Ouma van Wyk – Ma – Ouma du Toit. I never aspired to be a mother. To me what was normal was this: Girls grow up, they start dating, they meet a guy, they fall in love, they get married, they have babies. My life started before The… Read More »What is Mothers’ Day to me?
<1312 words> Faltering can happen any time, no matter how well prepared you are and how experienced and skilled and everything. No doubt faltering has many causes but to my mind, when emotions simply will not remain in the back row of a command performance, the prospects of faltering happening significantly… Read More »When Faltering Happens
When Faltering Happens
<1156 words> Apparently it was necessary for me to have a crazy dream of registering for a farmers’ expo here in Nova Scotia. The rule was that if you could register a VOF (Very Old Farm) you somehow could claim senior status. I thought I might use my grandfather’s farm outside… Read More »My Story of an African Farm
My Story of an African Farm
<1457 words – yes, this is a long one but it contains an interesting story and some pictures :-)> And, I’ve added a link at the bottom of this blog to a very informative article on resilience that appeared in the New Yorker in Feb 2016. More on the science of….… Read More »What does resilience really look like, anyway?
What does resilience really look like, anyway?
There are those who have a predisposition to entitlement. They feel that everything they have is theirs because it is their right to have those things. They typically also feel they’re entitled to things they don’t yet have and will set about causing others to hand over those things, or… Read More »What if I were predisposed to being grateful?
What if I were predisposed to being grateful?
Sometimes when you’re engaged in a quarrel with someone the things takes on a momentum of its own…..The person who blinked first was hurt and puzzled….it became imperative that a peace be brokered in a family that felt like it was falling apart, before it was too late.
Love and introspection shifts a world
While walking in the high winds of the side-end of Hurricane Arthur I realise important things about life that I believe are generally applicable. Such as not to shrink from challenges, to maintain humility and to practice gratitude every day.
A Hurricane of Ideas
Word count: 1245
The worlds of motivational workshops, life coaching and management consulting are peppered with the now seriously clichéd ‘embrace change’. If you’re not for change you are
against it. You’re either progressive and creative – a constant ball of energy, seeking your next change fix; or you’re stagnant or dead. The literature also tells us that it’s ok to fear change,
while then admonishing us to overcome our fears in a 5, 6, 7 or even 8 step process. That’s all it takes. Follow the steps and you too, …