Wheatlands News

significantly, this is one of the pictures I used in the publication Today I finished a huge project which has been dragging on for almost a year... It was a wonderful project, with inspiring stories to write about incredible people and uplifting initiatives. I wrote about it here , when I first started. So the problem certainly wasn't with the project itself.  Some of the delays were out of my control, but for the last month or two the delays have been in my hands, and mostly because I had built it up into this huge mountain of work that I didn't have time to finish. It took an ultimatum to get my bum into gear, and what a relief it is. I feel like a weight has been lifted, not just from my shoulders but from my psyche. Isn't it amazing how we are often our own worst enemies? Isn't it amazing what power our minds have to control our lives and our thoughts. Makes me wonder what else I have built up into a mountain? What else is shackling me when I shou...

I have a lot of work to do. I have a lot of work to do before Monday Seriously... I have A LOT of work to get finished unless I want to risk getting jumped on by hordes of irate German clients (well ... one, but it feels like hordes) and a rather formidable woman (I suspect just on the outside) who lives in China. I'm feeling quite motivated to get the work done... having two separately scary clients has that effect. But it is Saturday, and there is a little girl in the corner of my mind who wants to go out and play. But, I'll be good and sit in my office and look longingly at the gorgeously cheerful wooden fish my son Ben brought me back from Mozambique. It reminds me that there is life and freedom outside of the work time... and it may not be too long to wait before I can experience both of them.

tenacity and hope in the most unhospitable of places " I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ"   I often think of Ghandi's famous words (even if it is not completely clear that it was actually he who said them) and use them as a measure and a reminder for the way that I try to live my life. I use them as a measure for other people too. For me, professing to be a Christian means that you have voluntarily set the bar that measures your behaviour, your reactions and the way that you live your life, every moment of the day. (Even when no one is watching). It is a particular joy to come across an individual who actually practices what he preaches. Someone who, like Paul, could say "Follow my example as I follow the example of Christ". For me,  Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu who turns 79 today, epitomises that example He is the elder statesman of South Africa and has been described as the conscience ...

Next week, October 9 - 13 is National Nutrition Week in South Africa. I help the Peninsula School Feeding Scheme to get the word out about the wonderful work thay do by writing a couple of press releases for them. I've written about therm before but is certainly worth mentioning them again, especially this week. Children, like these at a school in Delft outside Cape Town, rely on the PSFA for what is often their only meal of the day. They are just a few of the 233 000 children in 633 schools in the Western Cape who would come to school hungry if it was not for the work this organisation does, coupled with a subsidy from the Department of Education. October is also the month that includes World Food Day on the 16th, and National Obesity Week from the 15th to 19th. South Africa has recently gained the dubious honour of being the third fattest nation in the world, and Cape Town has been declared the fattest city in the country. And yet, these children and hundreds who are not...

Not such a random picture... sometimes all it takes is the confidence to let go and be free Derring do : Daring or reckless action. Misinterpretation of earlier derrynge do ,  misprint of Late Middle English dorryng do , daring to do, When I read Julie's latest post,  moments of perfect clarity: in which she doesn't dare , it really resonated with me. I can identify so strongly with her wondering whether to live off her own creativity or to stay tied to the (often false) security of a job. But sometimes all it takes is a bit of derring do . A leap of faith that you can succeed, and if you don't, at least you will have tried. A bit of action, that is not always as reckless as the definition may imply. I remember when I started my own business. It was a jump in the dark, but I did have a bit of a push. The person I had been working for (and who I still respect immensly) had started making unreasonable work demands. The end result was that I sued him (successfully!)...