These days...

So I check my horoscope at the start of every month. Sometimes it's for fun, sometimes it's out of boredom. Sometimes it's to see how way off the mark they are. (Yes, I am STILL waiting for that love-of-my-life to show up thankyouverymuch).

There's two that I usually browse through... one on Yahoo... and Susan Miller (which is disabled for a few days right now, oh no.. how will my October go? *rolls eyes* )

There are some months though when they print (post?) stuff like this and I think, gee..

"Nobody ever promised you that it was going to be easy to balance, tightrope-walker-like, as you move across that high line that is life.... First you want to spend time with your friends. Then you want to spend more time with your family. Then you have to stay late at work. Agh!"

So that's basically what it's been like for me for the last few weeks, and what I know it will be like for the next few too. Been running around trying to 'schedule-in' things: finish work, catch-up with friends, finish work, attend non-work meetings, finish work, hug the parents, finish work, eat with the parents, finish work, have beers, finis.. you catch my drift. But what's crazy is that ..I frickn' love it! (Except ofcourse for the missing family/friends bit during all of this!) 

Have been travelling for work a lot over the last few weeks: Samoa, Solomons and Vanuatu, to run a regional climate change quiz amongst the high schools in each country. It's been tough, but also exhilarating. There have been nights with only 3 hours of sleep, days where you breathe in your breakfast and work through lunch. Tough but... amazing. There's been challenges but there's also been so many great people, so many smiles, stories, jokes, tears, laughs, exhaustion and then the great teamwork that keeps you going. I love working in the Pacific. 

It hasn't always been work-work-work in the new places either. Have managed to have at-least one whole day in each country to myself. 

Samoa turned out to be like a Saturday-arvo-lull. I like chilling there. in their colourful sulus (sarong/lavalava)

Solomons was nice to go back to, I saw another side that I didnt have time to discover the last time I was there, meeting the kids, chatting with the teachers and saw a lot from walking around the place (thanks to the traffic jams caused by the Royal visit) 

Then there was Vanuatu. sigh. I didn't take many pics in Vanuatu. It's like you don't want to offend the place by trying to capture it on camera. Instead, you want to go back. I am not one for making many future plans, but if the opportunity arises, I wouldn't mind living and working in Vanuatu for a bit. *adds to flexi-future-plans list*

Next week I get to discover the Micronesia region. Two weeks in Marshall Islands with a few days in Hawaii. 

But first... gotta get through this week. (cue: gotta get through this, gotta get through this.. )

In other news:

It's been a year since I got back from Japan! I had no idea what it was going to be like being back after 3 years. Oh boy! has it been a fun adventure! *raises piece of dalo with chopsticks to toast* 

Nambawan

"Stuff your eyes with wonder, live as if you'd drop dead in ten seconds.
See the world.
It's more fantastic than any dream made or paid for in factories" - Ray Bradbury

This was Solomon Islands for me, and I met a few others who see the world in the same way. It was exhilarating! There was also the constant reminder of Paulo Coelho. When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.


[This has been sitting in my draft-box for too long, so I am going to put it up, as incomplete as it is.]

On our trip to Malaita

This was taken on Auki, the capital of Malaita and our last stop... which we did a mad rush through since we only had two hours before the boat headed back to Honiara. Good times.

Word!

We also got a tour of the Arts Village that was being set up on Auki for the Pacific Arts Festival, by the very friendly security guard who guided us through instead of chasing us for trespassing!

I think what was most enlightening on this trip was meeting so many people (we were there for a Climate Change Community Workshop) who were interested in the same cause. Instead of trying to convince people that climate change was real and debating with skeptics, I got to listen to people talk about the impacts they are already facing from climate change.

There were presentations by those who have led projects that relocated people who are losing their land to sea level rise and others who are working in communities on adaptation projects that help islanders live with the changes that are occurring.

And throughout the week everyone from Melanesia that was representing their community etc. got to share ideas, best practices and experiences on how they can strengthen their efforts towards dealing with Climate Change. Go Team Pacific!

I guess this post isn't so incomplete after all.

(On a lighter note, I also got to watch some soccer matches at the Oceania Championships that were going on in SI at the time. Fiji vs NZ and SI vs PNG. Yay!)

Words I love...

I love Pablo Neruda. His words. They are strung together with such feeling, baby breaths and tiny whispers.

So today I let him write, instead of me.


XXXIV (You are the daughter of the sea)
by Pablo Neruda

You are the daughter of the sea, oregano's first cousin. Swimmer, your body is pure as the water; cook, your blood is quick as the soil. Everything you do is full of flowers, rich with the earth. Your eyes go out toward the water, and the waves rise; your hands go out to the earth and the seeds swell; you know the deep essence of water and the earth, conjoined in you like a formula for clay. Naiad: cut your body into turquoise pieces, they will bloom resurrected in the kitchen. This is how you become everything that lives. And so at last, you sleep, in the circle of my arms that push back the shadows so that you can rest-- vegetables, seaweed, herbs: the foam of your dreams.

must.not.forget

How people treat you is their karma; how you react is yours. - Wayne W. Dyer

Pause to smile.

I used to think that being content meant settling for less than what you are capable of achieving, whether it was in money, the person you were dating, your job, academia, your emotional state of being.

It took years (and even now there are days where I am still trying to grasp the concept) to understand that being content is not self-defeatist. It's not any kind of settling.
That it does not mean that you stop improving, trying.

but it does mean that you need to pause, reflect and be grateful for where you are now.
And today, I am.

This Zen Habits post was also a timely reminder: http://zenhabits.net/contented/

'Be content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you.' ~ Lao Tzu

It's sometimes scary when you realise you are happy.
Happy just being.
This can't be right?
But it is.
I am grateful, and thankful.
Still stumbling, still wandering.
Wondering.
But with a smile.
And a lot of love. 

Wanderlust and home

In the words of Twenty-something Travel, "the curse of the traveller, is that no matter how happy you are, at least a small part of you always wishes you were somewhere else." She calls it the 'Restless Heart Syndrome'.

I think the curse follows you back home too after your travels. A friend I had made while in Tokyo left Fiji today after a week of trotting about the island. As expected, she renewed my enthusiasm for my own country, not that I didn't have enough of that already. But she also made me check-in with the part of me that wants to keep seeing the world. The curse then, turns into the drive that hopefully keeps you moving.

But then I find out that I am a god-momma. My dearest belle has a baby. These things you can't get on the road. Of course, the love follows you everywhere you go, but being able to see it unfold, develop and evolve while at home makes for amazing memories. I want to be everywhere and here at the same time.

Another friend moved out of his Mum's place and in with his girlfriend. A few old friends got married, some new ones too and a high school mate went down on one knee. I gush, I awww, I smile and I also cringe. Some people are just better at certain things, some just aren't.

The grass isn't greener on either side, I guess. But one needs enough a dose of both to survive, even if it is through vicarious living. And then some of your own adventure.

The climate, it is a-changin'

"Changing attitudes towards climate change is not like selling a particular brand of soap - it's like convincing someone to use soap in the first place."
 
Came across this analogy while reading up on climate change communication strategies.

Why?

Because I have a new job description. Comms consulant.

The actual title is something like: Climate Change Communications Officer - Consultant.
and yes, the acronym does equate to CCCOC >.<

So yes. Cheers to the gap between Graduate dreams and Professional realities getting smaller.
An anti-cheers to the sea-levels getting higher.

Inspiration for the moment

The problem, often not discovered until late in life, is that when you look for things like love, meaning, motivation, it implies they are sitting behind a tree or under a rock. The most successful people recognize, that in life they create their own love, they manufacture their own meaning, they generate their own motivation.

For me, I am driven by two main philosophies, know more today about the world than I knew yesterday. And along the way, lessen the suffering of others. You'd be surprised how far that gets you.

Neil Degrasse Tyson

Astrophysicist and Science Communicator

(yeah contrary to my first thoughts, he is not related to Mike Tyson... dammit.)

Ode to my kitchen

"Do you fall in love often?" 
"Yes often. With a view, with a book, with a dog, a cat, with numbers, with friends, with complete strangers, with nothing at all."
-Jeanette Winterson (British Novelist)

Because really, how can you not!

I fell in love with my new kitchen yesterday.

So what if it doesn't have any electricity (yet), 

or even a fridge/stove or welcome mat 

(*adds Welcome Mat to shopping list*)

and that the waste disposal system leaks.

I love its space,

I love its tiled counter tops

the cupboards (even with its hint of white ants)

and the ceiling fan that is built too close to the tubelight.

I love lying on my $20 rug from Rups,

in the middle of the kitchen floor,

and loving it even more.

(and I love telling people how my entire Tokyo apartment could fit into this new kitchen)

Object of my affection.

New Dashboard

"A life spent making mistakes is not only more honourable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing." George Bernard Shaw

So instead of scribbling down quotes/words/phrases etc I like on the inside cover of my books, on scraps of paper that end up on the fridge, walls or floor (>_<) ...or copy/pasting them onto my dashboard (computer, not car) I will just post them up on the blog.
That will also take care of my lack of regular updates. That's what I call sneaky efficiency.

Also, its the 20th day of Jan and I have been almost completely substance-free.

I say almost because so far this year I have had one bowl of grog, 2 shots of frangelico and a glass of vodka&orange.

Everything in moderation, including moderation itself. (I don't know who said this one...might be from Buddhism)

- Smoke-free since January (I wish it were 3 for the sake of rhyme, but it's actually Jan 1) -

Moderate revelations

I like words
spoken or written
by and at me or you
I continue to learn their worth
to be conscious of their feel, their reach, their bleed.
their power.
and to not be embarrassed and apologise for them.
to know which to take with a bucket of salt,
some with a red balloon
throwing caution to the wind,
but keeping sight of the (Savusavu) harbour.
Ironic. and yet iconic.

I might have caught a cold, from the ice inside your soul.
and then realised, it was mine all along.