In my real life I wear many
hats: environmental law consultant ... chef … accidental artist … sometime
political analyst ... blogger ....
Most of the time the
universe plays along quite happily to help me keep as many balls in the air as
I like. Sometimes, just sometimes, those invisible forces that govern the
universe conspire to have some fun at my expense and as is the case this
morning (it is barely 04h00 and I have been working for a while) make that
really difficult – I think they enjoy watching me scramble as I handle crises
in rotation of receipt!
At times like these it is
not always easy to keep insisting on joy in spite of everything and I often
find it necessary to physically slow down, refocus and re-centre. Over time one
learns: Slowing down speeds you up.
Without fail this involves
my Dad who turns 80 next year. He is not a man of many words. Born and raised
on a farm in what is now Botswana his actions have always spoken louder than
his words but when he does have something to say it is usually worth listening.
When stress levels rise and
things seem to be going wrong I am reminded of him saying:
“When
they write the history of the world, how much space are they going to devote to
this?”
And when things did go
wrong as they inevitably do from time to time his stock-standard response is
always:
“The
Boer War was worse, then they killed donkeys … and people!”
You can replace “Boer War”
(in which by way of useless information my grandfather - his father - was one
of the youngest combatants at age 11) with your local equivalent such as the
War of Independence or whatever.
I don’t know how original
these sayings are and that really doesn’t matter.
When it comes to wisdom:
- What matters is what you do with it, not where you get it; and
- It wouldn’t be wise if it weren’t
meant to be shared or couldn’t be used!
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