Staying In Focus

 

Treasures In The Garden

 

The end result is not enjoyable.......

 

Sometimes we become too focused

on the line where we will finish....

 and we fail to see the journey

 we have taken to get to our destination.

 

....... if we have missed out on how we got there.

 

My word for today is "JOURNEY!" 

Accumulating Wealth

Treasures In The Garden

 

Accumulating material things.......

 

Focus in on non-material values
and their amazing benefits.

Enjoy the beauty of a sunset/ sunrise.
Forget watching television.

Look after our health
 -take a walk
-play with children.

Recognize that consumerism
does not improve our own well being,
or that of our nation. 

.......has camouflaged the riches

we have within ourselves, in our country and in nature.

 

Rewards in everyday living

Some mystical creatures who grace my indoor garden.
 A cute gift from my daughter-in-law

       From My Garden

Today is the first day of the rest of my life.
 I have 100% of the rest of my life to live.

Some smart employers share both profits and credit with their employees.. This is not always because it is deserved, but because the employer knows it is a way to greater success for a business and for the benefit of encouraging the employee to participate and enjoy the fruits of that success. 

I love my job.

The benefits from working where I work is not only the monetary reward, but the reward of being part of a very successful enterprise. I hear that everywhere I go, when I tell people where I am employed. I am told constantly " that place has a very good reputation". That's so great to be part of something  like that and to know I make a small contribution to it's success in my own unique way.

The other rewards that I reap are:

 that I am much older than all the people who are employed at my place of work, and I am truly grateful that at my age I can still make a contribution to a thriving business;.

my children and grandchildren are a long way away so I am lucky that I work with younger people who are around my children's ages and give me stimulating company as I work; 

 

and of course the nature of my work is with children, so while I don't have my grandchildren in my daily life I can share the joy and excitement and company  of small children as they journey through their lives unaware of the contribution they make to my life;

and the fact that I have other things to contribute to conversation at home other that my garden, housework, my pets, the weather.

So it makes life more exciting to go to a job that rewards me in more ways than with money.

I like the money too. It allows me to travel and get to see my family at least once a year.

So once again the mundane can be exciting if I look at the positives within the eveyday environment of where I live, how I live, why I do what I do, and how I make that all work.

I wish you the joy in finding excitement in the mundane of your everyday life. I know you will find it there if you just look. C.

    

The Ripple Effect

Welcome to my front door.

             From My Garden

Happenings in life are like a series of chain reactions

- just like when I throw a stone into the water and the

ripples circle out. Each event has an effect on the the

 next one down the line. I may remember the end result,

but not all the small choices I made each day that either

 got me closer to my goal or took me farther away.

Well, life is back to the mundane again - washing and ironing and cleaning and cooking dinner. I have done none of these in the last 5 weeks, not even making my bed.

And yet the mundane is important. This brings me back to earth and grounds me into who  I really am. Iam not the served but the server. There is no pleasure or achievement in being served and having no accomplishment other than having a good time. However, there is a accomplishment in having a clean house in making a pleasant, tasty meal, in being able to make someone happy, in being a human being with purpose a and worth.

And my memories are still there from my wonderful holiday, sharing my experience with my work colleagues and listening to their aspirations and dreams for their coming journeys or journeys they have already travelled on. Yes, I am back at work already. I didn't know haow much I missed the company of my younger work mates or the babble of small children asking me where I had been. Even they were interested in the story of being on the plane and the boat.

 I am glad to be back to the mundane. There's excitement and fun even in that. That is who I am.

Hoping all your dreams come true and I can be a part of your sharing of the fulfillment of your dreams as well . C.

Making Memories

From My travels

                             

Today is the first day of the rest of my life.

 I have 100% of the rest of my life to live.

Every King was once a helpless baby.

Every mighty tree was once a seed

Every great ocean began with a ripple…

And every mighty structure started out as a drawing.

It’s not where I am today that that counts, but where

I am going in the future with what I learned today that matters.

Well, this exciting adventure is on the downhill run. We will be home in our little town of Nanango this time next week. Who would ever have thought what an exciting time we had ahead of us when we set out on this great experience .And who would have ever thought that at our age we could take this journey and embrace all the experiences and run with it. We’ve tried everything( except kissing the blarney stone- I had good intentions) and enjoyed our new experiences.

We have been to many different places:

 A walking tour of Miltenberg.

A walking tour through the Palace at Wurzberg. What a magnificent place.
 Another walking tour, this time through Bamberg- a very picturesque place.

Our next day we visited Nuremberg, where we visited the Palace of Justice where the Nazi war trials were held in 1945/ 46. We went to church at Frauenkircke ( a catholic church). The service was in German and they sang the gospel (and it was very long). And we turned the latch three times  at the fountain for good luck ,so we would return again to Nuremberg.

And then Regensberg:. We took a boat ride along  through the Danube gorge  to the Weltenberg Abbey, tasted salty pretzel and drank dark beer. In the afternoon we did another walking tour and ate German sausages and saurkraut. That night before dinner we had Bavarian beer tasting. We were pretty beered out by the end of all that. And that night the entertainment was Bavarian folk music with a pretty crazy Bavarian who could play many musical instruments and made us laugh till we cried.

Our most exciting experience was being inside the  river lock and watching the water level rise 25m, and our ship sail out  the other side on a different level.We have to pass through 68 of these locks before we get to Budapest. But this one was particularly interesting because of the height the water had to climb to get us to the next level of water.The eventual height we had to get to was 1183mt above sea level before we got down the other side and into the Danube River.

After that we sailed up the Rhine / Danube canal on our way to the Danube River, We crossed a viaduct which was a bridge affair that crossed a four lane highway and we could see cars passing below us. All that happened in the space of about an hour. All the passengers were out on deck with cameras ready watching and enjoying these exciting experiences.

3/7/12 Today  we visited Salzberg- where Mozart was born, where “The Sound of Music” movie was made.We visited Mondsee (a lake) where the church was where Maria and Gerhardt were married in the movie. We ate Austrian sausage and apple struedal.

The puppy dog made out of towels sitting on the bed

Our waiter Ciprian dressed in Bavarian Costume He is really Romanian

The Town hall at Bamberg that straddles the river and looks like a ship.

Moving into the river lock and the 25m wall the water had to climb

  

A sign about opa. couldn't find one for Oma .In German

The Palace of Justice where the Nuremberg Nazi trials were held

The mad Bavarian. See his moustache

The church at Mondsee where Maria and Gerhart married in the "Sound of Music"

           

Sailing out the other side of the lock after rising 25m

This marker showed when we got to the highest level above sea level -1183m

This will probably be the last blog I will send before we go home because the internet is so difficult to manouvre. Tonight we are going to a concert in Vienna, I am so excited. Today we did a tour of Vienna. It is very lovely. We visited ANOTHER church- St. Stephen's Cathedral. They are all so different, It was finished in 1400's.


 Soon our dream will be over, but these lovely places will always live in my heart, I wish you peace. I am so glad that we at least, got to touch places so different from home- the country where our grandchildren have connections, and the countries where our ancestors came from. Love C.