One Step Closer

Our plans are slowly but steadily moving towards being realised, we've been doing as much as we can to organise all our gear together for the first of our 2 fundraisers. It's been quite an unexpected emotional experience, not because of any attachment to our stuff but as my wife & I talk while we're doing things, we both have been bringing up, how great it is to be back home, our kids who are in outright bliss since getting back to their friends & playcentre & the overall show of support for us since being back.
We had both honestly thought, we were going to get back & get on with it, we are, but because there is so much to be done, just while we wait for the passports to be processed, let alone, the actual trip itself, we both decided to take a deep breath, realign the chakras & make the choice that this is going to be a wonderful & fun experience, partly so we can stay aware of what is going on around us & hopefully cover eachother, when one might miss something, but more importantly the implications for our kids. However the next few months turns out, great, terrible or by the skin of our gritted teeth, the kids, hit the jackpot, what exactly they win, is still undetermined but my bet is on something extraordinary.
So, our next step is the garage sale on saturday, & then we are driving out to the beach near our marae. It's a great place for inspiration & a way, we hope to invite more wonderful times into our lives.
Laz

Learning How To Control Your Universe.

Read any definition of control, & you'll find terms like Power or authority to check or restrain; & restraining or regulating influence, to explain the concept of control. 

For me, Control is a very strange concept because depending on the context & one's perspective of what it means to have it, it can change quite a great deal. 

Basically, as I see it, the larger the context, the less control you wield but the paradox I seem to notice in life, is that even in environments that you think you have taken out all the variables, something unexpected can happen.

Have you ever been taken so off-guard by something because your life always takes precedence over everything else? Then found that your response to it,  surprises you more?
Last Monday, a 3min phone call did that to me, and showed me that my perceived loss of control created the opportunity for me to relinquish my notions of control & consider the gravity of someone else's  situation before my own. That 3min phone call was the news that my 93 yr old maternal grandmother is gravely ill & that my mother & other members of my family were flying out on the next available flights. Our decision was quick & decisive, We're Going!
What has happened since, has been humbling but has also reinvigorated me & speaks to the philosophy at the heart of this blog. We are packing our essentials, we have given notice to the landlord, selling everything else & donating whatever we can't sell. We have seen this as an opportunity to fund our travel but more importantly a way to purge our possessions & on our return,  rebuild our lives, the way we want it,  from the ground up.
This action may sound rash, silly & even foolish but the context is very clear, money & time are the only challenges  hindering us from us being with our grandmother & our kids great grandmother, i can't do anything about time but i do have the ability to do something about the other. To accomplish this challenge, I have many personal motivations, but the predominant one comes from the pain of regret I feel,  regarding my beloved Paternal Grandparents,  Maternal Grandfather & my Uncle Fau'ese, where I hadn't been present to send off those, who were so very dear to me, who loved me more than I probably deserve & I find myself, sickened & ashamed, to have not honored & celebrated their lives, one last time.
I have promised myself that my trivial excuses, such as money, my own self-preoccupation, & procrastination will never define me again. 
So, In response to this resolution, I have been soul-searching, in order to understand the reasoning behind my actions. Besides, the obvious selfishness, it is still mostly a mystery to me but what I can gather is that in my time on the planet thus far, I've learnt that in my life, like in my marriage, I don't know much of anything and that in the scheme of things, I don't really get a say in much that really goes on & that things will happen, regardless of whether or not I understand why or how they happen.
What I have been able to click to, is that life gives you the opportunity to master the appropriate parts of your universe, not by controlling it but by embracing the role you have in it, by being aware that the excitement of life comes from participating without agenda & the feeling of living your life fully comes from a departure from being the center of your universe & happily experiencing it unfold, despite the fact, it's not on your terms. Laz

Quick Update

Once again apologies are in order, since I wrote last, my world has been in warp speed & I have not had web access. So I'm giving a preview of a more comprehensive update which will i will write later.
Firstly, Mum is doing great after surgery, she will be back at work in a couple of weeks & we will be heading home.  In another turn of events my maternal Grandmother is gravely ill & family has been flying back to Tonga to be with her, & thats what my family & I are intending,  we are packing up the house & hoping to be there first week of October.
Now, there are a few other things but these are most important.
Be back soon. Laz

The Law of Quality Control

Firstly, Apologies for the lack of posts this week,  It hasn't been out of laziness or forgetfulness but from identifying priorities.  I have travelled to be with my family who have been taking care of my mum-in-law following surgery.  It has been two weeks since we've been together so it is a welcome and much anticipated reunion.
Now, in such situations, mortality tends to crystallise the priorities in one's life and in my case reinforces my resolve to pursue what i hold most important.  Since reuniting, my awesome wife and I have been talking at length about what exactly it is we will be pursuing for the remainder of this year.  And we've decided on on the face of it, may seem quite radical but to us, seems to be the natural progression.
The rest of the year will lay out approximately like this, we will help our mum recuperate for the next few weeks then return home, where we will proceed to take inventory of all our possesions and put some of them up for auction online and the rest will be donated to anyone who might find them useful.We've given ourselves 6-8 weeks to do this and tie up all loose ends.
Once we've done this, off we go to visit our parents, so our kids can see them before we hit the road for about 4-6 weeks to visit with many relatives my wife & I haven't seen for many years or maybe just briefly because of a death.  We believe that telling the ones you love that you love them, is of utmost importance & deserves priority since we also have plans for travel overseas & would not want to leave these sentiments unsaid.This is also a great opportunity to present our children(our greatest accomplishment) to these most cherished people.
So, I guess we're at about the first week of December, we will be heading back to our parents to share the Christmas vibe for 7-10 days before going to where my wife comes from.  This is a tradition we have been trying to establish, where we head back to our family Marae(Meeting House/Family Homestead) for Christmas and New Years.  The Marae is situated near the coast and we will be living off the land & sea for about 4- 6 weeks.
O.K. this is rough outline of how the remainder of the year will happen. I get more excited, just typing this out because it is something that has been brewing for many months & now is just about within grasp.  Now, the law of quality control has been helping us out so much and keeping us motivated. We've seen Quality Control as focusing on incremental daily improvements to our lifestyle, routine, relationship etc. This has given us freedom to dream big but stay pragmatic & not overestimate what we can achieve daily but concentrate on making small but key adjustments to improve our daily life and then over time, the improvements spike & we have a great leap in progress.

So, as this applies to this blog, I have decided to post twice a week, so my posts can be of greater quality & probably more important, allow things to happen. I will try Mondays & Thursdays to begin with, and adjust accordingly.  Until next time,Laz

Looking To The Future.

Well, here I am at the end of my first week blogging, so what do I think so far? I think that the more I write, the more I need to focus my thoughts. When I was thinking of starting this blog, I was imagining chronicles of my intrepid journeys, the proverbial David & Goliath storyline, where my family & I fight through the laughter and tears and almost insurmountable odds to fufil the dream.
Yet what seems to be crystallising is that this can only be half the story. If I am to tell this story, I feel, how the journey affects us is much more important than the story of obtaining money to obtain objects, or to pay for new experiences in foreign places, or even reaching self-sustainability where we don't tax the worlds resources.
My story lies in the pursuit of happiness, in ideas and principles that for me supercede conforming to the norm, it demands forging ahead and beyond what we feel are our limits are to become our "superselves" so others can and will attain it as well. History has shown us that never before has there been so much opportunity for those of us in the masses, to be exceptional, and I mean that in every sense of the word, ecologically, academically, morally, financially and more.
I am not the smartest man but what I do know is that there are many distractions around that take our eye off what we want most, for what we want now and I need this blog to chronicle my journey, to share my aspirations and honestly detail my experience, so myself and others can grow. And in that idea is the point of this blog, it is to dedicate it to the help, in any way, shape or form to help others, as an old Maori proverb states so eloquently, "What is the most important thing? I say, It is people, It is people, It is people".
In my next post, I'm going to share some of our goals for the rest of the year, I hope to see you soon. Laz

Somewhere To Lay My Head

My beautiful wife & I have been researching many different types of housing for our future dream home. Our criteria revolves around Eco-friendly, sustainable and cost effective housing and this has given us a range of different designs that I think suits our quirky sense of style. From our sessions of brainstorming, we've incorporated a few different styles including recycling shipping containers, a traditional japanese style house, a converted double garage and the exciting new discovery of my wife (wonderful girl isn't she!!!), Yurts, which are based on the Mongolian Gurs, which is basically a circular tent reinforced with a wooden lattice frame. Now, this has a great design, which you can have a stove inside and has a history of standing up to the most horrendous weather and then you can pack it up and move on, not that I'm thinking of that but it's nice to have the option, especially when the kids get older.
OK, so why so many designs? Our design is based on pods, instead of having one main house with everything in it, we wanted to have purpose built structures connected by boardwalks. One of the main reasons we chose this way, is that it gives us a chance to start basic and let it grow. Now, at this point, i'd like to point out that we don't have anywhere to build yet, so we are saving and stockpiling resources but most importantly, educating up on everything we will need to design, build, power and sustain this lifestyle. So I guess there's quite a bit to do but I do think that's where the fun begins, because necessity is the mother of all invention and I'm really interested myself, on how we are going to make this happen.
Here's a basic overview of what structures we are looking at and there functions. Firstly, a double garage, which will be our main indoor living area and the place visitors will first enter. Instead of a concrete floor, I'd like a wooden floor so we can insulate from below and replacing the garage door with bi-fold doors, so you can open it right up to nature. There will be a ranch slider at the rear to be able to get to the other structures. At first, our family will be living in here until the other structures go up.
Our bedrooms will be the Yurts, the kitchen & dining room & storage will be a combination of 10ft, 20ft & 40ft shipping containers. The Bathroom, which will include washroom, shower & bath will possibly be adobe mud brick, as we still researching what will suit us best for a wet area. Our toilets will be a boys & girls dual structure, boys side will have a urinal and toilet and girls will have two toilets. These toilets will be housed in either adobe mud brick or recycled wood, all toilets will be compost toilets (great for compost for our organic garden).

We have also decided to have a traditional style japanese, one level house to serve as a sanctuary, for yoga, meditation etc, a workshop/ studio, which will be either another double garage or a barn style structure so we can have a mezzanine floor. Now what dream house would be complete without a sauna and last but not least, a rotunda, which is a great place to chill out or even double as an extra room, with some netting in the summer.

I know it sounds like a lot but we've got a lifetime to make it happen but I honestly believe that we'll be breaking ground by my 40th birthday, which is in 3 & half years. I hope to have a draft of the layout soon and look forward to any ideas or advice. Be back soon, Laz

Waterfalls

I went for a walk after dinner tonight, nothing unusual in that, besides the fact that I went a new route, just for something different. So I'm walking for a while and notice that I've never been this way before but even stranger, I start thinking about this paper that used to be delivered in my town when I was a kid, that was written for kids, The Grapevine.
Now I used to love this paper and looked forward to it every month. These articles were quirky, funny and really eye opening but the thing I looked forward to most were these one line pearls of wisdom that lined the bottom of every page and now in retrospect, these probably had a big influence during my adolescence.
I used to read them all first before going through the rest of the paper and just reliving it again was making me grin, bigger and then uncontrollably, so much so, I just about fell over. After getting myself together, I noticed I was near this park that has a waterfall, with a 15 or 20m drop, so I head down there and I am just standing on the viewing platform, mesmerized by this waterfall and I'm feeling this weird mixture of vertigo (cos i feel like can't stand properly), fear, cos I feel it drawing me in, (and for some reason, I want to jump), and at the same time really zen (for the lack of a better term).
So, on the way home, a lot of things were bouncing through my mind and I'm trying to just understand what had just happened when suddenly a new feeling came over me, something I hadn't felt since my daughter was about one & a half, I wanted to write poetry (spoken word) again. As i kept walking, ideas and concepts start appearing then evolving, now it's words into lines and then to a verse, and then all too soon, I was walking into my driveway, then I'm in the house writing a draft, and now I'm here writing this post, basically to help me process it all.
OK, what's that all got to do with "The Grapevine", well, that little paper helped me a lot, so, if my poems and stand-up routines are constructed properly, I can pass that help along and it gets me closer to realizing my dreams. Laz