Sir Paul Holmes

Today New Zealand lost a great icon and a good Kiwi bloke. I'll always remember watching Holmes at 7 o'clock on TV One with my family when I was a kid. We always had a good laugh at some of the things he would say and do on his show with that booming voice he had. How he would talk over people when he didn't agree with what they were saying and he wanted to ask the hard questions. And he did ask the hard questions, he never held back. He said he wanted to be remembered as a good bloke, and I think all of New Zealand will definitely remember him as a great Kiwi bloke.

Rest in peace Sir Paul Holmes.

Starry Starry Night

So I thought I'd share with all you lovely people what I did on Monday night that got me thinkin'. I came home at about 10:30 from a tiring shift at work and thought when I saw my bed I would want to just conk out completely for the night.  This wasn't the case. I walked into my room and did what I usually do whenever I go into my room, I turned on some music. I ended up listening to music for about an hour and after that, realised I wasn't tired any more and also that it was rather warm in my room. So I ventured into the hallway.......then decided to take the journey....in my jam jams....out to my back yard. I said hi to my dog, (I think he was a little puzzled as to why I was outside at such a ridiculous hour) then lay down on the deck, let the cold air hit me and looked up at the stars.

Most people don't like the cold. Most people would think that lying outside at night, in New Zealand (where no matter what time of year it is, its always really cold outside at night) is a little crazy. But here's the thing, if you don't let the cold get to you then it wont bother you. When its cold, most people shiver, cover up with jackets, try to block it out, when its still there. You can feel it on your face. So my theory is, embrace it. Let the cold fresh air wash over you and become your blanket and eventually you will know when its time to go inside. This is what I did on Monday night. I embraced the cold air and ended up staying outside for possibly, half an hour,maybe it was an hour, I lost track of time.....I really have no idea how long it was.

So I'm lying on the deck, looking up at the stars and I see something cool! I see the night sky! I know that everyone thinks they see the night sky every night. But I realised it takes more than just a glance to really see the stars. The longer you watch the sky, continuously, the more stars you see! Your eyes start to adapt to the extremely dim light and you see more than just the brightest stars, you see so many more. They start appearing everywhere and not just right in front of you but in the corners of your eyes. In the darkest places where before you only saw one bright star, you now see a cluster of stars bunched together. Its as if this beautiful natural thing is hidden only by our human impatience.

Watching the sky got me thinking. Many people believe that the souls of those who have passed are in the stars. Could this be true? I guess we'll never know until we leave this world. Starring into the night sky definitely opens your mind to the possibility of this. No one knows what happens to us when we die, but looking up at the stars makes you realise that there is something out there. Something bigger than us. Something so beautiful and extraordinary that our human minds cannot fathom, which is why we cant figure out what it is. I guess we just have to be patient. That's what stargazing made me think about, see where it takes your mind!

Time for a fun fact, (I'm a bit of a nerd when it comes to astronomy and awesome out-of-this-world stuff......I am in fact quite a big fan of Stephen Hawking) So did you know that when we look at the stars we are actually looking into the past? Millions of years into the past in fact. We have no idea what the stars look like in the present time because it takes millions of years for the light of a star to reach us on earth. That's how freakin' far away they are! How awesome is that?! The stars we are seeing may not even exist any more. We are seeing a whole sky full of stuff that isn't actually there! As humans we are always so sure of what we see right in front of us and we never really think about what we are actually seeing when we look up at the sky at night.

So people of earth, on the next clear night you have wherever you are, take a few minutes to look up at our beautiful sky. All those glorious stars that were once there millions of years ago. It's is such an amazing thing to stargaze because it takes your mind to a different place, you might say an out-of-this-world kind of place, just for a little while. You come to realise just how small our little planet is in the insanely mind-boggling thing that is the universe.

Look up at the sky, it's magnificent!

And that's all I have to say about that :)

Are Your Ears Glued On?

Throughout my childhood I have been asked the question 'are your ears glued on?' This could also be phrased as 'are your ears painted on?' ('Glued' just sounds cooler cause its a funny word.....glue.....go on say it about 10 times in a row without giggling just a little.)

Ears, are an interesting phenomenon in the human figure. They sit all the way up there on the edge of our head, happily taking in the more of the world around us than we realise. Unlike everything else connected to our heads, we cannot turn off our ears. At least not as easily as we can shut our eyes, hold our breath or close our mouth. Ever wonder if there's a reason why we were made this way? Its not something we usually think about when going about our daily lives, taking all of our magnificent human senses for granted.
Many parents believe that their children and their teenagers have the extraordinary ability to turn off their ears when they feel like it, just so they don't have to hear things like, 'do the dishes', 'clean your room,' 'be nice to your sister!'....(Phrases quite commonly used in my childhood.) No, just like adults; children and teenagers are always listening even when you may think they are not.

As human beings we grow up continuously being told that we are not listening enough, when in fact the question is, are you? Are the leaders in our lives listening? By leaders I'm meaning, parents, teachers, bosses, mayors, politicians, prime ministers, Mr President. These are all the humans that are continuously telling the humans below them to listen to what is 'right'. But let me tell you Mr President, Prime minister, politician, mayor, boss, teacher, parent, we have voices too. Our voices are the most valuable ones for you to hear but you aren't listening. As said by Horton the Elephant (Dr Seuss) "A person's a person, no matter how small" so that would also translate to "a voice is a voice, no matter where that voice is ranked in society, business or life in general." Too many times I've seen the little voices shut down so they just stop trying to be heard. Eventually they become too afraid to be heard. Why should a politicians opinion be considered right when 3 million other non-politicians believe it is wrong? "Dear Mr President, you wouldn't take a walk with me, would you?" A line sung by pink in her song, "Dear Mr President" says that, these people are put in charge of our planet, our countries our cities, our education, but do they know a thing about us? Are they even willing to know a thing about us? Mr President, Prime minister, politician, mayor, boss, teacher and parent, would you listen if you did in fact take a walk with me?

A message to all you high and mighty humans out there. Your ears are not glued on...so use them. Parents, listen to your children. They have incredible minds that have not yet been filled with the realities and hardships of the big wide world. They imagine, they play, they create,. They see the beauty of life without letting it be masked by this negative blanket which many humans call 'reality.' All this from those tiny little heads. What sits on the edge of those little heads are little ears. Little ears that take in so much into those little minds to make them grow and learn. What's connected to that little mind is a little voice. There is no fear of judgement in that voice and even though it may be little, it must not go unheard. You never know how valuable that voice may be.
From the moment we enter this world, our ears are switched on, never to be switched off while we are living this crazy little thing called life.

Our ears are always open,

So must we listen?
Seems we must.






And that's all I have to say about that. :)

Hello Planet Earth.

Hello everybody!
Welcome to my Blog!
So I've wanted to start blogging for a long time and I figured that today was just as good as any other day, and definitely better than someday (see what I did there......blog name reference, you saw it ahhhh!), to kick it off!
So here I am finally to share my thoughts and ramblings with all you lovely people people of the world.
I hope I can lighten up your day once in while and maybe give you something to ponder while you are going about your daily lives.

We shall see how this pans out.

NicoleLouisa :)