Lead a vivid life that does good
It’s interesting how sometimes the desire to capture a moment on camera, causes me to miss the moment in its essence.
Like trying to take a good photo of balloons and missing the opportunity to look up and take in beauty of the day, the sounds, the fun and the sights.
Missing the moment.
I think in many ways, we do that often.
[185 | 365 ‘Balloons Over Waikato’ – Early morning and late night at the Balloons]
It is said that man has always looked at the birds and longed to fly.
Well, I have a non-current pilots licence and could fly, but don’t. I just dream about it. I was talking about it with a friend on the way home from work, and it reminded me about how I long to fly, about how when I get airborne I join a different world, and about how much energy it brings me. Yet flying costs money and that is an entirely different subject.
Anyway, I got home thinking about planes so took this shot of a Cessna 152 made out of Sprite Cans.
[184 | 365 Dream of Flying?]
You may have heard that it takes 40 days to make a habit, or 28 days or some other iterative. Wrong, wrong and wrong again.
Between yesterday and today I am halfway through 365. I missed one day in 183 days, which for me is amazing. The only other things I have done for 183 days straight in my life, is get up, eat and breathe.
For me after about 50 days, remembering to take the photo became a habitual, but actually taking the photo requires another step up in discipline again. For example, it was a mission to make it to 100, and today’s photo is because I remembered, not because I had a flash of creativity.
I am learning about habits and discipline. Disciplines like going to the gym, running, reading, studying or quiet times. For me it takes about 30 – 50 days for the thought process to become habitual, to become ingrained as a priority in my life.
But every time, every single time, I still need to choose to take action, to step out and run, or do my quiet time, or take a photo.
If you think I have the habit thing sorted out, I don’t. It’s like today’s shot on my drive to Tauranga. The glare from driving into the sun, the dirty window, makes my view lack clarity. Same for my knowledge of just about everything.
[183 | 365 ‘Halfway #2’ – Down the Kaimai’s driving into the sun, behind a slow truck]
Somewhere between today and tomorrow I am halfway through project 365, which is taking a picture each day for 365 days.
Looking back and ahead, I think I would like to take more people shots because they show more of life than objects, or candles, or coffee drops. If I do this, it will take another level of discipline again because I will need to go looking for interesting people shots.
Speaking of interesting people, today I was online on Skype waiting for a call that never came, but then my friend Steve gave me a call.
The first thing Steve did was encourage me, it just rolls off his tongue honestly and naturally. He has this incredible ability to build people up and I am often reminded by Steve’s actions how important that is.
I’m reminded today that life is about people.
[182 | 365 – ‘Halfway #1’ – Steve the encourager and a reminder how much I love technology]
Agora’s story is being formed one drop, one cup of coffee at a time.
Yesterday I sat at Agora drinking a wonderful coffee made by the infamous Simon, and over heard a customer tell her two friends great things about the café, about how we give 50cents from each cup of coffee to charity.
There is nothing quite so satisfying as having one of our customers tell the story for us.
As I left the café I remembered the conversations we had as trustees about story. I remembered how one idea developed into another. I remembered how we want agora to make an impact on our community and have a story.
As I left the café, I also thought about my story, about the story of my family, my business, my friends. Those stories, like Agora’s, are a working in progress.
Like a great coffee brewing, one drop at a time, story is very powerful.
[181 | 365 ‘Coffee Stories’ a shot of a shot of coffee brewing, one drop at a time at café agora]
I have this strange passionate love hate relationship with my Mondays. They are a day of meetings, a day of bouncing from one thing to another, a day of follow up, a day of setting new tasks. But, Mondays move us forward, keep us accountable, help us set priorities.
As a general rule, I really struggle to take photos on a Monday. So, because the season is changing, I have decided for the next 6 Mondays I am going to take the same shot, from home, at around the same time. Hopefully I will see the change of the season in a new and beautiful way.
If not, at least I will have Monday’s shot sorted.
When your kids are 3 they are all artists. Regardless of how recognisable their drawing is we encourage them over and over again as they mass-produce their drawings and scribbles and … art.
By 10 many kids will realise that they don’t draw as well as other kids and by the late teens, you are either an artist or your not. Most feel useless at art and stop creating.
Art is defined “the creation of beautiful or significant things” and art is more than drawings or paintings. Sadly our societies, schools and families stop encouraging our kids to be artist, the way we used to when they were 3.
This leads to less creative adults.
Consequently less beautiful or significant things are created.
[178 | 365 Art – This is a shot of Siren drawing a picture for Talia at the Rototuna School market day]
Money is a medium of exchange for things of value. This means that we use money to buy things we value.
If I pay you wages it’s because I value your time and give you money. If we buy art or food or clothes or coffee or toys or random stuff. In each case we decided to spend our money on something we value.
Therefore, personally I value café coffee every couple of days more than other things. It’s that simple! More than saving the money, more than paying off the mortgage, more than using it towards buying my wife flowers, more than giving it to the good.trust to give to the poor.
If you asked me if I value coffee more than these things I would say ‘NO’, but the cold, hard reality is that the way I spend my money shows I do.
So if you want to see what people really value, look at how they spend their money.
[177 | 365 – ‘Things we value’ – Last night, I had no photo, so choose to take a photo of twenty dollar notes falling in front of my camera]
Growing up in Tauranga you become accustom to salt water. You know the bitterness of its taste and feel the dryness of your skin after a day sailing. You see stains it leaves on the windows of your car, and the corrosive power of salt water to destroy objects over a period of time.
When you’re around salt, you can feel it, taste it, smell it and see its effect.
There is no escaping the effect of salt.
“You are the salt of the earth”
[176 | 365 March is salt harvesting season at Lake Grassmere in Blenheim and the salt is brought north to the Mount for refining. This is a shot of the salt being stockpiled at Dominion Salt.]
Numbers are a strange part of our business and society. Even if you’re not a ‘numbers person’ and hated math, you generally spend a significant amount of time dealing with numbers. When a baby is born the question straight after their name and sex is generally, ‘how heavy?’
From then on numbers are the measure of growth, of development, of test scores, of financial stability, of success. Business is judged by numbers, evangelists record salvations by numbers, churches measure growth by numbers.
And yet.
It is almost impossible to truly measure the must important things by numbers. Good Marriages. Personal growth. Spiritual transformation. Or even happiness.
And yet.
We continue to measure by numbers.
[Numbers – Today was a day of numbers, of forecasting the next financial year, like I really have a clue. Will it be 1 or 2 or 4 or 2 or 2? Shot was taken at agora last night]
© 2024 People Matter ∴ Do Good
Theme by Anders Norén — Up ↑