My thanks to everyone who supported the exhibition launch party at the Mile End Art Pavilion on Thursday. The response was overwhelming and the evening was a great success. Katja sure knows how to put on a show! It’s always great to work with a fun, eclectic mix of people, and exhibiting my poetry installation with the talented artists and printmakers there makes me want to be more creative. So I’ve signed up for a life drawing class!! It starts in two weeks. Ed, the tutor, is very cool, with a long twirly moustache and a woolly hat. I can’t wait; it’s been on my to-do list for ages…
Sunil Bali is an executive coach and performance psychologist. We’ve never met, but we’re connected through LinkedIn. His is one of the few weekly newsletters and blogs that I subscribe to – it’s always thought-provoking and funny.
As this is the year I plan to tackle that to-do list, including at least two major scary adventures from my bucket list, Sunil’s recent blog hit home in a big way. It deals with indecision and risk-taking… Sunil says, “Playing it safe is good for roads and railways, but life requires risk if we’re to achieve anything meaningful.
We’re born to take risks. If we weren’t prepared to fall flat on our face, we would live in a world of bum shufflers where no one had ever taken a chance to learn to walk. There are many dangers in life, but one of the biggest is safety, because you risk far more by not risking anything.
Moderation and splinters are for the fence sitters of the world who are too afraid to make a dent in the universe. Playing it safe is mediocrity, fear, and confusion in disguise and doesn’t make anyone happy. As former world champion trampolinist Dan Millman says, “Moderation is lukewarm tea, the devil’s own brew.”
So, as you’re reading this, I’m scuba diving in the Caribbean, somewhere off the coast of Barbados. Hopefully, anyway! If it turns out that didn’t happen, I’ll be sipping a pina colada (I’m an old fashioned girl) under a coconut tree, on a beach wearing flowers in my hair and turquoise jelly flip flops. But that’s not very risk-taking, is it?! That’s the devil’s own brew again… (Although I do drink my green tea luke warm; drinks shouldn’t be piping hot.)
If I get home without the Padi certificate, I suppose I can always turn my hand to trampolining instead – I have a rather large and unloved one sitting in my garden. Either way, I expect I’ll be posting pics on Facebook of frothy waves circling my ankles and something to do with a pineapple…
As a wise anthropomorphic crab once said, “Darling it’s better down where it’s wetter, take it from me. Up on the shore they work all day, out in the sun they slave away; while we devotin’ full time to floatin’ – take it from me!”
If I’m under the sea I won’t be contactable, but later in the balmy Caribbean evening I expect I’ll be back here: @WeekendWitch.
(Many thanks to Sunil. I’ve squashed his blog down a bit, you can read it in full here.)
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