Hello.  There was again a great reaction to the last ‘Palm trees and margaritas’.  It is wonderful to hear from you and to understand that we are all on a shared path, juggling, reflecting and trying to get the most out of our lives.

‘Palm trees and margaritas’ is about life, the universe and what really matters. Empowered living means making sure there is time in your life for palm trees and margaritas, whatever your version of them may be.

Please keep your thoughts and tips for living coming and I will continue to write ‘Palm trees and margaritas’ and publish on the last Friday of each month for as long as there are people reading it.

***  Life can’t be all palm trees and margaritas, but there are worse game plans.

Karen Morath
karen@mpowercct.com
September 2006

TIPS

1. Buy bananas.  They are beautiful at the moment as well as being a lesson in appreciating things of value.  Even if you pay two dollars each for them, that is less than a cake after lunch and about half the cost of the large flat whites I consume like water.  And the growers need your support.

2. Seize the year!  If you are reading this on Friday September 29, there are 86 days to go to Christmas.

3. If you don’t already know, work out what fun is for you and have some of it.  And let us know what it is for you and how you fit it in to your life.

STORIES

1. I have the opportunity to attend a workshop in Boston in January that while I would love to be there and acknowledge it may be a ‘one-off’, I am electing not to go.

Some things are sacred and, for me, spending two or three weeks in December and January on the beach at Anglesea with my children and my friends is religion.

The weeks that mesh the end of one year into the start of another are my favourite time of each year.  I love the way it makes me think I can re-imagine our lives the following year in any way I choose.

‘Anglesea’ punctuates my years and, over time, my life.  There can be no workshop that could be worth giving up something so wonderful.

Are there any ‘not negotiables’ in your year?

2.  Do you know the saying about you know you are getting old when policemen start to look young?  A woman I know whose third and youngest child was finishing primary school last year declared that it was time for her to no longer be a primary school mum because the teachers were actually starting to be young enough to be her children.  She was, of course, MUCH older than me, but was I alone recently in having to re-read the newspaper article that said the new governor of the Reserve Bank is 48?  (48!!!  You have surely got to be old and experienced to do such an important job.)

REFLECTIONS

1. Is watching lifestyle television as good as actually having a lifestyle?

2. Was it really as recently as 10 years ago that cricket was seen as the gentlemen’s sport?