A Glass Full of Water

For the last 15 years, Val and I have had the joy of being ‘Santa’s little helpers’. Let me explain. Christmas is not a happy occasion for all families - putting food on the table every day can be difficult, so more expensive festive food is out of the question.   Cue to our friend who wishes to remain anonymous. Each year I get a phone call from him asking if we are free to deliver again.  Val and I meet him in a Hamilton Supermarket carpark at a pre-arranged time and day a week before Christmas. He parks his car next to ours and then we offload the most amazing array of Christmas goodies for delivery to a family. The best of meats, treats, goodies and a voucher. Laden boxes are transferred with smiles and happy conversations. In past years, he has had his own children involved in selecting suitable items and for the last two years, our Auckland granddaughter has come with us too. We hug and shake hands with our friend and tears fill our eyes. We are such big softies!  ...

How can we be kind to others if we can’t be kind to ourselves?   How can we encourage others, if we aren’t good at encouraging ourselves? How can we change our self-talk from negative to positive? I’m a stutterer. Relatively few people know this, and if you were speaking with me, you would never know. I have  come a long way from my early years, when my stutter was a form of torture. I used to make deliberate mistakes in my writing at primary school, so I wouldn’t have to read it out to the class. I would internally berate myself for mucking my words up and would run away from a ringing phone.  Asking for something in a shop was excruciating. A few people made fun of me and it hurt. I lived with a lot of fear but I had to face it and believe in myself.  Over time I had more successes in public speaking and my confidence grew. I was still a sweaty mess when I had to speak but I was getting better. Much later, when I was a guest lecturer at Waikato University in Storyt...

I saw this quote a few days ago… ‘People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care’. When I was a high school teacher in Hamilton, I had two classes of Gateway students. University is not for everyone and the boys in these classes were keen to secure a trade apprenticeship before the school year ended.  By way of explanation, the Gateway programme is designed to give students one day in the school week practical work experience in a trade workplace and a theoretical class based programme that helps the students get work ready.  The Gateway team of Manager, two administrators and me the classroom teacher worked tirelessly to get positive outcomes. On the student’s last day I would talk one on one with the student (in private) and let them know why I thought they would succeed in the next stage of their lives. I would say things such as;  “I like your work ethic, John. I think your boss will too. Your determination to succeed in plumbing has been notice...