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282 | 365 Meals

I think having meals together in each other’s homes is dramatically undervalued. Over the years I have come to love having people at our place for meals. Don’t get me wrong, I love going out for dinner, but at home we, our guests included, tend to relax more, talk more openly, and be more authentic.
 
Had Francis and Delwyn for dinner. They are an awesome couple we are blessed to call friends.

265 |365 Transformers

Nick tries to figure out a schizophrenic toy, first its a man, then a jet, then a man again.

232 |365 Food that connects us.

“Come around an get your feet under the table,” Jack would say. What my mentor from 20 years ago meant by that was, ‘come around, sit at our table, enjoy Grace’s home cooking, and lets talk or chew the fat together’.

Long meals, great food & drink, laughter, discussion, debate, hospitality, genuineness, caring and love. That’s what getting your feed under the table means.
 
At our place getting our feet under the table is a priority. Eating my wife’s incredible cooking and discussing everyone’s day connects us, it forces us to ask and teaches us to listen.
 
It strengthens us, and our kids really enjoy it.

[232|365 Food that connects us – Went in search of story on the way home and found Mizzoni selling woodfired pizza. It looks good, and they do lunch at Maui St on Wed/Thu]

204 | 365 Community

People greeting, food eating.

Parents talking, kids squawking.
 
Life sharing, friends caring.

Community.

177 | 365 Things we value

Money is a medium of exchange for things of value. This means that we use money to buy things we value.
 
If I pay you wages it’s because I value your time and give you money. If we buy art or food or clothes or coffee or toys or random stuff. In each case we decided to spend our money on something we value.
 
Therefore, personally I value café coffee every couple of days more than other things. It’s that simple! More than saving the money, more than paying off the mortgage, more than using it towards buying my wife flowers, more than giving it to the good.trust to give to the poor.
 
If you asked me if I value coffee more than these things I would say ‘NO’, but the cold, hard reality is that the way I spend my money shows I do.
 
So if you want to see what people really value, look at how they spend their money.
 
[177 | 365 – ‘Things we value’ - Last night, I had no photo, so choose to take a photo of twenty dollar notes falling in front of my camera]

175 | 365 Numbers

Numbers are a strange part of our business and society. Even if you’re not a ‘numbers person’ and hated math, you generally spend a significant amount of time dealing with numbers. When a baby is born the question straight after their name and sex is generally, ‘how heavy?’

From then on numbers are the measure of growth, of development, of test scores, of financial stability, of success. Business is judged by numbers, evangelists record salvations by numbers, churches measure growth by numbers.

And yet.

It is almost impossible to truly measure the must important things by numbers. Good Marriages. Personal growth. Spiritual transformation. Or even happiness.

And yet.

We continue to measure by numbers.
 
[Numbers - Today was a day of numbers, of forecasting the next financial year, like I really have a clue. Will it be 1 or 2 or 4 or 2 or 2? Shot was taken at agora last night]

145 | 365 - 'Jealous?'

145 | 365 - 'Jealous?' - Friends of mine Simon and Cheree brought this VW. I want to escape in one of these, tour the country and write a book.