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I personally believe that the iPod is a frankly corrosive device because it encourages you to surround yourself with your favourites. The whole idea of a playlist is to surround yourself with your favourite things, and the interesting thing is that when you do that, they cease to be your favourites. Would you rather eat only your favourite food or never eat it again? Who is your favourite child mum? What can we DO today that's my favourite? Ask three guys girls... finding favour. fa·vour·ite (fvr-t, fvrt) n. 1. a. One that enjoys special favour or regard. b. One that is trusted, indulged, or preferred above all others, especially by a superior: a favourite of the monarch. 2. A contestant or competitor regarded as most likely to win. adj. Liked or preferred above all others; regarded with special favour. Now that we have added to lists of them, pinterest folders of them, favourite friends and favourite flavours are our lives more fulfilled or empty by the pursuit of what is preferred? Are our favs the things we already have or the things we think will bring us happiness if we ever manage to achieve them? Once we have them added them do we still favour them? Or are we fickle, wanting more, the newest, the latest, in the pursuit of our elite status? When we have to much of our favourite things do we feel blessed and indulged or overloaded? Constant comparisons drive competition. Is that our favourite leader, our favourite product or our favourite memory and who cares? If I indulge one over another who is the loser? Can I not enjoy the pleasure in all things simple or otherwise? In all people in all experiences and most particularly in the here and now. My favourite things in life don't cost any money, It's really clear that the most precious resource we all have is time - Steve Jobs. OMG - My BFO - our favourite things define how we spend our lives, what we surround ourselves with, what we long for adore and trust. I decided it was time for a self check. What would I like to save to favs today. My life play list. The things I would most like to prefer above all others, those most likely to win. 1. Synchronicity is my favourite thing. Those signs that we really are in the right place at the right time. The stars have aligned we are getting the message and what the point is. The AHA moment, the big tick, when you leave your laptop behind and have to drive three hours to collect it only to find a weather bomb would have you wiped you out had you continued forward on our journey without it. You read an article or a blog, run into a person or hear a song that matter just to you at the perfect time because you get the point at last. 2. LOVE - love of life, breathing love, feeling love - receiving and giving love. Because it's the one fav I really hope I'll never get sick of, could eat every day and enjoy always. 3. Faith - that there is a higher power, that everything happens to us for a reason. That we can trust that things are happening perfectly according to plan. Faith in my partner, my children, my god, my country, my government. This morning Miss 6 asked why the Prime Minister doesn't just sort out the wars? There are wars everywhere mummy? Will we have a war here mum? I hope not I replied, I've got a fair degree of faith that we are going to be ok. Even though the new leader of our opposition throws out his rhetoric daring to use the word war in a country where we all hope we have enough faith in our leaders to not have to experience one of any kind here on our soil ever. Then she reminded me - but we already have mum - there have been the maori wars. At six she has no faith in our leaders - wise child? Perhaps if faith is added to our favourites it will become the ideal that is trusted, indulged and preferred above all others. 4. Hope - Hope for the future, the triumph of anticipation often over reality. 5. Charity - Pay it forward, give it back. Contribute to a cause. The best way to lift your mood and those of others. Selfless. Volunteer for something. Work for free. Help someone less fortunate than yourself not just with your cheque book at a charity gala but by getting your hands dirty, do the leg work, hold someone when they cry, make the phone call, pop in spend a moment in their shoes. 6. Vintage - being part of something's story. I look at my favourite purchases, the material things that I love the most and will horde forever. A 1950's green wooden kitchen stool, it was my nana's , my dad carved an R in it and it has a deep gouge where he sawed a piece of wood. A $5 ginormous bound children's Websters Universal pictorial dictionary circa 1968 found at the recycling centre - word of the day gems steer me clear of all gewgaws. The surprise treasure within pressed flowers between the pages captured moments of someone's summer that fills my imagination with the story of what for them may have been. A ten euro gold thread dress from a Finnish thrift shop my best ever overseas designer purchase - I know I will never see another ever, it weaves and plays with light just so catching the eye as other pass me by and reminds me every time I wear it of the beauty of Helsinki and fossicking through her back streets it makes me feel like a Nordic goddess. 7. Whanau - all of them the blood and the water, that flow through our lifetimes, soul mates, twin flames, randoms in a bar somewhere. Those that touch you heart and stay in your mind for ever and a day. Those we have laughed with , cried with live and died with. Back slap when you meet again kindred spirits. Family. 8. Integrity - Linking what we think say and DO. Life's magnifier. Shows up the gaps who can you trust, who can you work with. It may not always be the nicest approach but it is the most real. When we are out of integrity we feel it. Life's compass spinning out of control, your out of alignment you know it - it shows. 9. Creativity - Art, creation, contribution, legacy. What can you create towards a better future? My clever Dads inventions and patents. My hospitality guru mums talents with food and friends. My children's drawings, skills with animals. My husband's painting 'the arrival" with it's formula for wave theory a reminder of the engineering genius inside the artist, time to brainstorm with an individual on what they may be able to create for themselves. The smallest, cost free as precious as any high end value item. An art work worth thousands or the legacy of improving infrastructure outcomes a precious trail delivered around the country, one of my workshops attended by 600. It is when I look at what I have created, my children, my writing, my work, my garden, and each of my life lessons that I feel fulfilled. Favoured, gifted, blessed and special. Hidden talents, being able to call a deer, play the trumpet to make music or magic - what do you have to share? 10. Generosity - Kindness, Pay it forward, Forgiveness and Sharing. To see a friend offer their home free of charge to a holidaying family without quite knowing why only to find that family have lost their mum to cancer warms a whole village with the story. To pay for someone's parking even inadvertently like when the text to park didn't quite work for me the other day and then happily informed three times over the next three hours that my payment/s had been accepted made me warm to think of the stranger arriving at the machine to find the ticket printed waiting for them. When we offer a ride, a hand up or our time. When we extend a leave pass, a way out or an olive branch. What we put out comes back threefold. I hope that in putting out these thoughts about my favourite things it goes just a little way towards somebody somewhere realising that when they remember there favourite things they really don't feel so bad.
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“Piglet sidled up to Pooh from behind. "Pooh?" he whispered. Friendship - social exchange theory, equity theory, relational dialectics, and attachment styles. What value do your friendships bring into your life? Who is it that you are sure of? With the rise of social media friendships can be defined or erased with one click or categorisation. Like for a shout out! Share, bare your soul on chat to just one person or surround yourselves with the anecdotes of hundreds, even thousands. This morning's article on Linked in... I've just tried to find it again to post a link but like many BFO's I've missed the moment it's gone replaced by a whole stream of new influencers out to share with us the best tips to living a better life - the gist of it was how to grow your social profile - the writer gains some 300 connections a day with the preferred means being linked in and twitter. Their facebook page sits around 3000, their twit feed 50, 000. I realised in comparison, how few friends I have. I was an only child for 15 years until my fab half siblings entered the picture, I'm all good with time on my own. Crave it, seek it at times. Until I'm the lonely child and then I realise my team sport skills suck, my ability to share my toys is non existent, I struggle not to be judgemental or to play fair. I may not let friends know how much I care. “It's the friends you can call up at 4 a.m. that matter.” Some friends we will DO anything to stay in touch. We drop everything when they ring, travel the globe to be near them. It maybe a party or an emergency, or just because we and they exist. These connections define our boundaries of engagement. How close we are, the things we share, the friends that we hope still care. These are the connections that remain even when we are years apart. Maybe we can't be there with them each and every time, yet we know we love them. When we do link up we pick up where we left off. After years or lifetimes as though no space exists between us at all. Those to whom our behavior needs no explanation. Who seem to not even notice when we can't show up, who put up when we stuff up . Those that send us pictures of cinnabon, can get our attention with a yeah yeah yeah. Those who turn up for a coffee and to pick up some pumpkins just because they know that you want them around today, without having to say why or when just because you are friends. They may not be like us, the can come from all stages of life - first friends, school friends old or new friends. The connection is not determined by how long, how well or how we know each other ...it just is. The treasures of the 4 am-ers is insurmountable we may have loved together, grieved together, lived or worked together. These are the wet your pants laughing kind of friendships, the memories we carry through eternity friendships. The ones that know what, who and how we love. The ones we hope to die before so that we may never have to grieve their loss. Our bff's, partners, husbands, wives, kids, cousins, siblings, pets, lady in the village dairy, neighbours, or clients for some reason the bond is unbreakable. We may have met through another friend. Affair like guilt that we connect - what is it that makes us get on so well? A past life link, soul group, mutual passion for Patron or a longing to be in club orange? Will you be my friend? “Why did you do all this for me?' he asked. 'I don't deserve it. I've never done anything for you.' 'You have been my friend,' replied Charlotte. 'That in itself is a tremendous thing.” Some of our friendships are surprising, the heights they take us , the experiences they bring to our lives, the risk of being so close to each other that we risk harm. The times we realise we really do get along and have things that each of us value to exchange. We don't need to talk or network or gain anything other than the experience of being together. These are precious moments in friendship and in time. We don't need to tell each other about them, we don't need to affirm that we are there for each other we just are in the moment DO-ing what it is that friends DO together. Hanging as friends hang, sharing a moment, a laugh, a secret handshake. A love or loathe of something or someone. The things that bind us are as diverse as our friendships themselves. “I would rather walk with a friend in the dark, than alone in the light.” Helen Keller This morning I may have walked with some of my most enjoyable friends yet the weather was iffy and my mood doubly so - I went alone or so I thought until I looked around and saw my furry friends, mans best friend, my fur babies those I hug and cry on, run and roll with, care and pet. I thought of friends past, friends new and friends that I miss even though we see each other often. After my walk I went for breakfast - alone and ran into my village. Friends from work, friends from my children's class, friends I've met at parties and friendships that were not meant to last. The warmth of prospective friendships from those new to our town, friends I did not want to bother because they looked so wrapped in their own lives on days off , at home or work, no doubt busy with all the things a day brings. It made me realise I was very alone. You come in alone and go out alone and anything in between is a blessing. To the diversity of my friendships, for all the lessons you have learnt me, for all the moments we have laughed and cried I thank you. I disagree with social exchange theory that there must be costs and rewards before we exchange friendship. That the value of our friendship is how far it will take us or what it will make us. I disagree with attachment style, with dialetics, equity theory - I negate the science. The best thing about friendship is the magic of it, the not knowing really how or why it works at all. The understanding that our friends turn up when we least expect them, when we probably deserve them least of all. That the bucket is bottomless and that friendships are one of life's most precious gifts. That you never really know who will be your friend until they are. Until they turn up where or when you need them. When you reach out a hand and they are there, in the light or the dark waiting, ready to share. Value friendship it's everywhere. Why is it," he said, one time, at the subway entrance, "I feel I've known you so many years?" I never did a day's work in my life. It was all fun. Thomas Edison Take it easy baby , take it as it comes, be a specialist in having fun - Jim Morrison "Are you having any fun yet ?" One line mantras. B.F.O's - Blinding Flash of the Obvious moments. The AHA feeling. An opportunity to sum up the essence of your experience in just a few words. To me that is the phrase ....Best said to another when you are perhaps experiencing something that is no fun at all. Particularily useful when life seems to suck the big kumara. It's a cunning reminder that we are here for a good time not a long time and are fully capable of enjoying the journey. The sort of statement we see on a bumper sticker and want to recall for life. Last millenium I was heading to a meeting with the bank manager, WINZ had cancelled a trial program for transistioning long term unemployed people into work in Queenstown. We had already committed to the office space, training room and team. Our land lord was about to change the locks if the lease wasn't paid. I had no idea how I was going to keep the business let alone my life afloat. When on the way down the mall my financial controller turned to me and said... "Are you having any fun yet?" Instantly the pressure was off, we looked at each other the stress lifted and we began to laugh or was it cry? From memory a lot of both, we had to sit tears streaming to compose ourselves into the concerned adult individuals that we knew the finance representatives would assume that we would be. And the issue was certainly and suddenly back in perspective. I can't even remember how we sorted out the rent that day but we did, the world still turned but most importantly we relaxed, we had some fun and we learnt. Learn from the mistakes of others you don't live long enough to make them all yourself. If you obey all the rules your miss all the fun - Katherine Hepburn Sick to the stomach, a need to pee, sweaty palms, racing heart. A collegue reminded me recently are all symptoms of excitement. I'd been wrestling with my anxiety after the death of three significant others in my inner circle and it was manifesting in similar displays in my middle child. Time to examine what we like to DO when we are excited. Dress for a special occasion, day dream, plan, write a journal. make, give and receive gifts, find like minded souls to share the journey. Immerse in the task, become absorbed in the moment. Some purposeful choices to re-label the state and enjoy the day, moment by second. To nurture my inner children with happy voices, hugs, bike rides, compliments, squeals of glee, baking, adding novelty, parties and fun times with friends. To walk barefoot in the icy cold river collecting stones. To look up and see the light not at the end of the tunnel but right here we we are. In some call centres there are Fun Managers. The person whose role it really is to create the doughnut day and hand out the silly hats. It's not the wank factor the cynics among you would label it as. The best pull it off with aplomb. Celebrating moments, creating themes adding value to the brand and the day. Establishing employee retention and decreasing challenging customer moments. Because every moment deserves to be a great one. As we would like to think that Buddha said... "The trouble is we think we have time." Go on I D.A.R.E. you - Decide, Act, Review and Enjoy - Then do it again.... and again...and again. One more time with feeling! Climb something, set a goal, make a plan, throw yourself off or into anything. Scare your self silly. Fascination comes from fascinare - to cast a spell. Create magic in your day. Go out feel the warmth of sunlight on your skin or eat what it is you love for lunch. Drink out of beautiful glass, tell a joke, love an animal, smile more at yourself in the mirror. Acknowledge your natural beauty - you are the oldest you have ever been and the youngest you will be in this moment. Experience your wealth - you have life. Invite a group of random friends to play tennis and drink Pimms. Ensure enough of them know you well enough to turn up in nightclub attire, and 6 inch heels. Have new racquets and balls on display but touch neither. Drink the Pimms and add champagne. Go out. Pretend you are a tennis club. Talk loudly and passionately about who has the best back hand. Stay out all night. Tell stories on the couch. Laugh hard, long and loud about who wears the biggest nana pants. When your husbands walk in from their fishing trip in the morning throw the lillies out of the vase and pretend you are drinking the water. Are you having any fun yet? If something doesn't feel right, look right, sound right, smell right or seem right - it probably isn't. Yet how often do we let ourselves or others convince us that we are manifesting drama, not seeing things clearly or that we are wrong? When I teach conflict resolution in workshops we talk about dealing with issues when you first experience discomfort. And why we often don't choose to act-i-on things right at that first point of niggle. I ask how often was that first feeling wrong when you look back at a scenario that blew up. Answer never. I have coached clients who have been at the extremes of the elements during military service and survived when others have taken their own lives. Their gut instincts kept them alive there yet in the boardroom they don't trust the gut feeling that someone may be manipulating a situation. I bet they are not wrong. I've had that quiet little voice that seems to rise up from somewhere deep inside of me tell me I'm being managed or led up a path that is not of my own making. Yet I've allowed others to talk over it, to tell me I have a problem or that I am the one who needs to toe the line. Only to realise every single time further down the track that the voice was spot on and that I was indeed correct not to waiver. That my instincts were on target, that I could have saved myself a lot of grief, self doubt and mayhem by belief in my self and my ability to judge what is going to serve me well. Our instincts are to keep us safe and to trigger the flight or fight skills primate in all of us. Some like smoke alarms are now hair triggered towards anxiety and we are over conditioned to dumbing down our feelings and responses. Perhaps you body has been screaming for so long for you to listen to it that now it reacts to every threat with caution. Because if you haven't listened in the past I better act up real quick to get you to listen now. If you start listening again to what your instincts are trying to tell you the relief is instant. The faith empowering and the self trust strengthening. Your soul calms down and you don't have to panic any more because you are now aware you will handle it, the universe doesn't bring you anything that you can't handle and we can take care of ourselves. It's the voices in our solar plexus that we need to be quiet enough to hear. For those who are busy telling themselves that they don't have any little voices to listen to it's exactly that voice that I'm talking about. The one that tells you gently that you or someone you are in connection with is acting out of integrity. That what they are saying thinking and doing are not lining up. Just go with it. Buy yourself some time and say thanks but no thanks, or not just now. Take the time to listen and to trust what you are feeling. What's the rush. Try it today. Tune into your instincts next time you have to make a decision. Don't weigh up the logic just go quiet allow yourself to tap into source and ask yourself yes or no? Stay or Go? Block or Flow? Go with that first answer calmly and gently one small step at a time. Let me know how it works for you. Put your gut out there to test the wind. Lycra or crampons? Both choices I have managed to avoid today but for some now in both they may be questioning what's around the next corner on this adventure. It's Gods Zone race time and participant kits required extreme climbing gear. Multi sporters are the guru geeks of our town. By day they mascarade as company directors, engineers, real estate agents or work in retail. By weekend they push sleep depraved into the hills, racing, climbing, kyacking and conquoring. - Where? not even they know until they get there - I live in awe. For thousands near the Arrow today is Mototapu time, when Shania Twain opens her land thanks to the OIC rules that surrounded it's purchase for the mean and the keen to trek from Wanaka across the valley by bike and foot. It's become a walk in the park completed so often by some there was head scratching last night wondering why it was they thought a 5th time would be different. Perhaps it's for the carbo load feasting before it... guilt free indulgence. For others it is the first big push out of the comfort zone how hard can riding a bike be?? By now they may be wishing they'd purchased the comfy seat 2000 version of their padded shorts instead of the crib in the Southern Riveria or that Chanel handbag. Or perhaps they are pausing, daring to look behind them to see why that friend the planner is taking it so carefully down the hills when surely that's the easy side of the ride and we are not even half way in. For the fast and furious it's already done and dusted, they'll be lying in the village, eating a Mantra samosa, being felt up by physios and welcoming number after number across the line to local celeb torts and cheers - I wonder if we'll see Chuck's mum? For other friends today is an adventure of another kind. Two souls meeting as one to tie the knot and begin a different kind of story, married, fiesta style. Some friends scattered by distance or carnage are sending love via moonbeams and honoring them in creative ways, planting cherry trees, writing love notes in the sand and adding beats to spotify. Then there are those who are ten years into their married story - wrapped up in their off spring or overseas travel. Living lifes adventure on opposite sides of the world doing it well all the same. There's parties tonight, competitions to win and work to complete. Some Ad-venture-rs are too busy to take "time off" right now but we'll get there... where ever there may be. For me what adventure does the rest of today hold? An experience of being in the flow. I've opted out of the above pursuits ( see my earlier blog on Saying NO being a really a big yes). To focus on my own state of calm and retreat from the roaring crowd. Some me time DO-ing what I love to DO - I woke with my youngest childs arm across my neck, a sleep hug. I hadn't noticed her climbing in to my bed but it was well after I was rounding up the cairn terrier from his rabbit slaughter at 2am, belated thanks to the father in law for the spot light it does work on rabbits, and horses who seemed very surprised at how I look in my nightie at 1000 plus lumens. I've had a late breakfast in bed - an almost luke warm weak cup of tea, barely cooked peanut butter toast with a freshly plucked rose on the plate side. I've been out doing some friend stalking. The chickens and I have had our chat over their La rumbla scraps, the sprinklers are all on as is the dish washer and the washing machine - water consumption is in abundance, the house is clean and silent - the children are all gone, we've raised them well enough they all have friends. The bliss of the solitude to write. There are still those cherry trees to plant, a new wwooffer arrival, mojito hour and that's just in the breaks. The advenutres that await will surely feature in another blog. I don't yet know but I've commited to go with the flow. When you have no idea what's happening next, your excited about the process. I love it when a plan comes together particularily when you have no idea of what the plan is. To enjoy every adventure for what it is, a moment to smile lots and laugh plenty. Life is the journey not the desitination and isn't it the best adventure of all. You've partied long and hard in the Queenstown good bars, schmoozing with hotties, spending your last $ at 5am on that cockadoodle-oink from Fergburger, thinking it would do you the next two meals and it did. Then the perfect winter storm disrupts ALL flights AND road access out of here and you are over that fine line between chaos and disorder. What would you do with zero cash and no way home for a day or two? In HongKong you'd sleep in the airport, but you won't be doing any of that in ZQN - our terminal wisely shuts shop between the last and first flights of the day. We locals need a break from the drama at some point and there is no alternative refuge. No half way house, no warm bus stops. Dollar chewing alternatives are every where you turn. This is an all too common scenario for some of the international revellers that frequent here. A gap between cashflow and serve-us's that seems like a glacial crevasse. Perhaps you are like my friend the wwoofer trading hours of work for bed and food so you can ride extreme bike trails on Skyline. Only to crush your kidney by trying to bungy over your handle bars. You've just found out the long-ride way that our closest base hospital is two bumpy hours south. You know no one in vegas and you didn't have your phone charger tucked into your lycra with which to call your mum. Prior to social networking these people would have been very unhappy campers indeed. Social media can be the collection point for soul-saving-support when life throws you a gap and you have no idea of how you are going to fill it. Messages of... I need a lift or a bed, has anyone seen this shop lifter? Or I have a few bulbs to give away or jokes to tell are building communities faster and in more user friendly ways than a chat to your neighbour over the fence could ever have imagineered. Having a digital presence is making us all into kinder more caring human beings. Each status update or tweet is a call to Act-i-on. Do I like this, how can I be involved, does it make me want to smile and pass it on? It's like learning to play nicely and share your toys all over again. It's a moment by moment challenge to live in integrity. To be certain that what you say, think and DO line up and are the same.There is a lot of crap-chat about fake profiles and watching how you put on your facebook face. Yet I choose to believe that what you do on line makes you so visable that your real world responds to it immediately, dynamically. If what you think you are like and what you are like fail to add up, real people quickly let you know. Those that haven't embraced their digital presence are becoming conspicuous by their absence. What to selfish to share? I love the speed at which solutions are created through digital platforming. A horse float found, a criminal arrested, a million likes to stop someone smoking. If you need an answer just ask Gog. If you need a job link up and hook in. For those who tell you to stop wasting time on line. Think how many hours there are between that airport reopening, or minutes lying flat on your back in hospital with no one to talk to and nothing to read. Care to connect and fill the gaps. Build bridges and get in underneath people, places and projects. Scroll rather than troll through your news feed and connections to make the world a closer and more caring place faster. Build a bridge and get over it. When we give we are all the more richer for being. So excited - I have 30 saffron bulbs to trial at Arrow Ridge. All via facebook and like souled-individuals, learning and sharing seed thoughts of sustainability in Central Otago. Bulbs offered and transported through social networking. Gotta love how the world works today. Thank you, thank you, thank you to those willing to share. 30 bulbs as a trial crop or just because... Saffron one of our best restaurants name sakes, as a crop - new to the region but not to the world. A gold crop, high maintenance and hard work like many Arrowtown women, born of gold, and stunning. A new plant is a new story, untold and untested. Better than a delivery of on line shopping from Asos. Clothes that look great on the modeIs but carry the guilt of air miles from the UK even though shipping is free... a fashion fail with kiwi cankles. I get to see if I can encourage those 30 bulbs to thrive here. It may seem nothing to some but to seed-crop-cravers like me 30 bulbs are 30 gold nuggets. I've been gathering seeds; sweet peas, parsley, corriander, cucumbers, peas, beans and tomatoes to propagate next spring. I'm very aware that some places on our planet what I am doing for enjoyment and satisfaction is a crime. I get a buzz each time I mulch the pumpkins in the horse poop, the parsely and mint from generations ago and wild tomatoes or beans that have found crevices and thrived. Arrowtown, a living historic village filled with high end estates, first family homes and holiday cribs. Artisan galleries, boutique shopping, restaurants where slow food that showcases Central Otago produce and wines thrive. Villagers from all walks wax lyrical describing puff balls bigger than your head harvested in the early morning dew of autumn. Rowan berries, elderflower and rose syrups. Apple trees, apricots and quince hang on the river tracks and verges. Wild black berries and yellow plums are harvested on 4-wd drive trips up river to Macetown. We worship our chefs who turn rabbits shot on the block into Moroccan feasts. Or a rainbow trout, Tar or fallow deer dropped off by whanau to full the freezers for the wwoofers. Our prized silver dorkings are fed on tapas from La Rumbla - scraps so good the chicken run must be dog proof or the bulimic suffering big black walrus of a labravac dog will surely die. Living in central we battle the climate, the days are shortening at one end while the shadows are lengthening at the other. Hot days and lingering afternoons are being swallowed by darkles in the morning and the threat of frost. I dare not look when daylight saving ends. Too soon we will be swallowed by -14 degrees and winter. To walk bare foot on the lawn freshly mown and watered with our bore supply cold and crisp from the Arrow. We can eat and grow lawns, chip and putt golf balls and splash in clear river pools. We may simply sit majestic amongst the mountains. Nurturing the 100 mile diet philosophy. Reflecting on the chinese market gardeners, gold miners and settlers who have sown seed here before us. And get prepared to bed down for winter. Gathering and preserving what we can and paying it forward when we have an abundance to share. Garden art is my current thing.
More truthfully weeding the garden is my current thing and it's hardly a work of art. That's what you get when the engineer in the family decides to put an acre into veges on the 5 acre block but works away solving the nations infrastructure issues most of the week. So aside from writing because to write is to breathe, I'm loving my green fingers, broken finger nails and fluffy inners of my Hunter gummies. I'd love my sustainable paradise to be a work of art but currently with the drought and full summer harvest upon me I really only feel like we've created a shit sandwich. I spend a lot of time irrigating, picking and panicking that everything is doomed, nothing will thrive and I'll fail. I'd like to put a big peg on it to remind me that this is what I value - like a memo note to self. A great work of art takes time, passion and commitment. And sometimes it's the preparation of the site, the collection of your tools and knowing what it is that you want to create that you must first give your focus to before success is achieved. If you've had some of your better ideas hit hurdles or get all caught up in schmoo too ...Congratulate yourself. You don’t have to eat the schmoo bap - However you do have a great example of contrast. You know what it is that you still need to work on, what you don’t like, what stinks and what turns you off. You know what failure feels like and you know you want to avoid anymore of it. Sometimes you have to say NO so that you can create the space to say YES. Saying NO to things, people and projects is the fastest way I have found to bring YES to fruition. |
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