Willis Street, lunch time. I wandering along and I hear the clanging of something hard landing in a skip bin. Building rubble – something was coming down to earth. I’m always slightly anxious about building sites and the ‘oops, I dropped my hammer, sorry’.

I could see the crane lowering something, but what really grabbed me was this huge tall edifice. In an instant I wanted to be a kid again and grab my Mum’s hand and tug her attention and shout, ‘Whoa, look at THAT!’

Strangely, I was the only person entranced by this amazing device. No-one on the street bothered to look up. ‘It’s a crane, ho-hum, boring, I see them every day, you stupid kid!’ The best people could manage was a quick stare at me taking photos.

So where did the kid in you go? How come now that you’re this astoundingly cool and important adult you’re not impressed with impressive things anymore? Is the child in you so deeply buried, so dead, that a ‘Whoa, look at THAT!’ is out of question? No ‘I wanna have a go at driving that thing’?

I’m sorry, I just have to do this. Hey you, and you – whoa, look at THAT!

Manifesto
12. Every day love yourself.
17. Every day look through a new lens.
36. Every day be still. Connect to your inner being. Listen and be guided by it.

If we were the size of butterflies, we would be able to rise up in the cool stillness of the early morning. We would be able to take our first breaths of the morning air and we would be able to breathe as if it were the first day ever. We would feel the clean air rushing into our bodies and with each escaping breath we would release the staleness from our souls freely. Gratefully. Calmly.

We would feel the warming day and the cooling night parting company. We would smell the dawn rain and the damp earth and we would feel vibrantly energised and alive.

If we were the size of butterflies we would be able to sip the cool water and be cleansed and we would drink and drink again until our thirst was quenched. We would feel the refreshing purity of the water reaching the very essence of our being.

We would hear the hum of bees and the rustle of insects and the birds calling the way that they have forever and our world would be filled with the joyous noises of life. We would hear the stems of plants squeaking, rubbing, stretching as they grow past each other.

If we were the size of butterflies we would care a great deal more about the vibrations of green – the tone-on-tone harmonics – and our world would seem like a very, very large, mysterious, and beautiful place indeed.

If we were the size of butterflies.

Manifesto
01. Every day is a fresh new day.
05. Every day is now. The present moment.
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.

Until today I had never heard of a shemozzle. As soon as I read the word in a banner draped across a building – “Hunterville Shepherds’ Shemozzle Today” – I had to say it out loud.

“Shemozzle. Shemozzle. Shemozzle.” Saying it once was not enough. It rolled off the tongue so easily and it sounded like fun.

We were driving through a normally very quiet township, Hunterville – the sort that you blink and you’ve missed it – but today it was bustling with activity and people.

“Do you want to stop?” asked Lynsey.

I was tempted but I was also very keen to reach our destination – a friend’s holiday home on the shores of Lake Taupo. Lynsey and I were both feeling so exhausted and I was harbouring a killer headache.

“No, let’s keep going,” I said. I did however sit there wondering what on earth a shemozzle is.

This gruelling cross country obstacle event is centred around the Shepherds and their Huntaway dogs competing over an endurance and obstacle course. Previous years have seen competitors swallowing raw eggs, munching on dry weetbix washed down with a can of warm beer, huhu bugs with cold cooking oil or a sheep’s eye and cream!

The route and finer details of the Shepherds’ Shemozzle are not revealed to contestants until the Shepherd’s meeting minutes before the race … Who knows where it will start and finish this year? – the only thing that organisers can guarantee is that the Shepherds’ Shemozzle will be just that “A Shemozzle”.

Source: Hunterville Huntaway Festival

We did however stop a bit later for a break and something to eat in Taihape. As we pulled into an angle car park on the main drag I noticed that we were the only ordinary car in sight. All the others were these huge, overbearing four wheel drive beasts. I had to smile as I looked at them. For the first time I saw evidence that the owners of these vehicles were using them for the purpose they were intended – as farm utility vehicles, or as I like to think of them, as beasts of burden. These vehicles we were parked next to were all covered in mud. They looked like they lived a rugged life and were worked hard. I am so used to seeing four wheel drive vehicles in the City primarily being used as vehicles to transport the family around. In many respects they are considered a status symbol but I could never understand this.

As we ordered our lunch we asked the young man serving us why there were so few people around. “They’re all at the shemozzle or they’re heading there,” he said.

I love being in the country. It is so down to earth. The people are different. Their priorities are different. Everything is different. It is all about the earth and our connection to it. It feels great to take in the beauty that is our land and be reminded that there is so much more to life than our jobs and the closeted existence we can so easily live in the city.

Manifesto
09. Every day learn something new.
29. Every day eat, drink, rest, work, exercise, play, love, create for your own good. And the good of others.
49. Every day is a good day.

Manifesto
01. Every day is a fresh new day.
02. Every day is an opportunity for a new beginning.
50. Every day has an ending.