Go Away.

I went away over the long weekend and I had a really great time. Apart from getting a bit seasick on the ferry and having a couple of early mornings, I was incredibly blessed to be in Wellington for one of the most important nights in New Zealand sporting history. Even if you have some sort of psychological disorder and don't get in to sports that often, you could not help but get carried away with the emotion of a country coming together like it did on the weekend. This isn't a small global sport like rugby or cricket, this is bigger than the olympics. This is football, the world game. This was an incredible game, crowd and result. I will never forget it as long as I live. And yes. I took my shirt off and danced in my white boxers. I can hear the religious stiffs tutt-tutting. God still loves me. And Rory Fallon! Thank you Jesus!

Just got me thinking about how important it is to have a break from the monotony of every day life. I havn't had a single day off this year, apart from a conference, which is hardly relaxing. In fact, I havn't even had a cold for over three years. So not even a sick day! Some people aren't so fortunate. One of the benefits of growing up on a farm and always being dirty I guess! Built up a good immune system. Some people just need to let their kids get dirty and stay dirty I reckon. That's if they get off their cellphones and Wii for a few minutes and play outside. Another symptom of a modern society with no real problems, which forces us to make problems up just to keep us busy. Some researchers have coined the term "Affluenza". A hybrid of "affluence" and "influenza" where people get sick because life is too easy, clean and under control. Without any real problems like hunger, life threatening situations, poverty etc, people get depressed and anxious over small, unimportant things. I'm not talking about when people live in terrible situations that can seem impossible to change. Like depression, family violence etc. I am talking about people who have a generally good life and get busy doing things that don't matter! If you have a good life, then help someone who doesn't. Put your organic food and biodegadable cleaning products away. Stop conjuring up more things for you to worry about just to distract yourself from what you know you really should be doing.

I think that was an off the topic rant! Oops, ok, I will see if I can steer the ferry back on course.

One reason why it is so important to take breaks is so that you can regain a clear perspective on life. If you always do what you always do, then you'll always see what you always see. I just made that up. Bit like another popular quote except I changed it. Pat on the back. Thanks.

Back to the story...

"Without vision the people perish". If you have a bible then you might recognise that one. Another way to look at that would be to say that if you have nothing to look forward to then you will slowly die on the inside. Most of us have something that we really want to do, or want our life to be like etc... and that is great! But if we get so busy doing our everyday lives then we can forget those things that used to get us enthusiastic about life. Noel Gallagher once wrote "The dreams we have as children fade away". Sadly this is true for many of us. But I think if we can remember to take regular breaks and "re-create" ourselves, those dreams can stay with us, or be rediscovered from deep inside us.

I was so enthusiastic before this trip away! Because I had something to look forward to. Imagine a life full of those sorts of things. Not things that other people enjoy so you pretend to enjoy them too, but things that YOU really enjoy. I suppose it's a vicious cycle isn't it. If you have a busy life then you probably don't have time to stop and remember what it is that YOU actually enjoy, so when your time off arises, you opt for the easy option of doing whatever everyone else likes to do. But surprisingly you are not fulfilled or recharged. So you continue to keep busy to ignore those feelings some more. You never get anywhere in life until you know who you are and what you enjoy. And because you are unique, it may just be different from anyone else! It's ok to be different by the way. I'm not talking about when people rebel and try to be different on purpose, that's a teenage thing that some people never grow out of. I'm talking about knowing who you were made to be and enjoying that.

Well that was a bit all over the place. Probably a few too many creative juices flowing after my break. Bit hard to organise them all. Sorry about that! I suggest you diary in one night a week, or as often as you can, to stop and think about what you like doing when you were a kid. You are still that person, so it might give you some direction towards what YOU like to do now! If you get lost it helps to go back to the beginning and start again. I made that one up too. I like doing that:)