The Snakes and Ladders of Life

Life can sometimes feel like a game of snakes and ladders.  One moment, life is looking good and it feels like you are making progress up the ladder. The next moment, it can feel like you’ve come hurtling down a slippery snake and gone back quite a few paces. Just when I was thinking that the Bali wildlife of rats, mice, lizards, beetles, cockroaches, ants and pesky mosquitoes didn’t faze me anymore, snakes of different shapes, sizes and colours have turned up at our home. Over the last couple of weeks, there have been eight sightings of different snakes, from babies to adults and poisonous to non-poisonous varieties. I was most alarmed when my five year old daughter told me that she saw a baby snake reading one of her books in her bedroom and that she and our Balinese helper killed a long, green poisonous snake in our garden as if it were merely an everyday occurrence!

We've also witnessed a death in the family - Buddy Bird, a baby, who was rescued from drowning himself in the pond. Instead he gently passed away in a make do nest built by my daughters out of a cardboard box and a bed out of cotton wool. We looked up on the internet how to feed him and made some bird food out of egg and bread which he seemed to enjoy very much. We left him in the capable hands of our eldest daughter and her friend, while we braced the Bali traffic and did some errands at the weekend. By the time we got back he was pronounced dead. He died of severe haemorrhaging and we think our Bali cat, Mango, may have had something to do with his ailing condition. When I asked my daughter and her friend if they had buried Buddy, their response was 'no'.  They had thrown him in the river and if he hasn't been eaten by a snake or some other wild Bali resident, his corpse will be floating in the sea by now. He had exceptionally long legs, so must have been some type of wading bird and being thrown in the water was most probably the best way to go. Our girls bemoaned the fact that he only had a short life, although they understood he was now out of pain and they learned the life lesson, how precious life is.

Apart from the customary power cut and internet failure, I discovered that even though I have plans A, B, C, D and E and 6 staff in Bali who work at our villa and for our company NoLimits, I have no staff to cover me next week when it is both a Muslim and Hindu holiday in Bali and I have a workshop to run in Singapore where there are no public holidays during this time. I was told that maybe I need a Christian house staff member so that I'm covered for all eventualities! The joys of running a company in Singapore and living in Bali. My patience was finally tested when my 3 girls were sent home from school with hand, foot and mouth disease. Because next week is a long holiday, they will be off for 9 days before going back to school!  Oh the joys of being Mum and juggling work responsibilities! As leadership guru John Maxwell says:-

“You don’t overcome challenges by making them smaller. You overcome them by making yourself bigger.”

Even though we have experienced quite a few snakes recently, there have been ladders too. My daughters and I had a wonderful sleepover with a friend and her 3 daughters in Ubud - we had a memorable girls’ weekend and our children learned how to do Batik painting. My friend is a fellow Brit, she recently moved from Singapore to Bali with her husband and family, and we can joke about all our ‘snakes and ladders’ in the usual British self-deprecating manner. We happily talked non-stop until 2am Friday night / Saturday morning! I've learned that in spite of my attempt for order, structure, and contingency planning, things don't always go according to plan. Sometimes it's a case of simply finding an alternative ‘ladder’ to reach our outcomes.

Another 'ladder' has been watching the TED Video on the Green School by visionary founder John Hardy. I'm proud that our girls are experiencing the Green School, a once in a life time opportunity for them and a wonderful, creative way to learn. We've met some fascinating people who have broken the traditional corporate ‘ladder’ approach and are travelling through Bali on their world trips, have taken time out for their children to experience the Green School or have innovatively set up their own businesses either in or outside Bali. I was fortunate enough to be working with a young group of ‘techies’ in Singapore this week, who seemed to think I was 'cool' by living in Bali and running a business in Singapore. A great compliment for a middle aged woman who is old enough to be their Mum!

I have learned from the sad demise of Buddy Bird, life is too short to get stressed about snakes, no internet, not having enough staff to cover public holidays. As perfect timing to my 'what could go wrong next?' thoughts, I came across a quote that inspired me:-

"Make each day your masterpiece."
John Wooden, American Basketball Coach

Make something a masterpiece in each of your days and you’ll easily overcome challenes by being bigger than those snakes.

Janet

Click on the following link to hear John Hardy talk about the Green School:-
john_hardy_my_green_school_dream