'too far, too much, too quickly': happy chaotic new year

'too far, too much, too quickly': my image for the new year

I started 2012 with the image of a firework. For 2013, I chose this photo from the Brisbane protest rally on 12th September, the day after the Queensland public service budget cuts were announced. This confrontation is, quite rightly, going to continue to dominate the state government arena in 2013. The meta message to myself, politics aside for a moment, is to slow down, do (or have) less, and be less ambitious! And these imperatives can be applied to many areas, including this blog!

Perhaps, cherished long term readers, you were all too polite to mention it, but I have realised I have been very disorganised. From the outset, in writing this blog, particularly in relation to stating and reviewing my values, or areas of committed action, and the goals that flow from them, I have been remiss. By actually reviewing (rather than assuming I knew or remembered)  what I had written, I discovered, to my shame, that I didn't ever complete defining my original thirteen 'areas'. No wonder it has been difficult to review them: the best attempt was in July 2011, in three word rhymes. In consistent fashion, I am in danger of doing the same again, by failing to deliver on my promise to review them all at the beginning of this year. So to try to prevent this, the remaining seven areas still to be reviewed are as follows:

• leisure,
• frugality,
• therapy,
• home,
• emotional growth
• communication
• spirituality

I will start each topic by trying to write what I was trying to achieve. In some cases, I am not quite sure. At my age, I need to write everything down, obviously!

 bird of leisure - Brisbane Botanic gardens

Leisure
This is a fairly straightforward  value, namely to focus on leisure, and actively doing fun stuff, rather than passively vegging (?) out. Which of course, is sometimes a great thing, and possibly the only thing I am capable of at the time, but I need to remind myself that actively seeking leisure is also worthwhile and fun. This can include reading - apart from text books, which I usually try to avoid anyway - and watching movies, but not tv. Unless it is mindful tv, which is watching something because I want to, not because it is on at the time (usually its an old episode of QI - how many did they make?). I have done reasonably well on this one, but sometimes, surprisingly, holidays are a challenge, as I am so reliant on structure the rest of the time.

cockatoos taking tea - Mount Nebo

Another photo of birds relaxing, suggesting perhaps they are a good model to follow? This was taken on a bushland drive, to give my younger son some driving practice the other day.

Frugality is a big one, so I will do a separate post, hopefully later today. Now I have a vacuum cleaner to collect from the repair shop. And that is another story.

more later...