One game at a time
5 March 2011Here’s something that puzzles me. It appears (and I’m happy to be proven wrong) that the higher you get in an organisation or the more serious your work, the less likely it is that you’re allowed or expected to be playful. I don’t mean to trivialize what’s important, but playfully exploring issues, and options, and…
A mini sabbatical
1 November 201038 days or 5½ weeks, 4 countries, 1 conference, 5 workshops, 2 open spaces, 1 Stephen Fry event, 7 flights, 12 train trips (not counting countless London Tube trips), 6 taxis, 5 hotel rooms, 4 home-stays, 1 lost suitcase, umpteen meetings for coffee, lunch and dinner, 2 massages, 1 London Eye ride, 1 museum, 1…
Taking stock
19 September 2010On Monday last week I woke early and drove through driving rain for a couple of hours to facilitate a workshop about the future amalgamation of three organisations. By all accounts it was a fairly unspectacular workshop with an unspectacular format – speakers in the morning and an opportunity for me to do my thing…
Planning. What is its value?
27 June 2010Sometimes I like to plan. Ah, ha! I hear some of you say, regular readers who know my thoughts about planning: “I always knew she was a closet planner!” I like to plan how I will drive across Melbourne. I like to plan when I will have an annual holiday (because if I don’t block…
Football musings
13 June 2010The sporting metaphor is well used, and sometimes abused. It’s alive and well as we are currently swamped with football. Here in Australia there’s Real Footy (AFL) – our very own home-grown variety that is somewhat incomprehensible to outsiders, and there’s also football, or soccer, madness courtesy of the World Cup. Here’s a couple of…
Living life
13 June 2010I’ve been to two funerals in recent months. The first one was for a friend who also happened to be a Catholic priest. His funeral was in his church, officiated by the Archbishop and attended by a lot of bishops, and about 1200 people. It was very, well churchy (especially for this non-Catholic, non-churchy friend).…
Some days I’d rather be birdwatching
15 April 2010There’s something very meditative and grounding about birdwatching, especially when all around is becoming increasingly complicated. It’s the watching part that I find helpful. They go about their business as birds do. There’s a bird bath outside my office window. At the moment it’s frequented by about six different species, mainly honeyeaters. At first glance…
Orphans in Uganda
6 April 2010Back in the day, when I had a ‘real’ job (read, worked for someone else) I always hoped to travel to interesting places, especially overseas. There was a lot of paperwork and permissions to be gained, and for one reason or another, never eventuated. Then I quit and started my own business. That was in…
Transitions
26 March 2010Last night I went to the opening match of this year’s Australian Football League (AFL) season. My team, the Richmond Tigers were playing – but that’s not the point of this post (although it could be, and may well be one day soon – a post on hope and expectation). No, this is a post…
Recalibrating
21 March 2010I really enjoyed this exerpt from the book Inventing the Rest of Our Lives: Women in Second Adulthood by Suzanne Braun Levine. It was this W H Auden poem “Leap Before You Look” that first caught my attention. The sense of danger must not disappear: The way is certainly both short and steep, However gradual…