Year of the horse: from majestic to manure.

The diary has been bought, hair cut happened, and it's more than about time for the first blog for 2014.

Whilst people have thrown out old calendars, posted about resolutions, new beginnings, and are thinking about how much money they blew over the festive season, and how their detox is going, I am posting this. 

My 2013 ended with a series of thought provoking events and experiences that I have hung up in the memory wardrobe and processed and learnt from. These lessons managed to distract me from the fact that the number of tummy rolls I have has probably gone up and my bank balance has most definitely gone down.

However I have decided to CHOOSE LIFE. The boom boom is in my heart because really, there is no price I could put on spending time with those I love. I took multiple flights and taxis and happily took out the credit card because it would give me at least another hour with loved ones.  Mastercard's campaigns really sum it up (no pun intended), because some things are priceless.

Flights, dinners, accommodation and all these things add up (including taking their toll on ye olde waistline- yes, that old doughnut) , however, the conversations and moments I have shared with people who I have for the first time in years finally seen, or who have flown to see me, I would not trade for anything, and would pay an overpriced rickshaw driver to take me back to them again if I had to.

It's interesting how the timing of things work, as the first two weeks of this year of the horse has been a bucking ride through the deserts of intensity, intervention, intellect and insight. As perplexing as this is, I guess focusing energy on finding the light and lessons in the darkness and drama is what is getting me through a tricky tangled triangle of friends and loved ones......this is a whole different blog altogether though the one I wanted to write last week I never did and now, believe it or not, a WHOLE LOT OF STUFF has happened, as it tends to do, and therefore is overshadowing the idea from two weeks ago, just like when you get the proportions of onion in a salad wrong and it overshadows the taste of the feta, so you have to eat something new or different to fix it.

See currently I find myself teetering on the balance of being supportive and being suggestive, not giving advice or answers but more shining the light down avenues so that the people I care about can learn on journey themselves- something else which is priceless. What does one do when they feel the person who needs to travel cannot read a map? Yes, Siri our GPS and life-chum is pretty good at spoon feeding us from A to B, but she makes mistakes and runs out of battery. Sometimes we gotta look at the signs and figure it out ourselves.  (I am speaking metaphorically here, however I feel like it might be almost too metaphorical and you reading this could actually be lost and then you really will need Siri to help you- or you can just comment and ask me what I mean...)

So though I spent the dollars on seeing people I care about, I know that the WHOLE LOT OF STUFF that happened that I referred to before, the manure part of this year of the horse, cannot be fixed with the dollars. See I spent the dollars on the flights to buy time, (busses are cheaper but take longer) And in terms of helping clean up this tainted tricky triangle business I am in, the thing that needs to be spent the most is time. 

SPENDING time- how much does that cost?

We know it's priceless- what we wonder is if it's WORTH IT.

Jj