Taking Stock ...

Sometimes it is important to sit back and take stock.  Of your life, of the people you love, of the world in general and your little slice of it....

Earlier today I read a post on the blog of a friend of mine.  She has decided to stop writing her blog (as it is) and take a break and will start a new blog when she is ready.  I took a moment to scan through some of her updates over the past years - happiness, sadness, joy & laughter, family celebrations, remembering those who have passed away.... it was a capsule of her life over a number of years.  And boy, has it changed!  Good luck my friend in the new chapter...!

So, it set me to thinking.  Here I am now, sitting in a well-known Cafe in Windsor, sipping on a Latte, browsing the web on my iPad.  Very Metro-sexual, urban, man about town.

About 10 years ago I remember writing an email to my folks, using my laptop connected to my Nokia 'Communicator'. 

I was sitting on a train as I headed from London to Birmingham for a business trip - so impressed with the advance in technology .... with all it's intermittent jumps and starts, limited bandwidth (heaven forbid I wanted to download a photograph) and dodgy cell coverage.

And in the 90's (1997?) I remember sitting in my office in Cape Town, talking to my father who was in Greyton, marvelling that I was watching a live feed from the Mars Rover (on Mars..!), via a series of satellites, computers in the US and technology all over the globe....  

How my Dad would have loved the technology of today.  How much it has changed in the 35 years since I left school, full of the boundless optimism of youth, ready to grab life and squeeze every last drop out of it, like some big, juicy lemon.  

I had no idea what to expect ... as, I expect, was the case with all of my fellow school-leavers.

Over the years I have watched them (some of them) as their lives unfolded in all sorts of unexpected ways.  One of my best friends (we'll come back to her in later blogs) was told she would "never amount to much" by a teacher.  She is a millionaire business-owner, wife and mother now (and a very good friend).

Another really close friend was a real health & fitness guy, always running, playing sport, eating healthily ... he died before he even reached 30.  Very sad.  I've watched and (hopefully) helped with a shoulder to cry on - as various friends suffered marriage breakdowns, mental health problems, depression and any number of other life-altering experiences.  As I have myself.

One school friend - a lovely, lovely woman in every sense of the word - was communicating with me (technology again) as we both fought cancer.  I was lucky - her family still suffer the huge loss she left behind.  Bon voyage Helen, you were the very best of us all.

So - if I take the moment to look at my life now and how it has changed over the 35 years since I left school - I am amazed.  At the luck I have had, the wonderful people I have met and who have so enriched my life; my Mum (and Dad, bless him), my wife & family, career and material success, the ability to participate in this fantastic technology....  I really can't complain.

I am but one apple in the orchard, but I have been so lucky and I am so grateful for it all.