Lie down in peace #CTST

Over the years, at different stages, during the various seasons of life, I have had many sleepless nights. However, the 'many' pales in comparison with the majority in which I have slept soundly. Even in the midst of some emotional trauma (separation and divorce being one of, if not the worst), I have been blessed with sleep.

Sleep is a gift.

Every one knows the importance of sleep and rest, but for many people thorns of anxiety prevent sleep. I know it. I've felt it. When I lie down to sleep, but my mind will not shut down despite the weariness of my body. How do you turn off the mind? How do you shut out the worry? The fear? How do you close the door on anxiety when it feels like an incurable infection?

Three words have been running around in my head for days now. Since I had the noisy church dream through which God gave me a word of encouragement, I have begin to filter out all the voices in my mind. Especially those which cause me to doubt and to worry unnecessarily. There is only one voice I need to listen to...the voice of Truth.

What are these three words? Let it go.

I'm reminded of a line in a Creed song. "The sun shines and I can't avoid the light. I think I'm holding on to life too tight."* Sonny Sandoval from POD sings, "I think the hardest part of holding on, is letting it go."* This is a great paradox.

I sleep in peace. If I can let go of anxiety or at least not hold on too tightly to what I have, I believe I can walk in peace as well. I thank God for the gift of sleep.

*Goodbye for now - POD
*Weathered - Creed

R is for R-Genium

R-Genium is a symphonic power metal group from Volograd, Russia. Formed in 2007, they are Nikolay Litikov (keyboards), Aleksandr Radchenko (guitar), Dimitriy Slyozin (bass), Aleksandr Kalashnikov (drums) and Tatanya Shevchuk (vocals).

Their latest release is titled Wonderful Wonderful World and this track is called I Know Your Lie.

On September 3, 2008, I took my son, James, to his first metal gig. Him, one month shy of his 14th birthday, and me, an old headbanger, traveled to the Hordern Pavilion in Sydney to see Disturbed. Actually I was only vaguely aware of, or interested in Disturbed at the time. I was there to see my favourite band, POD, who were one of the support acts. The other was Alter Bridge.

James was a little overawed, by the atmosphere and the music, but he loved it, and it is one of my fondest memories of time spent with him. Sadly, James would no longer call himself a metal head, even though he still likes Metallica and enjoys a bit of metalcore here and there.

POD were great, and one of my greatest desires is to see them play a full show. One day...maybe they'll come back Down Under. As for Disturbed, they are now one of my faves.

Celebrate the Small Things: A taste of metal

None of my friends, in real life, or in my online life are major heavy metal fans like myself which means I have no one to talk to about one of the loves of my life. My son used to be. He was once obsessed with Metallica, and he introduced me to the band which is now one of my favourites: Australia's own, Parkway Drive. Sadly he has moved on from his metal phase.

To overcome this problem, I did what everyone does when they have no one to talk to...I turned to social media. I found a Facebook group for heavy metal fans, and now I can exchange opinions and music with headbangers from all over the globe. This gives me pleasure, so today I am giving thanks for Crescent Heavy Metal Rock Music.

I also want to give thanks for the genre itself, which contains surprising diversity. Bach is said to be the originator of heavy music, and many of the great early heavy metal bands, Black Sabbath for example, credit this influence. I don't like all the sub genres of heavy metal, but I doubt anybody does. Whilst some think heavy metal is just noise, the bands I like, impress and move me with their musicianship and the lyrical content. I actually find loud, fast and aggressive music relaxing. Okay, so that sounds weird, but each to their own right?

My top five metal bands are, in no particular order: POD, Metallica, Disciple, Parkway Drive, and Trivium.

Here's something moderate for your possible enjoyment:

It'll All Make Sense When I Get There

I've been challenged a lot of late about my faith which some say is futile. Accused of intellectual dishonesty because I choose to believe in and follow Jesus Christ when he is allegedly no more real, and certainly no more a god, than the tooth fairy, I have simply stood on the reality of my experience of God in my life. Apparently my experience is not enough to build my faith on.

The evidence I'm told is heavily against the Bible being the Word of God, and God himself, if he exists is clearly not worthy of anything other than contempt based on what the Bible says about him. I'm feeble minded and weak willed because I need to believe in a fairy tale as a crutch, or so I'm told.

I gave my life to Christ nearly 30 years, and nothing has happened to me since then to make me doubt for a second that God is real, and that I need Him in my life. There is much I don't understand, but I don't feel the need to know everything.

I do not pay lip service to live and let live: I respect everyone's right to the faith/religion/spirituality they want. The bottom line is we all believe or disbelieve what we want to believe or not believe. In the light of the current hysteria about religious fundamentalists, I can only shake my head and wonder why people are surprised by evil, and why they can't separate the radical minority from the moderate majority.

There is much I don't understand, but I don't need to have all the answers. I know this however, that Christ is the strength of my life, and I will walk with him for the rest of my days on earth...until he calls me home. Until he takes me higher.

Shine with me

Out on the road this morning with my iPod shuffle supplying tunes for my mind while my legs and lungs battled on, I found peace. I felt settled in my mind, my thoughts clear despite the lack of oxygen in my brain. The song which particularly struck me, resonating encouragement, was Shine With Me by POD. Just a song. Just a guy singing some words while his mates play instruments. How beautiful is the way music connects us to each other, and to the Almighty. How it touches us, moves us, inspires us.

It's actually not that hard to find peace, you just need to know where to look. The God of all peace is never far away, you just need to find a way to connect. Shine With Me is an invitation to a perfect relationship.

How and where do you find peace?

A Little Light

"A little light in a lot of darkness goes a long way."  - POD 'Roots in Stereo'

"The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it." - John 1:5

"Thank you for your entry David. Note if you would like any of your novels advertised in the anthology we hold no charge you need only send pics of the books." - Kelly Pickering, The Lady in the Loft

"I hope that is not true. I want you to have a good life." - anonymous friend

A Few of my Favourite Things

Near the dawn of a new year, and with apologies to Julie Andrews, I would like to present a few of my favourite things in 2012: the best of what tickles/tickled my fancy.

Best music: The much anticipated release from the legendary POD, Murdered Love ticked all the boxes and was definitely worth the wait. Despite lacking a killer signature track like Boom, it delivers hunger satisfying flavours from punk rock to reggae with nice chunky crunchy bits, and passionate poetry. A work of art from the Boys from Southtown.




Best in Sport 1: As the leading runs scorer in test cricket in 2012, Australian captain, Michael Clarke, astounded cricket fans with four double centuries and a triple. He finished the year with another 100 in the massacre of Sri Lanka in the Boxing Day test in Melbourne. A craftsman with the bat, and an aggressive captain, Clarke may well lead Australia into a new Golden Age.

Best in Sport 2: The Canterbury Bulldogs splurged on a new coach and he proved to be the buy of the year. Turning the Bulldogs from inconsistent underachievers to competition heavyweights in the blink of an eye with a revolutionary style of forward play, Des Hasler led the team to the Grand Final without a specialist halfback. The Bulldogs may have lost the decider but they will be the team to beat in 2013.

Best Movie: It's hard to remember a whole year of movies, so one of my all time favourites, and arguably the greatest move franchise of all time, James Bond gets the nod. Skyfall is classic Bond delivered by the director with all the panache of modern film making. It was everything I hoped for: cars, guns, chases, locations, stunts , a sicko villain and the best on screen explosion I've seen since The Matrix.

Best book: I only read one five star book in 2012: Perry Angel's Suitcase. I stumbled across it by accident and although it is a children's novel, it moved me deeply with its simple yet powerful prose. An inspirational and delightful story.
I thought it looked like a nice story for my daughter when I saw it on the shelf at our local library, but I'm pretty sure I enjoyed more than she did.




Best Blog post (by me): This was 
really hard: easily the most difficult decision I had to make. Finally, after perusing my posts for the year, and making a shortlist, I elected The Death Penalty Upsized (September 28). If I was famous and had millions, even hundreds would do, of followers I would put it to a vote. But I reckon this one is a beauty and it did provoke some passionate comments. http://dacairns.blogspot.com.au/2012_09_01_archive.html

And so ends a successful year for me professionally. The release of my debut novel, Devolution, in paperback, 15 short stories accepted for publication, and a publishing contract for my second novel, Loathe Your Neighbour. I wish you all success, however you define it, good health and happiness in 2013.

The Great Pretenders

On their most recent CD, When Angels and Serpents Dance, POD have a track called Rise Against. Here's a few lines from the song which got me thinking.

"What's the point in living?
What's the use in moving on?
If you keep pretending like there's nothing wrong."

2010 Australian of the Year, Dr Patrick McGorry is a mental health expert: a researcher, clinician and advocate for youth mental health reform agenda. He gave an interview on the radio last week and in it he mentioned some disturbing statistics.

In Australia, there is a death by suicide every 4 hours. Every 15 minutes, someone attempts to kill themselves.

These numbers make a absolute lie of the great Australian laid back attitude to life: she'll be right mate. We live in the Lucky Country. We have a few problems but nothing compared to other nations. We survived the GFC, didn't we? Life is great. Wouldn't want to live anywhere else? Rich, affluent, well educated. No worries. Have another beer! Blah! Blah! Blah!

If things are so good here, why is someone, a human being, somebody's husband, wife, brother, sister, son or daughter, trying to kill themselves every 15 minutes. Think about it? One person takes their own life every four hours. That's just here in Australia. And guess what, its getting worse.

We all have problems and we know that problems don't get solved by ignoring them. We know that but we "keep pretending like there's nothing wrong" I'm with POD on this one, "What's the use in living, what's the point in knowing, if all you do is nothing?" Let's stop pretending.