"The Book That Changed My Life"

A couple of months ago we had the Festival of Golden Words, a weekend writer's festival held in the town of Beaconsfield in Northern Tas.

Free hour long sessions were held in two large marquees with some fantastic speakers. Steve Bisley, Wendy Harmer, Rachael Treasure, Sally Dingo, Fiona O'Laughlin just to name a few. We were so lucky to have such a wonderful event so close to home.
The first session we attended was featuring Richard Fidler, Philip Nitschke and Tristan Bancks.

This was a thrill for me as I'm a huge Richard Fidler fan. He is a great interviewer.
The topic they were being asked about was "The Book That Changed My Life". They each spoke on their chosen book and why it affected them the way it did.
The audience was then asked to raise their hand if they were able to identify their own Book That Changed My Life. Probably only about 20% of hands went up.

We decided to raise this question at our Book Club and to take turns to bring our book and discuss it.

Snugglepot and Cuddlepie.

That's been one so far. One member shared that this was the first book that utterly engaged her and transported her to another world so completely. It was read to her in early primary school by her favourite beloved teacher.
Even now when walking through the bush she sees a banksia flower and imagines a Banksia Man.

I did have the same experience with this book. It was read to a enraptured class sitting on a mat by an early childhood teacher. I don't recall anybody fidgeting or being disruptive, we were all just enchanted.

Now everyday I walk my dog through bushland. I often stop and run my fingers over a banksia and think of the evil characters when I see the old ones with their "mouths" and "eyes".

Pretty scary character really.
I guess among all the British stories we had, this was one we could identify with in our own surroundings. We could actually almost see these little fairies as we walked through our local bushland as children.
Whenever I see the little flower 'caps' from a gum flower, I still know a gumnut baby has lost her hat.

"Do one thing everyday that scares you."

This would be a challenge, and we might ask why would I want to?
Lately I've done some very scary things, but not every day. Most of us prefer to live safely and our own self-talk likes to keep it that way. We are our own biggest limiters. How often do we hear things like "I don't do that" or "I could never be one of those people" or "I haven't got the patience for that" ?

And even if we do step out of a comfort zone, go out on a limb, say yes to something scary, we often sabotage our very own decision with our negativity and fear.

The story of Peter in the New Testament when he walks on the water is exactly that. It's all good until he gets afraid. While walking on water probably isn't going to be one of our problems, what about when we have to do something scary? Speaking publicly for example. Putting ourselves out there for the good of others at the risk of embarrassing ourselves. Or it could be something as simple as getting dressed and leaving home.

You've really just got to let go and do it. Decide that in spite of all these negative thoughts and self talk, I'm going to do this. Be bold, grow a backbone, drink some cement, laugh at danger and face the bear!

Fake it till you make it!

I loved the interview with The Eagles on Sixty Minutes last weekend. Always been a huge Eagles fan. These guys are arguably among the top, most successful bands of my lifetime. Guitarist and vocalist Joe Walsh admitted he had no idea what he was doing. "In the music industry if you pretend that you know what you're doing, then everybody actually thinks you know what you're doing" he said with a look of perplexed amazement, "I just didn't want everybody to find out that I didn't have a clue, in retrospect, none of us really did."

It's true not only in the music industry, but in many areas of life. pretend you know what you're doing and go for it!!