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...

Time with my boys

Weeks like this past week do not come often enough; weeks filled with family breakthroughs!

One of Matthew’s friends was very excited about the prospect of learning to surf. This somehow pushed the right buttons, causing Matthew to ask to accompany his friend for a week of surf school. It is not like I have not tried to get Matthew surfing; instead all of our sessions have ended in frustration as he refused to step into the water. The water, of course, is an essential ingredient for surfing! Some time back, I ascribed his reluctance to a fear of the sea, and decided not to push the issue. Or at least not too much!

Matthew began his first lesson with a multitude of excuses as to why he was not going to surf. The coach told him to stop whining and get in the water. He duly did so, and then discovered a new passion. Five lessons later and he has been transformed into an eager surfing beaver. So much so that he enquired if it was too late to ask Santa for a surfboard for Christmas. Oh yes, far too late! He is an absolute natural on a board, even better than Luke, who represented Boland at that age. To watch my son who could not face the sea, suddenly execute a perfect back hand rail grab turn, made me shake my head in amazement.

I can only wonder what all the fuss has been about. I also am amazed at the powerful influence a friend can be, even at such a young age...

Whilst Matt was safely surfing with surf school, Luke and I found ourselves with time on our hands and a sea at our feet. We needed no convincing to make the most of our position.

Luke has always been a lazy sportsman, instinctively relying on natural talent, of which he has been blessed with oodles. The sea is a wonderful leveller. It eats you up and spits you out if you are lazy. Paddling for Luke has always been too much effort and so he has not bothered too much, exiting at the first twinge of tiredness in his arms. This week I have watched him grow from this good but lazy surfer into a stylish confident wave shredder. Our local beach hosted some big waves this week, which meant Luke has had to paddle for his life to get to backline. Once there he had to then catch waves up to three times his size. By the end of the week he was comfortable surfing anywhere in the line up, and taking off on absolutely anything. His performance each day eclipsed the previous day’s best ever performance. There is nothing that compares to a dad’s pride when other surfers in the water cheer on your little son and shake their heads in wonder!

An even more bizarre event took place when Luke cleaned his room; without having being asked to do so. He then happily mowed the lawn just before Christmas and even wanted to learn how to use the weedeater as well! A neighbour had roped him into watering their garden while they are away. The maturity he has shown in dealing with this daily task has been nothing short of amazing. Boy, has he grown up before my eyes, and in just a couple of days.

I am so blessed to have been able to spend this time with my boys. I have to wonder how much all of the ‘dad focussed’ time has contributed to these changes. And then I have to wonder why I have not invested even more time in their lives...

Just keep me busy

I am struggling more than ever with the concept of relaxation.

I am unable to sit down at my PC for more than a couple of minutes at a time. There is work I need to do, but cannot bring myself to get busy. There is a book I can rewrite but have not the slightest inclination. There are some major maintenance projects around the house, but I would rather not even watch the paint dry.

Instead I am happy to go surfing. Reading, cooking and baking, eating and drinking, and lots of time spent with friends all seem to be just dandy.

I have an inkling I might be unwinding from the year and there is no way I am ready to get stuck into anything remotely resembling work. Perhaps my body is way ahead of me, forcing me to take it easy.

Is it possible, I have to learn to enjoy frittering my time away instead of banking it with solidly delivered ‘to do’ items checked off the list?

The real work will find me soon enough!

Holidays

My final project for the year was delivered on Wednesday last week. A little early in the Christmas season, but then again, nobody in the FMCG industry wants to see a consultant in their busiest period of the year. It does of course play havoc with cash flow; no paying work over December and January but then again I am not complaining.

It does provide me with the most amazing opportunity to spend good quality time with my children. Lots of it!

I have two goals for this holiday; as much family time as possible and get super fit.

Luke and I have been out surfing the last three days. I love surfing with Luke, and it meets two of my holiday goals at the same time. My surfing experience with Luke has been dramatically enhanced by an early Christmas present from my family, a surfboard called a fish. It is fatter and thicker than normal which enables one to surf the typically blown out mush that our local break offers in summer. This way Luke and I can surf together and we can both have loads of fun!

My quality time with the boys has included teaching them some new skills. This weekend Luke mowed the lawn for the first time. Now don’t laugh, mowing properly is a skill. One needs to be attuned to the grass, the mower, and most importantly ones toes.

Some of the new skills are a little obscure, like Blackjack and poker. Every boy needs to know how to play these card games and Luke and Matt are having loads of fun. I am fascinated to see the maths skills at work in blackjack, who would have thought. Perhaps by the end of the holiday, I will have trained them to count cards…

I think today, we will learn all about knots!!