tok. Makes you think, doesn’t it?
From very young I have heard it said: “This (or that) will take a long time?”
I’m not a physicist but after many decades of living by the rules of time I still have a problem being able to tell (the) time.
So to hell with time. Actually forget about speed and distance too. Drop the human constructs and just live without having to define everything for a moment.

I can see space clearly. It’s the transparent nothingness between objects. Some refer to it as the void, but this nothing is something.
Space is everywhere; it’s also between where we are and what we want. If we can make that space ‘work’ for us instead of seeing it as a hurdle multiplied by time, then we are onto a good thing.
In my book Austrafica I went into some detail what I perceive this nothingness, which I called ‘Invisibles,’ to be. Here is what I thought up.

Invisibles are not spiritual, religious, metaphysical or ghosty stuff. They are not a ‘them,’ ‘they’ or ‘it’ either. There are also so many Invisibles that if we would count them we would be countlessly counting.
Invisibles are never-ever visible to us, at all. If we can imagine them existing then we should visualize them as being entirely different to anything we know, which might be inherently difficult for various reasons, because they aren’t measureable in any way. They are not even noticeable to us and the closest thing is ‘no-thing,’ but even that means the opposite, the negation of a thing, which they definitely aren’t. Transparent dust maybe gives an idea, but don’t dwell on it because Invisibles are really indefinable. One can say that they are all the invisible stuff in-between all the visible stuff. They are not of matter and as soon as we think of them being something they disappear, and when they disappear chaos appears and the ‘waiting’ is back. So what are they? Because to the fleeting observer and thinker they aren’t, but we are trying to say they are, the best description is ‘Invisibles.’ You could imagine them as being connectors. The less definition we give them the more they exist, and the more we accept them, – kind of like allowing, – the more our life will run smooth.
Odd! I know.
By acknowledging ‘them’ we are at least not in ignorance or in denial of them and that is the important crux. Although we can never see them they are everywhere even where we think they aren’t. Because of that they have been given the name of ‘fillers,’ and the attribute of ‘smoothers.’ Without them there would really be nothing or in other words everything would be so dense that nothing could exist except maybe matter of the densest kind and chaos of course. Some might say chaos is the natural state, well, maybe here we are about to redefine its meaning. Regardless and nevertheless Invisibles are so important and yet so invisible that we tend to forget they exist. That is a problem we should seek to remedy.

The moment we acknowledge that the space ‘in between’ is filled with Invisibles, chaos ceases and smoothness takes over. Once there is smoothness all the invisible parts around us connect right to the end point of that which we want/think about and, that could be in another room, country, galaxy or universe. The unconnected pictures suddenly flow into one big ‘present’ for us.
So next time you stare at nothing acknowledge the Invisibles and imagine how it connects you smoothly to that which you want, without, aah, a second of waiting.

Acknowledging the Invisibles is the only practice required, others talk about subatomic sized energy particles and of consciousness and being aware.

“There is almost a sensual longing for communion with others who have a large vision. The immense fulfillment of the friendship between those engaged in furthering the evolution of consciousness has a quality impossible to describe.”
― Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

get back inside

It’s the kind of words you could hear someone yell from the porch on a rainy day.
It could be the name of a bistro.
It’s a vociferous frustration when you opened something up you should not have touched.
It implies that whatever it is, whoever it is, it or they came from the inside.
Get back means to return, to the inside in this case.

Right now however, ‘it’ must be on the outside, because why else would I be reprimanded to get back inside?
The ‘it’ is actually a facet of me.

I was sitting inside the lounge on a chair. But I heard it clearly said, “get back inside.”
The time was just after 5am. Where is inside at that time of the morning? Cosy-snugly bed, no?

Admittedly the meditation was a bit, ‘all over the place.’

In my supposed mode of passive observation I had to rope-in my freely wandering thoughts time and again.
If it would have been a dream it would be called lucid dreaming, because you know what you are doing and you maintain some form of control.
I clearly was two things at once: observer and practitioner, and, I have on occasion caught myself being even more than two things at once.

During writing of my first book I have occasionally practiced spawning numerous thought streams at once and then sitting back to observe: i.e. traveling on the Orient express, flying an aircraft, having dinner and conversation and leaning a fast motorbike through the curves in Mpumalanga with Beethoven’s 6th (Pastorale) in the background.
Indeed I thought I was successful at it. I just worked up a voracious appetite for chocolate afterwards.

Multi-tasking, multi-processing, time-slicing, – fascinating ideas, computer jargon I know, but if a robot can do it surely I can too. Brilliant creation our brain is!
In short most of us will concur that I have probably never reached my destination on the Orient express, crashed the aircraft, was absent minded at dinner and an irresponsible danger on the motorbike. Yes you are right. I never completed any one of them except the Symphony, and why should I? There were another thousand other things to do and I was only interested in the highlights.
Such is the power of our beautiful mind.

Well, this morning an inner voice decided it was appropriate to remind me to ‘get back inside.’
Inside is where I truly am. The outside is a distraction and probably an illusion, – or all is an illusion.
While I am deeply anchored inside I can become a better observer and conductor.
I think what ‘it’ was trying to tell me was, “go outside by all means but stay connected to your true guiding self.”
I’m safely back inside now, peeping out occasionally till next time.

To Beethoven, to Me, to everything at once inside.

Get back inside now!

Freedom of: What did you say?

I mean the Freedom of Speech.
I have cogitated for long about this simple statement. I thought it was clear at first.
However, we humans have made it extremely difficult to the extent that it actually only exists within contained walls.
We have controlled speech on all fronts and the curtain is getting thicker and closing more and more.

Some inflated individuals can stretch their freedom of speech unaffected, others better whisper if they want to survive.
I order to get a grip on it we should really be tought what it means before we start thinking to use it for what it doesn’t mean.
But who will teach us?
Government, religion, philosophers, fanatics…

I can’t actually believe that speech is so unfree. It’s ‘freedom of speech’ for heavens sake.
Some of us know about the power of words. Words are thoughts expressed. Words are two-thirds towards action.
We need no licence for words. Our birthright is ‘Freedom of Speech.’ Words: just say them and watch the ripples turn into eruptions.

But, are we not heading towards Newspeak, George Orwell’s fictional controlled language used in the totalitarian state Oceania in his novel Nineteen Eighty-Four?

I was recently inspired by what British comedian Bill Hicks wrote about freedom of speech in 1993 when he responded to a priest who had bemoaned the ‘blasphemous’ content of his television special. He said:

“‘Freedom of speech’ means you support the right of people to say exactly those ideas which you do not agree with. (Otherwise, you don’t believe in ‘freedom of speech,’ but rather only those ideas which you believe to be acceptably stated.) Seeing as how there are so many different beliefs in the world, and as it would be virtually impossible for all of us to agree on any one belief, you may begin to realize just how important an idea like “freedom of speech” really is. The idea basically states “while I don’t agree or care for what you are saying, I do support your right to say it, for herein lies true freedom.”

The full article is here: https://www.brainpickings.org/2014/06/23/bill-hicks-censorship-freedom-of-speech-letter

Most constitutions mention the freedom of speech. Some countries just sweep it under the carpet and many people are non the wiser either.

In the South African Constitution
Chapter 2: Bill of Rights
Section 16: freedom of speech and expression, including freedom of the press and academic freedom.
Explicitly excluded are propaganda for war, incitement to violence and hate speech (advocacy of hatred that is based on race, ethnicity, gender or religion, and that constitutes incitement to cause harm)

The First Amendment in the US protects the freedom of speech. It then dives at length into what is and isn’t allowed to be said.

I am shocked to read that the Australian Constitution does not explicitly protect freedom of expression and yet I have watched full-on confrontations between radio presenters and government officials.

In modern Germany, the Grundgesetz guarantees freedom of press, speech, and opinion, but censorship does exist especially when we take certain perpetuated historic events into consideration.

In the UK free speech has long been recognised as a common law right.

As I sit here and write I know many of us want to say some things, talk about some things, bring them into the open, instead of silently accepting because of the ‘grave repercussions’ our exercise of freedom of speech could have. I just need to look at what some famous and outspoken authors and commentators have been subjected to and I’d rather leave that exercise for another day.

Here it is again: ‘Freedom of speech’ means you support the right of people to say exactly those ideas which you do not agree with.

I do support that right! I would expect that my right to freedom of speech therefore also exists(?)
I can dust off what I don’t agree with and what I don’t care for and move on.

Thank you Bill Hicks (Rip)