Yum! White chocolate and plum brioche!

“If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.”

My favourite bit of real estate!

Yum! White chocolate and plum brioche .... YUMMY! I look at that from the perspective of how delicious it is, not from how bad it is for me .... and then I really REALLY enjoy eating it!

I NEEDED it today ..... it is ICY cold on the beach. I have 4 layers of clothes on ... yes, with my shorts .... and I’m STILL cold. My shoes and socks have been soaked in the puddles and the mud and I can’t feel my toes any longer. I think that’s a good thing as I can’t feel how cold they are.

Despite how cold I am .... despite how numb my feet are .... I love being on the sand and in the waves ... and yes, I WAS in the waves. The tide’s coming back in and when you’re attention is focused on what you’re seeing through the lens .... ie , hound and ball and birds and reflections .... the waves have a way of creeping up and swamping your shoes with icy cold water. Brrrrrrr!

That quotation got me thinking about how my attitude has changed when facing obstacles life throws in my path. I choose to look at them differently now. What I once saw as an obstacle I now see as an opportunity. Too often in the past I’ve bemoaned the impact difficulties have had on my life instead of rejoicing in the changes they’ve wrought in me.

All it took was seeing it with different eyes ... an ‘attitude adjustment’.

I still miss my family and friends in SA but I’ve been blessed with new friendships here. My business has gone in a completely different direction ... no more corporate work ..... it’s more creative and brings out the artist in me and I like that it does that.
Life is special .... we could be here one minute and gone the next. I’m choosing to not let one minute of any day go by without me being really IN it.

Being IN it means walking in the waves every day regardless of the weather. Being IN it means doing the things I LOVE not just the things that are necessary. Being IN it means savouring those quiet moments when I’m sitting on the floor in the warmth of the sun’s rays. No wonder the hound and the cat hog the warm spots on the carpet .... I could feel the contentment they feel when I sat there today.

There’s a walk-in pantry in the house we’ve just moved into and I love it. I’ve missed having one since we’ve been in NZ. It lends itself to practical jokes and Gareth and I have been having a ball catching out other members of the family. I’ve become the ‘chef in the pantry’. The family seldom call Gareth’s bluff when he nonchalantly asks one of them to pass him something from the pantry. Ask for an onion and, as the door opens, a hand’s stuck out with the onion on it ..... keeping a straight face is NOT an option!

Yes .... this IS an insane household ... enter at your peril.