The sounds and images of a month

Today's blog is about some of the things that touched me in the last month. Every opportunity provided me with more life lessons that will make me a better person.

A great woman

In the weekend I had the privilege of travelling with a group of work friends to a little place called Ruatahuna for the unveiling of a friend who was also a work friend. The woman who had passed was a beautiful person both inside and out and her loss is still being felt by many. Being with our friend's people was an experience I will never forget. She was such a beautiful Cook Island/Maori woman, who taught me lessons in kindness. She is a great woman - who we love and miss every day.

Remembering a life
My sister and I have been looking for a way to remember our mother and found a
breast cancer pandora bracelet to help us. We are looking forward to adding charms one for every year. It is an exciting and wonderful way for us to share with each other our mother's love for pretty pink things....

They're gonna be alright...

I'm a mother who worries about her children. I worry that I am not doing something to help them prepare to be adults, good husbands and fathers. So I was chuffed recently, when preparing for their first ball, I wrote on my facebook the following "Here I am advising my sons that girls at their age can be heartless and not to be despondent when the little princesses reject them after being asked for a dance.... for one son to say "Mum, don't worry - I'm gonna say, "do you want a dance?" and if she says "no", I'm gonna say - "I wasn't asking you anyway" - and then... ask the next girl ;-)". I knew in that moment they were gonna be alright!

Life's not for quitters

I recently presented  a segment on attitude and the story that came to mind and the one I shared was that of Sally Robbins. Her Australian team were coming third heading into the final 500 metres of the race when she dropped her oar and rested on her team mate. As expected the Australian media vilified her with the Daily Telegraph reporting "In a team sport such as rowing what she did was unforgivable. It appears Robbins committed the greatest crime there is in honest sport: she quit".  I learnt that life is not for quitters and I do not ever want to be a Lay-down Sally.

A mother's love
In the last month I attended the tangi of a beautiful premature baby boy. His mother suffered physically bringing him into this world and knowing that his little life had ended must have made this process even more difficult. Having left the hospital to be with her baby at his tangi, I watched this wonderful mother struggling to walk, resorting to crawling in order to move - all so she could join her whanau (family) in farewelling their baby/brother/moko(grandchild)/nephew/cousin. I witnessed that day the love of mother and its limitless capacity to suffer and love for a child.

It was an interesting month and looking forward to plenty more like it ;-)

Yours in friendship,

Mxox