Russ Baleson on HubPages

Hi, I am a South African turned Brit and have been living in the UK for just over twelve years.  I am a management training consultant and life coach and have been for most of my working life.  I enjoy reading novels and self-improvement materials; watching live music; listening to music; watching the trees change colour, the reds, oranges, purples and walking amongst the crunchy leaves in Autumn; being open and honest with like-minded people; being romantic; enjoying candle light; composing music; exploring, being adventurous and spontaneous; having fun; helping people grow; hugging; laughing; learning and growing; lying in the sun; moonlight on water; playing guitar / blues harmonica for myself; playing music for others; playing with or chatting to children or the elderly; receiving a massage; sitting or lying or reading in front of a fireplace; sounds - laughter, birds singing, music of all sorts; children giggling; speaking, writing to, being with my daughters Charis and Leyla; spending time with friends; Spring - nature coming alive -, bluebells, daffodils, trees coming into bud, cosmos, horse chestnut trees coming into bloom; fresh green colours; Summer - long evenings, sunny days, warmth!; walking alongside water; walking in the forest; walking on the beach; watching a good movie; watching a sunset or sunrise; writing poetry; haiku; eating avocado; halloumi; polenta.

I am inspired by many quotes such as:

Every moment of your life, including this one, is a fresh start.  (Jean-Louis Servan-Schreiber)

The most human thing we have to do is to learn to speak our honest convictions and feelings and live with the consequences. This is the first requirement of love and it makes us vulnerable to other people who may not accept us as we really are but this truth, our vulnerability is the only real thing we can give to other people.  (Father William DuBay)

In this life you have to have saviours to survive, those curious people who miraculously come into your life for no apparent reason just in time to give you the chance you desperately need or to extract you from evil or disaster.  Do they appear because you prayed for help? At the very edge you always pray somehow even if it’s not to God. But God has many names.  (unknown)

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn’t serve the world. There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us – it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give others permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others. (By Marianne Williamson and used by Nelson Mandela in his inaugural speech, 1994)

Our lives are ordered by the Divine so that nothing is too much. We are never given more than we can handle; but nothing is too loose either. We can always breathe, yes, but at times the water is up to where the wings of the nose barely touch. And as we grow? As we grow, the water rises. Still we are preserved from drowning. And that is providential because our nature needs a situation that reminds it: You are always at the beginning. In the life of the spirit you are always at the beginning.  (Dr Allan W. Anderson)

The cost of a thing is something called life which is given in exchange for it.  (Henry Thoreau)