Archives for 2017

Washing hands before starting a new activity will help fresh ideas come to the surface.

Self-created rituals provide a tremendous boost to any activities.

A deep breath before a dive, a leap, or an appearance on stage, acts like connecting a phone call to a hidden advisor who keeps you calm and donates ideas and phrases to deliver (in case you didn’t prepare that well!).

Doing this for every action in a day could prove distracting and would be obsessive. But if you tend to feel you must “summon up” the strength to do something, the trick is delightfully effective.

Welcome to the halls of the calm, shining stars!

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Up on the hill. 

Answered swiftly and without hesitations. I walked to the top of the hill and was offered a glass of wine so clear it looked like water.

The elders were young and the livestock lively. 

Sun was considered a good thing. 

Waffles were made from a single thtread of maple and cream. 

The answers to everything were in plentiful supply.

A crossroads.

It was a terrace in Lagos and a very hot, humid evening. 

Easy to wonder why the amazing traffic and smiles went together in this crowded, noisy and fascinating concentration of living. 

Surprisingly, as conditions were so difficult then, a tourist told me about his day and what he’d seen.

I just made sure the bathtub was full of water as I left in the morning, the water was not always running in the evening when I returned. A First Class Hotel is not the same thing everywhere.

It was business. As usual, for everyone who called the city home; as most unusual for me in a place that needed a month to understand even slightly. I had three days. 

Three days I will always smile about, fondly, when the memory is relived..

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An old car, it was the first, bought of hard and slowly earned money.

However reliable or not, beautiful or ugly, fast or slow, rusty or perfect, that first car will always outperform all future ones in terms of meaningful ownership. 

The purpose and usefulness of owning it vastly exceeded any pride in any other object she ever bought, or indeed was given as a a gift. 

Some things are true originals, genuine and once only in their meaning.

The next time it rains, watch the drops, hear the patter and store the feeling.

One by one experiences accumulate value, forever. 

Now where, they asked. 

Which corner of the forest, which table, which part of the store, which aisle of books, which range of giant video monitors? 

Or, shall we just travel? 

If we keep our eyes open, our ears tuned and noses fresh for the scent, we may gather something new. 

If we stay we can still travel, said the guru.

But then, he does say these things and he may be right, but where’s the diverse terrain and the wonderful “how do I ask for water?” moment in that? 

You are joking. We all our, Without intent.
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