Simple. Elegant.

Could we be richer?

Manifesto
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.
42. Every day celebrate. Who you are. What you have achieved. Things that matter to you.

If you’re unable, or unwilling, to paddle your own canoe, you can always go down on the waterfront and there rent a kayak. From there you can paddle out and around the waterfront, the wharves, and the various sights and sounds from the harbour. Rather wonderful on a nice still day – and completely avoidable on a bad day, of course.

A lot of people seem to spend their lives trying to become more dependent. I find that rather frustrating – I spend time trying to become less dependent. This means managing personal stuff, learning how to do things, and generally trying to take as much responsibility for what I do as is possible. It’s not always easy, but it is something to work on, to commit to. The results are worth it – it’s a small step towards independence – to personal freedom.

Manifesto
06. Every day you make choices.
23. Every day retain your personal power. It belongs to you. No one else.
26. Every day take action. Every small step counts.

I love it when I’m working and things just start to flow – I get so involved in my work – writing, for example, that I get lost in what I’m doing. I don’t notice the passing of time and I find I can get deeper and deeper in the work at hand.

The more quickly, and more successfully I can can enter the flow, the better and more productive I can be.

Manifesto
09. Every day learn something new.
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.

I find flight miraculous. I know – well, I’ve read about the physics that it’s just the air pressure lifting and all that stuff, but what’s that to do with being able to get to Auckland and back in a day? In my parent’s day you would’ve been hard pressed to do it with an overnight stay. And I got served a cup of coffee – or would’ve except the turbulence made water the beverage of the day. That’s ok, think about it – water – at 32,000 feet. And a muffin. I mean, this is astounding. Maybe not to people who travel the world every day, but for me this is akin to magic.

Not everyone has a great smile like the person in the photo. I don’t understand how people can treat the cabin crew so rudely. It’s like they’ve paid for their ticket, and this somehow gives them permission to act like spoiled brats. I do wonder how their parents brought them up. Another reason why I’m happy to land and gratefully leave the aircraft. One of the joys of travel I guess.

Manifesto
29. Every day eat, drink, rest, work, exercise, play, love, create for your own good. And the good of others.
41. Every day use your mind. It is the greatest technology ever created.
48. Every day there are things you can’t change. You can change the way you think about them and deal with them.

These are the hands of the women I love. Each of us have had our world turned upside down today. My mum was given 1-3 hours to live last night subsequent to a massive stroke. This morning Mum was still with us and Marica and I’ve made a tense three hour drive to the hospital to say hello. Good-bye. To find out what’s going on. Or, more accurately, not.

We asked to see a doctor at 1:00pm – we left at 6 – still waiting to see a doctor. The reason we couldn’t see one was it’s the weekend. Apparently at the Whanganui Hospital weekends start on Thursday night. Mum’s on the Liverpool Care Programme (LCP) which seems to be more like a lingering death than any valid way of easing the passing of a person. I don’t understand the advantages of dragging the departure point out – when I raise the alternative I’m told this is murder. I was raised with hunting all around – the object of this is to make the time between life and death the minimum time possible. I don’t understand how quick is murder but slow is mercy.

Mum rallied this afternoon and asked a nurse, “I’d like a cup of tea and soft scrambled eggs; and if you don’t know how to make them my son here does.” Which is true, I do. Agony agony agony. Mum kept asking over and over and over for a cup of tea – like it was the most precious thing in the world. The LCP is about dehydrating the victim to death. It makes some sort of sense when a person is actively dying, Mum was asking for a cup of tea and food. Usually when you’re unwell food is not uppermost on your mind. We managed to get some thickened water into Mum and she improved a little more.

Strangely, I met up with a couple of former students in the hospital. I feel a bit better knowing people I know are nearby.

I don’t know what to do. Not I don’t know what to do for best. I don’t know what to do. We’re numb. We need sleep.

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.
47. Every day you are responsible.
50. Every day has an ending.

A watery start to the day. Days like this can be hard to get started on – easier to head back to bed, pull the blankets up over my head, and think zen-like thoughts. Or go back to sleep.

Or jump it up a little and launch head first into the day.

I can never tell whether the day is going to be auspicious or not or what – I’m not even sure I care about the future at these moments – it’s more about start me up, go to work, get on with the job at hand. The future happens as a result of micro-decisions and actions you make all day, every day. Do your job. Focus on the moment. Get on with it!

Manifesto
04. Every day is an opportunity to cultivate the promise of the future.
08. Every day choose to bring about change.
13. Every day be better than you were the day before.

An original life is unexplored territory. You don’t get there by taking a taxi – you get there by carrying a canoe. — Alan Alda

I still think there’s something better on the horizon. Over the hill. The next page, chapter, book. If what we’re doing is great, could we do it better? If we ask better questions we’ll get better answers. Is this the best use of our time/money/resources/life right now? If this was funny what would we be laughing at now? Does any of this really matter, or would we be doing better for everyone, including ourselves and the generations who follow, if we just packed our bags and went down to a cafe on the waterfront and had a beer. Or two. Or an ice-cream. Or just went for a walk.

The Buddhists want me to chant. The Christians want me to stop. The Satanists want me to start. The Retirement Commission wants me to save. The Commerce Commission wants me to invest. Buy sell swap. Do this. That. Do the hoki-toki, and you turn about. In the end it all just signifies nothing except another expression of one or more of the seven deadly sins, given life and expression by somebody and foisted off on to me. And you expect me to take it seriously? Like it’s memorable or important or valuable or really worth my time?

When I could go for a quiet walk with my wife and we could hold hands in between taking a photo or two? I’m staking a claim on my own golden moments. And I’m walking towards them every day.

Manifesto
42. Every day celebrate. Who you are. What you have achieved. Things that matter to you.
49. Every day is a good day.
50. Every day has an ending.

I’m always grateful for rain. I’ve known times without rain and I know how much joy there is for us water creatures to get some rain. It is about balance. Like everything else we do – enough work, enough rest, enough food, enough. Enough. Not excessive amounts of more than we actually need.

The only thing we don’t ever have excessive amounts of is time.

Perhaps, taking the time to bless the rain drops is part of the balancing.

Thank you, rain.

Manifesto
01. Every day is a fresh new day.
14. Every day the ordinary can be the extraordinary.
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.

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.

I looked at the vegetables – glowing with a sheen of dew – and then back at the house – full of books, music, art, laughter, and love – food and comfort in abundance. I got in the car and we headed off for work – we have jobs, and a car to get there. Our jobs are stressful but they are mostly safe, clean, and dry.

At lunch time I took a walk and looked back to the sun. So much to be grateful for.

Even the ginkgo trees are starting to give away free gold.

Manifesto
01. Every day is a fresh new day.
29. Every day eat, drink, rest, work, exercise, play, love, create for your own good. And the good of others.
48. Every day there are things you can’t change. You can change the way you think about them and deal with them.