Be like water...

"Be like water making its way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way round or through it. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves.

Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water my friend."

~Bruce Lee

Lately I've been really aware of the need to be flexible, pliable, teachable... to adjust to events and expectations around me while still being able to hold onto what I feel is true for me.

Trees and buildings that are rigid and stand firm against the elements are more prone to breakages, but trees that can sway in light breezes or gale-force winds and structures that compensate for extremes in temperature by allowing room for expansion/contraction have a greater chance of surviving in one piece over long periods of time or when things get hairy.

I feel really bad

This afternoon, I went out to the backyard to paint some boxes for the pinhole cameras I'm making. As I got to the bottom of the ramp, I discovered a dead baby Blue Tongue Lizard among the grass and fallen leaves.

I must have squashed it when I went to the clothes line this morning.

Crawly things are not generally my favourite, but you were pretty cute.

I'm so very sorry little lizard...

Jellyfish is an r-tard...

... but this is so freakin' funny!!!!

Crikey!

I find it interesting, and perhaps a little confusing, that people would be so devistated by the loss of a public figure they have never met.

A few weeks ago, Steve "Crocodile Hunter" Irwin was killed when a stingray barb pierced his heart. A tragic event in anyone's estimation and I was as shocked as anyone when I read it in the paper, but I had no idea it would bring such an outpouring as the emotional tidal wave that seems to have struck the earth.

I've spent the best part of the last week processing some of the 20,000+ condolence emails that were sent in relation to his passing. Of course there were plenty of Aussie and American ones, but I was more than a little surprised by some of the far flung places that people had been touched by Steve's enthusiasm for animals and the environment.

There were plenty of sappy (read: so over the top they nearly made me gag) messages that seemed like people felt they had to write something just to say they had.

Other people felt that they should offer to be there to talk to if the family need it and left their contact details. It's kind of nice I guess, but why would you write to or call a random stranger when your husband/son/father has just died?

We also had quite a few nasty ones that had me wondering why a person would even bother to do the Google search to find the website. I mean really. If these people stopped to consider how they would feel if someone wrote these things about one of their dead family members, I'm sure they would think twice about posting such dreadful things.

One message brought tears to my eyes on Friday. An Australian who had been living overseas for several months in a country where he was about the only English speaker. In his loneliness he found a connection to his home country through watching Steve's shows and the news had hit him fairly hard. The message was full of such raw emotion that I am in tears again as i think about him now.

I think my favourite ones were from kids. So honest in sharing how they felt about the situation and there were definately no flowery speeches composed in order to impress the reader. Just plain and simple stuff like "Dear Bindi and Bob, I'm sorry that your Dad got stinged by a stingray. I hope you feel better soon. He was a good crocodile hunter".

What is it that makes people form such deep connections to a celebrity (they have never met) that they feel as though one of their own family members has passed away. What will they fill this emptiness with when their "grief" subsides?