Exploring

Are you open to adventure?

I do enjoy reading books about explorers, whether old or modern. Maybe it's a form of escapism from my reasonably settled lifestyle, but even if I'm unlikely to emulate their exploits I take pleasure and encouragement from reading their stories.

Whether it's naturalists like Mike Tomkiss, living in the Scottish Highlands and braving discomfort, epic mountain hikes and fierce weather in his studies and observations of Golden Eagles, or people rowing the Atlantic, climbing Mount Everest, traversing Africa or following in the footsteps of Captain Cook - our bookshelves are full of real-life tales of adventure and challenge.

"I do enjoy reading books about explorers, whether old or modern"

Most recently I've read a book called The Explorer Gene by Tom Cheshire, recommended to me by a friend of mine, and happily available on the library's bookshelves (ours ran out of space years ago). Even as adventure style books go, this one has a twist because it's about three generations of a single Swiss family - the Piccards - who all achieved remarkable things. What I loved most about it was not necessarily the achievements themselves, which were impressive, the free thinking, encouragement and perseverance shown by each generation.

The story begins in the early twentieth century with Auguste Piccard, a tall Swiss professor with dreams of the stratosphere. In his pursuit of science (he was obsessed with studying cosmic rays), he designed a balloon with a revolutionary pressurised cabin and became the first human to reach the stratosphere - reaching around 75000 feet! He was a friend of Einstein and was also the inspiration for Professor Calculus in Herge's Tintin.

"Even as adventure style books go, this one has a twist because it's about three generations of a single Swiss family"

How deep can you go?

The next chapter for this family was Auguste's son Jacques. Working with his father he developed the pressurised cabin principle into a bathyscape for exploring the ocean floor. Going from his father's great heights he plumbed the depths of the ocean, eventually diving to the very deepest place on earth, the Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench in 1960. Star Trek's Captain Jean Luc Picard is named in honour of the Piccard family.

With such illustrious forbears, I can imagine there might have been pressure on the next generation, but Jacques' son Bertrand instead chose to become a psychologist to begin with, although with a passion for hang gliding. It was only later in life that his explorer gene caught up with him, and he became the first to pilot to circumnavigate the world in a balloon - the Breitling Orbiter - in 1999. Now he's behind the attempt to fly a solar powered plan around the world too, Solar Impulse.

In fact, the remarkable achievements by this remarkable family all came relatively late in life, and as a by product of the relatively less glamorous work and careers they had already embarked upon. Auguste was a physicist, Jacques was an economist and Bertrand remains a psychologist. They didn't set out to be professional thrill seekers, they were just curious and open to possibility.

"They didn't set out to be professional thrill seekers, they were just curious and open to possibility."

In our own lives, we may be run of the mill physicists, economists, psychologists - teachers, pastors, engineers. But we can still take inspiration from the curiosity and openness of the Piccards. What are the things you're passionate and curious about? Can you take some action to discover something new about it? Not necessarily completely new (although I'm not ruling it out), but maybe just new to you? And how can you be more open to opportunity around you?

For the Piccards, their achievements needed not just vision but a lot of persistence and determination.
So maybe we all need to review our lenses, how we're seeing opportunity around us.
As Thomas Edison said: "Opportunity is missed my most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work". 

How can you be more curious?

We may not become the subject of adventure books, but we can all be more adventurous in our own lives - our challenge is to plumb the heights, depths and breadths of our own potential.

We've all got that explorer gene, and it's time to let it out!

"We've all got that explorer gene, and it's time to let it out!"

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Thanks for taking the time to read Exploring. If you've enjoyed it please share it with your friends on social media! Why not subscribe to The Potting Shed Podcast on iTunes or Stitcher for expanded musings and much more (direct RSS feed is here). 

I'd love to hear from you, so feel free to comment below or email me at stricklandmusings@gmail.com 

If you want to stay up to date please sign up to my mailing list, and do check out my book Life Space on Amazon.

Narrowing the gap

Are you stepping across the gap?

I've been thinking about gaps recently. Earlier this week I was in London and undertook a few
journeys on the Tube.

One of the more famous things about the London Underground is the phrase you hear every time a train arrives "Please mind the gap".

I also have to mind the gap most days when travelling on overground trains, and some stations have larger gaps between the platform and the train than others.

"I've been thinking about gaps recently."

Another gap that I've come across this week is the performance gap. On a management training course I encountered "angle theory" for the first time. Although aimed at workplace performance, this can be widely attributable to our own lives. Essentially it's a graph with two angled straight lines  - the higher line is what you might term "ideal performance" in any particular job role. The lower line is meant to be actual or underperformance. Closest to the y-axis the lines are not that far apart but as time goes on they diverge - the gap between them increases.

What's your current trajectory?

In management terms the point is that it's important to take corrective action regularly, when the gaps are small, to encourage people to be working closer to the ideal performance line more of the time. Once again, little and often is preferable to giant corrections - if only because it's more sustainable and less painful.

Funnily enough last weekend I was listening to a talk by Duncan Banks who was also talking about gaps. In particular he spoke about narrowing the gap between being the best person we can be, and the person we often find ourself. He encouraged us to take action rather than just doing the same old thing.

We all need a reality check occasionally, an honest assessment about our current trajectory and where it's taking us.  It's easy to assume we're still doing as well or as successfully as we have done in the past. But that's not always the case! For instance recently I've become convinced that my trousers have shrunk in the wash, however my wife has suggested that maybe I've put on weight instead! I know what I'd rather believe, and if I'm quite honest I've not yet stepped on the scales to see one way or the other!

"We all need a reality check occasionally, an honest assessment about our current trajectory"

It's the same with exercise isn't it? I've put in some half decent times for triathlon, half marathon and 10km races in the past, but I suspect that even though I still run regularly I might be in for a shock if I entered one of these at this very moment! Actually the other year I entered a half marathon on very little (no) training. It was fine for ten miles, in fact I was beginning to believe my own hype when I spectacularly hit the wall and pretty much hobbled the last few miles...

What steps can you take?

To cross the gap you need to take a step. And no matter what steps we've taken in the past, if we really want to be the person we dream of then we need to take regular steps towards it. But to know in which direction to take those steps, to know what trajectory to follow, we need to have a clear vision of where we're aiming for. Otherwise whatever steps we take could lead us in the wrong direction.

"To cross the gap you need to take a step."

It's like knowing which train to catch on the tube - it's no point hastily jumping on the first train you encounter - the Tube network is complex and widespread and you're more likely to end up further from your goal!

So perhaps this week you could take a moment to look for gaps. The gap between where you want your finances to be and your spending habits. The gap between your ideal health and your eating habits. The gap between the skills you hope to have and the practice you're choosing to give.

Whatever area it is, no matter what the gap, all it takes at first is a single step. And it doesn't have to get bigger, you can narrow that gap.

"...it doesn't have to get bigger, you can narrow that gap."

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Thanks for taking the time to read Narrowing the Gap. If you've enjoyed it please share it with your friends on social media! Why not subscribe to The Potting Shed Podcast on iTunes or Stitcher for expanded musings and much more (direct RSS feed is here). 

I'd love to hear from you, so feel free to comment below or email me at stricklandmusings@gmail.com 

If you want to stay up to date please sign up to my mailing list, and do check out my book Life Space on Amazon.

Don't let your tea go cold..

Don't let your tea go cold..

I love a good cup of tea. I drink an awful lot of it, especially during the week when I'm in the office. Reading a topical book about the First World War the other week I learnt that British soldiers on the front line had a ration of 6 pints of tea a day - something I aspire to!

"Tea can be a force for good!"

When Kate and I were on honeymoon in Sri Lanka one of the many highlights was visiting the Labookellie Estate - a beautiful tea plantation nestled in the hills in the centre of the island. The Estate is owned by Mackwoods and produces their wonderful tea leaves - to this day the cup of tea I drunk there is the best cuppa I've ever had.

Ever since visiting Labookellie one of our indulgences is to have a plentiful stock of Mackwoods tea in the larder, and at weekends we treat ourselves to a cup on Saturday and Sunday mornings (the rest of the time we are less indulgent and drink cheaper tea). There's only one distributor of Mackwoods tea in the UK, a quirky Sri Lankan owned tea parlour in London. They're always delighted to hear that we've visited Labookellie when we visit or call to order more boxes of tea!

"The process of making tea is important, but what is more important is enjoying the tea itself."

According to Forum for the Future's recent report on the future of the tea sector, between 1993 and 2010, tea consumption across the world increased by 60%. Tea has the potential to be a "hero crop", a crop that isn't just a commodity but which delivers value to the millions of people involved in the sector, especially when it's grown sustainably, empowering the growers, acting as a carbon sink and addressing challenges associated with a changing climate. Tea can be a force for good!

I'm a little teapot..

I heard a tea-related Chinese proverb this week: "Beware of worshipping the teapot instead of drinking the tea". Tea is there to be drunk, and if you're like me then you know the pang of disappointment you feel when you realise you've left your tea to go cold and forgotten to drink it - what a waste!

The process of making tea is important, but what is more important is enjoying the tea itself. I think this is what the proverb is getting at. Too often we can get wrapped up in the "doing" and forget about the "why".

I notice this at work - we'll find ourselves applying an approach we developed for a specific project on another project, getting wrapped up in the "doing" and forgetting about why we did it that way in the first place or how we could do it differently (and better) this time around.

"Too often we can get wrapped up in the "doing" and forget about the "why". 

Activity isn't the same as productivity, and sometimes I think we're fearful of taking time to think and plan ahead before diving in and designing... I don't deny that activity can be comforting, but if we end up worshipping the teapot and leaving our proverbial tea to go cold then we've missed the point.

Are there any processes that have unwittingly become idolised teapots in your life? Perhaps patterns of behaviour, belief, comfort? Where in your life have you forgotten the "why" in the busyness of all your "doing". Approaching the end of the year it's a good time to reflect on your deeper meanings, the "whys" that underpin your life.

In all of this there is a tension - instead of worshipping the teapot we can worship the tea instead! I do
like tea, but just to clear up any confusion it's not my be-all and end-all (although a life without tea would be poorer for it!).

Enjoy the journey, but not too much..

A theme I come back to again and again is the importance of enjoying the journey - not being solely destination focused - which is really important, but as with many things in life the knack is holding both the ultimate goal and the enjoyment of the journey in balance. Ben Saunders, a polar explorer, has some great insight on being journey-focused in his recent TED talk, where he comments that "Happiness isn't a finish line".

A journey needs to have a direction, otherwise you may find yourself adrift, lost at sea. As Michael Hyatt says "People lose their way when they lose their why". As much as it's important to surrender to the process, like the need to allow tea to brew, it's important to regularly look up and remind yourself of the why.. to enjoy the tea along the way.

"let's be people who savour life, savour the process and enjoy the end result."

Maybe this year's been full of busyness for you, full of activity and doing. In which case now's probably a good time for you to put the kettle on and brew yourself a nice cup of tea, and while you're enjoying it ask yourself again about your deeper "whys". Let's not be teapot-worshippers who let the tea go cold in our lives. Instead, let's be people who savour life, savour the process and enjoy the end result.

If you feel disconnected with your "why" then a good starting point is my book Life Space!

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Thanks for taking the time to read Don't Let Your Tea Go Cold. If you've enjoyed it please share it with your friends on social media! Why not subscribe to The Potting Shed Podcast on iTunes or Stitcher for expanded musings and much more (direct RSS feed is here). 

I'd love to hear from you, so feel free to comment below or email me at stricklandmusings@gmail.com 

If you want to stay up to date please sign up to my mailing list, and do check out my book Life Space on Amazon.

Refugia

Leaf drifts...

The leaves have really started falling off the trees this week, and I've noticed them piling up on the ground.

Walking through the grounds of Birmingham cathedral one evening I took great delight in swooshing my way through ankle high leaves that had fallen on the grass from the avenue of magnificent plane trees, while the other commuters plodded along on the worn granite slabs, heads down.

It's also been much colder, almost glove weather in the mornings, but we've not yet been able to put the central heating on in our house while we're in the middle of building works - we have gaping holes in the side of the house and various radiators and plumbing are disconnected!

Instead to keep warm during the day and especially in the evenings we're having to wrap up in multiple layers, blankets and hot water bottles at night.

"We all face seasons where we feel like we need to withdraw"

I say all this because it's the time of year that animals begin to think about finding a safe refuge for the oncoming winter, closing their eyes and hibernating. In a story I read to my kids recently about hedgehogs, there was a detailed description about making a hedgehog house out of sticks and leaves. Sticks and leaves would probably feel warmer than our house does at the moment!

Ready to hibernate?

We all face seasons where we feel like we need to withdraw from a harsh environment, to recuperate or shelter until the season changes. I think it's natural to have rhythms in our life for activity, and rhythms for dormancy.

And it's not just seasonal. Working alongside ecologists, I've learnt about places of refuge for all kinds of animals. Often when new development occurs, it's important to provide compensatory habitat, but what this looks like depends on the animal.

We're probably all familiar with birdboxes, and the diameter or shape of the entry hole determines the species of bird it can hold. Piles of logs make great refugia for reptiles. You can get bat boxes too, and garden centres sell all kinds of insect houses and bug boxes. We've made an insect hotel on our allotment with a pile of old pallets.

"So how can we create refugia in the midst of our busy lives?"

The circumstances of our lives can be a difficult environment for our dreams, ambitions and hopes to survive at times. The need to put food on the table and shelter over our heads, to provide for our family maybe, can make it harder for fragile hopes and dreams to thrive.

Funnily enough, I'm writing this after a hectic week in my day job which has taken up much of my mental energy in different ways. I often find ideas for blog posts come to me during the week, but my brain has been so absorbed in various work projects that there's been less space for my usual subconscious creativity to surface! Instead of writing, I feel distinctly prickly and in need of curling up to sleep instead!

An insect hotel...

So how can we create refugia in the midst of our busy lives? Spaces for our dreams, talents and hopes to reside and thrive?

Perhaps one aspect is to allow ourselves to be dormant in season, not feeling obliged to be ceaselessly active but instead taking time to recuperate.

Or maybe it's about having a space to visit, a creative space to dwell - somewhere to take refuge and express a different side of ourselves. If not an actual space, what about a dedicated time?

Jeff Goins and others talk about getting up earlier every morning to write, but this could equally apply to other creative expression.

"So what does yours look like, and how can you carve out a creative space in your week?"

I have a combination of both. There's a place in our house where I tend to write, another space where I tend to record my podcast, and when our extension is finished I'll have a brand new creative workshop space to fill! Likewise it's usually Friday nights that I finish my blog posts, and Saturday and Sunday nights where I edit and release podcast episodes.

Whatever season you're in, however tough your environment is, it's possible to make a creative refugia to enable your dreams to survive, thrive and even grow. So what does yours look like, and how can you carve out a creative space in your week? I'd love to know, so please comment below with your favourite refuge!

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Thanks for taking the time to read Refugia. If you've enjoyed it please share it with your friends on social media! Why not subscribe to The Potting Shed Podcast on iTunes or Stitcher for expanded musings and much more (direct RSS feed is here). 

I'd love to hear from you, so feel free to comment below or email me at stricklandmusings@gmail.com 

If you want to stay up to date please sign up to my mailing list, and do check out my book Life Space on Amazon.

Umbrellas

Under your own umbrella?

It was raining on Monday morning this week, and as I emerged from the train station into central
Birmingham to face the day I pulled my hood up to protect myself from the rain.

All around me fellow commuters opened umbrellas and as I walked across town to my office I was dodging multicoloured brollies all the way.

If I'm completely honest, I think umbrellas are a bit of a hazard on rush hour pavements - they take up too much space and no-one's really looking where they're going!

Everyone seems to want their own umbrella, even the giant golfing ones, and no one wants to share. In many ways it sums up a lot about the rat race and competitive environment around us.

"Everyone seems to want their own umbrella, and no one wants to share"

It's better to be open handed...

It's funny how often we want to shut people out, to put up an umbrella around ourselves, feeling like it's maybe a way of preserving our individuality, of our stuff - our ideas, creations, dreams, even problems.

And yet there are more and more examples of how opening up - widening our umbrella to include others - is a better way for our creative potential to blossom.

I'm writing this on a laptop running Ubuntu, a free linux based open source operating system which I can't praise highly enough, ever since it rescued all the files on my machine after a fatal Windows "blue screen of death" incident. I've been running it for years now with no issues.

The name Ubuntu comes from an African word or philosophy which expresses the idea of community and kindness. Hence it was an apt title for an operating system born out of collaboration, openness and shared ideas.

"Widening our umbrella to include others is a better way for our creative potential to blossom."

More and more successful ideas are built on the foundations of sharing and community. I've recently read Chris Anderson's excellent book Makers: The New Industrial Revolution, which is all about the democratisation of manufacturing. A key point of the book is that the new maker movement is characterised by collaboration and community. People openly sharing their skills, ideas and time to help each other and contribute to projects they're passionate about. Companies built on these community projects are able to be much more nimble in their approach to new ideas and making things happen.

It's a point observed by Steven Johnson in his book Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation. By and large the days of solo ideas are gone, and in their place are shared, collaborative breakthroughs.

There's something very freeing about not having to do everything all by yourself - as the phrase goes, a problem shared is a problem halved. I do feel like there can be a pressure to be self-sufficient, independent, but the truth is that we were made for community. If I look at my own life I know the areas I'm strong at, and there are plenty of areas I'm less strong at. That's where collaboration and teamwork are so powerful - playing to our own strengths and allowing others to play to theirs leaves us all with a better and more satisfying outcome.

"Playing to our own strengths and allowing others to play to theirs leaves us all with a better and more satisfying outcome"

The more people are involved, the bigger the community, the more shared ownership there is as well - important when we face huge societal, environmental and ethical challenges in the years ahead. It's unlikely that one person alone will be able to fix a broken society or solve problems like climate change. Instead there are likely to be millions of grassroots solutions, all contributing to effect major change. And that starts by looking up and opening up our individual umbrellas to include and connect with others.

How can you open your umbrella to others?

I was at the UK Podcasters Awards a few weeks ago, and as well as picking up an award, the thing
that struck me most was the sense of community and lack of competition.

People were celebrating the fact that others were passionate about the same things as them, and ideas were being exchanged freely. I picked up some great ideas myself and hopefully also encouraged other podcasters too - encouragement being a strength of my own!

As a deliberate act to widen my podcasting umbrella I've reached out to various other podcasters to come on The Potting Shed Podcast and impart their wisdom and talk about their shows to a different audience. It's good to be part of a community.

So next time you find yourself opening up your umbrella in the rain, why not invite someone else underneath? And no matter what your field, passion or interest, how can you build or contribute to your community? The best future starts with shared and open umbrellas...

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Thanks for taking the time to read Umbrellas. If you've enjoyed it please share it with your friends on social media! Why not subscribe to The Potting Shed Podcast on iTunes or Stitcher for expanded musings and much more (direct RSS feed is here). 

I'd love to hear from you, so feel free to comment below or email me at stricklandmusings@gmail.com 

If you want to stay up to date please sign up to my mailing list, and do check out my book Life Space on Amazon.

Time Sponges

Time goes by...

Sometimes time goes by so slowly, as Madonna and The Righteous Brothers remind us, but we all know the phrase that time flies when you're having fun. 

I'm sure that if we're honest with ourselves, in these days of endless distraction we probably spend far too long passing the time doing not much more than looking at a screen! 

"There's no such thing as free time, there's no such thing as down time, there's no such thing as spare time there's only lifetime"  (Mike and Isabella Russell)

It's funny how we like to compartmentalise our life. Dividing it up into easy to understand sections, like a GCSE revision chart, or a job where you have to punch your card in and out. I only had one job where I needed to punch my card in at the beginning and end of each shift, and these days the work I do is more outcome oriented. 

"It's funny how we like to compartmentalise our life."

Punching in...

But, as the quote above suggests, life isn't so easily divisible nowadays. The lines between, say, work and leisure, are blurry - especially with the pressure in so many areas to be constantly available. 

We rarely punch in and punch out of situations any more, and although this has the potential to give us more time, it's more likely that we just spend our time in the margins less wisely.

My father in law told me that when he worked in the local Council in the late 60s and early 70s work time was very delineated. You started on the hour in the morning, there was a set time for lunch and a set leaving time.

Because of this, even if you got to work early you didn't start work until the designated time, maybe reading the newspaper or chatting to colleagues instead. At lunch time there was a plethora of clubs and activities to join in with - all kinds of sports and leisure.

But all of this came to an abrupt stop when flexi time was introduced around 1973 or so. Suddenly people were freed of the burden of clock time and could undertake their hours more conveniently. If their bus got them to work twenty minutes early they could start early and leave early. All of a sudden people took shorter lunchbreaks, as it was their own time they were redeeming. The days of the clubs and societies were over.

"So how do we redeem the time we take for granted in our own lives?"

So how do we redeem the time we take for granted in our own lives? So often I get sucked into the quicksand of social media and put off the things I really want to do. Even as I write this post I've started hours later than planned having been distracted by a rugby world cup match and checking what's been going on in my friends' social media lives (answer, not much since I last checked).

Avoid the time sponge!

Happily I finally got writing but it took an effort of will! Not so long ago my wife and I came up with a way to postpone collapsing in a social media stupor in the lounge each evening after getting the kids bathed and in bed.

Rather than sitting straight down, which was deadly for lethargy (although not unjustified - raising kids and working for your crust IS tiring) we made an agreement that as soon as the kids were down we'd each spend an hour doing something productive instead.

So my wife crocheted for example, while I practised an instrument or made progress on my latest project in the workshop, or we went to the allotment, or worked in the garden. It was surprisingly effective! I'm not sure quite when we got out of the habit...

Sometimes the hardest thing is getting started isn't it? I'm the master of doing other things as a means of prevaricating - having a shave, doing the washing up... all good things but not necessarily the activity I really need to do! (Sometimes I feel like I need to psyche myself up for it though, especially if it's a complex piece of DIY).

"Sometimes the hardest thing is getting started isn't it?"

We're better in bursts...

A well known way to get started on something is to apply what's known as the Pomodoro technique - in essence giving something your full attention for twenty minutes and setting a timer to let you know when to stop.

The idea is that you have a short break after each session, then after every three or four have a longer break. I've never followed it to the letter, but setting aside a deliberate twenty minute timeslot has worked wonders for unblocking the paralysis of indecision and apathy.

Another exponent of short bursts was Charlotte Mason, a 19th century educator whose philosophy we follow as we home educate our kids.

She was in favour of short, focused lessons or learning periods, linked to how long children could productively concentrate. We find this works well in terms of keeping our kids' attention in our studies and activities during the week.

I must be clear that I'm not saying all of this so that we can all become uber prodcutive "maximise every minute" people. We all need downtime, plenty of sleep and periods to really let our brain switch off. We need to make space for quiet, contemplation and centring.

"I don't want your life or mine to become an endless to-do list"

I don't want your life or mine to become an endless to-do list, instead redeeming our time is about making sure we're investing the right amount of time in activities which are taking us in the right direction - towards our dreams, ambitions and goals. Little and often trumps bingeing every time - not just with diets but in many areas of our life - skill acquisition in particular.

"Great things are not done by impulse but by a series of small things brought together"- Van Gogh

It's hard not to finish with a carpe diem, seize the day type call to action - but as Van Gogh reminds us, it's not really about the big stuff but about the little stuff. So in what little ways can you avoid the time sponge of distraction this week and pop the prevarication balloon in your life?

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Thanks for taking the time to read Time Sponges. If you've enjoyed it please share it with your friends on social media! Why not subscribe to The Potting Shed Podcast on iTunes or Stitcher for expanded musings and much more (direct RSS feed is here). 

I'd love to hear from you, so feel free to comment below or email me at stricklandmusings@gmail.com 

If you want to stay up to date please sign up to my mailing list, and do check out my book Life Space on Amazon.

Messy Mosaics

A swirly mosaic... not from Fishbourne!

For a few years at school I studied Latin, which wasn't actually as bad as it sounds. The textbook was a story of a family living in Pompeii, and had I persevered in my studies I would have followed their flight to Britain upon the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.

All I can remember of my basic studies was that Caecilius was in the forum, and canis the dog was in the via. One highlight of my short time learning Latin was a field trip we took to Fishbourne Roman Palace, on the south coast of England.

"For a few years at school I studied Latin..."

Fishbourne is apparently the largest Roman residence north of the Alps, and has a larger footprint than Buckingham Palace! What it's most famous for though are the extensive and well preserved mosaics covering the floors. I distinctly remember the scale and grandeur of these, hundreds of years after they were first laid.

My kitchen floor... and some toy dinosaurs!

I've never laid a mosaic, but I have tiled a kitchen floor, one of the pieces of DIY I'm most proud of in our house. It was very satisfying to undertake, although it took me a few days to gradually piece it together tile by tile.

Since the room had various corners I had to cut numerous tiles into different sized rectangles and squares. The end result is a uniform layout, perfectly functional for its end use.

I'd like to say at this point that life is like laying a tiled floor, you fit each regularly shaped tile together to make the desired pattern, but in reality it's much more like making a mosaic.

The tiles we're working with are irregular, often small, and multicoloured.

"I'd like to say at this point that life is like laying a tiled floor"

In recent years, mosaic posters have come into fashion. From a distance, the poster looks like a regular picture - maybe a film star or a landscape - although a little pixelated. but upon closer inspection each of the pixels, each of the tiles is it's own image. Depending on your perspective, you'll see something completely different.

I like this as a life metaphor (I feel like I spend a lot of time looking for metaphors about life in the world around us). Each day we live it's like we're placing a new tile in the mosaic of our life. We may not get the whole sense of the big picture, and we'll see different pictures within the bigger one depending on where we look.

Stained glass

The beauty of the Roman mosaics at Fishbourne are the exquisite animals and people they depict, in particular the famous dolphin mosaic. What strikes me is that to make exquisite art you actually need irregular shapes, broken pieces. Whilst my tiled kitchen floor is a masterpiece in my own opinion, it's purely functional!

"To make exquisite art you actually need irregular shapes, broken pieces."

St. Philip's cathedral in Birmingham is home to gigantic stained glass windows designed by the eminent pre-Raphaelite artist Sir Edmund Byrne-Jones, and made by William Morris.

They depict various scenes from the life of Jesus, in rich coloured glass. Depending what time of day you visit, and the light outside, the colours seem to vary so that the images look different every time. I love sitting in the hush of the cathedral and drinking in the vibrant colours.

The reason I mention these windows is that, like the best mosaics, they're made up of thousands of broken pieces of glass. Often its the parts of our lives that we feel are most broken which can end up making the most beautiful artwork in our life.

"No matter what tiles life has dealt us... we can be confident a masterpiece will emerge."

I wish I had a deep and profound ending this week, but I don't. Instead I just want to leave us with encouragement that no matter what tiles life has dealt us, even the broken ones, if we place those broken pieces in the hand of a loving creator, we can be confident that a masterpiece will emerge. We're all messy mosaics, and that's ok.

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Thanks for taking the time to read Messy Mosaics. If you've enjoyed it please share it with your friends on social media! Why not subscribe to The Potting Shed Podcast on iTunes or Stitcher for expanded musings and much more (direct RSS feed is here). 

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Releasing your song

The streets of Riga...

Some years ago I found myself in a bar in Riga, Latvia with two of my closest friends. It was a quirky locals bar off a backstreet, but we didn't feel unwelcome, and we were swapping stories and reminiscing as old friends do.

"Some years ago I found myself in a bar in Riga..."

As the minutes stretched into hours the bar filled up, but we weren't really paying attention so long as we weren't getting in anyone's way and there was space at the bar to order the next round.

All of a sudden the place erupted into song, catching us quite off guard. We hadn't noticed that as people had arrived many of them had brought instruments with them, and now we found ourself in the midst of an uplifting and moving moment. Rich vocal harmonies blended with folk instruments and much foot stamping and table thumping, and I for one was captivated by the emotion, the passion and the music.

It was honestly one of the most memorable and moving moments of my life, and every now and then the memory surfaces and a smile creeps across my face. I later read that Latvia has a proud musical tradition, and that certainly came across during that experience.

"...all of a sudden the place erupted into song"

"Alas for the one that never sings but dies with their songs still in them" - Anon

Like the Latvians that night, we all have a song in us of one kind or another. Not necessarily words and music, but that thing that makes our soul sing. Alas indeed if we never manage to express that. 

Are you thinking in terms of hits and misses?

One limiting mindset that can inhibit us in releasing our life-song is comparison with people who excel in our chosen area. 

We can get sucked into thinking of life as hits and misses. Unless we're a hit then we must automatically be a miss. 

And of course, if you grew up in the late 20th century then you know that hits are few and far between.  Thinking in this way can stifle our own song, perhaps we even choose to keep it in rather than be an automatic miss.

"We all have a song in us of one kind or another"

The thing is, as we've moved into the 21st century, the idea of hits and misses has been completely turned on it's head, a concept that Chris Anderson explores in his book The Long Tail: How Endless Choice is Creating Unlimited Demand. Unlike the TV and radio age, when hit makers filtered and selected what they considered would be a hit, in the internet age it's all about unlimited choice. Chris Anderson calls this the long tail - the bottom of an exponential graph as it tends towards zero. The funny thing is that given this abundance of choice, many people aren't choosing the hits, but instead they're looking for specific niches in the long tail. 

Big retailers like Amazon and iTunes have found that a significant proportion of their sales are from this long tail - from all the niches. Niches that would have been "misses" in a previous age, but which can now reach their full audience through the empowerment of distribution that the internet brings.

"What this means for you and me is that we don't need to be intimidated by the hits we see around us."

Don't wear someone else's armour!

What this means for you and me is that we don't need to be intimidated by the hits we see around us. We shouldn't hold in our song, but fully express it, in all our quirky individualism. Why? Because other quirky and individual people will appreciate it! We don't need to feel pressured to copy others, instead we are free to release our own song.

I'm reminded of the story of David and Goliath. One detail in the story is that King Saul, the big hit in Israel - the King himself - suggests that the shepherd boy David wears his armour. David tries it on but it doesn't fit, it's too heavy. 

David ditches the king's armour and faces the giant in his own way. We all know the end of the story.

You don't have to wear someone else's armour. You don't have to sing someone else's song. In the age of the long tail there is space for all of us to be completely ourselves. To contribute our own voice and allow our own soul to sing. 

"So don't stifle your soul song"

You're probably not Latvian. You may not be a hit or a king. But one thing you're not is a miss. So don't stifle your soul song, but ditch comparison, ditch the king's armour and go be all you're made to be.

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Thanks for taking the time to read Releasing Your Song. If you've enjoyed it please share it with your friends on social media! Why not subscribe to The Potting Shed Podcast on iTunes for the audio version and much more (direct RSS feed is here). 

I'd love to hear from you, so feel free to comment below or email me at stricklandmusings@gmail.com 

If you want to stay up to date please sign up to my mailing list, and do check out my book Life Space on Amazon.

Settlement

It's good to escape from it all at times

My family and I recently spent a week’s holiday camping in mid-Wales. It’s great to take time out
together, and in particular this holiday we avoided screen-time – not only to preserve phone batteries but also because we were so deep in the countryside that we didn’t even have phone signal.

This was a blessing in disguise as it took away the temptation to check my phone every five minutes for blog traffic, podcast downloads and emails.

Away from the whirling, churning daily distractions my mind was able to settle, slow down, and in the process I was able to find some additional clarity to thinking that had become muddy and opaque.

"Away from the whirling, churning daily distractions my mind was able to settle"

Now I’m not saying that smartphones, emails and the like are all bad – they’re not. But they do tend be party to an overall speeding up of our lives, and for all their positives they can make it harder to switch off. We can feel like we need to be constantly available to others - our friends, our employer. In reaction, it’s therefore healthy to occasionally re-orient and re-calibrate ourselves – to allow ourselves to switch off and slow down. To make ourselves available to our own feelings, dreams and thoughts. It’s often in these times that our priorities become clearer as the turbulence settles out.

I’m reminded of a science experiment about sedimentation that I must have done in primary school. We filled a bottle with water, sand, soil and pebbles of different sizes, then shook the bottle up. At the beginning the mixture was cloudy and turbulent, but over time the particles settled out, the bigger ones ending up nearer the bottom and the lighter ones near the top – the water cleared and the layers of different particles were easy to differentiate.

"There’s much to be said for being still and for allowing space in our lives for ideas, dreams, emotions and thinking to percolate."

Has your thinking become muddy?

Like the materials in the bottle, it’s often our lives that are the turbulent, turbid muddy waters – and we all need regular time for things to settle out.

Since we home educate our kids, a practice we enforce with them is the daily pattern of quiet time. Usually either just before or just after lunch they have an hour or so playing separately in their own rooms. No screen time, just imaginative play or reading.

We find that it really helps them to process not only the learning they’ve been doing that day, but also the emotions they’ve been feeling. It’s a time for those muddy waters to settle out. If they’ve been particularly energetic we often find them asleep!

There’s much to be said for being still and for allowing space in our lives for ideas, dreams, emotions and thinking to percolate. One of my little weekend treats is making myself a cafetiere of proper coffee on a Saturday morning (just decaf these days). It’s something I can’t rush – I need to leave it to brew for it to gain strength. 

Sloe gin and damson vodka take time to mature...

Similarly, just this week I’ve started making a batch of damson vodka. This is also a long process – having frozen and defrosted the damsons (to break the cell structure down a bit), I’ve mixed them with sugar and vodka in a sealed jar.

Every day or so for the next few months I need to shake the jar up to allow the damson flavours to seep out and for the liqueur to develop. Unlike the sediment jar, this mixture starts out clear but will eventually turn crimson the longer it’s left.

The rich and strong flavours of our lives often come out when left to settle, perhaps even when we have the right balance of mixing and settling.

Sedimentary rocks form as layers upon layer of sediment settle at the base of rivers, seas and lakes, gradually turning from soft particles into hard bedrock. AsI’ve said before, our days accrete into the bedrock of our lives like individual pieces of lego, or the particles in a sedimentation jar. Which leads me to ask myself, what layers am I putting down and is it what I want to form my bedrock?

"The rich and strong flavours of our lives often come out when left to settle"

It can be hard to slow down, settle and be still in our daily lives. Holidays are great, but most of our waking time is in the midst of the turbulent day to day. One resource that’s help's me to slow down is my friend Stefan Smart’s book “Deeper”, which is about forming habits of contemplative prayer. I’ve also recently enjoyed Nathan Foster’s book “The making of an ordinary saint”, in which he tells the story of the successes and frustrations he experienced on a journey into various spiritual disciplines in his day to day “normal” life. Much of this was about slowing himself down.

What's taking up space in your jar?

There's a parable about priorities in our lives in which a teacher fills a jar with golf balls or big rocks and asks his class if it's full. They reply yes. 

He then fills it with pebbles, which fill the gaps between the golf balls. He asks the question again, and the class agree it's full. 

He then repeats this with sand and then finally with water. Each time the class agrees the jar is full!

The metaphor is that if you fill your life with small stuff like material possessions etc then there isn't room for the big important stuff - health, family, relationships. 

It's about getting your priorities right, and I think it's a helpful metaphor. Sometimes to see what room is in our jar we need to let things settle out.

"Sometimes to see what room is in our jar we need to let things settle out."

So whether you’re feeling shaken up at the moment or not, I hope you can find some time this week to settle down and be still, and in the process to gain strength and enable the rich flavours of your dreams and talents to form.

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Thanks for taking the time to read Settlement. If you've enjoyed it please share it with your friends on social media! Why not subscribe to The Potting Shed Podcast on iTunes for the audio version and much more (direct RSS feed is here). 

I'd love to hear from you, so feel free to comment below or email me at stricklandmusings@gmail.com 

If you want to stay up to date please sign up to my mailing list, and do check out my book Life Space on Amazon.

Beacon Keepers

Is your beacon lit?

There's a scene in the film The Return of the King when the kingdom of Gondor is in dire need, and they light the chain of emergency beacons to summon aid from the neighbouring kingdom.

This is my favourite scene from the whole trilogy, and I always get a bit emotional when I watch each beacon light up, creating a chain across the mountains.

Thanks to the beacons, and the diligence of the beacon keepers, the message gets through and aid is sent on it's way.

"Beacons are important, but they're also lonely mountaintop places."

A few years ago, in celebration of the Queen's diamond jubilee, the beacons were lit all across the UK. Our nearest one was visible from our upstairs windows, and the day before it was due to be lit we climbed the hill to find a giant pile of pallets and brush standing ready to be lit. Whilst it wasn't quite as dramatic as the scene from The Lord of the Rings, it was exciting when darkness fell and we watched from a distance as the fire blazed into life.

The Jubilee Beacon we visited...

Beacons are important, but they're also lonely mountaintop places. They encourage people from afar, but the beacons themselves aren't accessible for many.

In this way I think they make a good metaphor for our creative gifts. How often do we feel a little lonely on our mountaintop, steadily building our beacon ready to be lit?

It can feel isolating putting in the hard graft, crafting our words into coherence, making our art - whatever it looks like. Placing our talents like the wood of the beacon, ready to catch fire. Being a beacon keeper.

And yet, if those manning the beacons gave up then the chain would be broken. The message wouldn't get through to those who need it. It's important work! Your gifts and talents are important too. Your contribution is for the benefit of others, like a beacon. As much fun as it can be to pile your wood up, the real benefit is for those who will see it, however far away they may be.

"If those manning the beacons gave up then the chain would be broken."

Your gifts are for others...

Whatever your gift, it's ultimately not for you. We're given treasures to give away - to hold in open hands - even though that can be a scary and vulnerable place.

Fear of criticism and rejection can tempt us to stay closed, to withhold ourselves, but our talents are needed - they're beacons for someone.

A link in a chain. A lighthouse. A landing strip. Cats eyes on a road. They provide direction and encouragement for others.

So take heart, take courage and light your beacon. Put your gifts out there where they can be seen by others.

Your talents and abilities are given for a reason, your contribution is needed - they're a beacon. And as Dr Seuss put it so well:

"You're off to great places
Today is your day
Your mountain is waiting
So get on your way"

Your mountain is waiting, it's time to build your beacon.

"So take heart, take courage and light your beacon."

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Thanks for taking the time to read Beacon Keepers If you've enjoyed it please share it with your friends on social media! Why not subscribe to The Potting Shed Podcast on iTunes for the audio version and much more (direct RSS feed is here). 

I'd love to hear from you, so feel free to comment below or email me at stricklandmusings@gmail.com 

If you want to stay up to date please sign up to my mailing list, and do check out my book Life Space on Amazon.