“Make it a habit to tell people thank you. To express your appreciation, sincerely and without the expectation of anything in return. Truly appreciate those around you, and you’ll soon find many others around you. Truly appreciate life, and you’ll find that you have more of it.” – Ralph Marston
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image courtesy of tonycaves.com
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It’s been one of those days. No matter how hard I tried nothing seemed to go as planned. For some unknown reason I’m having trouble sleeping and find myself working throughout the night. It’s great to get so much work done but by sunrise my energy levels suddenly bottom out and I have to get to bed. I feel like a mole, constantly working at the other end of the spectrum from everyone else. I’ve seen some beautiful sunrise’s but I’m sure my husband would feel happier knowing I was sleeping when everyone else was and awake with the day, like he is. Conversation is so much simpler, and easily understood if both parties are wide awake and able to comprehend simple English!
In part it’s easy to understand what’s happening. We are planning a trip away and as usually happens when you decide these things, there has been an influx of work which simply “has” to be done before that can happen. The last thing I want is to be haunted by thoughts of work and what I “should” be doing instead of resting happily at a beach somewhere. Not that we’re going for long, or that far away, but the break is what we both need and more importantly deserve. So, for me, the dilemma is GST records and returns. Sorting out multitudes of receipts into categories and then recording them onto a spreadsheet so that we can work out exactly where everything is. Should be simple, should be straightforward, but there are, yet again, many reasons why it is a logistical tangle. I’m almost there, just two more folders to go before it’s all finished, but that is cold comfort when pages of figures float across the screen of my mind throughout the night. Not the stuff of dreams!
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image courtesy of anthonywrites.posterous.com
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This is what it feels like, one slip and you are totally undone. One thing is certain though – I will not be beaten by a column of figures! Despite losing my Saturday I will have this waste of time completed today so that tomorrow I can concentrate on more pleasant things, like our holiday. I learned one very valuable lesson over the past few days – I need to BE present and fully committed to what I’m doing. If I am in the moment then the work flows much quicker and I can move on. If I am not present, if I resent the work, if I am BEing distracted then the work does not flow and I struggle to get the simple figures recorded. It’s not something I need reminding of, or so I thought, but it has been brought home over the past day or so that when I’m fully in the moment the work isn’t the drudgery I painted it in my mind in the beginning. Lesson learned! The GST is not going away any time soon, even if I think and know it is a stupid way of running the show, but it has to be so I’m in the moment, BEing present and the work is running smoothly.
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image courtesy of smh.com.au
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This is what I am focusing on, my holiday. It is only a ten-day break and we are going to be celebrating my father in-laws eightieth birthday whilst we’re away. Now that is something worth thinking about. Until recently he was still an active volunteer in the Rural Fire Service. Not a bad track record. He knows more about fighting bush fires, knowing how and when they are going to change direction, and how to get them out without losing life or limb for any of his men than most people I know. I’m hoping the fires along the NSW central coast will be well and truly our over the next few days before we travel down through there. Without any loss of life, and without loss of homes or wildlife. A somewhat futile desire since the wildlife seem to come of the worst in these instances. I pray that all will be well and no one hurt.
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image courtesy of izismile.com
Our wonderful firefighters risk life and limb during bushfire season, made all the worse by the number of fires lit by arsonists. Inexcusable. Second only to the stupid laws pushed through which prevent farmers and landholders from clearing a firebreak around their homes. Sometimes political point scoring is criminal when personal cost is taken into consideration.
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image courtesy of rotaryeclubone.org One of the koalas hurt during a wildfire.
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image courtesy of theadvocate.com.au Home lost during a bushfire.
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So, I’m grateful I’m sitting here fighting a stubborn row of figures. I’m safe and sound in my home, listening to the birds welcome the sunrise, which is beautiful. I’m looking forward to a party to celebrate my Dad’s eightieth birthday and I’m totally grateful I can have a week with my husband, lounging around the beaches and bush, coffee shops and books stores, look for crystals and other treasures and BE present for all of it. I will also BE present and pray for the welfare of our firies who do an amazing job each year. This year looks like it could be a bad one after the flooding and the growth from it which has now dried, so that we have acres of tinder dry fuel for the fires. I’ll be praying for sanity to prevail and the laws will be amended so that farmers and landholders can clear around their homes without penalty, for the firies who do this work to be kept safe and all the native animals to get out of the way of the flames, as well as our ‘domestic’ livestock who don’t have the option to hop in their car at the last-minute and ride off into the fire laden sunset.
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image courtesy of 123rf.com
“Firemen are going to get killed. When they join the department they face that fact. When a man becomes a fireman his greatest act of bravery has been accomplished. What he does after that is all in the line of work. They were not thinking of getting killed when they went where death lurked. They went there to put the fire out, and got killed. Firefighters do not regard themselves as heroes because they do what the business requires.”
Chief Edward F. Croker Quotes
Owls and Orchids 
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