All posts filed under: Thoughts & Opinions

A new year, a new look, and a new challenge

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Happy New Year! 2012 has arrived, and it’s going to be an awesome year. For me, it’s going to be a year of doing. Less talk, more action. I don’t subscribe to the notion of resolutions, but over the last few weeks travelling around Europe, I really took the time to take stock of where I am in my life. And there’s plenty more I could be doing, that I should be doing. So 2012 will be about not treading water. What do you wish for in 2012? [Source: Pinterest] And what better way to start the year than with a new look for the blog. But that’s not all: I have decided to take this site in a new direction. Previously, it was feeling lost, directionless and a little trite. I lost enthusiasm last year because I wasn’t moving forward, and I have not been developing my writing, my voice. But’s that’s all going to change. The Challenge Commit to writing five blog posts per week for six months on specific topics. The American …

Thoughts on Travel

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This article was first published in the summer edition of ‘At The End Of The Day’, my organization’s in-house magazine. *** In the late 18th Century, a Frenchman by the name of Xavier de Maistre pioneered what became known as ‘room travel’. Instead of packing up sixteen trunks, commandeering two stewards and journeying on trains and sailing vessels to new worlds, de Maistre donned his blue and pink pajamas and set about exploring his room. In ‘Journey Around My Bedroom’, he participated in grand old adventures, starting with his couch. What we glean from his writings is that while we all can’t be brave explorers like Cook and Magellan, we can all look at our own surroundings with a different eye, taking the time to notice what we have already seen. It’s less about where in the world we are heading as the mindset with which we travel. It’s an interesting way to look at travel, particularly as many of us take a vacation this time of year. There is no one-solution-fits-all when it comes …

A new camera

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Over the past fortnight, my family came to visit us in our little box in the sky. In that time, I only took one photo of them, and it was taken on my iPhone. But it’s just not the same as having a camera. So the time has come for me to purchase my first digital SLR. And I’m pretty excited but it’s a big commitment for a girl who is rather clumsy. Looking back on it, it’s disappointing I didn’t arrive at this conclusion earlier, in time to capture some of the fun we had in San Francisco. But what can you do? For me, I feel that rather than missing out on seeing the beauty or the wonder of a space because I’m too busy taking photos, I actually seem to appreciate things more when I have a camera in my hand. I see all the little bits and pieces that I would have otherwise overlooked, the little moments in time. And these photo trigger memories, smells, and feelings for me when I …

I want to believe.

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I’ve been reading a lot lately (lots of Alain de Botton and Her Holiness Sri Mata Amritanandamayi Devi) and thinking more comprehensively, discerning more comprehensively, yet I don’t feel any closer in finding what it is I seek. “We can conclude …that we are drawn to call something beautiful whenever we detect that it contains in a concentrated form those qualities in which we personally, or our societies more generally, are deficient. We respect a style which can move us away from what we fear and towards what we crave: a style which carries the correct dosage of our missing virtues.” — Alain de Botton, The Architecture of Happiness I’m at an interesting point of my life. I desire simplicity, freedom, adventure, beauty, awareness, zest for life and an open heart. These are all qualities I feel I am lacking, and as de Botton says, these are things I am drawn to other aspects of my life such as art, artefacts and architecture. The reality is that I just don’t believe… in anything. I used …

Everything will be okay.

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Back in Sydney, I once worked closely with a lovely woman who was in her mid 50s. Even as most women her age were looking forward to retiring and slowing down, she was vivacious, charismatic and had energy for days. And, rather importantly, she was an amazing campaign manager. As things would have it, she turned out to be a friend of my parents’ (Mum’s right when she says “you never want to talk about anyone…”) and over the course of the campaign, we became quite close. Her quirky habits started to make sense as I learnt more about her. She had recently lost the love of her life and her son within months of each other. Tragic story, and one I will always remember. But yet each day she seemed so… together. I really enjoyed being around her, learning a lot about Aussie political wheeling and dealing. It was great to watch her in action. When the votes had been counted, we celebrated the following day an amazing home right on Cronulla Beach. During …

Moments of bliss

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My life has moments of bliss, but today, however, I am not feeling as blissful as I usually do, as I should. I have obligations to attend to, and I am just not ‘feeling it’. Days like this happen no matter where you are, no matter what you’re doing. So I cancelled the plans I had in the morning and have been doing the things that make me content. But now the time has come to suck it up and uphold the obligation. I imagine I’ll have a good time when there, but I’d just rather sit here on my new couch, in my clean home, with the sun awakening my skin. Lately, it’s a rare phenomenon to have silence and the company of just myself in our little box in the sky. I have enjoyed it whilst it lasted, nevertheless. And I just ate a Cherry Ripe, so all will be okay in the world. Moments of bliss; The smell of fresh bread and bagels baking in the morning on my way to work …