Dear Fellow Adventurers


I’M GOING TO WRITE ABOUT NEXT month before this one, for a reason that will become obvious at the end. Each year people celebrate Mothers


Day in Australia in May – and we often run stories about mothers, and the beautiful things that go with motherhood. We will do this again in May. This year we will ALSO make a space for


the voices of women who are not mothers – whether it’s because of a medical hiccup that has rendered birth impossible, or whether it’s been a conscious choice not to have any children, or perhaps it’s something still ‘in the wings’, but, for whatever reason, it just hasn’t happened – all of these stories are as valid and important as the stories about parenting. So let’s hear them! We are running a Reader Round Table on the topic. If you are over 35 and want to share your story, please email to ask for the RRT submission guidelines. This last month was a bit unsettling for


our team in some ways because we had three or four people complaining to us that Hong Curley’s advice to a person who was being bullied in her relationship did not include telling her to leave and seek help. Well, it turned out that the woman was not in bodily danger at all, and her husband was bullying her in more of a psychological way, but that was not made clear, and for this we apologise. Hong has written a reply about the way


she views violence and we took the decision to publish that next month, rather than this month. It all seemed too much of a


hot topic because of the stress on it in the mainstream press. We wanted to sit on it a bit and get more clarity. However, as it happens, it’s here in this


magazine anyway. There is an article on page 31 by John Ptacek which, interestingly, we had ready to publish last month but didn’t fit. Then there’s my piece on page 30 which apologises that we did not make it clear and which gives a snippet of Hong’s stance on the issue, part of which, very briefly, is that we are all perpetrators of violence when we are self-righteous and make judgements. Hmmm… that’s one of the messages in


the page 31 article too, plus A.C. Ping’s article on pages 20 and 21 explains this so well – how can we ‘fight’ violence? You’ll likely smile when you know that I’ve had that article here to publish for probably six months now, plus, until a last minute manoeuvre on our pages last night, it was not going to fit this month either! Fascinating the way Spirit works isn’t it? But wait, there’s more – another article


that we didn’t fit last month was on anger (also by Hong). It’s here on pages 39-41, and it’s a true-life, name-changed-to- protect-the-innocent, hard-hitting, cussing article that demonstrates how a change of our views and subsequent forgiveness can change many lives in an instant domino effect. Yes, we are powerful beings – positively or negatively – our choice! As if to give this a nod from Spirit, and


to tie up what could be a confrontational subject in a sweet way, I got an email


Photo: Violet Maleczek


from a friend last night. She’s a local kinesiologist and an all-round lovely woman, Violet Maleczek. I hope that, if we tune into the photo that she took, we will feel that place too, and the quietness she tapped into. “A few weeks ago I had the privilege to


spend a few days in a place ‘where spirits dance’, in a beautiful forest on the Thredbo River. The energy of this ancient forest was magic and I could allow myself to quiet my mind and just listen… Then I asked my Higher Self for guidance, to let me know what I should be aware of... With the soft breeze came the message: ‘Respect the rights of others’. “My initial reaction was, ’Of course, I


respect the rights of others’, but I knew there must be something more to it. And while mesmerised by watching the clear water of the mountain river rushing over stones, I felt that message seeping gently through fine cracks deeper and deeper into my consciousness. Astonished, I realised that every time I was judging someone for any seemingly trivial reason, I disrespected their rights to be as they are. Our journeys are so different and so are we.”


With love


Elizabeth Jewell Stephens APRIL 2015 3


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