Stories, Reflections & Journeys
“From quiet homes and first beginning,
out to the undiscovered ends,
there’s nothing worth the wear of winning,
but laughter and the love of friends.”Hilaire Belloc (1870-1953, British author)
A lovely quote, rediscovered when going through a pile of papers in my office.
And from my perspective, a great reminder about the really important things in life! :)
I’ve become aware recently there’s a phenomenon in our society that I call “thankless thinking”.
A couple of weeks back I’d been browsing through a shop and on impulse, as I was about to leave, I walked to the counter behind which the shop owner was sitting.
“Thank you!”, I said to her. “I’ve enjoyed looking around and love your window display.”
She looked up, apparently startled. There was a pause before she grinned broadly and said, “You know, I’ve had several people wander in today to look around but you’re the first person who has thanked me – for anything!”
We ended up chatting for a short time – passing from the strangeness of folk to the foibles of some customers, then through the story of her grand-daughter’s 21st birthday party to her plans for retirement.
As I left I found myself reflecting on how a simple thank you had led me into a warm conversation and a small piece of someone’s life story.
And I was reminded of an ‘experiment’ I conducted for myself many years ago, when I was travelling to and from school on a bus.
For several days in a row I counted how many people alighted from the bus during the trip – and the number of those who actually thanked the bus driver as they left. Fom memory the thankers were only 20% or so of the whole!
For that shopkeeper, a ‘thank you’ is probably the usual response (with some rare exceptions) when a transaction takes place and a customer actually buys something. And maybe bus drivers are thanked more often by passengers these days – at least I hope so.
But I’ve found myself wondering … [Read more…]
It’s strange how sometimes you can drop your bundle with something, and not really know why. For me, it’s been my “blogging bundle”.
Ok, so the month or two following my last post was filled to the brim with excitement, activity and hard work – so finding time to blog eluded me. Chris and I had an amazing trip to the Appreciative Inquiry conference in Kathmandu, Nepal in November.
(If you’re interested in seeing more about that and some image slideshows, you can visit our website.)
Prior to that I was flat out with my volunteer role on the online conference planning team for the conference. And after the trip, there were a gazillion things to be done in the lead up to the Christmas break.
But what about the month that has elapsed since then?
It’s as if the longer the gap, the harder it was to think of something to say. A strange sensation .. perhaps a case of the ‘inertia blues’?
But then, earlier this week, I gave myself a stern talking-to and was absolutely determined to return to my blog.
Before I could get into the more creative task of writing, however, there were several administrative jobs to do – not only with my blog, but our website, Chris’s blogs and the PCC site for which I’m webmaster. Those now done … whew! … so here I am at last.
Still with nothing earth-shattering to say, but never mind. :) I said to a friend who had dropped a different bundle recently, “Just get started. Why not do something, however small, to get going again?” And for once I’m listening to my own good advice. :)
The experience reminded me of a wonderful Melbourne-based poet, Kristin Henry, whom I met way back in the 80s. In her book, Slices of Wry, she has the following poem. Apologies for the length … but I love it and thought I’d share it here.
At least I didn’t land on the floor at Myers. :) [Read more…]