Place: My Office

Poison: Manderine

Favourite Things: My russian dolls from my dad

My friend Tam forwarded me this email and I read it and loved it. How quick are we to delete these emails, but this one really touched me…

Washington, DC Metro Station on a cold January morning in 2007. The man with a violin played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time approx. 2 thousand people went through the station, most of them on their way to work. After 3 minutes a middle aged man noticed there was a musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried to meet his schedule.

  4 minutes later:
  
    the violinist received his first dollar: a woman threw the money in the hat and, without stopping, continued to walk..
  
6 minutes:
 
    A young man leaned against the wall to listen to him, then looked at his watch and started to walk again.
 

10 minutes:

  
A 3-year old boy stopped but his mother tugged him along hurriedly. The kid stopped to look at the violinist again, but the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk, turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. Every parent, without exception, forced their children to move on quickly.

 
45 minutes:

 
The musician played continuously.  Only 6 people stopped and listened for a short while. About 20 gave money but continued to walk at their normal pace.  The man collected a total of $32.

1 hour:

He finished playing and silence took over. No one noticed. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.

  
No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the greatest musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, with a violin worth $3.5 million dollars. Two days before Joshua Bell sold out a theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100.

 This is a true story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste and people’s priorities. The questions raised: in a common place environment at an inappropriate hour, do we perceive beauty? Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize talent in an unexpected context?
 
 One possible conclusion reached from this experiment could be this:  If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world, playing some of the finest music ever written, with one of the most beautiful instruments ever made…. How many other things are we missing?

Place: my car

Poison: perfume

Favourite things: lemon tart I baked sitting next to me…

This has been a strange but lovely week. I made a new friend, whom I am very sure we will get to know alot more of one another in the future. She brought me six pairs of new earrings and I can’t wait to mix it up and decorate my ears with them.

Gifts exchanged, life stories noted, similarities and differences. Open hearts and homes into each others lives, to uncover rich wisdom within the tales of our pasts.

This week also I found leadership difficult, een questioned whether I am up for the stretch and the confusion.

The only thing I can make from it however is that I need to let go of the past and move forward into the future. Life as we know it in a leadership context is so difficult and different right now, but every trial has the capacity to bring change and beauty. Lessons and wisdom. Stretching and questions.

Relationship and growth I believe are true measures of success, so I suppose even though this week has confused me, if I base it on that measure, it was a pretty great one!

thinking

A

Place: giardinis

Poison: latte

Favourite things: peacock feather earrings

I am quite early to a dinner with Friends in leederville and I’m excited because life is quite calm right now despite the circumstances.

We find ourselves as a friendship group and staff without a boss right now, as he had some complications with brain surgery 6 weeks ago and the road to recovery is going to be quite laborious.

The crazy thing is though we are taking it step by step and the truth is in the hard times often that is when the best in people comes out.

Of course we wouldn’t have wanted this to happen to our grey friend, but in the midst of it our friendships and working relationships have grown and grown.

As a leadership team we have fleshed out so many conversations on vision and it’s not until our leader who carries the heart with most passion is unavailable that we have had to dig deep and discover it for ourselves.

It is true that tragedy can end in triumph and trial does lead to great victory.

As we sit together tonight and celebrate one another, my prayer is that we would realize just how special our relationships are.

So beyond a work connection, deep connections where we are doing life together in the very hard times and also the amazing over the top successful and happy times.

Wherever you find yourself, in tough times or fantastic ones…celebrate those walking with you. A toast, a letter or even a simple smile. Life is way to short to loose sight of the simple things…

You never know what tomorrow may bring…

A

Place: boucla

Poison: skinny latte

Favourite things: lemon scented candles

I have walked into a cafe that is everything I have always wanted to create in a house.

Home cooked, extravagent cakes, meals, delights…a black and white photo wall of family and friends from Europe and the Mediterranean isles. Mixed origin wooden furniture, every scratch and scrape denoting another tale of it’s sordid history…the morroceon lamps that hang, candles on every table even though it’s only ten am…

Dark, moody…leather…fresh fruit…Turkish delights homemade…

Wooden shelves full of books and knick knacks…a fireplace complete with blue and white hand painted tiles.

Wooden floor boards that are obviously original, need I go on!

New is not necessarily better, in a world that is obsessed with creating more, sometimes re-creating the old is even better…

Raid your granmas back shed. Give ikea the flick and re-create an atmosphere that celebrates life rather than spending!

Nice

A

Place: The Lounge Room

Poison: yummy stew with carrot and pumpkin puree

Favourite Things: Jazz and candles

I have been travelling and stressing so much recently that I have lost my love of late night suppers.

My besty Bonnie sent me this blog…

http://sunday-suppers.blogspot.com/

I am hanging to have people over for dinner and hangtime, chilling out with good music, wine and food.

Celebrating little moments, celebrating life and just finding space to chat is so needed in our worlds that whirl and spin, out of control.

My granma has recently started a mosaics class at the blind society at the ripe young age of 87, (reminding me that your never to old to start something new). Jen and I met her after her class this week and sat an ate a sandwich together, escaping the stress found in the walls of our office and yesterday my brother popped by our offices and Jen (my sister) and I sat and had a cup of coffee.

How come we think that suppers, coffee and lunch dates are unimportant, yet these times of communication and simply being are imperative.

I love the fact that Jesus spent more time cooking and eating with the twelve disciples than he did singing and attending church meetings.

Food for thought

wanna come over for supper? Invite in the mail soon.

A