Don't Miss the Milestone Moments Last week I flew to Wellington to surprise one of my boys. Well, technically, the family surprised him. He's in the fire service and happened to be on strike, so behind the scenes, we all quietly plotted and planned. We're quite good at that in our family. If there's an opportunity to surprise someone we love, we'll usually take it. What struck me afterwards was that while we planned the surprise, we didn't really plan much else. We simply planned to be...

I stood up and waved my hands, and apparently that’s a personality trait now Last night, I was at a Marlon Williams concert in Nelson. It was a great seat, with a lovely friend, good energy, everyone doing that very polite concert thing where we are all clearly having feelings but in a very contained, socially acceptable way. You know the vibe, hand up, nod, don’t be weird, don’t disrupt anything, just stay in your allocated emotional lane. Anyway, he asked for requests. And like most people...

I’ve learned there’s a huge difference between standing my ground and getting defensive. Standing my ground feels calm. Clear. Grounded. Defensive feels like suddenly becoming a lawyer in a courtroom drama nobody cast me in 😂 It’s the rapid explaining, over-justifying, emotionally building a 47-slide PowerPoint in the shower, trying to prove I’m a good person. Real strength is softer than I thought it was. Real strength is staying soft in the places life tried to harden you. It’s being able...