I've had a great weekend!

I went to see my friend Kath, who had a winter solstice party. She lives on the coast, about two and a half hours drive from Canberra. I went there on Saturday afternoon, and returned late Sunday afternoon.

At the party I met this lovely woman who shall be called Missy. We hit it off straight away, enjoying some great and stimulating conversation. There were a lot of people at the party, with lots of kids there as well. At one point Missy asked where I was sleeping. I said that I'd probably have to fight for some floor space there, otherwise I'd just end up driving home. She offered me a spare bed at her place if I was interested. Interested? A bit of an understatement...!! So I took her up on her offer and followed her home at around midnight or thereabouts. After she put her kids to bed (4 yo daughter and 7 yo son), we sat up and talked until around 3am, then we went to bed... in different beds. *grin* I'm forward, but not that forward! I don't like making any moves on 'first dates', and this was certainly a special first date. So on Sunday (yesterday) we all (including her kids) went for a walk on this nice beach, and then we had a bit of lunch at a restaurant overlooking the ocean. It was a lovely, relaxing day.

At around 2pm I had to leave, as I had to return to Canberra, but I had to stop in on Kath to say goodbye first. While I was at Kath's, Missy rang Kath to tell me to come back with the baby seat... Hehehe. So I took that back and then came home.

I rang her tonight to say hello and all that... she told me that she was really glad that she met me, and that she likes me. I told her that the feeling was mutual, that I liked her as well. It was a nice conversation on the phone, lasting for just over an hour. I think we're both very happy that we've met each other....

She used to live in Canberra as well, so she's hoping to come up here and visit me every now and again to "do some shopping". Naturally I said yes. Oh, she also wants to try out my spa... *smile*

I'm looking forward to seeing where this will go.

Tonight I had dinner with a friend, and during it we got to talking about spiritual protection. I spoke of how a clairvoyant who, some years ago, told me that I walked in a 'circle of light'. When I asked what that meant, she said it meant that I walk with God's protection - always. I thought this was pretty cool, and felt that it went some way towards explaining why I'd never been in a fight in my entire life, and why nothing bad had really happened to me, apart from my own negative interpretations of events and subsequent feelings. My friend tonight then suggested to me that everyone must walk with God's protection, but if that was the case, why do many people experience so much hardship and torture, etc. I explained my definition of reincarnation to her, and how we live our life in order to choose various experiences, and torture and death is also an experience that we learn from. Our lives are like a 'dream' and when we die it's like waking up. All that we remember are our emotions and our learnings. We have multiple lives in order to learn multiple things. And while God always loves us, he doesn't always protect us, because there are some bad things which we want to be part of, and he doesn't protect us from that which we chose to experience.

Suddenly, a realisation came to me. A thought process came into existence.

Back since I was a child, I've always had a feeling that I was destined for something great, that something special was going to happen sometime in my future. However, up until I was 24, I was also an atheist. I didn't believe in God, I instead believed in fate. However, I couldn't explain this feeling of destiny.

The realisation that I had tonight was that my feeling of destiny could very well be coupled with the fact that I'm protected by God. For what, I don't know.

Let me tell you a story. It happened almost three years ago. I was at a Michael Jackson concert in Sydney, and when it finished I was leaving it with my girlfriend at the time. She was angry with me for something and was walking ahead of me, and I was walking about 6-8 feet behind her. We were walking through the crowd towards the car park, when I noticed a guy walking towards us. He was short and stocky, and was dressed all in denim. He had a look of extreme anger on his face, and he was just walking towards us but shouldering people out of his way. He shouldered my girlfriend who kept walking - as did everyone else when he shouldered them - and then he shouldered me. I did something that no-one else did. I stopped and turned to watch him walk on. He realised that I'd stopped, and he turned around and started walking back towards me. The look on his face was pure anger and hatred - I've never seen anything like it before or since - and he was clenching his fists. My only thought was, "This is gonna be interesting..."

However, as he got closer, his face changed. He seemed to become calm. The expression on his face changed to become something almost peaceful, and he turned around and walked away.

Surprised, I looked after him, then I remembered what the clairvoyant had told me, and I looked up into the sky and said, "Thank you."

That's been my greatest personal experience with God's protection that I believe I have, but it was a very powerful one for me.

Every now and again, I have a new realisation about myself, and about my spirituality. It helps me focus on who I am, and what I'm doing in this world. Tonight has helped me focus more on myself and my future. It's also helped me to realise that by focussing on my future, I need to let go of my concerns for the future. I need to live in the moment, and accept the plans that I have chosen for myself before I was born. My future will get here without my help.