Hi there
February is the official start to the year I think. Kids are back at school, businesses are back into the habits of work, traffic is hideous again. Isn’t it great!
‘Palm trees and margaritas’, the newsletter, will continue its somewhat lofty aspiration of being about life, the universe and what really matters. None of us knows how our life will unfold so as much as we are in control, empowered living means making sure there is time in our lives for palm trees and margaritas*, however we define them.
It aims to give you five minutes of reflective reading time on the last Friday of each month. How was your month?
*** Life can’t be all palm trees and margaritas, but there are worse game plans.
Karen Morath
karen@mpowercct.com
February 2007
TIPS
1. My friend Phil says ‘sit on a beach and listen to the waves whenever you have the chance because most days you don’t have the choice’. (Drive to Johanna beach right now if you’ve never been there – it’s really something.)
2. Celebrate your achievements. Buy yourself a present, give yourself a sleep-in, cook yourself a nice dinner.
3. Look back on all of last year’s highlights. Sometimes we focus too much on where we’re going and forget how far we’ve already come.
4. Don’t leave home without something to read and/or something to write with. I was once stuck (for several hours) in traffic when there was a human emergency preventing cars crossing the Westgate Bridge and I could have auctioned the newspaper I was reading to the salivating drivers around me.
5. Create an ‘inspiration wall’ in your work space. Mine has quotes I love, mementoes of wonderful events, reminders of very big long term goals and photos of all of the children in my life.
Thanks for the wonderful suggestions for us all ‘to enjoy’. I share some of them with you here –
Reader Marcus spent five days on the Gold Coast at the
If you can help with Marcus’s fundraising, here’s where you can do it.
Reader Peter recommends the book The Magus by John Fowles.
“If anyone watches the current TV reality shows for the science and psychology aspect as opposed to the content, then this book shows a real sense of foretaste. A reality book written just over 40 years ago. Not sure if it is my favourite book but it certainly is one which made me think about human nature.”
I invite you to contribute to the 'to enjoy' list by emailing me and I will continue to publish each month your tips on things we can all enjoy.
STORIES
1. Balance, if it exists in any objective sense, can be built in blocks. To enable me to have three weeks away from my desk in January, I worked day and night seven days a week for most of December. It enabled me to not just get my ‘usual’ work done, but to get ahead and to properly put paid to a year’s work and life. It was worth it in itself, but that pre-Christmas effort also meant the added luxury of feeling deserving of the rest on the beach with my kids and my friends. And it meant I could watch the Property Ladder marathon (and OK just a little bit of Martha Stewart) on Foxtel feeling entitled rather than guilty (and embarrassed).
2. A reader bought 64 new tropical fish for a tank on Sunday and by Wednesday 10 had died. All too late the pet shop owner said they need to be introduced to new environments in smaller numbers. This sad story reminded us that it’s not only humans that get stressed from moving house or being in large crowds.
3. My cousin and her intended had their first baby last month – Rebecca, a beautiful, much-loved little girl. Ultrasound scans revealed some problems and by the time she was three days old she had had major surgery. After six days of life she escaped the intensive care unit at the Royal Children’s Hospital and was admitted to the ‘special care’ nursery with the worst of her little life behind her. Isn’t it all too easy to lose perspective of what is important and take for granted the most basic gifts?
READER STORIES
Another wonderful story from Reader Derek revealing how he makes sure there are ‘palm trees and margaritas’ in his life.
“In 1955, when I was 13 years of age, I arrived home from school one day and my mother said ‘Don’t bother packing your school bags for tomorrow because I am taking you to a job interview.’ As a post-war migrant family we were dreadfully poor and I was perceived by my mother to be sufficiently mature to become a wage-earner and contributor to the flagging family fortunes. I attended the job-interview to become a warehouse assistant and was successful and I commenced employment the following day.
“This year, 2007, is my fifty-first year of fulltime employment; and, for most of that time I have been self-employed. For more than 30 years I ran a full-time dance studio doing much the same thing that they display on the television show Dancing with the Stars. I also started and ran a fancy-dress hire shop which, when I sold it two years ago, had 17,000 items for hire. However, when I was 40 years of age, even though I was employing more than 20 people and my businesses were successful, I always felt that I lacked a good education.
“To address my educational needs I completed a year of night classes studying English at
“At 64 years of age, I continue to work fulltime as the Training Services Manager with a large Registered Training Organisation in Broadmeadows that services only adult unemployed clients. It is a great job, from which I gain immense enjoyment and satisfaction. My continuing engagement on six different community-based committees enables me to make substantial contributions to the local community. And, each year, my wife and I take a month-long holiday to an exotic location somewhere in the world. My life is one long saga of palm trees and margaritas.”
REFLECTIONS
1. ‘It is funny about life: if you refuse to accept anything but the very best you will often get it.’
2. Lucky enough to still have your parents? When was the last time you kissed them and told them you love them?
