Met, know and have heard of bundles of people, lately who are not themselves. Thy feel flat, down and maybe a little bit empty. Much of it I’m sure is the winter blues.
Well, if you are one of those people I have a solution. At this time of year the playgrounds are practically empty. No kids, particularly during the day.
So head down to the park, why not take a friend. Then forget that you’re meant to ‘behave’ like a grown up and jump on a swing.
Swing.
Breathe.
Smile.
Laugh.
It will be the wackiest thing you have done in ages, but I guarantee some of the winter emptiness will disappear.
Month: August 2010
Picture a day without colour
No colour in buildings or things we wear
No colour in paint for art to smear
No colour in the sun or sky above
No colour in stuff we love
Picture a day without colour
And rejoice that today
However grey
Is filled with colour!
[329|365 – I love how colourful schools have become]
Just over the summit of the Kaimai Ranges,
as you’re headed to Hamilton from Tauranga, is a small almost unnoticed
lay-area that conceals a natural fresh water spring. With the road on one side
and native New Zealand bush on the other, a pipe is linked to the ground and
from it fresh water flows.
There has been substantial rainfall
recently and the pipe can’t contain the volume of water coming from this
natural purifier and it bubbles up from the rocks around it.
Beautiful crisp, cold, clear water.
Uncaptured, it runs off to join a stream
and make its way to the ocean.
Meanwhile almost a 1000 million people
worldwide have no access to clean-water.
How lucky I am to have been born in
this beautiful, abundant country.
This whole school and education thing seems to work. Jayden basically start school in June and has progressed from reading one work, his name, to reading little books. He is really proud of his achievements and I’m really proud of him.
In the initial stages of learning something new we make huge progress, really quickly. As time progresses’ learning gets harder, more complex and takes more discipline. Then it requires huge amounts of brainpower, and before long most adults quit learning altogether.
Maybe it’s time to return to the basics of learning. Find something new, something completely different and explore it. To make huge progress really quickly. To enjoy learning again.
I love spring because the days are growing longer.
I love spring because the rain will
eventually clear.
I love spring because of the vivid colours.
I love spring because of the new growth.
Spring is almost here because the birds
have returned to our trees and our first trees are in blossom.
Bring on spring I say.
The good.trust is well on its way to building
its first clean.water well!
Last week was a big week for the trust.
Jim celebrated his birthday raised $3,200 and Luke Thompson started recording a song called ‘water’ that he has gifted to the trust to sell and raise funds for clean.water.
Follow the good.trust
This is Aneil. When my family and I met him in his 6ft x 8ft corrugated tin house with a curtain for a door, he looked unwell. Naively I asked him if he was really sick, he responded “No, no I am just really tired as I haven’t eaten in 4 days”.
I admit that I was caught off guard by his answer. I would feel and look unwell if I hadn’t eaten in 4 days. Hours earlier we had a beautiful breakfast in our resort in Nadi, then drove to Suva, now we sat in the slum house of a man who hasn’t eaten in 4 days.
As I sat with him all I could think of was the verses in James that say, “What good is it, dear brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but don’t show it by your actions? Can that kind of faith save anyone? Suppose you see a brother or sister who has no food or clothing, and you say, “Good-bye and have a good day; stay warm and eat well”—but then you don’t give that person any food or clothing. What good does that do? So you see, faith by itself isn’t enough."
Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless.” I will write more on Fiji in a later more detailed post.