“It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child.” Day 131)
What a great quote by Pablo Picasso. A day of reflection and creativity
Despite all the adverse media focus on facebook (and rightly so), there are still some great benefits to this social media tool. We love how easy it is to connect with people, and we wouldn’t have met so many new people on our travels and experienced enriching moments with them plus keeping in touch.
I remember 30 years back when I went travelling to Australia, facebook didn’t exist then nor the internet to the general public. I met some fantastic people over here, Tracey from the Café in Melbourne, 2 guys who owned the No Bones veggie café in Perth, the dishy tour guide that took my friend Pauline and I around South western Oz and number of other backpackers and sadly I have lost touch with all of them.
When we arrived in Australia a few days ago, I found a 3Principles Australian group on facebook so introduced myself. A few members have been in touch mainly from Melbourne as well as Kathy, who lives at Coolangatta, south of Gold Coast. We met up for coffee yesterday – and clicked immediately.
It was so easy to chat with Kathy, as if we had known one another for years. Kathy and I shared our experience as to how we came across the 3 Principles, how we both realised that we had made up our anxieties and insecurities and how life is now, how thought is neutral – no need for the positive thinking brigade. We chatted about some of the 3P teachers and both connected with Elsie Spittle, Judy Sedgeman and Dicken Bettinger – they all have such a loving presence, twinkles in their eyes – pure joy of being alive. We shared how this understanding has impacted on ourselves and our businesses significantly, how I rewrote most of my website – damn this understanding!
Tim and I chatted about our travels, how easy and effortless it is with little planning, seeing what opportunities come our way, enjoying life to the full. We really valued Kathy’s enthusiasm for what we are doing and the time together gave me the space to reflect on our current life, how grateful we are, how much more curious we are about our surroundings, nature and people we meet. We discussed how people can put constraints on themselves; they become tied to their jobs or their homes and not see that there are alternatives. I am generalising here. There are many folk very content with what they are doing and living, however as a coach, I come across people who are not content, who feel stuck, who think – “that’s my lot and I can’t do anything about it”. There are always options.
After big hugs of farewell, we walked back to our Airbnb, pottered for a bit and waited for the midday scorching sun to calm down before we ventured down to the beach. When we arrived there, we noticed a group of young people dancing. They were practicing for a show, I think they said it was for the Commonwealth Games but the music and the sound of the crashing waves drowned out what was being said. We sat and watched their routine, climbing ladders, holding a large glitter ball and passing this between themselves, seeing something in the sky and running – we will be intrigued to see their final show in context on TV, if it is part of the Commonwealth celebrations.
We’d decided to take the bare minimum down to the beach, no technology therefore no mobile to take any photos – so I drew a quick sketch instead. Mmm…my artistic tendencies I had when I was younger seem to be very stale…as they say, “don’t use it – loose it”. We’ve both been inspired by the art we have seen on our travels so are slowly being more creative – we had a couple of games of Squiggle then Tim sunbathed and I sat, wrote for a bit and then just let the world drift by…
Tim went off for a splash in the waves whilst I was still day dreaming. His white body was quite easy to spot amongst the few other bronzed bodies out in the surf. It did look fun and he was exhausted and exhilarated when he got back. It so reminded him of holidays when he was young and when our boys were young.
We got back and our Airbnb host and her 8 year old son were home. Tension seems to be part of their existence – so sad. To give the Mum a break, I sat with the young lad and taught him how to play Squiggles. He was brilliant, so quick – no thinking, just drew, no need for perfection and just had fun. I noticed that I was putting far too much thought into my drawings. Tim heard about a study where a researcher asked adults to draw a Unicorn. He could near enough predict what they would draw. However when he asked young children to do the same task, there was a huge variety as to how they drew the Unicorn. Why is it that many of us lose our creativity? We conform? We learn what is the perceived wrong and right way to do things? We fear from failing? We lose our naiveté, curiosity and wonder of the world? In the ever changing world we need creativity more to move forward…I could go on…
Later we both played Mouse Trap with the young lad – what fun. We remember it differently to the new version – the rules had changed and improved. It was lovely seeing the little boy relax and have some fun. It was his time for bed, so we went out for dinner, our last evening in the Gold Coast which has flown by. We found a restaurant called Miami Rice and had some delicious salt and pepper sole, soft shell crab and Buddha fried rice. We were then given a very nice glass of port and a fortune cookie each:
“The young man knows the rules, but the old man knows the exceptions” and “Do not jump into a venture before you make sure it is worthy”
