Norway, land of inspiration.

I wrote a lot of poetry while working in Norway.  It was such a beautiful country with beautiful and down to earth people, that it was hard not be inspired and pensive about life.  None of it will ever be published in a greatest poems of all times style of book, but it was a relaxing and thought provoking way to spend some down time with myself. So , without fear of reprimand and ridicule here is one of my favourites.  This poem flowed from my mind one afternoon while sitting on the balcony in spring, looking down the long glaciated valley that I called home.  Green grass carpeting the fields along the valley, snow slowly melting on the peaks and a gentle breeze carrying butterflies to golden flowers everywhere.

As the sun descends to kiss the horizon

these thoughts come clearly to me 

through the spring mist.

There is no one beauty in the world, 

just one world which is beautiful.

By embracing new places and allowing no stagnation

we have the chance to see beauty around each new corner.

All that is required is to open our eyes

and look closely at what lays before us at any point in time.

Feel it move within our hearts, souls and minds.

If we walk with our eyes closed

we become lost in an obscurity

that shields the individual from what the purpose of living

really

is.

It is to challenge ourselves, to experience and to learn.

To win, to lose, to conquer, to concede.

But most importantly.....

to shine.

An interview with myself.....part 2.

John Question: Do you see yourself staying in New Zealand for much longer?

John Answer: A little while longer, but not really sure beyond that.  There are a lot of changes going on at work at the moment, within the bigger organisation of the council and even within the New Zealand economy as a whole.  Things aren’t looking promising but we aren’t about to the flee the country in the dead of the night or anything.  We have flight booked to Tahiti next year!

John Question:  What is it you miss about Australia?

John Answer: There are the most obvious things like my family and friends.  They are by far what I miss the most.  Then there are a range of other things which I realise now, after being here for 3 years, that I took for granted.  I miss the wildlife, all the colourful birds with their equally colourful singing all day, I miss waking up to kangaroos staring through my bedroom window, I miss the colourful native flower displays which change with the seasons so there is always something to marvel at, I miss the high wispy clouds of summer and the heady smell of eucalyptus at night….I had better stop there before I do flee the country in the dead of night!

John Question: Is there anything like that which you think you will miss about New Zealand when you leave?

John Answer: Absolutely, I look around and see things that I feel are very unique to New Zealand and my time here and know that once I leave, they will be things I wish I had somehow enjoyed more.  I have met some great people over here, a few even that I would consider lifelong friends, so again, people top my list.  Other things will definitely be the beach at Raglan, it has so many moods and I have spent a lot of time there running around with Phil and the dogs. It’s a black volcanic sand beach and is always so beautiful in a rugged west coast way.  I will also miss the kebabs from the Turkish place on Brice Street; they are simply to die for.  I will miss the regular sound of rain as it falls soothingly all around, the vast expanse of green in a myriad of hues, being able to ski down the sides of a volcano, cheap trips out to tropical Pacific nations and again I will stop there because there really are so many things.

John Question:  Is there any message you would like the readers to take with them today?

John Answer:  Epictetus was a Greek philosopher who lived in the first century AD.  He wrote – “First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do”.

An interview with myself.....part 1.

John Question: What’s the best thing you did today?

John Answer: I took the dogs for a predawn walk this morning up to the hill at the end of the road and watched the sunrise.  Stunning way to start the day.

John Question: What are your plans for the rest of this weekend?

John Answer: I have a list of random things I want to do, but probably won’t get to all of them.  I need to update my blog, make sure I do some yoga and some stretches and just generally relax.  I also need to start looking at accommodation in Tahiti for our trip there in February.  Generally, I want to relax and not think about work or anything negative that makes my soul feel heavy.

John Question: What is it about your work that makes your soul feel heavy?  I would imagine working with animals to be very soothing and joyful?

John Answer: And to a large degree it is, which makes the bad things about the job seem even worse (he chuckles).  Keeping animals in a zoo environment poses many challenges for those who work with them.  There is a constant need of enrichment, care, observation and training, not to mention the daily cleaning and feeding.  All of this can be different from one day to the next, so there lays the challenge of keeping on top of it all so in the end you are giving the animals a great life while keeping yourself sane.

John Question:  What would you be doing if you weren’t a zoo keeper?

John Answer: I would imagine I would still be tour guiding, or I may have finally got around to becoming a teacher.

John Question:  What do you think you will be doing in 5 years?

John Answer:  I seriously consider my options for the future because zoo keeping is a very physically demanding job and I have never seen it as the job I will be doing until retirement.  I hope that my next career change will see me back in the tourism industry again, either as a tour guide or a travel agent.  I enjoyed the customer focus of tourism as well as the travel.  I may end up doing a travel agent course sometime soon.

John Question: What do you think you will be doing in 10 years?

John Answer:  Again, tourism would be something to keep me happy for some years, but again I think I would like a change after a while.  Counselling is something I can see myself doing later in life.  The personal contact with people and the issues that they face attracts me to the role.  I have often been the one people come to for help and feel it to be some sort of calling.  Sounds corny but that’s how I feel.

The remainder of the interview will be published soon.

Aussies vs Kiwis....again...

Another example of how the Kiwis like to have a go at the Aussies.  All in good fun!

Living and loving.

I have lived and loved with so many people, and I feel so enriched by the experience.  The sad fact is that the majority of those people are now just faces in old photographs, addressed on crumpled bits of paper or names that are no longer known by my lips.  These are people I was close to and I assumed I always would be.  We laughed and sometimes cried, we share our lives for a brief moment in the grand spectrum of our mortal existence.  We seized the moment and made it ours, no thoughts for the future and certainly no mention of departing from each others presence.  The thought of our feelings changing or even dying, was unimaginable.  But the day always comes where we must move on physically as well as emotionally.  We part company and swear we will remain great friends by staying in touch.  And stay in touch we do.......for a while.  Then slowly, quietly, without warning, you suddenly realise what has happened.  They have become a personal statistic, another "Oh, I used to know him" or "I knew someone from there once".  What is worse, there is absolutely nothing that can be done about it.  It is a process of life over which the individual had no control. No matter how hard they try or how good their intentions are, the sad realisation of a friend becoming a memory will be a reoccurring event....for everyone.
So should we stop meeting people if we think there is a chance that we will get hurt by the experience?  I have had many great people who have passed in to and out of my life and most I will probably never see again.  That is a fact.  However it is also a fact that from each person I have gained a new idea, an enlightenment, a lesson or a experience.  I carry a small part of them now, each and every one of them.  If I had chosen to stop meeting new people for the fear of being hurt, I would not be where I am or who I am today.  If I stop now, I will never develop in to my full potential.  Life is not designed to be a lonely experience.  So as I sit here and look at the people around me, I can't help but become resigned to the fact that the pile of old photographs, the drawer of crumpled addresses and my memory bank of names, are all about to grow.  On the same hand though, as they grow, so am I.