It is something I have never done before and do not see myself ever doing again.
We picked up our new car yesterday.  Oh I’ve had many “new to me” cars before but they have always been second hand ones.  This one is new new.
We loved the Rav 4.  It was ideal for what we needed it for.  It got us from a to b, it had plenty of room and we were able to transport stuff easily and well.  It was a bit of a work horse but a nice work horse.  We took several trips to the dump with green waste in it and we used to easily transport fold up tables and market items to Trash and Treasure.
Why then did we part with it?  There was something our mechanic said he had only seen in one other Rav 4.  It involved doing major work.  We knew that was coming up and the vehicle had reached the age where things would definitely start to need changing.
So Merril and I decided to bite the bullet and look for a new vehicle.  We test drove three cars.  The new Rav 4 was to claustrophobic inside.   It felt like in adding new things they had compromised the space inside.  We test drove a BYD.  It was beautiful and luxurious and had bells and whistles that amazed me.  But it did not sit on the road as we would like.  The salesman was the one we would have liked to buy from. He actually seemed human and said he had a spring in his step the rest of the day after I said something encouraging to him.
The last test drive we when with.  It was a Kia Sportage.  It did not have the bells and whistles of the BYD but it had some features new to us.  It also drove well.
I guess I am writing about it because it is new. It will not be new for long, so I guess I am striking while the iron is hot.

In the latest James Clear email there is a quote by Virginia Wolf that I reckon is spot on. “I am rooted, but I flow.”
To me that gives a real sense of where I am at.  Being rooted is in my mind an absolute necessity.  Burpengary is my home.  It s where my roots are.  We come home to a place in Burpengary, my family is there; and many of my friends hail from it or nearby.  While friends remain from where I have been new friends have been made in Burpengary.
Yet to me the last part of the quote is an absolute necessity to. “But I flow.”  Again I think that is a vital part of life.  I am involved in activities which may be a part of the community but which are vital for my mental heath.  Activities I feel I can engage in because I am rooted where I am.  Activities which take me beyond my family and which though my very involvement make the community a richer and more diverse place.  A place where I can help and be helped.
It really ties in with what I have been reading lately about the needs of a city and how if on a personal level I lack any of these things I leave myself open to a lack of wholeness.
*Government.  I need to govern myself or else I risk becoming chaotic.  I am always reminded of the riots in Los Angeles when I think of a break down in government.  It is the same on a personal level.  Not all impulses are good impulses, and it is critical I control the destructive ones.
*Industry.  All towns have a reason for being.  Many of the towns I now see disappearing  because the industries they were built on are disappearing.  I need a reason for being.  Being rooted and flowing I find are the best ways to give expression to reason for being.
*Communication.  Towns send out alerts of impending danger.  In my mind it is imperative I receive alerts to danger and avoid them.  When I am blind I fall into a ditch, but when I am guided, I avoid the ditch.
*Learning Centres.  There are a number of schools in Burpengary and uni’s are not far away.  I need to keep on learning.  Learning is a life long pursuit.  Learning is a flow.  When I cease to learn I become a stagnant pond.
*Rubbish Collection.  Even my body agrees with this one.  On a daily basis rubbish is removed.  As the middle ages and many places today show, rubbish remaining is a recipe for disease and ill health.  Personally I need to remove rubbish daily.   It is sort of humbling to acknowledge I have personal rubbish that needs removing but I welcome myself to the human race.   I reckon everyone - even when it is not acknowledged has rubbish that needs to be gotten rid of.
*Healing Centres or hospitals.  One of the biggest grips these days is the distance to help needed if not in a big city.  For me it is important help is on hand.  When I get sick or discover a sickness, it is important to me the means are available close at hand to deal with it.  Always the longer it goes on the worse it gets.
I had not thought of such things before but to me it makes sense and is worth pursuing.  Being rooted and flowing may be opposites – but they are for me necessarily lived opposites.
*Pringle, Phil. Leadership Excellence: 10 Characteristics of Great Leaders. Sydney: Pax Ministries, 2005.

Yesterday I wrote about hurry.   I have continued reading something on it and what was said made so much sense to me. “Through slowing down we intentionally develop margins in our lives that leave us open to the present moment.”
I know I have been a slave to hurry.  For years the train to work was time to work on other things.  Work was work and I ensured I was actively engaged.  At each break I would work on other things and the journey home was a time of more work.
It is only now, (and better late then never I say) I see the value of standing still, of going apart from the crowd and having  a rest.
I really loved what I was reading.  The author was suggesting ways of slowing down and he mentioned one thing I thought was great.  He said he sometimes deliberately gets in a longer que.  I have never done that and actually found that so often the other que moves faster.  Yet he said he saw things he would have missed.  Like the mum and kids with their hands full, or the old lady having trouble with her change and helping her out.
I like that because going slower often reveals what really matters.  I am a firm believer in the fact that what I achieve is important but secondary to who I have gotten to know and assisted.
It is funny how when Merril and I are stuck in traffic we often say, “I would have missed that.”  Often it only by slowing down I see.
It has hit me in recent times how I was adhering to a quick timetable of my own making.  Growth takes time.  A child grows into an adult at a pace that cannot be hurried.  I may want instant results, but more is often achieved by allowing the time for a matter to take its course.
The desire for a particular result does not change but the methodology does.  I reckon it is a good thing to sometimes say to myself, “relax.”