Been Busy

It has been a while. Adventure, intrigue, excitement, hard work, and a whole lot of international travel! You cannot believe what gets in the way of blogging.

Every day filled with amazing stories, yet time permitted not a word to be written. That and the fact I do not like to advertise my away from home time for obvious reasons.

Just over a month ago, I left our sandy shores for numerous cold and busy cities in America. Months of planning had culminated in a very special trip. A business trip on behalf of our Awestruck project (www.awestruckgobal.com) in order to benchmark similar industries, spread the word, and attempt to raise funds.

Then things got really busy...

Lip smacking deep pan pizza’s, breakfast of waffles and ice cream at the Waffle Hut, running in the dark in New York City in freezing temperatures, meeting more people, time in prayer, an hour interview on an EWTN television programme, Mexican fast food, taxis, burgers, trains, more meetings, aeroplanes with no allocated seating, a Wendy’s burger and then a sprint to the plane, very close encounters with security, Ave Maria, a growing pile of business cards, providence at work, more pizza, more burgers, more meetings, Southern cooking, the coldest day in Florida, ever, checking into the wrong hotel, moving into a motel, religious inspiration, deep conversations, local beers, a 52 hour trip back home...

Every day brought forth new experiences, and a business trip became a pilgrimage. I find myself filled with a sense of hope, a hope that as humanity, we can find our way back to better values and morals. That anyone can change the world!

Have my Monster

Matthew and I had a little argument yesterday.

He had drawn up a card for one his friends’ birthday. On it he was busy writing the access details to his Moshe Monster. Now for anyone not in the know, a Moshe Monster is a character one designs and plays in a kids game on the internet.

My boys have played this game over the last couple of years and have created and played with many of these monsters.  They have often shared the access details with other children and been horrified when these other children have spent all of their rocks or redecorated their houses in very poor taste.

I advised Matthew not to share the access details of his latest Monster. He could not understand my point of view; it is his friend’s birthday after all! It was only later when I replayed this incident in my mind that I realised he had been arguing for the concept of sharing and I had argued against it. A complete reversal in roles! Even more importantly, this was something he had made himself with his friend in mind. As a parent, things to be applauded in my child!

The world continues to change rapidly. As parents, we need to look beyond the obvious and into the deeper motivations that drive our children. It is so easy to ram home the wrong lessons for the right reasons and squander the wonderful opportunities we have to impart real wisdom.

Back

Time has but flown by. I feel so guilty, no blogs for ages. So sad, as blogging helps me to see deep inside myself and learn. And there has been much to learn over the last two weeks. I have seen my boys and girl blossom. We have shared laughs, fun, and adventures galore. I have started to take photographs again and they have been a wonderful surprise.

I went back to work last week. Sort of! Still tried to take the boys surfing every day. Work is very interesting. I have the next two and a half weeks to prepare for some of the most important presentations of my life. And I had thought those had already happened when I had been in corporate. Perhaps they were just to prepare me for the moments to come.

Either way, life is really exciting right now. Time pressures, an awesome project, the chance to do some inspirational work, and of course, no pay! Probably not the ideal recipe but then again, how often do we get to thoroughly enjoy what we are doing. Right now my future is squarely in God’s hands. Probably a good place for it to be...