Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus (121-180)
The Way Ahead: Age of Aquarius
Astrology, well the monthly magazine horoscope version, has always been my passion, although recently I have been getting a bit confused as magazines seem to come out the month before the horoscope is referring to. At the moment, Barnum Effect or not, I am more than content to read my stars written by the popular astrologers such as Shelley von Strunckel and Jonathan Cainer, although I have a feeling I will want to explore this subject further now that I have discovered that my Indian grandfather was an astrologer. I realised yesterday, as I listened to Shelley talking about what it will mean to be entering the 2,150 year period called The Age of Aquarius, that everything around us is changing fundamentally, irrespective of our individual star signs. It certainly feels like there a shift in the Air with the melt down of the financial markets, countries going bankrupt, endless floods and earthquakes. I have decided to take some serious career risk by mixing in alternative thinking with alternative investments and have invited Shelley to be part of a session entitled Shooting for the Stars: Alternative Sources of Performance at my upcoming investment conference in [...]
Happiness by Matthieu Ricard
For me a book on my favourite subject (Happiness as a life purpose) by a Buddhist (my favourite philosophy) photographer (my favourite hobby) endorsed by Richard Gere (my favourite actor) was quite simply a must read. I was going to be happy anyway: deadline was over and I had a month off work-thanks to the unpaid leave I had to take due to the financial crisis-in Cuba travelling at my own pace with my camera. How could I fail not to be happy? And yet I had been away for six months at a time before (twice in fact), and always with my camera and always to an exotic location, India and Latin America more specifically. Neither of those times can I honestly describe as times of great joy. Although, they were certainly times of great adventures. Those times I had been running away to find happiness; this time I was simply going on holiday. I took only one book away with me and it was this book on Happiness. Maybe it was the time; or maybe because I actually gave myself time, but I savoured every chapter. Armed with a highlighter and a biro, the book is now among my [...]
Skiing & The Art of Living
It’s a warm turquoise blue sky day in March the diamond encrusted snow crunching underfoot is the only noise penetrating the crisp silence of these heavenly un-crowded slopes. Suddenly everything makes sense. I always feel an intense connection with life when I am up in the mountains, especially in the winter. It is a connection that always makes me feel intensely grateful, intensely alive, and intensely hopeful. I think this is why have I always refused to give up trying to learn to ski. For a few moments as the lift drags me higher and higher up the mountain, the pure, white uncomplicated snow reminds me that everything however complicated it may seem does make sense. I get this elated feeling until I get to the top that is, when I look down to see my inner demons peering up at me over the edge challenging and goading me. But this year, I finally get it. After years of trying, I finally get it. I finally believe that I know how to ski. I probably knew how to ski after the first or second lesson, but somehow skiing became inextricably associated with the things in [...]