Nervous synapses fired throughout my body, even though I was well prepared. 35 helium filled balloons bobbed above my head as a guy in a tuxedo attached a lapel mike to my suit jacket. My tie was more than a little uncomfortable, having hung on a tie rack for years without seeing the light of day. The balloons tugged on my arm as they tried to rearrange themselves on the ceiling five meters above me. I shook my head to try and focus...

This was my big moment. A presentation to the Supreme Convention of the Knights of da Gama, an order within the Catholic Church focussed on spreading the Kingdom of Christ on earth. This group had contributed a significant sum to a project in which I have been involved, and they now wanted some answers. More than that, I had the feeling the majority were not in favour of this project at all and viewed the investment of a waste of good money. The fact that almost all of the more than 100 men sitting here in smart suits were over 60, and my project revolved around new technology and social media, I knew I was in for a tough time.

Errol Naidoo of the Family Policy Institute wraps up his presentation. He is a great speaker and I am more than a little awed to have to follow his lead. He is passionate about the family and spends most of his time in parliament influencing laws which may negatively impact on this fundamental building block of society.

My project aims to re-evangelise Catholics through the use of technology and new media. Not something I ever thought would involve me, yet this project has me hooked, and has the potential to make the world a more loving place. I pray that God’s will be done. I know if it is his will, the presentation will go well, if not, that would be his will too.

Suddenly the floor is mine. My colourful balloons provide a bright contrast to the dark suits and ties. I launch into my opening and time slows. It is as if I have stepped into a period of grace, where every word is measured and right, where my timing is flawless, and where this serious meeting of men is infused with laughter. There can be no doubt, God is at my side.

One of the highlights of my life was winning the MD’s award for best depot and being recognised in front of about 1,500 colleagues at a banquet. I had felt so alive, infused with my team’s success, an incredible natural high. I did not think I would ever feel that way again and yet, this presentation was better than that. Perhaps because it really meant something! It is hard to explain, but I felt infused with grace and abilities that were not mine. A special and incredible experience, I will treasure for a long time.

The presentation was well beyond what I would have considered greatly successful. I now wonder where it will all lead...

 

 

From being a blog a day kind of guy, I fell into disgrace last week as I only posted once! I have no excuse! Last week was extremely busy and full and yet I have nothing to show for it. Or at least nothing that I can name and display. I will try and make up for it with today’s descriptions of the mayhem.

I had a crisis early in the week. For so long, I have been an island in my problem. There has been almost nobody out there who has shared my frustration about life and my need to make it worthwhile. Part of the problem has been my inability to name the issue. Now that I have named it, I have been able to research it and am amazed at the amount of literature that is available. OK, there is not a huge amount, but there is more than I imagined. This has started to pose a problem for my book and hence my crisis. I started to ask myself why on earth I am trying to write a book where I am not the expert on the subject at all. I am just an unwilling participant. I struggled for a couple of days to word my thoughts but all of my writing lacked soul. In the end, I took an hour out on the couch to ‘think’. In that time of reflection, I was able to see exactly how I needed to write and why it was important for me to write this book. I am not sure if you know that there are 1000 manuscripts submitted to publishers in South Africa each week. The odds of getting your book published are pretty slim. A slight dampener to the outpouring of my soul. The thing is, the way I want to write it now means that it will be written in such a way that I am the expert! You will just have to wait and see or until I have my next book crisis!

With the book crisis at bay for the moment, and my hunger for writing reawakened, I was all set to spout forth the most amazing prose! And then I was asked to present some proposals for project management work in Africa. My whole writing world came to a standstill as I realigned my creative endeavours. I have always been able to put slick presentations together, and they are usually very different. With everything that I have learnt in the last couple of weeks about Photoshop and photography, I suddenly had some alternative creative insight and some serious skills to back it up. Going off on a tangent was called for and so that is what I did. I think I have put together a wonderful presentation but we shall see if it aids us to deliver the goods later this evening! The fulfilling part for me was that this has been the first test of the success of my studies towards my ME degree. I amazed myself at how much progress I have made and this has gone some way to allaying my need to always add visible value!

My mother gave my oldest son some surfing lessons for Christmas. A most Cape Town kind of present. We now go down to the beach on Thursday evenings for an hour and a half. The surf school is run by a good friend of mine and somehow he has promoted me from interested dad to assistant surf coach. This has meant spending a good deal of time in the sea with a bunch of youngsters and gale force winds, a very interesting combination! I have thoroughly enjoyed myself and feel like I am adding some value not only to my son but to a whole heap of youngsters in a sport that I enjoy. Some day as a result of this effort, I hope to spend lots of quality time with my sons at backline languishing in nature and shredding waves with hoots of pure joy!

I severed ties with my old company last week. Thursday was my last official day at work, even though I was on leave. I took back my laptop and cell phone and a number of other gadgets. It was a new experience to park in the visitor’s parking lot. I spent far longer than I expected chatting with old colleagues, but it was great. For me the change in perspective hit home hard. Looking in from the outside, seeing their pain and frustration and with a good deal of relief knowing that I have traded all of that for piles less money and tons of life! One of the ladies that I caught up with gave me a big hug and said that she was enjoying my blog. She added that it was helping many people. I have to say that I was blown away and thoroughly inspired to do far better. Thank you, thank you, thank you! That comment certainly gave me the lift I needed!

And so, now that you know that I have been far too busy with nothing and yet absolutely everything, I hope that you have a productive and fun filled day!