Yesterday I was travelled from London to Kings Lynn, Norfolk for a dental practice visit.
Along the way, we pass the site of Sunday’s massive explosion in Hemel Hempstead (the largest fire in Britain since WWII) and saw the 70 mile smoke stack rising West across the sky – quite awe inspiring in a gloomy way and a reminder of the pollution that we create in this carbon burning age. This after my recent ezine musing on the gas guzzling vehicles I drive.
I’m working in North London this morning and have joined the commuter traffic winding it’s frustrated way towards the city. The exasperation of such travel is evidenced by the standard of driving – no quarter given.
Having reached my destination with an hour to spare, I’m sat in a cappuccino bar (again) and watching the world news on television.
This isn’t something I do voluntarily and today is a reminder of why.
How sad to see racial riots in, of all places, Sydney, Australia – a place I have visited only once on a whistle stop tour some years ago and yet I am still impressed with the place and its people.
I, perhaps mistakenly, believed that Oz would be above all that stuff – but no – bored youth choosing violence as a means of expressing their frustration (that word again).
Then the story that the Governor of California may have (or has) chosen to ignore clemency and sign the death warrant for a man who has spent 25 years campaigning for racial tolerance and non-violence, who has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize four times. The signature ending his life from a man who made his millions glorifying violence as a form of entertainment on screen.
This is all casting another pall over my day – so I’m going to focus on the positive.
1. Working with a coach in Canada last week, who expressed the view that she was tired of coaching and tired of “having to make a living”. We discussed and agreed that she may well take some time out to do voluntary service in Africa.
2. Attending a bridge call last night and discussing with another coach how he intended to bring spiritual coaching to the 81,000 people who have registered for his ezine in the last 12 months.
3. Meeting Michael Bungay Stanier last Saturday (read more in this week’s ezine – out today) and hearing his vision to “inspire a billion people with the possibility virus”;
4. Chatting to my cab driver in Toronto on Saturday night – an Ethiopian by birth who is building a life for his family in Canada and intending to return home with money and skills in the years ahead;
5. Working with a dentist and his wife yesterday afternoon on building a compelling 3-year plan to create the practice (and the life) that they really, really want to live.
We are fed a diet of gloom by the media – that’s why I don’t watch much TV or read many newspapers.
But there are people out there who are trying to change the world, one person at a time.
Today I am proud to be a coach.