Annoyingly, some of the branches seem really interesting. Unfortunately, no matter how interesting they seem to be, they’re just distractions.

Manifesto
22. Every day refine, clarify and simplify.
26. Every day take action. Every small step counts.
34. Every day focus on your dreams.

The thing I like most about daffodils is their robust reliability. No matter how foul the weather has been, come Spring, daffodils are up and flowering. They make such great role models. It’s easy to feel down in the dumps, especially if things are not going as we think they should. I suspect that at any given point of the day there are at least three of our plans not going to plan. I’m sure this is true for daffodil plans too – however, they manage to take all of this in their stride and just get on with making a success of themselves on their own terms. Enviable clarity.

Manifesto
16. Every day looking at the order of things gives you power.
28. Every day you will be tested.
34. Every day focus on your dreams.

Who hasn’t thought, wished, dreamed of having a money tree right by the front door?

Mostly we do have a money tree with us all the time – if you put your wrists together your hands for a tree, with the fingers as branches – the money comes as fruit of your work. Unfortunately, the fruit does not always follow as soon as we’d like. But if you care for the environment that your money tree is growing in – the relationships you build and the way you treat people – I believe the fruits of your labour will follow, even though you might not recognise them at first. Thank you for lending us your van, Marcel.

Manifesto
04. Every day is an opportunity to cultivate the promise of the future.
18. Every day express love. Some people need to hear it. Most people need to see it. Don’t take it for granted.
20. Every day say thank you.

lying down
      with quilts over the head
such a cold night — Basho

As if to celebrate the long weekend (more, more) the roof was hammered all night long by the rain. There’s something soothing about being in bed with the sound of rain on the roof, however I could feel a cold growing away in me.

Sure enough, in the weak dawn, I’m up for a hot lemon tea and back to bed to try to fend it off. Go, you immune system warriors, go! I pull the covers up and flag work for the day.

Manifesto
13. Every day be better than you were the day before.
19. Every day make time for yourself.
28. Every day you will be tested.

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
– Invictus – William Ernest Henley (1849–1903)

Mysteriously, the truck in front of us today raised some interesting questions, or perhaps posed some interesting challenges. Should we always back the safe options? What would we learn from backing wild horses? Who was this graffiti artist who can combine the ideas of backing wild horses and Invictus so improbably on the back of a truck waiting for the traffic lights?

Manifesto
16. Every day looking at the order of things gives you power.
23. Every day retain your personal power. It belongs to you. No one else.
27. Every day pain is a sign of growing.

I like the punga – the tree fern – that lives on the no-man’s land between us and our neighbour. It could be growing on our land, or theirs, or maybe – in fact, probably – is growing on its own land. Punga are one of those essential New Zealand icons. Probably every homesick expat has an image of a punga and a bright blue sky stored somewhere in their memory, even if they don’t have any real memory of a punga. The image is part of the collective consciousness.

What I like about ‘our’ punga is that it defiantly leans into the prevailing (and powerful) westerly gales. This fern – the soft, delicate fern – points its head into the wind. Sure, the fronds are not as perfectly symmetrical as those effete pungas that live in the shelter of the Botanical Gardens; but here is a punga that not only takes on life head on, it thrusts its head right into the full force of the gale.

What confidence! What an inspiration.

Manifesto
26. Every day take action. Every small step counts.
27. Every day pain is a sign of growing.
48. Every day there are things you can’t change. You can change the way you think about them and deal with them.

The mind that is wise mourns less for what age takes away; than what it leaves behind.
– William Wordsworth

Today I officially became one year older. I love how this transformation happens overnight. You go to bed one age and the next day you wake up one year older.

As the grey hairs continue to increase in number I wonder how did I get to be the age I am today. It seems like yesterday my parents were this age and I was much younger. I am supposed to be wiser now than I was all those years ago and yet often I wish I knew then what I know now.

Life happens. You do some great things. You do some stupid things – mistakes – some big and others insignificant in the greater scheme of things. You do some things because you have to. You avoid certain things. You take risks when necessary. You learn a lot about yourself and others along the way. Experience is a great teacher.

One of the best things about getting older has been learning to love me and not caring about what others think. I feel so much freer and confident as a result. There are so many things about growing up that I am so glad to leave behind. For me life keeps getting better with each passing year with one exception – my physical body isn’t as sprightly as I would like it to be.

So as I begin a fresh new year in my life I want to thank everyone that has been a part of my life up to this point. Thank you for being you. Thank you for being there for me through the joys, the sorrows and everything in-between. You all make my life so much richer. You are what life is all about for me.

Manifesto
27. Every day pain is a sign of growing.
31. Every day mend bridges, bury hatchets, say sorry and move on.
43. Every day accept you will make mistakes. Learn from them. They are opportunities in disguise.