Temenos Journal

Just when I'm at my lowestyou pop up in most surprising waysflashing your instant presenceRain drops clinging to a living leafSoft sound of doves cooingThree quarter moon still hanging thereGentle draft on my creased browAroma of morning on my faceI'm not deceived O wily oneMy cut-through thoughts are clearMy body tensed and rawThis world of ours is fal ... Read more..

Yesterday, while out walking, I was stopped in my tracks by what I saw: clouds scattered across the sky in an incredibly beautiful pattern. To continue walking was not an option. After standing still for several minutes, I resumed my stroll and wondered: What was the exquisite feeling that flowed spontaneously through every fibre of my being? It was differen ... Read more..

What is worse: a good deed done with bad intentions or a tragic mistake with the best of intentions? I was 13 or 14 when a teacher asked this question. It has haunted me ever since. 1 Like other philosophical questions, the one above invites further questions. See if you can think of a question that cannot be responded to, with another question! One ques ... Read more..

The joys of play Playing is such a wonderful expression of our aliveness. Its lightheartedness warms the heart and soul. We start off playing as infants, children and adolescents, and there is a sense that play belongs to the domain of children. Watching a child play and explore can be delightful: Its total absorption and becoming one with the activity or o ... Read more..

Are you a dreamer? Do you remember your dreams and do you desperately try to understand them when they just don’t make sense? Some people dream intensely and remember the details while others don’t think they dream, or they forget them in the morning. The dream you remember the most is usually the last dream you have before you wake. Recently a ... Read more..

Have you ever been woken up by a dream that stunned, scared or left a huge impression on you that you just couldn’t forget? Many people have such a significant experience at least once in their lives. Dreams can move and shake us up in profound ways, sometimes more so than our conscious lives. Dreams are curious experiences. Indeed, they are exp ... Read more..

I am a dreamer! By that I mean more than the fact that I dream like everybody else or that I fantasize. I dream, yes, but I have also developed a discipline of dreaming over a period of twenty five years, while living in the USA. I returned to Australia in 2003 where I continue on a daily basis. My discipline of dreaming includes the usual practices of ... Read more..

When given this opportunity to write about friendship I started to think who my friends were now and who had been my friends over the last 60 years... a daunting task...  a little analysis revealed that at any one time I seem to have between 6 to 8 close, usually female friends, apart from a relationship with a husband, partner or lover. Only one of th ... Read more..

I suppose there are at least several forms of friendship, and perhaps there are many. Friendship is a form of love that was well known to the ancient Greeks. Philia is the word that pointed to the unique form of love known as friendship, a complex set of qualities that enriched culture. Though I am somewhat of a solitary, the few friends I have enjoyed in m ... Read more..

Recently, I was asked by someone if I wanted to be Facebook friends with them. This led me to think about what friendship actually means? Can you call someone you are friends with online a ‘real’ friend? What is a ‘real’ friend? I have always considered friends to be those who you enjoy spending time with, those who you create memorie ... Read more..

Friends! – What would life be like without them?! How much poorer would it and would we be? Friends give our lives a sparkle and depth, they enrich our lives immeasurably. Friends share those special moments in our lives with us: Important experiences like the beginning and end of significant relationships, jobs, or periods of education, and life&rsquo ... Read more..

In my practice as a sexologist, the most common presenting issue is that of desire discrepancy ... or is it?  When we get down to asking couples a few questions about their lifestyle and intimacy expectations, it becomes very clear that busy lives can obstruct the intimate connections they so desire with their partner. Do you invest time in your relati ... Read more..

Time passes Cherry blossoms fall Life goes on Even when we're gone The sun will shine. I have also tried to bring to mind expressions that I've heard over the years, beginning with one that I remember from childhood (a fair amount of time has passed since then, but my father said it often, so it is well-embedded in my memory) * Time and tide wait for no ma ... Read more..

Scott Peck said: Until you value yourself, you won't value your time. Until you value your time, you will not do anything with it. To value your self, is something that for some people is really hard to achieve, as is, recognizing what it is in life that we value. Our underlying values always inform the decisions that we make. A person’s life can be ... Read more..

Sometimes I am the hands of a clock Going round and round Day in - day out Sometimes I sit and watch the clock Just wishing it would speed up Slow down or just stop Other times I just follow my own clock I give or take time As I need Today There is no time, no clock Just the timelessness Of this moment ... Read more..

“What are these blinks of an eyelid, against which the only defence is an eternal an inhuman wakefulness. Might not they be the cracks and chinks through which another voice, other voices, speak in our lives. By what right to we close our ears to them?” JM Coetzee Foe. Years after her death, I can still remember my mother’s telephone numbe ... Read more..

This theme of running out of time dominates our modern time, wouldn’t you agree? How are we to understand it? How can we run out of time? Yet this is what we say: “I don’t have time; I need more time; time is running out; there’s a dead line; we all don’t have much time left; there’s not enough time to save ourselves; ... Read more..

The Context We live in a quick fix culture that tries to pack into living as much as it can, and the quicker we can get one job done the quicker we can move on to the next one. There also seems to be an increasing discomfort with empty space as this tends to be perceived as a waste of time. A few years ago I was at a basketball game and what really struck me ... Read more..

In recent months I have been aware of my tendency to marginalise my need to slow down and ‘smell the roses’ which can mean different things to each of us. "I feel pressured by time." An interesting statement if you think about it. The statement implies that ‘time’ is something outside of me. There is an element of truth to this - oft ... Read more..

"Clocks slay time... time is dead as long as it is being clicked off by little wheels; only when the clock stops does time come to life." William Faulkner Tick, tock... it's not a bomb about to explode but sometimes it may seem like it. If you were born on February 29 in 1992, then this year you will be celebrating your fifth birthday. So where did the ... Read more..

The swirling vortex envelopes the ocean the current against it a battle in motion An icy cold whisper across a plain breathes life in nothing again and again The dunes awake to a seething rasp as the sands of time succumb to the blast Within a meadow calm and serene a moment simply flutters as the edge of a dream. ... Read more..

By Amethyst Duggan I recently returned to Perth, Western Australia from a whirlwind almost world-wide trip, covering 12 countries and 20 cities, over approximately 66 days. When meeting fellow travellers similar topics of conversation always came up, 'Where are you from?' 'Where have you been?' 'Where are you going?' After the initial 'you'll be worn out b ... Read more..

You are at home, sitting at the dining table. Books and notes are scattered around you as you read the same sentence for the fourth time. Studying is a bore. So you look up and glance around the room, noticing things you hadn’t noticed before: the floor wants a sweep, and yesterday’s dishes are still stacked on the sink, unwashed! Furniture h ... Read more..

In this era of easily accessible communication, the desire to stay socially connected is more prevalent than ever. While owning a mobile phone was once considered a novelty reserved for the elite few, we now live in a culture where not owning a mobile phone is considered an extremity. The use of mobile phones has shifted the way we communicate to each other, ... Read more..

In our current era of fast technology, rapid globalisation and people working around the clock, daily necessities like food and eating have been placed on the back-burner. Eating breakfast in the car, scoffing down lunch in front of the computer, dinner on the couch with eyes glued to the television and barely registering what is going into your body - mind ... Read more..

By Monique Latch It seems that people in today’s world are more preoccupied with ‘time’ and more concerned that they are not using their time efficiently. In a society where financial and material gains are so highly sought after, time spent with family and loved ones is increasingly undervalued. I believe that a "lack" of time can create ... Read more..