Perhaps this is the essence of Pooh’s wisdom. For like Christopher Robin, we too can arrive at any of these desired future states if we employ the courage to walk away from where we’ve been and by continuing to trust the values and knowledge, we all possess in such unique ways as the primary instruments we can masterfully utilize to accomplish our goals.
But I always like to keep my hand in on a few smaller projects at all times too. They keep me grounded. They bring me out to real people, living real lives, with real housing issues. No matter how small their individual project may be on the global scale, for them, it is the biggest project in the world.
16 years ago this week I was lying on a bed in the intensive care unit of Liverpool University hospital. My face looked as if somebody had just exploded a bomb in the middle of my head. Against great odds, I was still alive after some of the most complex surgery that is possible.
These days, I regularly find myself carrying out a review of each day. In a busy life, it appears to be a little mechanism that has evolved to help me keep some kind of check on progress, or otherwise. A daily instrument to help me impose some order on an often hectic schedule.
Many people have asked me what goes through your head in the middle of an extreme cancer battle. Where did I find the resolve to keep going when everything looked so dark? And did I take anything from the experience that I still apply in my life today?