My Idea of Heaven

My idea of Heaven on Earth.

This story is part of a much larger story that I will post later, but I just wanted to comment on a story that was posted at Mike Perry's blog 67 Not Out of a girl whose story was told about what she thought Heaven looked like, after she had experienced a near death episode.
Near Death Experience in the Stars

Durdana's painting

This all happened in 1968. 
Twelve years later in 1980 the family moved to London, England where her story was featured on BBC television. 
The producer of the programme suggested that Durdana should try and paint what she had seen while when she was 'in the stars' .

That's one of the pictures (above) Mike was displaying at his blog. 

Durdana said that there were gardens with  
"Apples and grapes and pomegranates" in them.

My dream house at Byron Bay.

Now, it struck me as quite a coincidence that I should come over to Mike's blog and read this story not long after I had been fantasizing about a house that I had stumbled across, just in the area I would love to live in.
In just the right style I would like it in (Tuscan).

It's well out of my league, as far as houses go.
But it's one of my "if I could just win the lotto" fantasies.
It is truly my idea of Heaven on Earth.
The top picture I made as my computer background setting because that was my idea of Heaven.
Sitting out in the open under a grape vine and looking out to my favourite spot in my world - Byron Bay.

I wear a ring on my right middle finger 

Ben Porat Yosef Ring Silver

An ancient blessing of fertility and abundance

with the inscription in Hebrew from Genesis 49:22 

“Joseph is a fruitful vine, a fruitful vine by a fountain; its branches run over the wall."

 Not that I am a religious person, but I like this line for some subconscious reason.

This is the blessing that Jacob bestowed upon Joseph, before his death supposedly. 
It is actually an ancient blessing of fertility and abundance.
The meaning of the expression "Ben Porat" is the son of a fertile tree, a tree that bears fruit.  The word "Ein" means a spring and "Shor" means a rampart". 
"Banot Tzeada Aley Shor" which means its branches run over the wall. 
Traditionally people use this phrase as a folk saying to ward off the evil eye, because Joseph was protected from the envy of all creatures.

Looking out to the Byron Bay Lighthouse.

 I love grapevines and lilies growing in ponds ... this place has both.
It reminds me of another place I consider a slice of 
Heaven here on Earth, Sirromet Winery,
that I wrote about and showed pictures of here;

“The Twelfth Insight”?

Like I said, this is just a fraction of the story I wanted to post and have still got to post, I just thought I would share this detour on the path that Mike threw up at me with his story.

The key elements are all here, the same as the painting in a way.
Grapevine, lilies, water, gardens.
The only thing missing might be the pomegranates.
But I had already thought about where the pomegranates would go, 
because I love these trees too.

So, while I don't have any recollections at this point as to what Heaven would look like, I thought it was mighty coincidental that Durdana's idea and my idea of what Heaven would be like ... even if mine is a Heaven on Earth ... contained many of the same elements.

Time to wake up?

 As I said this is a part of a larger story involving what I feel was a message from beyond, presented as a dream to me, some time ago.
I will post it soon, as I try to put it into words and pictures ... not easy to do, but I'll try. 
Here are some clues...

Update: Sept.28th, 2012

Someone has purchased my dream house and turned it into a bed and breakfast, so if you get the urge to travel to Byron Bay, you too can now spend some time in my idea of heaven.

Wall Hanging with a Message

A wall hanging I picked up at the Woodford Folkfest on Wednesday. 
A saying accredited to His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama.
Seems fairly good advice ... even if it turns out not to be the true meaning of Life;-)

Cosmic Gnostic?

The patterns on my sofa which
I chose, Cosmic Gnostic??

The logo at Cosmic Gnostic

I was listening to a podcast between Alan Abbadessa Green and  
Mike Clelland at Mike's Hidden Experience blogspot;

Audio Conversation with Alan Abbadessa Green
and decided to check out Alan's blog

Look at All the Happy Creatures.
I wrote about my syncs with Alan here,
Look At All The Happy Creatures:-( 
I became a follower of Alan's blog since I felt cosmically guided by these synchronicities.
About a week later I saw he had done an audio conversation at Cosmic Gnostic with John Kale, who I had never heard of before.
So I went over to Cosmic Gnostic to hear what it was about.
It was a talk called, Talking Sync with Cosmic Gnostic.

Alan wrote on his blog about this interview,

"Here's the image he uses as his Skype icon, so it was what I was looking at during our whole conversation:

I couldn't tell if I was gazing into the dark abyss or witnessing the flowering of creation. ...But, if I've learned anything this year, it's that those are two sides of the same coin -- And, that I am striving to find balance, "living on the edge" as it were, rather than getting caught up in dualistic thinking."

My sofa was recovered by my choice of fabric.
It used to be a green tartan colour.

I really enjoyed their conversation, although it seemed to be stumbling along at times, while they tried to catch their thoughts on the subject ... which I can well relate to.

But I love how these two guys are caught in the same web of exploration on synchronicity as I am.
It reminds me of a talk that I just "happened" to catch at the Woodford Folk-fest on Wednesday.
I was going to give it a miss, but something told me I should go.
Then I got caught listening to a great Jazz/Blues band and thought,"no, I'll stay here and listen to these guys".
The catch was I would have to stay outside on the grass area, which I thought was OK.
Then I looked up and saw the sky was about to open up right over me.
So, I had to get to a venue that was under cover, so I headed over to where I first "felt" I should be.

Michael Williams

Indigenous Knowledge is Power 2.00pm - 3.00pm
Michael Williams   

You can listen to the whole talk by clicking on the link below, because they were recording the session, fortunately enough.  

http://www.thegreenhouse.org.au/index.php/201112-audio/wed-28-december-2011

I was still looking for a sign of confirmation that I was meant to be attending this talk, because I'm not Aboriginal. I'm a third/forth generation Australian of secular Jewish descent. Mainly coming from Germany, Denmark and England. Some of my cousins have Aboriginal blood, but not me, as far as I know. 

A Black Swan in flight hanging
 from the roof of "The Greehouse".

 I decided the sign I was to look for was a bird, since birds seem to be message bearers for me lately. There was a black swan hanging from the roof, but I thought that was a bit lame as bird message.

Michael walking onto the stage,
but still no real bird sign.

I thought "come on, you'll have to do better than that for a bird message", then this guy with a bird on his shoulder walked in with his Aboriginal girlfriend and sat down diagonally in front of me.

The guy with the bird on his shoulder
sitting diagonally opposite me.

OK synchronicity wins the day. I was going to stay anyway, because it was starting to rain and it was getting heavier. But now my ears were pricked and I knew I was meant to be here.

Once Michael started talking, I had this distinct feeling that somehow my "spirit guide/self" (for want of a better expression) and his "spirit guide/self" had brought us together. This was a weird feeling, but he seemed tome to be looking right at me for the whole talk, like he had singled me out for some reason. I didn't feel uncomfortable about this at all, but it was a strange experience. If you can imagine Michael looking more or less, straight at you for this whole talk you'll get some feeling of the (spiritual) interchange. On a deep level I knew what he meant, but on a conscious level I feel as though I'm still half asleep. I'm very interested in shamanism and the spirituality of indigenous cultures the world over, but especially my fellow Australian indigenous brothers.  

After watching the movie The Last Wave and seeing what supposedly happens to initiated individuals, I could see how he wanted to tell me and the others what he was trying to say, but at the same time being careful not to reveal too much.

It was like a Freemason who wanted to share something which he thinks that you might have picked up on, but couldn't find out if you had until he reveled the secret to you. It was a catch 22 situation where he might of thought I knew something of his secret teachings, or wanted to, but he had to be careful how he approached the situation. I listened intently, but I had no conscious questions to ask him that day, so I didn't bother to follow up a meeting with him. I know where I can find him anyway, if I need to.

I think it is just more important at present to pass this talk and sync on to other world citizens through the world wide web and let synchronicity take its course.

Apart from all the great music and souvenirs I took away on the day, I feel this was probably the most spiritual part of the day for me. And like Michael said - 

"if we take the time to explore then act upon, then do, and keep doing it ... don't lose heart ... you'll get there. It's not something that you can believe that you can understand ... If you think you can understand it, then you have a lot of understanding to do".  

More about the above movie Walkabout  (which I bought at Woodford) and some syncs involved with it, in another future post.

Update: 14th July 2013.

Michael Williams will be giving talks at this years

Woodford Folk-festival.

I hope my finances pick up, so I can afford to be there this year.  

http://www.woodfordfolkfestival.com/programme/act.html?qs=267

Michael Williams