As I sit here in my new garden office and stare out of the window, which I can do now that I am not at school and run my own business (one of the perks) I notice a pheasant wondering around my garden. At the same time I see the Ford Fuel truck pull up outside my house and realise that in about 30 mins I will have central heating and hot running water again as this wonderful man with a big pipe in his hand will fill my oil tank for me. Ahh the things we took for granted living in London!!
I remember our house being flooded over Xmas 2003 and the utter chaos it caused for all the houses in our street. It took about a week for everything to get back to normality but it was amazing to see how many people just couldn't cope with the situation. It made me think about something Wayne Dyer had said on one of his Cd's I had " If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at will change" and he was right. I didn't react like the majority of people as I saw something really good come out of it! We all began to act like good neighbors and try and support each other with helpful deeds. When the council delivered sandbags to my door I told them to give them to my neighbor as they has 3 small children who probably needed them more than me, and so it went on. I met people in my street that I had never spoken to in the 12 months that I had lived there and felt that for the first time that I lived in a real community.
Alas it didn't last but I really learned something from it and now no matter how hard life seems I always try and see the positive. Of course I worry just like everyone else but I know the buck stops here, so, I am the only person to deal with the situation. I can't blame anyone for my mistakes or failures although sometimes I would like to! I am human after all.
Since we have moved to Bath we have had our fair share of annoying problems and running out of Oil on Good Friday with a house full of people needing hot water and heating has been the least of our worries. I won't bore you with the long list although many of you reading this can think of a few I have mentioned in the past 6 months. The point is that we decided to move to Bath to a house that was 130 years old and so we had to expect that some work would need doing but boy have a I learned alot. We are becoming quite self sufficient and that feels great and now I just laugh when something goes wrong because life is just like that. My wine bill has doubled in the last 6 months!! life looks so much better with a roaring fire and a glass of wine.
The next time you get frustrated because the desired outcome doesn't manifest itself in the way in which you would have liked it to, think for a second, look for the positive and have courage to see it in a very different way. Courage allows you to see another way of dealing with the situation. Courage allows you to run your own race. Courage allows you to do whatever you want to do because you know that it is right. Courage gives you the self-control to persist where others have failed. I read a great quote this morning and it really hit a nerve
"It's not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or when the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, who's face is marred by the dust and sweat and blood: who strives valiantly; ... who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions: who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who, at worst, if he fails at least fails whilst daring greatly - so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat." Theodore Roosevelt
I hope you all had an amazing Easter Break and are looking forward to a four day week as much as I am.
The Team at Matchsticks !!
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