I dropped off to sleep and it was one of those wonderful free dives into the ocean – deep, dark, endless.

I woke some time later beyond refreshed. I could recall the edge of a dream – the feeling rather than any specifics. I felt terrific – the feeling was as though I’d been away for a very long time – a very extended journey, and now I was back. Back, and feeling great about having been there and back.

I wondered about this – for me it’s a time when the fragrance of change is in the air. Autumn. Seasons. Flavours. I’m ready to come back – ready for the changes that are shaping up. It feels good. Great.

I know a number of you are on the road or are on journeys or are out of sight of land. You know who you are. It’s ok. It’ll work out fine. Come home, come back when you’re ready. Don’t rush it, there’s no need. Trust yourself. We love you. Look for the signs. Find the wings. The road awaits. It’s within. Your heart. Your dream.

Manifesto
02. Every day is an opportunity for a new beginning.
19. Every day make time for yourself.
36. Every day be still. Connect to your inner being. Listen and be guided by it.

Every time I try to combine colours in some painting or drawing – any kind of colour design work – I come up with colour combinations that are somehow frightening – I think they’re not going to work together. And then I look at some of the amazing colour combinations that show up in the fish and other marine life on coral reefs, birds, butterflies, and flowers. Beautiful, odd combinations that are so vibrant, so elegant.

I just want to swim in their colour ocean.

Manifesto
17. Every day look through a new lens.
22. Every day refine, clarify and simplify.
41. Every day use your mind. It is the greatest technology ever created.

In the beginning was an idea. Not a meeting. A conference. A discussion. Anything. Things get started with an idea, and then usually one person gets in the driving seat and starts to make things happen.

Often the making things happen part is launched with a meeting. Or two. It always seems to me to be something of a half-life – every time there’s a meeting the energy is halved. The waters are muddier. The primary reason for this is the recourse to water with lemon juice and some individually wrapped peppermints.

We are supposed to live in an ocean of unlimited potentials. But we end up creating much the same as before. Maybe it isn’t the actual lemon-tinted water or stale mints – rather it is the same old same old contexts/settings/questions. At this meeting we were indeed treated to the same old same old. We left the meeting dulled and uninspired. The success of the day was more about our capacity to be patient, than our creative and dynamic selves. Garbage in, garbage out.

Manifesto
07. Every day making no choice is a choice.
10. Every day connect with somebody.
22. Every day refine, clarify and simplify.

A bit like the day-to-day job really – for many people – we all want it to be warm and pleasant, and I don’t just mean temperature-wise. We want to do useful work – a right livelihood perhaps – to feel valued, and maybe even do some work that might be considered worthy. My work experience has been that often the workers – my colleagues – do a fine job, carefully considered, often with stunning skill sets. The warm sun,

It has also been my experience that as often as not the management are at the opposite end of the scale. I’m sure they have skill sets; or they wouldn’t have found their way into management at all. I also have no doubt that there are stunning managers. Somewhere. Essentially they are akin to the cold ocean.

As the two brush against each other, the inability to communicate results in fog. Fretting.

Communicate, people, communicate.

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.

My Dad always washed the dishes in our home. His view was that he helped dirty the dishes, therefore he’d help clean up the dishes. And he did, faithfully, after every meal. He wasn’t a big talker, was my Dad, he was a get on with it kind of guy.

Maybe it’s in the genes, because I don’t mind doing the dishes either. I don’t have Dad’s rationale, for me it’s more of an opportunity to stop thinking about whatever and instead concentrate on the task at hand. Except I don’t know if concentration is the right word. When I was in high school I worked in a restaurant washing dishes and doing food prep. I would wash dishes by myself for hours – it never really worried me, and I didn’t find it dull. I could do the task so automatically I could fly my spirit away over the rooftops, over the hills, down the river and over the ocean. I’d come back at the end of my shift feeling tired from having stood for a long time, but feeling good – uplifted – from the flight. I welcome that feeling.

Manifesto
14. Every day the ordinary can be the extraordinary.
26. Every day take action. Every small step counts.
47. Every day you are responsible.

We rest here while we can, but we hear the ocean calling in our dreams,
And we know by the morning, the wind will fill our sails to test the seams,
The calm is on the water and part of us would linger by the shore,
For ships are safe in harbor, but that’s not what ships are for. — John A. Shedd, Salt from My Attic, 1928

Ah, our dreams, our dreams. Our dreams call to us no matter how much we try to repress them, reinvent them, shut them out, or ignore them. Like a ship chafing at the ropes, being dragged about by the waves and the tides, we get called again by our dreams.

The ropes, the ties, the everyday grind – in whatever form(s) they take hold us back, however I don’t believe that needs to be the end of the story. In the same way that a boat nudges away at the wharf or the various bowgraces, fenders, and buffers until it becomes comfortable albeit pinioned, it is possible to get some of the initial work done towards fulfilling the dreams. Can’t get to Paris, but can learn French. Can’t build a house, but could learn to use power tools by making dog kennels, or helping out friends with renovations. This is not being safe in harbour – a compromise – rather these actions are about getting the background learning done so that if and when the opportunity occurs it can be grabbed in both hands because the preparation has been done.

The achievement of a dream is normally the result of learning something and getting very good at doing something. It usually takes 10,000 hours to learn how to do something really well, the sooner you get started the better.

It’s not always possible or even appropriate to get stuck into pursing the dream to the fullest extent we’d like, but it is completely inappropriate, I believe, to abandon dreams. That is not what they’re for.

Manifesto
26. Every day take action. Every small step counts.
34. Every day focus on your dreams.
48. Every day there are things you can’t change. You can change the way you think about them and deal with them.

People travel to wonder at the height of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motion of the stars; and they pass by themselves without wondering. — St Augustine

I was not exactly a great diary writer as a kid. I did write intensively when I was keeping myself safe during a particularly bad patch when I was in my early twenties. I didn’t know I was keeping myself safe at the time, I was too busy keeping myself safe. I’ve written pretty regularly in one form or other over the last 30 years. I’m interested in reflective practice – the gentle art of talking to oneself about oneself, usually in the context of work, study, or some other developmental process.

Many days leave me feeling frazzled, so I make a few notes – a few reflections – here and there, in an effort to find meaning, or at least patterns, in the chaos. In some cases the reflection is fuzzy, however I find it’s worth the effort. I like to think of it as mapping out my journey – and as with all journeys it is difficult to map forwards any real distance, but it is possible to map where I’ve been, and to take soundings about the depth I’m operating in right now. Even a fuzzy map is better than no map. Over time I’m able to go back and see the bad things weren’t unmanageable and that sometimes I could finesse the good things into even better things. There’s sure no point in dwelling on the regrets side of the ledger – I can’t get the time back – so I need to work productively on the next step. And that’s when things become sharper – in better focus. I take a sounding – where am I right now? What am I feeling, and how can I move forwards in a solution-driven way?

In part, the Fresh New Day process is about reflective practice – we’re making the daily image, and then responding to the image in writing. It’s taking a sounding – where are we – as individuals and we – together? Are we on the path we want to be on? In part the process is also a workout for our mental muscles – at the same time as we are considering the content there is an exercise in left brain/right brain processing; plus of course, we are influenced by our awareness of you, our audience.

Hello, by the way, lovely to see you here. What are you reflecting on?

Manifesto
03. Every day is an opportunity to reflect on the past.
13. Every day be better than you were the day before.
48. Every day there are things you can’t change. You can change the way you think about them and deal with them.

Atreju – But why is Fantasia dying then?
G’mork – Because people have begun to lose their hopes and forget their dreams so the Nothing grows stronger.
Atreju – What is the Nothing?
G’mork – It’s the emptiness that’s left. It is like a despair destroying this world and I’ve been trying to help it.
Atreju – But why?
G’mork – Because people who have no hopes are easy to control and whoever has the control has the power. — Michael Ende, The Neverending Story

Where did you go? You were a kid once. You were cool. You scooted along the pavement on your bike or your scooter or your skates and YOU WERE COOL!

And now you are not. Where did you go?

Oh. Sorry. You are cool. You earn heaps of money. Your order in restaurants. Hell, even the learner wheels have come off your bike now. People laugh at your jokes, you holiday in exotic locations, you cruise into your club lounge, and you’re cool.

No you’re not. Where did you go?

You go slap by insult by missed opportunity by stupidity by exhausted moment by unappreciated effort by turn down by ignore. Gradually we become shadows of our former potential and we end up as worn as driftwood floating in the ocean of indifference. The Nothing takes over.

If you’re ok with this, stop right now, and click on your home icon. That’ll take you back to where you came in from – safe and secure and not a radical new thought to be found.

If you want to start to rediscover the Something – the you that scooted along pavements in the sun then you need to hang around here a bit more, read a bit more, think a bit more, and just be you a bit more. Pick up a pen and some paper and do a little drawing. Write a few words that might be poetry if the tide came in. Have a glass of water, make a photo, take a nap. When you wake up the story will have changed. You will have started back towards you – the cool you, the cute you, the you you used to be. Back when you had dreams you dreamed in the sunshine.

Manifesto
12. Every day love yourself.
29. Every day eat, drink, rest, work, exercise, play, love, create for your own good. And the good of others.
42. Every day celebrate. Who you are. What you have achieved. Things that matter to you.