Category: Creativity

I am not sure where you sit on the responsible meter, but I swing very much to the ‘Own it baby, if you see a problem fix it.’

Sometimes I am just so darn responsible, my son calls me a police man and we happily go about our day saving the world.

When I’m walking the beach in the bay, if I see a dog on a non- dog beach, it takes every part of my self control not to ask the owner to go down to the dog beach.

On these days my son calls me Ranger Mum.

I like rules.

I thrive with boundaries

but I also like messy, spontaneous and down right ridiculous.

It’s like I swing between moments of madness to ‘lets make everything neat and tidy, finding everything that needs a place’.

I am realising that the spontaneous, immature, child like me, is just as important as the mrs responsible that sits awaiting to be called upon.

The greatest tragedy I find, is people who don’t know how to swing between the sublime and the focussed.

There are great times when we need to be responsible and just get stuff sorted.

Then there are days where we need to throw caution to the wind and just be silly.

The brilliance is reading the social situation, the people, our intuition and learning to read the moment with strength.

Whether we should just stop being so responsible and be a little reckless or whether we need to buckle in and discipline ourselves saying yes to the opportunity that avails.

Sometimes we take ourselves way to seriously and stick to our routine far too rigidly and other times we don’t allow boundaries to bring good practice and peace into our everyday.

The art of finding balance in these imperative parts of our personal culture, is often creating space to reflect on the tone and tenure of our hearts.

I am passionate about prayer, not because I’m a religious person, but it brings out the best in my personality and helps me find my true essence.

This prayer from the book of Colossians makes me feel secure;

So spacious is he, so roomy, that everything of God finds its proper place in him without crowding. Not only that, but all the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe—people and things, animals and atoms—get properly fixed and fit together in vibrant harmonies, all because of his death, his blood that poured down from the cross.

When I pray, I seek and I find what is my responsibility and what is not.

I find that I have a place, I have a purpose and often the responsibility is my Creator’s, not my own.

The greatest peace comes when I remind myself that one day we will be properly fixed and fit together in vibrant harmonies and the ‘other worldness‘ that I feel will some day make sense.

C.S Lewis says it perfectly…

If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world.

Sometimes we just need to remind ourselves that the responsibility we feel to make a deep and lasting contribution to the earth is purposed.

But at the same time remember that we were designed to do it in partnership.

A walk of trust.

A walk of discipline.

A walk of sometimes just letting go and being carried knowing that in the end it all doesn’t matter.

A walk of lightness, love and deep rooted faith knowing it will be okay if I just do nothing and relax today.

You were designed to be responsible and make a big impact.

You were also designed to be a little wild, carefree and light.

Coming back to reality after a week down south and a beginning of the year full of special trips has been a little overwhelming.

Saying goodbye to Charls parents was really hard, living a life where grandparents live overseas is difficult but a journey many have to walk.

My little Libby has grown 8 teeth this month, 6 of which came in one week, so our sleep is broken and restless.

My little man Max has his four year old molars coming through even though he is only just over three.

Teething, Saying Goodbye, the cold winter air has just made me a little uninspired this week.

I am so grateful for the unbelievable experiences I get, but I’m also tired.

Can you be tired and happy, feel completely grateful and sad all in one morning?

I think so.

Seasons of grief and seasons of happiness often come all at the same time.

When you are desperately wanting something so bad that it grinds your soul and then someone close to you gets that very thing you are desperate for.

You are happy for them and the milestone that has developed in their life and at the same time you are deeply mourning the development of this same reality of not getting what you desire in your life.

Sometimes life is just hard work.

We can be happy and sad in one sentence.

We can be grateful but still disappointed at a loss at the same time.

A little thought that has been floating through my quiet time is this…

I am very rich.

Not financially (although if in comparison to the global picture in fact I am.)

Not in my possessions, with a mansion, cars not needing a service, boats and things.

Not because of the fashion that hangs in my cupboard.

I am rich because of the friends I hold dear, the experiences that make up my memories, the opportunities that keep on availing themselves.

I am rich.

And although this week has been a little grey and sad.

And although I have many friends going through desperate times.

We are rich, even though we may feel a little poor.

Perspective is a powerful thing my friend.

And sometimes life is just difficult. The best thing we can do is grow with it.

Stretch with it.

Make the season that tries to take us out, be the very one that defines us.

Keep moving forward.

Even when you feel like running away.

 

 

This morning as I walked the bay with my two little companions, I watched a very old man, take his dogs for a walk. He made my morning. He was quirky, he had his hat on backwards, he had a style that was telling anyone who noticed that he didn’t give a rip what anyone else thought of him.

He had embraced his unique and I assumed he is old enough to not to care at all.

You see the man who changed my morning was driving a bright red dingy boat, just a couple of metres off the shoreline, while his two dogs pounded the beach.

With a wave and a hello, I watched him trace the shore with his dogs in his boat, he was running his own race.

This short little encounter got me thinking how much we worry about what others think of us, especially in the arena of creativity and business.

A little idea, a lot of courage and as we put our ideas out there, we are so worried that we may stand on someone else’s toes.

We worry that someone might criticise, we worry that someone may not like, we worry that someone thinks we have copied their idea.

Lately I am becoming more aware of how important it is for me to run in my own lane.

Not to look to the left or the right.

Not to worry about what others think.

That I need to be true to the very essence of who I am and the passions I am developing in my life and stop caring so much about what others think.

What would you do if you weren’t so afraid of others?

What would you try if you didn’t cater to the crowd assessing?

What opportunity would you take up if you stopped worrying so much?

We will never get today back again and some seasons of our life we just need to look straight ahead, don’t look to the left or right and have a big fat go.

Do you want to be happier?

Then run your own race and stop worrying about what everyone else is thinks.