Do you ever find that your life is over-complicated? The various responsibilities that we take on, people we have to deal with and possessions that we own, make our lives complicated. I swear that if only we automated everything at work and didn't have people involved, things would get done so much more quickly and efficiently! To complicate matters even more, there's our own thoughts that bombard us like a swarm of bees (apparently 70,000 of them per day), constantly re-playing what we need to do, what we haven't done, who did and said what to us, what we're worried about etc. We can easily become tangled in a thick web of unnecessary complication.
I was reminded twice this week about the power of simplicity. Firstly, my colleague shared with me his presentation called the 'Simplicity Project' which he based on Edward de Bono's book 'Simplicity'. After sharing and talking about the concept of simplicity with his team, they reduced their long, arduous and complicated communication chain in Operations to a simple and more productive one.
The irony being that often we don't realise how complicated we have made things for ourselves until we are made aware of the power of simplicity.
Secondly, while on an early morning walk with my two dogs and my Dad who, with my Mum, is over in Bali from the UK, he was amazed to see how simply the rice famers lived and yet they seemed happy. Their homes were a few makeshift tents made out of plastic fertiliser bags, supported by branches of wood, with a couple of stones to make a fireplace for cooking their rice. One Balinese woman was washing her clothes in the stream that flowed into the rice fields and another woman was standing there naked washing herself. Such a simple, basic life and yet these people go about their daily lives smiling and content. My Dad couldn't understand how they could look so happy and care free when all they have is a 'home' made out of a few plastic bags, a handful of grubby looking clothes and one or two battered pots and pans. My response was their life is so simple, they have few possessions to worry about and so they can be happy.
Life is so much easier and enjoyable when we simplify it. Hence a short blog from me this week! Hope you like it.
"As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler, solitude will not be solitude, poverty will not be poverty, nor weakness weakness."
Henry David Thoreau
You may have heard of Elisabeth Gilbert's international best seller that has hit Bali like a tsunami. If you haven't read the book or seen the film, it's about a woman who leaves her husband to find her true self and she does this by eating in Italy, praying in India and finding love in Bali. My version is a little different as I found myself praying for my safety and getting very wet last weekend. I did, however, eat well.
Have you ever done something that goes against your conventional self, but you know that if you don't give it a go, you'll never know? When my family and I moved to Bali, we had a dream. We said "Let's move to Bali and buy an old jeep so that we can go exploring." It took us 18 months to work out whether this would be a wise move, to build the right connections and to save enough money. Last week we were bold enough to make the move and purchased a 1966 soft-top Toyota Land Cruiser 'jeep' from a trustworthy and highly reliable source (most important to do this Bali). Our reliable source's name is Jon and he is fanatical about this vehicle, having purchased it himself a few years ago and 'done it up' until it was time for him to pass onto somebody else who could have just as much fun in it.
We decided to take the jeep into the mountains at the weekend. As we were preparing to leave it was raining. This, in my experience, didn't bode well for the mountains. "Rain in mountains?" I slowly and loudly asked our Balinese staff member so he would understand. He looked at me blankly for a few moments and responded "no rain," as if he knew what he was talking about. I was dubious. Regardless, we set off on our adventure.The engine of the jeep roared like an army truck. We bounced along the pot-holed roads like a mechanised kangaroo as my husband fumbled to drop down a gear. We blasted past the endless stream of motorbikes and threatened to steam roller any slow vehicle that came into our vision. I ducked and dived, pressing my foot hard on the brake as I pretended to drive on the passenger side. The windscreen wipers furiously clicked as they tried to keep up with the vast downpour of rain, until one of them had enough and flew into the air. I couldn't see out of the passenger side anymore and maybe it was just as well. While attempting to look through the fogged up and rain patterned windscreen, I resorted instead to praying that we would 'make it' alive.
As we approached the base of the volcanic mountains, our five year old daughter shouted "look Mummy, there's smoke coming out of the mountain." I hoped that it wasn't volcanic smoke and could see that we were about to climb into a big, white cloud that was so full of rain, it would be like going through a high pressure car wash. One hour later we arrived at our destination feeling a little worse for wear and very wet. The good news was that we had stayed at this destination before -Puri Lumbung Cottages - even though the accommodation was basic, the food and service was excellent. We enjoyed some late lunch and with true optimism set off for an afternoon tour of the area in the jeep in the still pouring rain. My husband suggested that we visit the Giant Tree, which was only 3km down the road. Quite a few more kilometers, landslides and floods later we gave up on finding the tree and more importantly tried to find our way back. As the torrential mountain rain thumped against the canvas roof, leaked though the passenger door and I still prayed for our lives, I quite frankly didn't care whether I saw a giant tree or not. To distract ourselves from getting lost in the jungle, we decided to play a 'name the jeep' game. Our 12 year old daughter unanimously won and our jeep was now called 'Jenny Jeep or 'JJ' for short. She had been well and truly bathed in the tropical rain as part of her initiation ceremony.
That night the unabating rain continued to beat down. While shivering in bed fully clothed and feeling very damp, I wondered why we didn't take 'JJ' for a trip along the sun drenched coast lines of Bali. Where would the sense of adventure and fun be in that though?
The next morning, the rain had temporaily stopped. As we looked out over the panoramic views of the green tree mountain valley, we noticed an extra large tree. The Balinese waiter confirmed that it was the Giant Tree. It was gigantic and towered above all the other trees, like a skyscraper. How we missed it, I do not know.
The rain obviously distracted us. Similiar to life, we can get so consumed with what else is going on, we fail to see what is staring us in the face!
While checking out I mentioned to the receptionist that it looked as though it was going to rain. She agreed with me and said "it's been raining for the last year."! There was no chance that we were going to hit a heat wave, so we drove further down the mountain to where all the fresh strawberries were grown. We feasted on lots of strawberries, bought a kilo of fresh strawberries from a trustworthy source and then were tempted to buy some beautiful, plump red strawberries from a couple of female street vendors for a great price.
We were proud of our tough negotiating skills, but as we drove off discovered that we had been conned. What looked like two layers of strawberries was only one. The bottom layer was stuffed with cardboard!
Ah well, we still had fun inspite of the rain and being conned. Who needs love when you can pray, eat, get very wet and still laugh.
'Wherever you go, no matter what the weather, always bring your own sunshine.'
Anthony J. D'Angelo
Do you ever have times when things seem out of your control? I'm sure you have experienced these situations, like me. Although we like to feel in control, some things happen that we weren't expecting and are out of our control. What's the best thing to do in these situations? Focus on what we can do which is within our control. Rather than dwell on what can't happen, focus on what can. We can't control everything, but we can control one fundamental tool that we all have readily at our disposal. We can control our response to whatever comes our way.
Take last week, after a few days of working in Singapore, I was ready to be with my family in Bali. I planned the day of my return perfectly. Work meetings in the morning, followed by meeting up with a friend at the airport for a sticky bun and coffee, before smoothly checking in for Bali. As my friend and I said our farewells, he commented "Hope your flight isn't cancelled because of the volcano." I laughed. I checked in my luggage, walked through immigration and went to the departure lounge early to call a friend.
While chatting, waiting to board, I overheard a message, "Due to the volcano, this flight will now be cancelled." Why didn't they tell us earlier? My first reaction was total denial. What about my family? They are in Bali and I have no way of reaching them.
I attempted to look on the bright side while observing the whole lounge full of tired, pasty looking people who had travelled from Europe to escape the cold winter and see some Bali sun. The bright side didn't last long as I selfishly thought: they had their families with them, if this volcano lasted as long as the Icelandic one, it could have been a while before I saw mine.
Lucky for me, my friend invited me out with her that evening, so rather than go back to the office and feel sorry for myself, I changed my response and used the opportunity to catch up with a good friend.
Ironically, I suggested to my husband who had gone on an earlier flight to swop suitcases as I had the heavier weight allowance. Now I was stuck in Singapore with his suitcase and he was on his way to Bali with my underwear, clothes and all my computer and mobile phone wires. I phoned the airline help number that had been given to me. It was Friday evening, the help line answer phone said 'this office is closed until Monday'. How helpful. I phoned the airline office in Europe and was told that they booked me on an alternative flight for the next day, departing at 4.30pm. Later that evening I received a text from my husband "Customs were surprised to find tights in my luggage! Do you work in Bali? the inspector asked" Oops!
The next day I decided to make the best of being alone in Singapore and went to the gym (at the weekend so quite a feat). My successful workout on the treadmill made me feel virtuous, so I planned a healthy lunch and took some fish out of the freezer. I checked the status of my flight by calling the same number as the evening before and received an unhelpful response that I was making a call outside of European working hours. Eventually I found an alternative number and managed to speak to a human being. He confirmed my 4.30pm flight. I calculated that I had enough time for a leisurely lunch and could make my way to the airport within plenty of time. By pure fluke, I checked the airline's internet site to see the status of the flight. My eyes nearly popped out of my head, when I saw that my flight had been brought forward by 2 hours and I should have already been at the airport. I chucked the still frozen fish back in the freezer, grabbed my passport, ticket and bags and made a frenzied run for the taxi. The taxi driver sensed my urgency and we drove a fast and furious pace to the airport. En route, I realised that there was no information about which terminal to go to. I decided to take pot luck. Pot luck was against me and I was in the wrong terminal.
I ran to the other terminal to find a huge queue and with only 2 check in desks open. I meekly joined the end of the queue and attempted to look cool, calm and collected. A husband and wife couple behind me had luggage tags for the same cancelled flight as me. I gathered we would be ok. It turned out they were ok but I wasn't. When I reached the check in desk, the assistant told me that there wasn't a booking for me. I froze in panic. The assistant pointed me in the direction of another queue. I dragged my heavy luggage behind me and tried my best to make eye contact with the clearly harassed check-in assistant who already had a queue of irate people in front of him. The poor, young guy was running all over the place, picking up his phone, standing up and down, leaving us all in the queue and returning looking even more harassed. When it was my turn to talk to him he told me that there was no booking. I politely, with gritted teeth, told him, that I had already discovered this with the other check-in assisant and told him to do something about it, as my airline had definitely confirmed I was on that flight.
He put me on stand-by. As the clock ticked by, I became more tense and wanted to scream. Finally, with 15 minutes to spare, he received a phone call and confirmed a seat for me. With the countdown ticking, I sped though passport control, saw a sign which said 14 minutes to get to my gate. At a frantic run, the journey to the gate seemed like the longest ever, as the travelators stretched into the horizon. The sign at the gate flashed 'Gate Closing'. Made it. The couple who were behind me at check-in cheered when they saw me on the plane. I collapsed in my seat, the sweat pouring off my forehead and my heart palpitating as if it were going to explode. As the plane started moving, I smugly smiled to myself thinking 'What a great adrenalin rush"!
For the first time in ages, I landed in Bali in the daylight. With its green rice terraced fields, undulating hills and mountains covered in a green carpet of tropical trees, Bali looked beautiful. I was excited to be back. By the time I got home, I was the last to turn up for a dinner party I had organised with friends and their response was 'only in Bali'!
So another life lesson. Things happen that are out of our control. We can't control everything. There are external forces that can sometimes prevent us from having what we want. This philosophy has been around for years:-
"It's not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters." Epictetus 50-120
As the song goes by Jack Johnson, which played on my IPOD when I was on my own at the gym, sometimes you have to staple it together, call it bad weather and move on.
