Homelessness Memorial Event And A Chance To Talk About Loneliness

I’ve been invited to speak at the annual Homelessness Memorial event held in Melbourne, Australia on June 18th of this year. So I will get a chance to talk a little on loneliness, an emotion that for some is very real and very painful. I might use this opportunity to write on loneliness also.

So here is a little now…

Loneliness, unlike fear, is one of those emotions that serves no real purpose. However, many can get stuck in loneliness even while living in a busy city with people all-round. Loneliness at its core, is a feeling of needing support from others but not getting that support. It can effect people from all walks of life. it will generally manifest as a ‘poor me’ and while these thoughts are in our mind there is no room for loving-kindness or compassion, or for that matter wisdom to be active. It will reify the ego and put a halt to your practice of transformation.

My teacher often says, “if you fix your mind, you could be happy while living in the desert. But if your mind is crazy, even living in Buckingham Palace you will not find peace.”

Is he correct? Well, there is plenty of evidence to support his claim. Monks happily living in retreat on the one hand; Stories of Prince Charles and Lady Dianna’s marriage on the other. Conclusion; fix your mind and you fix your problems.

More on loneliness later… for now back to the story at hand. Below are details of the history of the event. With a couple of links thrown in for good measure.

The Homeless Memorial began in 2001 when a small group of community members recognised the need to create a safe space for people within the community to come together to honour and remember people who have died as a result of homelessness. The Homeless Memorial is now an annual community remembrance night.

Some of the other participant will be the Choir of Hard Knocks. Australians may know these guys from the ABC documentary series of the same name. I saw parts of that series and found it quite compelling.

Inspired by the Montreal Homeless Men’s Choir and his previous experience with the Sydney Street Choir, former Opera Australia Tenor Jonathon Welch formed a partnership with ABC TV, Fremantle Media and RecLink Australia to document the creation of the Choir of Hard Knocks. Formed in September 2006, the Choir of Hard Knocks is made up of a group of 50 diverse and eclectic individuals who responded to a call to form a community street choir. Their incredible journey was recorded and broadcast by the ABC and touched the lives of millions of viewers across Australia.

Since that time the Choir have recorded 2 CDs. Their first release, Songs from the Series, has won an ARIA Award and sold in excess of 110,000 copies while their second album Songs of Hope and Inspiration was released at Christmas. In Canberra for Australia Day 2008, Jonathon Welch was recently acclaimed the Australian of the Year: Local Hero while the Choir were hosted by none less than the Prime Minister himself.

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