Lead a vivid life that does good
Had the tree in our back yard pruned. Its been in that spot for 12 years (growing for 14) and best I can guess my kids started climbing it 7 years ago.
It reminded me of the old Chinese proverb. “The best time to plant a tree is 10 years ago, the second best time is now.”
This of course applies to more than just planting trees.
The best time to start loving
The best time to start learning
The best time to start doing good
… was 10 years ago …
… The second best time is now!
I failed at school.
The best mark I received was an internally assessed A1 in School Cert science. It belonged to another student called Andrew Nichol and was whisked away as quickly as it arrived.
I left school at 17 barely able to read, average at the more complex forms of maths, but strangely very good at accounting. Despite being a “failure”, I have discovered I am actually not as dumb as the school system lead me to believe. In my adult years I taught myself to read (by reading more and more books I actually enjoy).
I have also been given incredible opportunities to lead.
To learn.
To succeed.
Why?
Because throughout my life, many incredibly courageous people have believed in me despite my failures. They were courageous because I could have crashed, failed again and tarnished their good name.
I would not be who I am today without their generosity.
∴
All of us have people who’ve believed in us against the odds. Therefore the implication is simple.
Who are we investing our time into, who might just succeed if we just see past their failure?
Who are you believing in against the odds?
Maybe its time you found someone.
Finally a shout out to just a few of the names I have randomly thought of as I wrote this post. Mum & Dad, Craig Jamieson, Dale Henderson, Bob Addison, Matt Ruys , Neville Stevenson, Ian Hogan, Colin Shotter, Dave Medhurst, Geoff LeCren, Glyn Gray, Jeff Smith, Bruce Thomson, Mark Thompson, Iain Hill, Jim Quinn,, Rowland Forman, Ken Frost, Campbell Forlong, Jim Grafas and of course Karina Nicol. Thank you for believing in me at various stages in my life. I am more grateful than words can express.
I’m weird!
I know I’m weird because the other day I was cooking a BBQ, fooling around and using strange voices. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a neighbourhood kid in the yard steering at me with a look of part bewilderment and part horror. I asked if I was being a bit weird and she nodded slowly. “I bet your dad does weird and crazy things at home?” I inquired hoping for a favourable response.
Her face lit up as she replied “he sure does”.
“We are all weird Marama,” I replied with a smile, “we are all weird.” And with that she nodded and carried on playing with my kids.
∴
Funny isn’t it how we can behave weirdly at home, but we conform in public and at work. For some strange reason we don’t want people to know we’re weird, even though we know that everyone is a little weird.
I wonder if life wouldn’t be a little more fun and vibrant if we weren’t weird when we’re out more often. I wonder if that wouldn’t help us break down more barriers, laugh more, and enable us to not take ourselves so seriously.
We are all weird.
Therefore… do something weird today!
I dare you!
My 10 year old checking out her art at the HeART Expo. She is a true artist.
Recently I was sitting in a group of maybe 200 people who were asked if they were artists, and only four people raised their hand.
I was one of the four ‘artists’ who put their hand up. Can I paint or sculpt or dance? No, not at all. Yet I am an artist, because at the core of art is creativity.
An artist creates.
And almost everyone I have ever met is creative in someway. Sure, some paint and sculpt and dance, but most creative people, most artists I meet do nothing like that. Most create in other ways like taking home photos or cooking their favourite food. Some create by making practical things from metal or wood. Others create by raising amazing kids. Some even create using spreadsheets.
In my heart of hearts I believe we are all artists. I believe we are all created to create. And when we create, we should pause for a moment to enjoy our creation. Our Art.
You create things, therefore…
You are an artist.
Enjoy.
Alan McDiarmid, a Kiwi and Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry, died today aged 79.
I saw an interview with him last year on Campbell live and he said this quote
" I am a very lucky person. And the harder I work, they luckier I seem to be"
Alan McDiarmid – 2006
"We did it Kyla, we got a goal!" Talia hollers with excitement after she kicks the ball between the trampoline legs that have become the goal posts for our backyard soccer game.
Its kids verses Dad and there is a lesson in play for the girls. Its called Teamwork! Their tendency, their predisposition if you will, is to play as individuals, to both run around trying to get the ball off Dad and then each other, even though they are on the same team.
I explain to them that if Kyla comes to get the ball off me and Talia waits by the goal,they will get goals easier. Talia of course very offside but it is not a lesson in soccer rules. Now, because Dads are always really bad at soccer when playing with 5 and 7 year olds, Kyla easily manages to get the ball off me and kicks it to Talia. The distance of 3 metres is simply to enormous for me to cover in the 15 seconds it takes for Talia to line-up and score the goal which is met with shouts of pleasure from both girls. "Kyla and Talia 5 points, Daddy 1" they yell.
Anyway, I was thinking about grown up kids, like the kind I work with. Our tendency, our predisposition is to play as individuals. We often want to score the goal and have our turn and be in the limelight of success, rather than making sure that first and foremost the team wins!
Within our company team we have a number of smaller teams. Some of the teams function really well as… well teams. They pass their ball off to each other, which are off course the various aspects of their jobs. They don't really care who does what as long as the team gets the goal and the team wins! Some other teams function more as individuals, they own just their part, don't pass the ball and continually try to just get goals themselves and often fail to keep up.
I guess it is no surprise which teams achieve the best results, have the most victories and generally win the most. It is of course the groups of people that realise they need each other and scoring a goal for the team is more important than getting a goal as an individual. They help each other out and have few lines drawn about who does what. They do what it takes to make sure the team wins.
Incidentally the winning teams, have heaps more fun, get a buzz out of winning and 'holler with excitement' when they get their goals.
Which 'team' would you rather be on?
Barack Obama is new face of the democratic party in the US.
An article from the Chicago Sun-Times leads with a story entitled "Evangelical? Obama's faith too complex for simple label Evangelical?" in which they asked him if he was an evangelical.
His answer was quite cool.
He continued his answer: "My faith is complicated by the fact that I didn't grow up in a particular religious tradition. And so what that means is when you come at it as an adult, your brain mediates a lot, and you ask a lot of questions.
"There are aspects of Christian tradition that I'm comfortable with and aspects that I'm not. There are passages of the Bible that make perfect sense to me and others that I go, 'Ya know, I'm not sure about that,'" he said, shrugging and stammering slightly.
The article concludes with
But for Obama, as for many of us, faith is complicated, messy, a work in progress. And, if we're honest about it, the standard labels just don't fit.
How true I thought.
The camping ground that we are staying at as a strict no Alcohol policy. You CAN NOT bring alcohol onto the site.
So imagine my surpirse when the hand gel in the toilets is alcohol based. You would think you could get a different kind of hand gel.
"Dreaming permits each and every one of us to be quietly and safely insane every night of our lives."
William Dement – sleep researcher
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