Saturday, March 14, 2009

Boom and bust

Perseverance: Cliffhanger
Perseverance: Cliffhanger


As I get older I begin to gain an understanding that patterns are an intrinsic part of life. There is the circle of life, with life and death, seasons, days and nights. There is famine and feast in harvesting times as well as in economic times.

Right now we are stranded in a new reality, where the patterns of feast, harvesting plenty and joy of life are not always that apparent. Rudyard Kiplings poem , 'if' has some excellent words to ponder over.

If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
but make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired of waiting
or be lied about, don’t deal in lies;
or ,being hated, don’t give way to hating,
and yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise;



If you can keep your head now, when the economy, job prospects and life seems topsy turvy, then you will make it through to the next cycle. What you will gain is an insight into the downs and use them next time before an up. There is still a certainty that night will follow day, day will follow night, winter will follow autumn, spring follow winter. There is however uncertainty as to how long it takes to change from one to the other. For that reason, people prepared for winter, saved for a rainy day. In a world where everything is to be had at the touch of a button, produce can be bought out of season, there is a danger that skills, and the way things are are brought out of balance.

I am not advocating going back entirely to uncomfortable times, but when there is plenty, we could maybe save a surplus for when we do not have enough. ( And I have to remind myself of that constantly).

The industrial revolution brought a complete change to our fortunes in the West, and I sense that we are tipping into a new era. There are always two options to a challenge; accept it or change it. The difficulty is that we sometimes take a long time to accept before we have the courage to change because we value what we have lost and cannot see beyond that point.

Ah the wisdom of hindsight……. guess I am going around the cycle for the umptied time. Will I get it this time?

We all have cycles of some kind. Mine relates to available energy, and I liken it to the global energy availability. Chronic Fatigue Syndrome is manageable only by pacing one’s activities. Without this, the body continues to malfunction in a variety of ways. I often lose sight of that when things go better of how bad it can be and then, the energy supply is stopped and I end up flat on my face. Ah the wisdom of hindsight. The choice is not whether to accept this challenge or how to change it, but how to look beyond it, ride the wave and make the best out of the situation. It is therefore so important to keep pointing North on your compass and take each day as it comes.

Wednesday, March 04, 2009

the sweet spot

Confidence
Confidence



‘A sweet spot is a place, often numerical as opposed to physical, where a combination of factors suggest a particularly suitable solution.’

Max Lucado’s book ‘ The Cure for the Common Life’ reminded me how by chance ( or not )we have arrived in what can be described as our sweet spot. Max describes how we need to look at our life story and in particular at what our interests are between the ages of 8 and 12, what was our passion and just look how that has played itself out in our life story. Personally, I used to make paper flowers and cakes to sell on a makeshift shop counter during the summer beach holiday as well as winning a writing competition at the age of 12 on the subject of sport. I can see that all of these contribute to who I am today. It certainly has made me watch the emerging talents in our village and the passion and interests of the children.

The shop window is available to residents in the village to come and show us what they can do and how their talents contribute to the whole of the village. A club, a creative individual, a small business, an event can use the shop window to share their passion.All we ask in return is the use of some products we sell in the shop within the display. The aim is to encourage each other to come and share what we are passionate about and help us to see talents more clearly and encourage our young people towards their sweet spot.