Letters from an Interested Mother – 2

Some of the things I say are worth listening too….I promise you.

It’s only now that I realise that the wise words my Mum and Dad tried to teach us were so, so true.  Isn't it funny how it takes a lifetime to realise that we have so much to learn?  My younger self thought I knew it all.  

My generation, my friends, my views, my beliefs  this was what I thought was important, we knew it all, we had cool clothes, cool music, new attitudes to the world, to food, to the environment – move over we knew it all.

I certainly have been blessed to have lived through some interesting times – the Women’s Movement, the end of the Cold War, the Germany Wall coming down, the end of the Vietnam War, the rise in the awareness of the fragility of our environment and the ever-increasing realisation that we are what we eat, and yes these were all important movements when I was a teenager.  

I've also seen the introduction of the personal computer, (my first came with 20MB (yes that’s right) of memory and used the DOS operating system).  Then the Internet, first with just a dial-up modem and now with talk of the NBN coming soon.  These changes have also changed the way we shop, socialise and interact.  Then there is the rise in social media, smartphones and the need to be electronically connected 24/7.

For my parents, the issues were bigger and believe me much more pressing – World War 2 for instance, my father was a pilot and was away from my mother for years.  I remember when my young niece questioned why they didn't keep in touch with the phone!  So much change and everything seems to be changing faster and faster, the challenge as you get older is to embrace the change and try to keep up.

There is a cute image doing the rounds on Facebook - this was childhood for a baby-boomer - that's probably me at the desk!

I just love lists.

Whenever my life becomes busy and messy - I turn to my old friend the "To-Do List".  I know I'm not alone in this little addiction - so much to do, so little time !!! 

First, hurry down to the local stationery store and enjoy browsing through the aisles of notebooks and diaries.  I mustn't forget that there's also the App Store calling - electronic To-Do Apps for my phone or my tablet - so many choices, firstly I'll have to make a list of what I need.  Nothing calms a situation as much as a crisp clean empty page - everything suddenly becomes manageable, break the tasks down into small steps and then you have the joy of ticking tasks off as you go along.

At the moment my life is busier than normal; we are in the process of selling our business and I'm dealing with the myriad of tasks that that involves.  Everything from organising contracts with lawyers to organising storage for all our business records and there are so many tasks in between.  I also have to be careful that these tasks all take place in the background as the business goes on trading and clearing stock and all the other day to day tasks that have taken up my attention for the last 13 years.  

Now my attention keeps drifting to what to do after the business changes hand and believe me it has already taken up several new notebooks - Places to Go, People to See, Things to Experience, Books to Read............... maybe my next business venture should be around stationery - I'll have to prepare a list of pros and cons.  hahaha