Lifelong learning...
Learning, I've come to realise, occurs in stages. Whenever one starts working with new tools, for instance, there is that stage in which you're stretched until your functional knowledge and proficiency catch up to your skill need. Psychologists call this stage "conscious incompetence": a point at which you have at least recognised a deficit in your understanding or skill.
This week I have made some inroads to stemming my incompetence:
The gap between logic and reality
Logic is meant to help. Its purpose in life is to organise, categorise and predict. If 'A' then 'B'. That sense of order should instill calm and clarity. Except that sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes it leads to intense irritation and frustration.
Who cares? Carers Week 2016
The week just gone was National Carers Week in Australia. It's a chance to say thank you to those who provide care in all sorts of ways, and to recognise their valuable work. Informal carers save government in this country over $1BILLION each and every week: over $60billion annually. That's a lot of dollars in anyone's language.
Leaving one behind...
Counting is not a particularly tricky skill for most. There are three junior recipe testers living in this house. We can count from one to three. And when it's all boiled down, one, two and three are the only numbers we need really.
Now, I do not like to incriminate the guilty in this instance. Suffice it to say that one of the more senior members of this family had a brief senior's moment which led to a significant miscount of juniors.
In short, one got left behind.
Serving and big sky dreaming
Photo: Sue Stubbs
"If we’re not seeking to serve each other, then where have we got to go?"
Solving the little problems
Big problems are worthy of big thought. They need time and energy to consider and act on them. Little problems should not be time and energy consuming. These, should just be dealt with: spontaneously and with a modicum of fuss. Those particularly adept at problem solving can think about the big problems while solving the little ones. Simultaneously.
Until the other day I thought I was one of those people.
None of us are islands
These three are important to me. I'm their mother, and I look after them. But not every second of the day...
Here is what I have learned
There are others who write far more eloquently than I about travelling. But, while travelling with three junior recipe testers, here is what I have learned recently:
From hospital to airport to prison
These holidays have been somewhat fraught, what with the incident involving our eldest junior recipe tester, his bike, the gutter, the ambulance, the surgery to put his arm back together... You know, it's created a bit of havoc. In short, we've had to postpone our trip across the ditch.
Not to be defeated, the senior recipe tester has done inordinate travel booking gymnastics and managed to change our flights so will still get to go. Just later.
Well, yesterday I stuffed it once and for all...
New tools
I recall writing about new tools at the beginning of last year. It was when we bought our first refrigerated van, and there were just a couple of teething problems. Recently I wrote about our excitement regarding another new tool: a much, MUCH bigger vehicle, in which to fit your dinners so we can get them to your place.
Now, this being the second vehicle, I consider myself an old hand at logistics. I surely would not succumb to the difficulties of last time. Lesson learned from that fiasco: the one when all the veggies ended up in the driveway. No; no such mistakes this time.
Did I mention that the new vehicle is MUCH bigger?