Category Archives: Quest of Jesse Greene

Trust in a Crab Apple – Divinely guided

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Are we divinely guided? According to Flower Therapy, crab apples mean trust.

I’m always amazed at the synchronicity in life. You know when something just falls into place or you realise a deeper meaning.

When first writing my manuscript Alurea Quest (or The Quest of Jesse Greene) I drew on a childhood memory of playing in the crab apple trees of my auntie’s farmhouse. I remember an early photo of me aged perhaps six or seven, with rosy red cheeks perched high in the tree. The sourness and misshapen wonder of the fruit have stayed a vivid memory to this day.

Doing a rewrite of the story some five years after finishing the first draft, I took a break and picked up the Flower Therapy book by Doreen Virtue and Robert Reeves. I had borrowed from the local library and opened it one night, rather surprised to find Crab Apple among the flower entries.

Reading the descriptions I was even more surprised at the meanings and how fitting they were to both the story and my current situation.

Its energetic properties included: “Trust … following guidance, brainstorming new concepts, and sharing your ideas with the world.”

All these are major themes in Alurea Quest – Heart of the Maya. It is at the crab apple tree that Jesse has to trust Percival Mouse and follow his guidance. This is where he must trust the path ahead of him.

According to Angel Therapy’s Doreen Virtue, Crab Apple is associated with Archangel Gabriel – the Divine messenger and angel of communication. A good companion for any writer.

Flower Therapy continues: “This flower confirms you’re on the right path and encourages you to continue. The main theme of Crab Apple is trust: you are asked to have faith in the guidance that you’ve been given. It won’t be long until your idea is ready to be shared with the world.”

It was the perfect choice for this part in Jesse’s journey. Looking at it now, I believe Gabriel must have had a hand in it. As Doreen writes: “This arch­angel acts like a Heavenly agent and manager who motivates you to polish your skills. Gabriel then opens the door of opportunity for you to work in your chosen career, and gives you a loving push through it if you hesitate.”

Reading Crab Apples message came at just the right time, as I was doing the rewrite under pressure to enter the State Literary Awards:

“Trust in your new idea, as it is no ordinary one; rather, it’s Divine inspiration … I’m here to confirm this for you, and assure you that you’re making the right decision. I’ll guide you as you move forwards with this idea. It may be time to come to fruition, so please be patient. I will bring you the tools, people and money you need… you’re ready to break through your walls. Show the world the beautiful idea you’re bringing into it.” – Flower Therapy

It certainly gave me the inspiration to push through. I’m at the halfway point with less than a week to finish the rewrite.

Wish me luck – and I’m trusting Gabriel has my back.

Engage all your senses

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Life is about living – fully engaging all your senses.

With today’s modern technology so much is done on computers that our sense of sight – vision – is often dominant. It’s not like you can smell what’s on the screen or taste the food (not yet anyway). However there are so many memories and associations that are linked into our other senses – taste, touch, smell, sound and even the sixth sense of “gut feelings” that activate our emotions and enrich our lives.

Thoughts are so powerful, and combined with emotions, can take you almost anywhere. Such is the craft of a storyteller.

This is a memory of my childhood when I would walk up the hill behind our home to relax after school.

Reaching the top of the hill I would sit on the bare dirt and just let the thoughts of the day go – forgetting about anyone and anything that might be bothering me.

Finding an elevated site to sit and relax helps to lift you out of your troubles and gives you a different perspective.

Finding an elevated site to sit and relax helps to lift you out of your troubles and gives you a different perspective.

As the clamour of thoughts started to drift away with the gentle caress of the afternoon breeze, I could hear the distant hum of cars on the highway in the valley behind me and the rustling of the wind in the nearby trees.

Closing my eyes drew my other senses into focus. My skin felt clammy with the high humidity and a pungent, celery-like scent wafted in the air. My mind filled with images of the first time I had encountered the smell. It was when the family moved north to the tropics, taking the Easter school holidays to travel up the coast.

Life was a great adventure then. The week-long drive felt like a month off school. There were so many new, exciting things to discover and places to see. Like the celery-scented vine. We used our noses to sniff out where it was coming from, discovering a vine with weird, tendril-wrapped balloon-like seed pods. And how they were all excited at the first coconut they saw growing. I laugh now remembering how we were amazed at the size of it; not realising there was a thick, fibrous husk around the nut. Even trying to climb the coconut palm was a challenge, and then finding a way to remove the husk once they managed to knock a nut down. Everyone got involved, trying to smash the coconut with a hammer or saw it open, using different tools until someone had the bright idea of stabbing it with a screwdriver and leveraging the husk off.

Coconut palms at Clifton Beach. Councils remove the coconuts for safety reasons but is it taking away one of life's simple joys?

Coconut palms at Clifton Beach. Councils remove the coconuts for safety reasons but is it taking away one of life’s simple joys?

As we get older and caught up in the worries of the mind we tend to forget to find the fun in life’s simple pleasures. Councils decide to cut down coconut palms because the nuts become a hazard in cyclones or may drop on some unwitting person’s head.

Are we taking the joy out of life for future generations, so intent on staying indoors that they miss the incredible sensory input nature is constantly giving us?

What memories will they treasure do you think?

The Quest of Jesse Greene – Heart of the Maya

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A powerful Mayan artifact catapults Jesse into a strange wilderness where he must face his darkest fears with only his wits to survive. Guided by the wisdom of animals he encounters along the way, he finds courage to meet the Gatekeeper’s challenge – but will he find his way home?

Keep updated on all the characters and story developments with a new Quest of Jesse Greene category on my blog site as I bring this multidimensional story into our reality.

Join me for a journey through time and space. It’s exciting and inspirational!

– SM Scott

Dolphin wisdom to release stress

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ImageImage

Dolphins to me are the epitome of playfulness and with so many people apparently struggling with different situations in their life at the moment (Danni Minogue on X-Factor re: death of a loved one) I thought it might be timely to share some of the lessons Onni the Dolphin shares in The Quest of Jesse Greene.

Read on to find out how Onni tells Jesse how to breathe and flow with his emotional stress. 

Excerpt:

Wrapped up in his thoughts, Jesse was startled as a fin sliced through the water towards him. He scrambled to his feet, desperate to get out of the water and beyond the reach of any hungry jaws. His heart was racing as he back-peddled up the beach – not taking his eyes off the ominous fin carving through the turquoise calm. The silent menace moved ever closer on the rolling swell. A larger wave picked up speed and sent the creature streaking straight towards Jesse, the dark shape beneath the water turning side-on in the shallows as it stopped before him, a beady eye turned up to the surface.

Instead of the jaws of death, Jesse was facing the toothy grin of a bottle-nosed dolphin accompanied by a cheerful burst of clicks and whistles. The dolphin was laughing at him.

“Hee, hee, hee, I had you going there,” the dolphin joked, in an excited, high-pitched voice. “You need to learn to breathe more. Breathe like Dolphin and you won’t be so easily scared.”

… “Breathe like Dolphin,” he said, rolling over slightly to show Jesse the small hole on the top of his head. It opened and closed with each breath in an effortless, calm rhythm – te puuhhh kihh, te puuhhh kihh, te puuhhh kihh – even the sound was relaxing.

 “Take deep breaths and hold. Then let it out in a burst,” Onni continued. This time the air rushed out all at once, making Jesse jump in surprise. Onni let out another burst of infectious dolphin laughter.

“The air brings life-force to your cells. Hold your breath to allow it to absorb into your body, then exhale in a burst, like you are spitting out the old stuff – you can even spit out the tiredness in your body, any thoughts and fears that are worrying you.”

Jesse gave it a go. There had been so much to worry about recently that it wasn’t hard to find those thoughts that he wanted to let go of…  His chest felt ready to burst, there were so many thoughts to gather up. Finally he could hold it no longer and it all came out with a massive PUUHHHH. His head was spinning.

“Not so much at once,” Onni laughed. “You looked ready to burst.”

… “You’ve got to learn to enjoy life, have fun and play,” Onni encouraged. Dolphins are well known for having fun – surfing on the bow waves of ships, leaping out of the water and somersaulting for no apparent reason other than the joy of it. Onni swam a few circles around Jesse and lifted his sleek grey body vertically out of the water using his powerful tail, giving a few cheeky clicks at the same time.

The dolphin’s playful attitude was infectious and Jesse laughed along with him.

“To feel the water flow over your body is to feel alive,” the dolphin said, rolling a few times in the waves. “You know, water is like your emotions. You need to let them wash over you rather than knock you around. Whether they are stormy seas or a period of calm, do not be afraid. Just do what is needed at the time. It is all good fun in the end. Learn to swim in the emotions of it all – and remember to breathe when it all gets too much.”

(Copyright – From The Quest of Jesse Greene by SM Scott.)

 

 

Nature vs technology – the irony

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ImageAre you a nature-lover or a techno junkie? Or can you be both?

Life is full of paradox and irony. I am all for irony – not ironing, but irony – that funny word to “describe a situation or result that is the direct opposite of what was intended or expected” (Collins Australian Pocket Dictionary).

Starting this blog is one of those ironic, paradoxical situations of nature vs technology. I love nature. Being in it, doing in it, and even just sitting in it. Technology (think electronics/computers mainly) is at the other end of the scale – one that fills me with dread. While I love what it can do and what it gives us, it does have that tendency to be “unnatural” for me.

So I find it ironic that in my quest to publish a novel aimed at inspiring people to leave their computers and reconnect with nature that I have to take myself indoors, away from nature, and spend hours at my computer to explore new reaches of the cyber world as I learn to blog. But hey, that’s what life is all about in one way – discovering new horizons and venturing out of your comfort zone.

So welcome to my latest adventure as I seek to publish the Quest of Jesse Greene. I hope to share a lot more with you – be it adventures in nature and beautiful places to visit, adventures in thought – “taking thought beyond where it has gone before” to quote Esther Hicks; or an adventure in the unexpected – the realms of spirit and dream time (sleepy dream time rather than traditional Aboriginal).

Please bear with me as I find my feet and share with you. All I ask is that you bring an open mind and a sense of adventure as we enter this brave new world (to me anyway). I have been a slow starter, toying with my facebook page while not actually inviting anyone there… so please be the first to like http://www.facebook.com/SMScott, I do actually have stuff on it!

Check out some of the things I love – some of it funny, some inspiring and other stuff that’s just plainly baffling – like this picture:

ImageSince when were wheels called a Cube?