Wise counsel

Last week I met an international intuitive healer and spiritual guide from Canada. Troi Leonard said he has been in touch with nature all his life and aware of its effect on him ever since. That relationship with the natural world was necessary for our evolution, he said.
The man guides people to a freedom from their sometimes-difficult accumulated life experiences, and reminds his clients they are souls having a human experience.
Troi said there were huge changes going on around us, locally and internationally
He pointed to present-day New Zealand society, which was a collaboration of different patterns of social systems and structures coming together.
Wherever we go we bring our past with us.
New Zealand was built on two cultures, Maori and Pakeha, and cultural struggles of two diverse social systems still existed today.
We are in a time of transition and many social issues need to be addressed.
Troi suggested the key was to find modes of creativity in our approach to finding solutions.
The Government is spending $14 million to address domestic violence through television and other media. And on those same channels we see dramas of violence and perceived acts of terrorism alongside a growing preoccupation with dramatisation of crime-solving by the public through the media. A channel change offered more violence.
I read in a letter to an editor where the writer was negative, bordering on abusive, about the Keep New Zealand Beautiful and Ontrack solution to graffiti was to pay the graffitist to paint a mural instead of the eyesore tagging.
The two organisations recognised the misplaced talents of a tagger who was already on the wrong side of the law, and found a creative solution.
Mathematics and sciences allowed for conceptualising, but creativity was a way to allow people to do things differently.
Troi held up mainstream learning as a box which did not fit many young people today, and which if they were allowed to articulate themselves creatively, they would have more control over their lives.
If more families sat down together and came up with creative ways to do things in a more coordinated and cooperative approach, with give and take, then we would start to see empowerment.
There were power struggles going on everywhere by governments, economies, within communities and within families.
Throughout the country we are seeing another power play of candidates putting themselves forward to lead our communities.
I am reminded of a Buddhist saying that a leader has the qualities of sovereign, parent and teacher.
The ideal translation would be: The Queen has been unerring in her reign, parents try their best, and a teacher imparts knowledge learned.
A community is made up of people, each with their own needs and expectations, at different stages of their life span.
As we age we feel less in control of our lives, as our circumstances change.
But it is those people who still have much to offer.
Troi said at this time more than ever we needed to bring back the feminine balance and listen to the wise counsel of the elders and the crones.
It's about living more joyful, with more understanding, with more humour in our lives, and being less judgmental.
The key to success while we're here is to empower each other and to be more intuitive and trust ourselves.