The important stuff

24 hours in the middle of nowhere.

24  hours of beauty, adventure, laughter, great food, incredible people. Right now, I'm feeling a little sunburnt (I love New Zealand winter), a lot sleepy and a huge amount in pain (I can't work out whether my quads are more sore from walking down 818 steps or my calves from walking back up them.)

What a weekend.

I think there's something about beauty and adventure with the right people that gets you thinking, gets you talking. Maybe it's because there's not a lot else to do on a 3 hour drive or after it gets dark and the only things around you are trees, possums and a long drop.

We had some good conversations. Real conversations. Conversations fuelled by mulled wine, the sound of the waves and the light of a candelabra made out of pipes. A lot of questions were asked, a lot of thoughts were thought. 

What are your goals? What's the one word you would like people to use to describe you? What is the one thing you would change about your past if you could?

I'm coming to realise how important it is to have those conversations, to think about more than what you're going to have for dinner, to talk about more than what you did last weekend. I think it's important to give yourself the time and space to think about those things. And I think it's important to have people in your life who can and will ask you those questions. 

  

 Why? 

Because routine and busyness and ambitions and responsibilities, while they may be good things, have a way of taking over our lives and pushing us off course unless we step back from them once in a while.

So, go ahead...find yourself a stunning place, gather some good friends, sit around a fire, fill yourselves with roast lamb or pavlova or coffee and give some time to asking the important questions, reflecting on the important stuff.

You never know where it will lead you to.