The Cure for Grumpiness

Posted on April 28, 2006

I’ve been looking around for the cause of my current grumpy, resentful, disillusionment with life and, really, the last place I wanted to look was within. But I know it ain’t the world misbehavin’ - it’s me. I choose my response and the one I’m choosing is not serving me.

So, I picked up a book that I read a couple of years ago in this same state of mind. It helped a lot in changing my view and my response and it’s time to read it again. The book is called ‘Awakening the Buddha Within’ by Lama Surya Das. It’s subtitled ‘Tibetan Wisdom for the Western World’ and is a very practical book on coping with the real world in a peaceful way, written by an American monk.

Already I see a quote from the Buddha that is relevent to where I’m at right now:

The thought manifests as the word;
The word manifests as the deed;
The deed develops into habit;
And the habit hardens into character;
So watch the thought and its ways with care,
And let it spring from love
Born out of concern for all beings…

As the shadow follows the body
as we think, so we become.
- From the Dhammapada

Short Fuse

Posted on April 27, 2006

I can’t work out whether it’s me or the world, but the whole world seems to be getting on my wick at the moment. It could be the $3000 in car repairs this week, the irredeemably bad haircut that makes me look like a geriatric flapper, the lack of cheques manifesting in the post box or the unbelievable amount of meal preparation and clean-up imposed by the school holidays.

Everytime someone speaks my name it’s an imposition and I hear myself reply ‘What?’ waspishly as in WHAT NOW?! - not good.

By the end of school hols I long for orderly quiet of my little office. O to hear the hum of the extractor fan resonating from the chippie downstairs. O to be lost in the world of words.

At the risk of sounding pretentious and generally up myself - which I would never mean to be - I feel that having a creative project of some sort, such as writing a book, gives me a sense of having a higher purpose. Something above and beyond the daily slog that means at the end of the slog you have something to show for it all.

For some people their children are their ‘project’ but I sense a danger in that. I think that’s an imposition on our offspring because in the end it’s about them living up to our expectations. Whereas a creative work can surely only be improved by living up to our expectations.

She’s An Angel

Posted on April 26, 2006

I’ve just had a couple of days away visiting my cousin Jill who is an invalid due to a botched and, now revealed, unnecessary operation.

Since her stroke which left her almost blind and partially paralysed at 40 she’s been cared for by her daughter Sarah, who was 11 years old at the time. It just blows my mind to think of a child of 11 caring for an adult in the way that she has but, because Sarah is brave and strong and because Jill has nearly died several occasions, Sarah has shouldered that responsibility very willingly.

What is most amazing is that she’s turned out to be a lovely girl - and gorgeous as you can see! Plus she’s still managed to put herself through school, is part-way through becoming qualified as a Registered Nurse and has a great relationship with boyfriend Tim, the handsome stone-mason. She loves to socialise and this girl really knows how to wear bling! All this and still caring for her mum at a very high level every day.

Oi vay! What a daughter! She’s an angel.

No More Toasters

Posted on April 25, 2006

Nice to see something fresh and creative in the way of advertising, esp. for that old chestnut - Mother’s Day Without promoting the brand on my ‘no brand’ blog, I will promote the folks behind this fun web site No More Toasters.

They’re a couplea clever creatives who have a company called A Lizard Drinking which could feasibly be called a lizard thinking because they make an effort to fresh and entertaining in the dreary business of marketing and advertising.

For example, today I bought a loaf of sliced bread in a plastic bag that is apparently ‘Full of country-grown flavour’. Really? I don’t think the advertisers really thought that one through somehow.

World’s Fastest Crusade

Posted on April 24, 2006

I knew I was going to love The World’s Fastest Indian from the moment it started, the long loving shot around his workshop - the attention to detail. It’s a fabulous movie about an amazing man.

I’m the least patriotic person you’ll ever meet (I just don’t believe in getting fired up about the piece of land on which you happened to have been born) but I felt proud of the Kiwi qualities personified in Burt Munro. His lack of pretension, his simple approach to life and his blind determination to make something out of nothing - not to mention his sense of humour which gave me cause to hoot several times. Watch out for his droll little joke about Invercargill when he wanders into a bar in redneck, backwoods USA.

It’s directed by Roger Donaldson, who also directed another classic NZ film ‘Smash Palace’ among others. It’s got just the right amount of development for each character and you come to care for almost everyone in the film, which I think is quite an achievement. Importantly to me, it’s a very real film and you come out feeling just inspired.

I’m on a crusade to support this film because God knows we need a lot more like it. See it!

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