Dreamlining


I have had so little time for blogging recently (or anything else for that matter!). Work seems to have enveloped me once again but now we are halfway through the term and I am finding some semblance of normality again (at least for this week). What this lull has given me is time to really let stuff from Tim Ferris' 4 hour work week percolate in my thinking.

I am most intrigued by the notion of goal setting for your dreams. He calls it 'dreamlining' and the cool thing about dreamlining is that it gets you dreaming and setting your dreams into a time line. It's a way of making any dream achievable.
The Vacuum
The first part of dreamlining is to come up with some dreams for your life. You can do this by praying, thinking about things you've always wanted to do, or talking with your partner. However, I found this task realy difficult. Tim calls this a vacuum which is created through work. I believe it can be created through a number of things such as the day to day happenings of life, and barriers such as time and money. I mean how many of us bother dreaming about things that are too expensive for our budgets, let alone have the time to sit and think anyway? So, I had a vacuum.

So here's the first step to claiming back dreams and disabling the vacuum
Find some time to sit and ponder these questions, or at least have them running around in your brain while you go aout your business.
Come up with 5 answers to each of the following:
1.What do you want to have?
2.What do you want to be?
3.What do you want to do?

Good luck with those! Next time let's talk about combating that biggest of all barriers: Realism!

My Grandma

This is my Grandma.

She turned 86 on March 4th. She has dementia and is in the final stages. She has been on a journey to the end of her life for about 13 years, starting with a small mini stroke, then a series of mini strokes which affected the frontal lobe and damaged the memory parts of her brain resulting in a gradual decline in her short term and then long term memory. She doesn't remember me but sometimes I wonder if she does for split seconds. She is bed ridden now and it feels sad.

But, there are many blessings.

Grandma lived in Canada for all of my life. Even though we were miles apart, I had the best relationship with her thanks to many flights, phone calls and letters. In my heart I hold many awesome memories of our times together. I remember her fantastic sense of humour, the way her eye brows lift up when she is sharing a joke, her little chuckle and the wisest advise she gave me like "buy quality not quantity" when it comes to clothes, and "don't sweat the small stuff" for everything else in life. Never did I ever think we would be living in the same country. 2 years ago my Grandad died and it was decided that it would be best for Grandma if she moved back to New Zealand to be taken care of by her family. So I have had the blessing of being with her through the hardest, but most precious of times. I never thought I would have the priviledge of being around her for any part of her life.


Grandma came to my wedding, another blessing I thought would never happen. It was wonderful to have her sitting in the front row, witnessing my vows; her eldest grandchild.
This weekend Kev and I made the trip down to New Plymouth to see her after getting the call that she had rapidly deteriorated and probably wouldn't be much longer with us.
It has been a weekend of hugs, back scratches, neck rubs, head massages, hair brushing, kisses, hand holding, "I Love You"s and lots of just sitting and 'being'. Peaceful, and a priveledge.


It was hard to see her like this, but I'm glad I have. Even though she seemed to be a shell of her former self, sometimes she looked at me and raised her eyebrows, sometimes she took my hand and said something that seemed like she was emparting another piece of wisdom, sometimes she had a little chuckle with me and I caught a glimpse of the Grandma I know and love and I wouldn't have given up this time for the world. It was such a blessing.