What else is really obvious that needs learning?

So I’m sitting here in what feels like Wellington’s eternal summer. Okay, maybe there is an eight-degree wind gusting, but I’m still able to be topless. Waiting for a tui to fly onto the tip top of the pine tree in front of me to take a picture for you. Just as a lovestruck pair of them did a few minutes ago, inspiring me to write this.

Today’s Growth Lesson was a toss up. On my daily wander (just after sunrise this morning), I was thinking about things I had learnt from my tenth reading of the Alchemist. There are plenty more, but the simplest lesson that I found to echo the realities of life was about moving on, of life’s phases.

As I said yesterday, putting these things out there, in all their simplicity, makes me feel a little vulnerable. I am admitting I am only just, truly learning these things.

Sometimes I find myself wishing that I could just stick with one thing, to not be forever changing my mind, changing my identity. Like Julia the weed lady – she’s chosen her identity (it’s pretty cool), put it out there, and now sticks with it – or has to stick with it. (And yes, this partially comes out of the frustration I sometimes feel towards the constant evolution of our business ideas.)

Anyway, I realised this morning that this constant ‘evolution’, which often feels like ripping yourself away from a life that could have been nice, is all part of what Paulo Coelho considers part of the journey towards our ‘personal legend’. I have no idea what my ‘purpose’ is, my role to play in the improvement of our world, but I see so many parallels with Santiago’s journey towards his own personal legend.

I could have (and planned to) stay an academic – I was good at school, it was easy, and so it was an easy choice. Researching, interviewing, travelling. Helping the world by increasing our understanding of it. Or, I could have remained a traveler, constantly searching the world for happiness and new experiences. Then came the patient phase; the identity to rip all past identities away. Then there was journalism, or a 9-5 government career in the social development field… each had their own future.

Or, I could remain here. I love this little flat, love the music we listen to and the food we cook. Although recognizing it’s at James’s expense, it’s joyful. I want to stay comfortable. It’s nice (I used to detest that word). The prospect of giving up the niceties of being a yo-pro couple without kids and living on a tight budget in order to try to start businesses that could fail is scary. I’m scared. But it’s the next step – it’s what we have to do to keep growing.

Phew, that was a bit long-winded! Sorry. There’s today’s Growth Lesson for you though – it will usually take being uncomfortable and vulnerable to failure to keep growing. Heard that plenty of times before? Yeah…me too. Here we go again…

So why on earth did a pair of tuis flying to perch on the very top spire of the pine tree inspire that? Well, I watched them thinking ‘they must feel like they’re at the top of the world, what a perfect spot for them’. But of course, they soon took the leap into the air again. 

(Cute!)