The Bells Just Keep Tolling, But for Whom?

I saw this mermaid story at the ABC news WEBsite this morning -
Mermaiding surfaces as hot new hobby despite tail safety concerns
And noticed that one of the mermaids was named Jessica Bell, which made me think of the mermaid post I wrote titled -
For Whom the Kristen Bell Tolls?

I've been meaning to write a post about the Australia Day drownings and a few other water stories I've spotted in the news, so I may as well tag it on now while the bell is still ringing in the news media.

I remember seeing the above news story in a post at
'The Secret Sun' blog -
Mermaid Apocalypse: Social Engineering through Memetic Overkill
And so, I decided to keep an eye out for any strange swimming stories appearing in my local papers and news websites. 
It was the day before Australia Day when I saw this story about a transgender pool party causing "unintended ripples" that I started taking notice of any story that resonated with what Chris was writing over at 'The Secret Sun' blog with 'Song to the Siren' themes.

That story appeared in the same paper as the news of 'The Shape of Water' getting 13 Oscar nominations along with our Margot getting a nomination for 'Best Actress'.

And this story below was in the same paper, too.

Starting to get that sinking synching feeling yet?

The Australia Day edition of the newspaper had Olympic swimmer Susie O'Neil on the front page as one of the recipients of the Australia Day honours.

Then inside the same Australia Day edition was a young girl frolicking around in a lake on Queensland's Fraser Island.
As in Elizabeth Fraser the singer.
And the island is also named after an Eliza Fraser, a Scottish woman who was aboard a ship that was wrecked on the island off the coast of Queensland, Australia, on 22 May 1836, as well.
Australia Day is a day for all things Australian and there is plenty of 'Waltzing Matilda' going on.

"The Australian poet Banjo Paterson wrote the words to "Waltzing Matilda" in January 1895 while staying at Dagworth Station, a sheep and cattle station near Winton in Central West Queensland owned by the Macpherson family."

Up jumped the swagman and sprang into the billabong.
"You'll never catch me alive!" said he
And his ghost may be heard as you pass by that billabong:
"You'll come a-waltzing Matilda, with me."

"Sirens of the Sea" World and Coasting with Archetypes?

Next day in the paper is the tragic story of two teenagers who both drowned in the same Queensland dam on Australia Day.

A dam is sort of like an artificial billabong.

"A billabong (/ˈbɪləbɒŋ/, BIL-ə-bong) is an Australian term for an oxbow lake, an isolated pond left behind after a river changes course.

Billabongs are usually formed when the path of a creek or river changes, leaving the former branch with a dead end."

Two people found dead in dam in tragic Australia Day drownings
In the same paper was an advert for Fraser Island.

And another drowning occurred on the Gold Coast, as well.

The next day three people fell off a boat off the coast of Western Australia and were lucky not to have drowned -

Three people saved after falling from boat in Swanbourne

And on the subject of billabongs there was this story a few days after about the CEO of Quicksilver missing off the coast of France.

Searches called off for Quiksilver boss missing at sea off France
"He managed the California-based company from Quiksilver's European headquarters in Saint-Jean-de-Luz, a seaside town not far from France's border with Spain.
Boardriders Inc announced on Jan. 5 it had agreed to buy Australia's Billabong International Ltd in a deal that valued the company at A$ 197.7 million ($159.92 million).
The deal came nearly two years after Boardriders emerged from a five-month stint in bankruptcy court triggered by competition and operational issues that plagued performance.
The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in September 2015 and transferred control to U.S. private equity firm Oaktree Capital Management, its largest debtholder, as part of the restructuring process.
Oaktree holds a 19 percent stake in Billabong."

Then there was this WTF(?) news story above about a wallaby found drowning/swimming in Sydney Harbour.
Wallaby rescued from Sydney Harbour by Manly ferry workers

Everywhere you looked in the mainstream media there were drowning stories in late January, early February.

Life's a Beach

Then there was this "message in a bottle" story in February about a bottle being found on Fraser Island 60 years ago -
Message in a bottle mystery leads to hunt for author's family 80 years on

The January 31st, 2018 front page

And then the next day I see Laurie Lawrence on the front page ringing the alarm bells.

I like Laurie, he's a good bloke and his heart's in the right place when it comes to swimming, plus my kids went to his swim school when they were toddlers and were learning to swim.

And on page 24 of that paper was the story of the missing Quicksilver/Billabong boss, which I have already mentioned further up the post.

I think you've probably got my drift by now and because Chris Knowles over at 'The Secret Sun' blog has been putting the Las Vegas/Vega/Vegan meme under the magnifying glass lately -

Go Go Vegas Go!
I thought I would end the post (well I would have ended it here until Mick Fanning's story came up in the current news feed) with a news story about a former Olympic champion swimmer who has gone Vegan.

I'm eating a vegetarian diet myself with no dairy products on the menu and like Steph, if I go to a birthday party and the cake is made of dairy products, I'll eat the cake not to offend the person whose birthday cake it is ... unless it's pure beefcake that is:-)

Mick Fanning, three-time world champion surfer, announces retirement at 36

And Mick's retiring in the Year of the Dog, too?
And at Bell's Beach of all places.

Who Am I to Judge?

After catching Dave Graney's book-talk on February 22nd I wrote a post titled -
The (Love) Shack?

Dave getting ready to start his 'Workshy'
book-talk on the 22nd of Feb

I had never set foot in the Avid Reader bookshop before that night and wasn't really familiar with West End anymore (well not this part of it), so I arrived early to make sure I got a close enough carpark in a back street and decided to have a browse in the book shop before the talk and also get something to eat in the area.

Two books I bought on the 22nd of February 2018

Whenever I go into a bookstore, I send out a request for my book angel to guide me to something relevant in my life.

I had started reading Peter Levenda's 'The Dark Lord' where he writes about H.P. Lovecraft's 'The Call of Cthulhu' and a few other Lovecraft stories and the parallels to Crowley's 'The Book of the Law'.

The Dark Lord?
The thing is that I have never read any Lovecraft stories, even though I had seen movies based on some of his stories, so I was hoping to come across some of Lovecraft's works.

Another book I was after was 'Moby Dick', a book I had not read either, but had seen movies based on the book.
I was listening to a podcast where someone had mentioned reading 'Moby Dick' and the synchronicities surrounding it, although they didn't mention exactly what synchronicities they were referring to, so I decided it was about time I read it for myself. 

As soon as I entered the bookstore and turned to my right, I found the complete works of Lovecraft in one book and 'Moby Dick' sitting pretty much right next to it.

I also wrote a post the day before the book-talk called -

Oprah, Deepak, The Pope and The Dalai Lama in 'The 100 Most Spiritually Influential People' List?

In that post I wrote about Oprah Winfrey, Deepak Chopra, the Dalai Lama and Pope Francis being in the top 10 of the top 100 of the 2017 'Mind Body Spirit' magazine's most spiritually influential living people list, with Pope Francis being #1 on that list.

When I was writing about those four people in that post, I was thinking how weird that three out of those four people I had seen do a live talk in my hometown of Brisbane, the exception was Pope Francis.
Weirdly enough though, I had seen Pope John Paul II in the flesh when I jumped my back fence of the house I grew up in, and cut through my Catholic neighbour's backyard to watch the Pope come down the road in his Pope-mobile.
That was one surreal day I and my old neighbour won't forget quickly.

As I was waiting for Dave to begin his talk I look up and see a Pope Francis bobble-head doll for sale on the corner of the counter.
So, I bought one and it now stands on my computer desk with other religious figures I have collected over the years.

The first few pages of Dave's 'Workshy' book

I'm not a Roman Catholic, but I like the current Pope and think he is a good bloke, unlike the last one who I thought was kind of creepy,
But who am I to judge, right?-)

I wouldn't mind seeing Pope Francis if he comes to Brisbane, especially now that he is #1 on the spiritual hit-parade.
Plus, I like how Pope Francis took the name Francis from Saint Francis of Assisi who was a lover of birds and animals,
as am I.

My Nan was a Roman Catholic who had a grotto in her front yard and religious statues and pictures all throughout her house, and while I wanted to convert and become a Roman Catholic like her, my father would never let me, as he was dead against any form of religion, telling me that it is all man-made BS.
My Grandma on my mother's side didn't think it was a good idea either, even though she would take me with her to play bingo up at the local Catholic school quite often.
When I was old enough to make up my own mind and after my Nan had passed, I became a Liberal Catholic, because I loved all of the ritual of the Roman Catholic Church, but not the dogma.

Dave Graney 'Workshy'

So, whereas the only member of my family who was a Roman Catholic (apart from a few cousins)

was my Nan, Dave started off his talk stating "I grew up in a very Catholic family...".

Looking back at my life now I'm kind of glad that I didn't, because I got to see the spiritual side of the church without having to put up with the dogma.
The outsider's perspective gave me a romantic longing to be part of an institution that a lot of my childhood friends and Nan was a part of, but I wasn't.
That probably helped to fan my spiritual quest more so than if I had of been allowed to convert in my youth, as like you hear a lot these days, even from people who grew up in the Roman Catholic Church, "I'm spiritual, not religious".
Which I would say goes for #me2.

I like the above cartoon and it kind of sums up what I think about Popes in general, but ... who am I to judge?-)

FUTURE FOSSILS #61 – JAMAICA STEVENS SMILES THROUGH THE TRANSFORMATION

“Birth is not pretty.

It’s not rainbows and unicorns.

It’s ecstatic and one of the most profound experiences, but it’s also right there at the edge of life and death…there’s something so primal and cosmic at the same time about it, it will transform you.”
I'll take Jamaica's word on that experience without giving birth myself this time round thanks.

FUTURE FOSSILS #61 – JAMAICA STEVENS SMILES THROUGH THE TRANSFORMATION

SYNCHRONICITY Magnet?

I was listening to the podcast in the You Tube above yesterday -
Have You Been a SYNCHRONICITY Magnet Lately? This Might Explain Why! (February 2018)
And I'm not trying to knock it, because I like what Alexis is saying, it's just that I find the term "synchronicity magnet" kind of repulsive (pardon the pun).

The thing with magnets is that only the opposite ends of a magnet attract each other, so positive attracts negative and vice versa.

I know that in my social circles I don't want to attract opposites, I want likeminded people in my life mostly.
Not to say that they can't have opposing views to mine, but totally opposite views to mine will just repel me away from them.

I also believe that we don't create synchronicities and that in the long run they create us.
Think about it, if I travel to say London and go into a bookstore then run into a guy who lived in the street I grew up in who just happens to be on a trip to London, as well, did I make that happen, or did he?
Then let's say a book falls out of the bookshelf and I pick it up and it's the book I just happen to be after, did I make that happen?
My theory is that if it wasn't all just a big coincidence then a third force was involved here. 
Call it God/Fate/The Universe/Whatever, but it's the third force that is orchestrating events here.
People talk about GPS (God's Positioning System) and to me that sounds right, because in GPS you need triangulation for it to work.

I believe that it is the third force that creates synchronicities in the world, so if by some chance you and I run into each other in some WTF(?) kind of way, it won't be because of either one of us and our intentions, it will be because of that third mysterious force calling the shots.
That's what I believe anyway ... but I'm just on my own little journey through life.

But the magnet analogy is a good way of thinking about synchronicity, because not all of the events that come into our lives are positive in the long run ... and vice versa.

Still, the best position to be in is a positive position when it comes to life, because life will throw negatives at us from time to time, and being positive will be a big plus for us in the battle with negative energy ... pun intended:-)

I'm sure Kevin Smith will tell you that, too, now.

Filmmaker Kevin Smith says he's lucky to be 'above ground' after heart attack

I guess you have to wonder if a third force wasn't involved in saving Kev's life there?-)

UPDATE: February 26th, 2019

The English neighbours from
Stanbury in Byron Bay

The Small World Theory Proves Itself Once Again?