There’s a difference between ‘lubricating the wheels’ – helping someone progress on their own path versus taking over and preventing the person from developing in any way for themselves. My Dad had knack of helping where he would tell me, show me the first few steps, and then watch me do the rest of the task, stepping in to advise if necessary, but otherwise letting me get on with it. Even making a mistake or two. I didn’t recognise it at the time – I was too busy making sawdust or pruning the grapes or whatever – but how liberating. For the both of us.

By showing me how to cut a straight line with a handsaw Dad didn’t retain any power or control, he willingly passed that knowledge and power to me. In exchange I believe his mana was increased because his son can now put a (mostly) straight cut through wood. Dad could’ve made the cut himself – it would definitely have been faster, straighter, ‘better’ – but in doing so he (and I) would have been subtly diminished.

How loving. How trusting.

Manifesto
15. Every day make a difference to yourself and others.
18. Every day express love. Some people need to hear it. Most people need to see it. Don’t take it for granted.
38. Every day be brave and give things a go. Use fear to trigger you into action.

I don’t believe there’s more or really any different colours than in any other season, it’s perhaps just because I take a bit more time to notice them. To reflect on the changes and what might be changing in, and for, me. To be grateful for the changes.

Manifesto
05. Every day is now. The present moment.
18. Every day express love. Some people need to hear it. Most people need to see it. Don’t take it for granted.
30. Every day use all your senses. Touch. Smell. Taste. Hear. See.

I’m unsure that anything really changes. To me it seems most people change one kind of slavery for another; without much of a pay-off. It really seems at best people jump off one line to find themselves on the next line (or two) across, and that maybe the only significant change is the momentary breath of fresh air in the new setting. It’s not rejuvenation. Before long, the new ways end up looking a lot like the old ways.

It’s hard to give up old comfortable patterns.

Mostly because it’s easy to grow a ponytail, to get a harley. It’s a lot harder to make inner, deeply personal changes to your heart and mind; to see things in a truly fresh way. True change.

Manifesto
02. Every day is an opportunity for a new beginning.
06. Every day you make choices.
08. Every day choose to bring about change.

I can’t tell whether it is because I’m getting older, and therefore my bones are nearer the surface, but I’m pretending I’m not bored. Or at least not wishing I was somewhere else. The boredom raises in me and presses my flesh into the unyielding concrete tiles. I try to ignore the relentless yammering of some woman off to my side. The noise presses into my ears, my bones crush into the tiles, and boredom wells up like a belch you cannot stifle.

This is the time of school classrooms. My mind eases off in its easy lope, down well trodden paths. I’m not away soaring. I’m not Tom Sawyer on the raft. I’m not building castles in my mind. I’m in the gold – a seamless, edgeless, featureless, glowing-gold sphere. Sound turns down to a buzz.

I breathe in.

I breathe out.

I’m not being polite, I’m simply not there.

The kids know better. They get up. They walk away.

Manifesto
39. Every day trust that there is a bigger picture. You are a part of it even if you may not know what it is.
48. Every day there are things you can’t change. You can change the way you think about them and deal with them.
50. Every day has an ending.

In a moment of drunken bravado, Boris confessed to being the baby in the pram in Sergei Eisenstein’s movie, Battleship Potemkin. After a stunned silence the entire bar burst into laughter – first at the outrageous claim, and second at Boris’s embarrassing political naivety. His colleagues teased and taunted him mercilessly for weeks. His protests about just being a baby, and how his mother had allowed him to be filmed because she had known Eisenstein fell on deaf ears.

Stung by the hurtful comments, Boris’s heart could find no rest in the previous havens of beautiful and elegant structures. To him they had become a kind of blasphemy. As his heart darkened, he found creative inspiration in African termite towers. Thick stucco over brick walls, tiny windows, tiled finishes inside and out. Functional. Standardised. Godless. Man as an insect, a living machine. An inspirational example of collective behaviour. He found favour with the new leadership, and he forgot all that he had ever been.

Manifesto
06. Every day you make choices.
25. Every day your light shines for others to see.
43. Every day accept you will make mistakes. Learn from them. They are opportunities in disguise.

When I was a kid I used to come to Wellington and look up at the big buildings and wonder what it was like from ‘up there’. I still find the view looking up from ‘down here’ fascinating. There are many architectural styles to be found in the CBD. The overall design is anything but a coherent vision of town planning. I love it nevertheless.

I’m inspired to find the little snippets of design – some architect or designer has decided ‘stuff it, let’s have this – or that’. And we find some elegant little piece of applied art almost as an after thought – a tiny window perhaps, or an attractive piece of detailing work. Most of the buildings concerned would have been built when architectural drawings were made by hand – and so the detail work had been deliberate. Sometimes it seems like a private joke and I can image the delight in the designer’s voice as he describes the next subtle piece of work.

Keep looking up – there’s a beauty and an elegance in the functional patterns that surround us.

Manifesto
14. Every day the ordinary can be the extraordinary.
36. Every day be still. Connect to your inner being. Listen and be guided by it.
47. Every day you are responsible.

You know the kind – when your dentist looks in your mouth, hesitates, frowns slightly, looks again, and then sucks air in over her teeth…
When your doctor suddenly gets interested, consults the internet, and then sucks air in over his teeth…
When your mechanic scratches the stubble on his chin and then sucks air in over his teeth…

When the guy who’s buying your car does the whole ‘I have to talk to my manager’ blarney…

You suck air in over your teeth…

And you notice, out of the corner of your mind, that he has a toy shark as a monitor toy…

You can feel that vein pumping in your forehead. The way it used to, in the moments while the school-yard bully was making his slow mind up about whether you were prey or not.

Manifesto
16. Every day looking at the order of things gives you power.
21. Every day seek the support of others. You are not alone.
28. Every day you will be tested.

I’ve been converting our garage into a art studio. It’s already an embassy of creativity, and that’s just in sorting through the clutter, and removing the “handy work” left by the former owners. I’ve learned a number of valuable lessons demolishing the various workbenches and shelving units. The former owner had a two prong approach – use the cheapest, least durable materials available, and then use as many fixing methods as possible, sacrificing strength, practicality, and above all else, beauty, wherever possible.

I have become very focussed on the delights of the well-driven nail, the stainless steel screw, careful measurements, accurate cutting; and above all else, thinking about the project at hand before launching into it. I’ve come to realise that some of the struggles of life have come about from taking short cuts that don’t work out, or using substandard resources. This is not the way to solve a problem or to take advantage of an opportunity. Even if quick and dirty works in the short term, it’s not constructive for your spirit long term.

Instead of putting up with the shabby, wonky shelves or the insect riddled workbenches that draw energy out of our lives I believe it is really worth the effort to throw them out, sweep the floor, and then start from fresh with good materials and apply the best thinking and hand skills possible to the opportunity. Do it once, and do it right.

Manifesto
02. Every day is an opportunity for a new beginning.
06. Every day you make choices.
15. Every day make a difference to yourself and others.

It all started out as a run of the mill eye test. A couple of years and it’s time for me to get my eye test sorted. It’s relatively painless, and although I had some vague concerns I didn’t have any real fears. It’s an eye test, I’ve had them before, what can go wrong?

Well, nothing wrong with the test part of the eye test. The story is not quite the same for my eyes, and a further test is required. Not quite the news I wanted to hear. I feel a bit frightened. Memo to body: what are you playing at?

My eyesight is such a vital part of my self identity – I was suddenly afraid about how I’d cope if my eyesight vanished. How would I earn a living? How could I learn the necessary skills to be able to even get a job? We’re all short on time – what are you going to do with what you have left?

If your eyesight were to fail suddenly – and it does for some people in accidents – what would be the last thing you’d want to see? A favourite scene? A loved one? A work of art? A velvet painting of Elvis? Does it really make any difference?

Is there really a longing, a loving, a gratitude for something until you’ve either lost it or about to lose it?

Either way, you get on with the day … but I’m still wondering about what you do with what you’ve got left.

Manifesto
20. Every day say thank you.
26. Every day take action. Every small step counts.
45. Every day you are a different person.

“You know, if you want to avoid me, you should stop coming here.”

Lea stirred from her daydream and looked around nervously. Who… ? The guy in the other seat stared out the window. The driver concentrated on the obstacle course ahead.

“Over 2.3 million passengers. You know, you’re the only one I talk to.”

The left side of Lea’s top lip twitched. Again. She could feel herself frowning. Perspiring.

“So, you got nowhere. Are you taking care of yourself?”

Lea’s sunglasses started to slide down her perspiration slicked nose.

No-one else seemed to notice the conversation opening. Lea squirmed. The question hung in the air. Someone or something, was trying to talk to her.

“This is crazy. No-one speaks to me on this bus. I am going home. Alone. As usual. Nobody likes me. I am completely alone, and no-one is talking to me now”, Lea hissed under her breath.

The bus lurched and continued to grind up the hill. Lea pushed the stop alert button, and the driver pulled in to the curb.

Lea swiped her bus pass over the monitor, and stumbled out and away without looking back.

“You know,” said the Driver, turning to confront the monitor, “My orange friend, you’re a real laugh; but you’re so damn mean to those single girls!”

There was a moment of silence. They both laughed as the bus pulled away from the curb…

Manifesto
24. Every day is a journey. Not a destination.
28. Every day you will be tested.
32. Every day have a laugh.