ABOUT ME and this BLOG
Born in 1959, I live in the town I was born in. For ten years I actually worked a mere several metres from where I was literally born. My standing joke is that I’ve travelled far.
And travel – I have done a little, in body and mind. What I would like to call meanderings.
You are cordially invited to visit the places I have been and join me on the places I am now visiting. My blog is under Meanderings. Some of my more permanent meanderings of mind are under “Baha’i – My Belief“. Photos of my physical meanderings are at the flickr site – see link on the left. My hobby is to find a creek to wander along, so there are videos of meanderings along creeks from around the Tablelands. At the end of 2007 my family and I made a pilgrimage to Baha’i Holy places. We travelled to Singapore, Malaysia, Frankfurt, Turkey, and Israel. I have written of these travels in Meanderings.
In January 2008 I have begun a new venture in educational theatre with a business called Phoenix Functions. It is a very modest beginning but I am hoping the little spring of fresh inspiration and endeavour will grow into a meandering river. The metaphor is apt with my current project being to work with The Wilderness Society of Australia on an educational theatre project about Cape York Wilderness, Animals and Wild Rivers, for State Schools in North Queensland. The trial production of “Cape York Critters and Wild Country “went into a school in December 2008. Video clip from the latest production of ‘Cape York Critters and Wild Country” at Trinity Anglican School in April 2009 (read more below).
2008 ended with the marriage of my son, Nathan, to Danielle Akhtakhavari from Los Angeles. They met while doing volunteer work for the Baha’i House of Worship in New Delhi, India in 2006. Their marriage has created a few more tributaries in the river of our family with connections now to the Arneson family of Hay, Kansas, USA; and the Akhtakhavaris of Yazd, Iran and everywhere else in the world they have migrated.Here are the wedding videos.
Entering the ceremony
‘Eagle’ sings love song in ceremony, then later keeps the dancers on the floor.
The happy couple make their vows.
Reception speeches. With apologies to Jazae whose speech was just great but was left out by my inattentiveness.
The National Rural Health Conference is over (May 17 – 20, 2009). It was a fabulous event with 920 delegates in the Cairns Convention Centre. I was proud to have been the convenor of the conference which submitted 19 Recommendations to the Australian Minister of Health, Nicola Roxon. In early June 2009 we have heard that Warren Snowdon, member of Lingiari of the Northern Territory will be the minister of a new portfolio, Indigenous, Rural and Regional Health and Regional Service Delivery. Another sign among other policy movements, that the rural health movement is having a solid impact.
I was glad to have made the effort to attend the 2009 Laura Aboriginal Dance Festival. It was a great weekend and, apart from the intrigue of the many dance groups from across Cape York, got to speak to visitors from OS, and visited with the Chair of the organising committee, Tom George, from the Laura Aboriginal community. I also took a walk to Split Rock art caves.
After a lifetime of struggling with a very distracting anxiety state, I am taking up a journey on the mountain of reconstruction of the mind and spirit. I resigned from the boards of SARRAH and the NRHA, late June 2009. I figured, as my 50th year turned over, I might have another 30 productive years in me. I certainly feel that I have a number of undeveloped potentialities that need a mind more free of the cornered animal.
At the behest of my wife, I spent a week putting together an autobiography of my 50 years that came around in July 2009, for a dinner party of family.
As August 2009 came around, as I was making some progress on ditching my anxieties, I found myself having to play a major role helping an elderly Aunt move into an aged care residence.
Se
ptember 2009, I lined up for the first eye lense replacements.
More of life’s strange little adventures.
I would be most pleased if I could visit with you as well, so please leave a comment for me.
Wendi Momen said
Our blogs are going to be great travelling companions! Thanks for putting me on your blogroll – I am puttin gyou on mine!
Wendi
Abdur Rahman said
Peace Owen,
This is a very interesting blog, and one which I will, insha Allah, be visiting again. I look forward to sharing ideas, thoughts and experiences with you.
Peace be with you
Abdur Rahman
FluornFluh said
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RubyShooZ said
Just dropped by via Abdur’s blog and wanted to say hello. I too am looking forward to looking around here and sharing our thoughts and lives.
Peace, love and understanding.
livingthequarterlife said
Hey, I run Rantasaurus Rex. While a lot of the commentary has been silly for the MySpace rant, thank you for your insight and perspective. =)
Tyrantasaurus
Shahrzad said
Thank you to visit your blog. I love your fotos. It is very good that you live in your hometown. It is long time i didnt live in my hometown and almost i dont know people there. Just some relatives.
Kenji said
Hi Owen:
I followed the link in your message to find your blog.
When I get around to it I should set up one of these.
I think it has a lot of potential and a variety of uses.
I see engagement as the key to human progress.
Distraction and disengagement are the path to “anomie”
(thanks for the vocabulary).
Kenji Konishi
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/OneCommonFaith/
Jasper Seger said
Dear Owen,
Next year, me and my girlfriend want to go abroad, for some months.
My girlfriend is physiotherapist and is looking, for voluntary work in this direction, somewere in the world.
Can you recommend something or do you have some tips?
Best regards, Jasper Seger
mydreamdiary said
Thank you Owen for visiting my blog and commenting with your lovely poem.
karlo mikhail said
Hi Mr. Owen,
Thanks for dropping by my blog to post a comment.
t4toby said
How is Ba’hai different from the Quakers?\
My Cliff’s Notes educations sez they are pretty similar…
Amy said
What a great site
I haven’t started my own travels yet, but I’ve had many as a child and plan to have many more with my husband! I’ll look forward to seeing where you go!
bentworld said
Thanks Owen, I really appreciate your comment about the Global Warming issue. Getting all the nations together to actually work to one goal would solve it. I fear that this won’t be happening anytime soon though. Once again, thanks.
krissnp said
Interesting profile.
nina harvey said
Hi!!I got some very funny Baha’i jokes on a site that lead somehow to yours and am very excited as have been out of the ‘net’ and didn’t realise how huge the connections had become for Bahais.I have been out of the loop a bit with international things since coming back from Panama. Returned to UK for kids education and also let some of my (at the time!) computer skills slip. This was pre-YouTube lol, so you can imagine. I use to be a computer addict but for many reasons had to let it go till recently and need to play catch up with my skills and making a web site etc. Here being on the net cost a fortune in this ‘civilized’ area LOL. Want to get up and running with a laptop etc. and havent a need a ‘guru’ to give me tips. Also just want to learn to be as active online as possible. Love the bits I have been able to access on your site. My sound is gone on our old XP p.c. as somehow I seem to have removed it when I hooked up (finally) our wireless router box in March. Im in the dog house with my daughter over that one!! The Pinoeering list before we went to Panama included Australia as always wanted to go there. Hope to hear from you! P.S. Just got back from the Arts Academy at Wellington College and on a high to make more connections. Some Bahais from Australia there too! Looking forward to checking out all the links on your site.
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AlexM said
I found your site on technorati and read a few of your other posts. Keep up the good work. I just added your RSS feed to my Google News Reader. Looking forward to reading more from you down the road!
sarah said
I am interested in using one of you finch recordings as part of a Charles Darwin event aimed at children aged 4-14
The event will act as a drop-in centre for children, with various activities available for them throughout the day, particular attention is being paid to ‘Darwin’s finches’ and variation within species. The recordings will add to this section of the day, demonstrating the different bird calls.
The recording i am refering to was found on freesound.com
I would be very grateful if this recording, and any other finch recordings you may have, could be used on the day. You will of course be fully credited for the recordings.
Thank you in advance for you time, and apologies for the abrupt message. i could find no other contact
Sarah Hughes
sonia said
hey owen
yeah i met dani at the youth conference in sydney, and saw the rest of your family there too which was nice
its so nice to hear from you and see your blog- im looking forward to seeing all you guys again when i go back up north!
-sonia
The Deputy said
Hi Owen, Lenore Skenazy’s stand-in at FreeRange Kid. I’m not sure if this is the place to respond, but I wanted to say great response to the post about the segregated playground. I COMPLETELY agree with your perspectives on education. I have been an elementary school teacher–public, private, an American school in Barcelona, a one-room school house, inner city schools…I have served on two New Jersey school boards and am currently teaching literature to homeschool families. US public school education is still based on the factory model (designed to ensure literacy for huge numbers of immigrants) and it’s just a bad, bad model. When I was teaching in a not-so-good NYC school, I would have fantasies of running into Michael Bloomberg (the Mayor of NYC–at the time he took the subway to work) and talking to him about what was needed to make NYC schools effective. And it was very much as you describe in your post! No more than three hours a day of academics and the rest would be group therapy, sports, recreation, community service, jobs…It’s nice to know that their are others who feel the same way! Thanks again.
onebrain said
Thanks for your insightful comment on my blog. I followed the link back to your blog and am quite intrigued. Will add it to my blogroll.