Archive for November, 2009

Video Blog: Have you got your Head in the Clouds?

Tuesday, November 10th, 2009

Some thoughts about he nature of clouds and what they tell us about focusing on what is really important

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Are you a pebble?

Monday, November 9th, 2009

A friend left this comment on my blog, which contained this sentence “I started thinking about the millions of stones/pebbles, how each was different, very different & yet if you lift your eyes the beach looks golden & could be a continuous strip of bronzed sand”.   And that got me thinking, I bet each of those pebbles considers itself to be an individual with its own unique character and history.  It has its own story of how it got there.  It was part of something bigger.  Bit by bit, over time, it is changed by its environment; its rough edges are abraded by time and tide.  And yet, each pebble is part of something bigger… the beach. 

Are we that different really…?

“Better a diamond with a flaw than a pebble without one.” Chinese Proverbs

 

Finding myself part 2

Friday, November 6th, 2009

I was out walking again today along the beautiful South Downs Way, near Cocking; despite the slight overcast, the views were phenomenal.  It occurred to me that walkers, like the rest of us, are busy trying to ‘find our way’.  We talk about ‘losing our way’ too.  Then I looked down, and realised that I was already ‘on my way’,  and my feet were already on my path.  I was in the only place I could be to move forward from.

We spend so much time planning how to get some place else.  Maybe we need, instead, to ask why we are where we are? 

I was also wondering why I was walking, what was the point of spending all this effort to just get back to the same place?  I occurred to me that whilst I stayed the same, the view and what I could see kept changing.  In other words, it gives me a constantly changing vista or perspective.  One of the key things that enables us to change is seeing the same things differently, or seeing extra things that change our views.

“I’m working my way toward divinity.”   Bette Midler

 

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Finding for myself

Thursday, November 5th, 2009

  As regular readers will know, I am a keen walker.  One of my walks usually involves some planning.  I  plot out the route on PC mapping software [Memorymap] and download that to a GPS [Satmap].  Some are routes I create, others I find in books and magazines.  I often don’t know the walk and I love the adventure of going somewhere new and the challenge of getting round the route without getting (too) lost!  I’m very lucky in living somewhere that has some of the most beautiful scenery that England, and perhaps, the World has to offer.

In these turbulent times, when a lot of people are trying to find their way, I have had this odd feeling feeling that somehow if I walk enough, somewhere out there I’ll find myself, or at least my way forward.  It isn’t rational, but I do feel that way, and the worst case scenario is that I’ll get some healthy exercise in some lovely countryside.

Does this odd idea have any resonance for you?  Have you tried anything like this?  If so did it work for you?

“All you need is the plan, the road map, and the courage to press on to your destination.”   Earl Nightingale

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My Life in a Cartoon Strip

Wednesday, November 4th, 2009

I was wandering along today musing that sometimes my life seems to bear more resemblance to a cartoon strip to so called ‘real life’.  

I’m expecting an anvil to fall from the sky with the a label marked “Acme Anvils” any minute now. 

 

 

 

  I’d love to be living in world of Bruce Wayne but I fear it is more like Itchy & Scratchy 

 

 

A few too many banana skins and frying pans and not enough cognac  & pate foie gras….

I you were in a cartoon, which one would it be an why?

A bird brained Idea? [video blog]

Wednesday, November 4th, 2009

I’d be very interested in your feedback on the value of video blogs please!

The view from a tunnel

Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009

I was talking to my lady wife today, discussing the change in the rate of change in our lives.  When we were younger life seemed to be composed of passing a series of landmarks such as marriage, the births of our children, job & house changes etc.  Then it feels like you get to a place where these waymarks no longer exist; it rather reminds me of my drive across Canada when I got to the plains states and one could drive all day and nothing seemed to change.  It maybe that, like my Canadian road trip, that I am bang on course, but at present it feels like one in sitting in a stationary train in a tunnel, one maybe on track but there are no visible signs.

People talk a lot about the periods in the change cycle when lots is happening, but these more static periods are very much part of the process too. 

I’d be interested to hear how you handle these periods…

“We did not change as we grew older; we just became more clearly ourselves.”  Lynn Hall

“All change is not growth, as all movement is not forward.”  Ellen Glasgow

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Making a difference

Monday, November 2nd, 2009

I am engaged in an interesting project that aims to help people and also to help people to help others.  After a couple of sessions we focused in on this idea of making a difference by sharing.  In this web era, everyone has the power to publish their ideas, their experiences and their creative outpourings.   People capture events on their phones and upload them and random snippets of real life are there for all to see.

I feel that the media has created this cult of the ‘expert’; those faces that they drag out to comment on everything from economics to football.  Over the years, we perhaps begin to believe that these people do have access to more knowledge.  However, perhaps we forget that we are also experts, especially in our own lives.  I’m often stunned and humbled by the stories others share, and also gobsmacked by the humbling power of the simple truth when it is shared. 

We all want people to think the best of us and yet, it seems to me, we are at our most powerful and attractive when we are not pretending to be anyone or anything other than ourselves.  Why is it so scary just to show ourselves?

“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.”  Anne Frank

“Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.”  Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy