Shades of Me
BY MEL BROWN
About Mel
Mel Brown is an accomplished author, artist and clairvoyant who has written and illustrated many popular spiritual titles.
Mel has a Masters in Indigenous Healing and Trauma from the Southern Cross University in Lismore, NSW, Australia, and many years’ experience of working with children at risk. Acclaimed for her expertise in cultural competency and lateral violence both nationally and internationally, she draws on her personal and professional experience to work with families and organisations ensuring Aboriginal children who are unable to live at home are not excluded from cultural connection to their families.
Mel lives in Northern NSW.
Preface
The idea of my Aboriginal ancestors haunted me until I finally acknowledged them as part of my life and brought their meaning
into my way of seeing the world. Dadirri, I now understand, is my Dreaming. I see my life as a journey and as a story that is uniquely
my own, but in each new chapter my journey allows me the opportunity to experience events and feelings that enrich my life and the lives of those whom I share it with. Every choice I make leads to another seemingly unconnected chapter of my story. Some chapters are filled with fun, laughter and love, and others are sad and filled with anger, hurt and regret. Each one, however, is part of me and weaves to form my unique Dreaming: a story that is still being written and yet to be created.
My Dreaming is the culmination of all the events and experiences that shaped me as a woman, mother and wife. It’s about those crossroads in life where the very next step could mean anything from disaster to pure happiness . . . and I’ve experienced them both and everything in between.I look forward to the day when there are no more crossroads, the day I can relax in the feeling of having finally fully achieved that elusive inner peace and higher level of understanding. I know that rather than being a destination, inner peace is a journey: a long, vast highway on which I navigate. I will continue driving on that highway with its off-roads and heavy tolls and occasional blissful long stretches where I can hit the throttle and tear down the asphalt, windows down and wind streaming through my hair and just enjoying the ride.
Dadirri is inner, deep listening and quiet, still awareness. Dadirrirecognises the deep spring that is inside us . . . It is something likewhat you call ‘contemplation’.– Miriam-Rose Ungunmerr Dadirri is a place of inner peace, where time is everything yetwaiting for that time to arrive is the true essence of the lesson thatis learned. Dadirri is an inner journey of self-reflection, of everythingtaking place at the right time and in the right order. Wait and listento Mother Earth: she will lead you on your journey. Dadirri is alsothe journey of my past that brings me to my present. It is a timefor understanding and self-reflection, and what makes me thewoman I am. My life is not random; it is deliberate and thereforedefined by my journey.
Shades of Me
by
Mel Brown
shadesofme.com.au
