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I’m late

Written by Juliet Bennett
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Time is my most valued asset. Time is money. And money (in its intended design) is a store of time. Money effectively allows us to trade our time for the time of others.

Numbers in bank accounts provide me no pleasure. It seems to provide a deluded sense of security. Financial collapses happen too regularly to place all my eggs in that basket. I’ve just been learning about Argentina in the 90s – those digits can mean wealth one day and mean nothing the next. Accumulation of capital, anything material, or even digital, has little value to me  – while time lost can never be regained.

I LOVE time alone. Time in silence. Time in chaos. Writing. Reading. Time spent deep in conversation. Time relaxing. Time eating. Time sleeping.

And there is nothing worse to me than time lost or wasted. Waiting in line. Sitting in traffic. Computers crashing. Cleaning up.

My choice of rabbit costume for my cousin’s Alice in Wonderland party was more than appropriate. In trying to maximise how I use my time I am often be running late or arrive just in the nick of time.

Strangely enough following this logic I actually like it when people are late or even when they blow off our plans (unless I’m hungry and I’m waiting for dinner) I feel like I’ve being given a gift – time I would otherwise not have had. If I’m at home this means time to clean up my messy papers, pay a bill, send an invoice – all the things I endlessly put-off ‘until tomorrow.’ If I’m out I always have a book in my bag and more than happy to sit in my car and read. Random yes I know.

I love the way sometimes time speeds up, and sometimes it slows right down. Sometimes I like to press pause – daydream, reminisce, go on a wild rollarcoaster ride of contemplation – and hit play again to realign my mind with the ticking clock.

This entry was initially inspired a few days ago when my yoga teacher told us about her friend’s parents house being destroyed by a fire. The girl got out with nothing but her mobile phone. Her parents were overseas and when she called them to tell them the news and they responded by saying: “We had too much anyway.”

“It makes you realise that the things that matter are the things that can’t be taken away from you,” her friend had said to her. “Friendships, knowledge, experiences, your yoga practice. Material assets are not what is most valuable in life… It really makes you think about where you put your time.” True words of wisdom.

Ecclesiastes 3: 1-8

A Time for Everything

1 There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under heaven:

2 a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,

3 a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,

4 a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,

5 a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain,

6 a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,

7 a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,

8 a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.

It’s quite Taoist hey! Not really what you expect in the Christian Bible (one of many unexpected things you can find in there) The whole of this short book of Ecclesiastes is an interesting and slightly depressing rant about the meaning of life – times haven’t changed as much as we’d like to think.

To conclude this messy rant about time I would like to say that there really is a time for everything. And as you all know I think it’s about time for peace.

Random Life Stuff

“I have an excellent idea – let’s change the subject!”

Written by Juliet Bennett
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My blog has gotten a quite intensely serious. Religion, philosophy and peace talk. Interesting but reflective of the subjects going on in my mind, it has become a little draining. Or maybe today I’m just a little tired. Either way I do believe I should listen to the March Hare’s excellent idea – and change the subject.

So… a question… at the end of a long relaxing shower do you ever turn the hot to off and blast yourself with cold water?

This is seriously one of the most invigorating things in the world. It’s like having ten cups of coffee – your mind becomes alert, your body stands tall and you say to yourself “YEAH BABY!” Well I do anyway. It snaps me into action. It’s like changing the subject in the middle of an intense conversation and starting a new one from scratch. For a short 30 seconds or 15 when I’m a wuss, all I think about is the feeling of cold water touching your skin, and noticing what it does to the rest of my body.

When I find my mind in a strange airy fairy place it is not until I change the subject per say, that I realise why. I realise then what has caused my mind’s confusion. There are few little things in my life that make all the difference to my mind’s coherence:

A walk – be it short or long – clears the mind.

A pilates or yoga class – be it a 20 min dvd or an hour and a half bikram class – reconnects the mind with the body.

And one of these cold bursts in the shower – makes all the wishy washy bullshit my mind has been pondering over disappear.

When I do these three things and the clouds part and the sun shines.

I’m going to keep this in mind this week and when I’m bored or tired or confused or irritated or over-it I’m simply going to change the subject.

Random Life Stuff,

Meaning of life

Written by Juliet Bennett
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Something sure to come up a lot on this blog is the question of meaning – why the f**k are we here on this planet??? It is something I contemplate regularly.

The human condition is a strange one –  born no different from other animals we are educated into languages, enculturated into structures of thinking, sets of values, morals, dreams. We grow up and play out our roles in society, dedicating our life to our relationships, our religions, our jobs, the building up materialistic goods, searching for our identity, trying to achieve the world’s ideals, create a family, pay off our mortgages or work for whatever other causes we see as valuable. But WHY??? Only to blink and find ourselves retired then old and dying. We may travel, meet people, enjoy food, beautiful sites, other cultures… still what’s the purpose of it all?

I have come across a fantastic fantastic website that contains interviews with some of the most amazing minds in our world today. www.meaningoflife.tv.

So far I’ve watched Karen Armstrong (a scholar of religion) and John Polkinghorne (a Cambridge scholar of physics and Anglican priest), and I definitely recommend both. Each interview is long but well worthwhile 🙂

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My first blog

Written by Juliet Bennett
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At the moment so much is happening every day that I feel like three days fit into one.

This morning I finish uploading the basics of this website and “took the next step” – announcing it on facebook. Facebook is interesting – with the click of a few buttons you can make a public announcement to almost everyone you know or have even randomly met somewhere along your life’s journeys.

My sister never changed her “status” to “in a relationship” until one week ago AFTER she got engaged. Her and her new man  decided to “take the next step” and pronounce their love to their worlds. I’m still yet to try out twitter – I wonder if that will be as addictive as facebook…

I felt proud as I hit the SHARE button. Even if Mr Stark did all the hard yards with getting me a good theme, the widgets tools, and fixing errors. It may be a year later than originally promised, but this site is much better than it would have been a year ago. This did mean I didn’t blog my trip to South America although I think the adventures that culminated in that trip will be best captured in a travel novel I’m working on. 500 pages of random notes! It’s overwhelming but I do get so excited every time I sit down to write… sitting on my bed with my computer in my lap I can close my eyes and be exploring Inca ruins in Peru, back on the 4wd Bolivian salt-lake tour with five gorgeous Brazilian men, or laying on the beaches of Bahia eating the fruits of paradise. Mmmmm mmmm…. South America. I’m in LOVE!

Ok, I promised myself that after setting up the basics of this website I would get into my uni readings. I read the two shortest articles for the week (only 5 long ones to go) – and then I realised I needed to order business cards today or else I wouldn’t have them for my exhibition next Tuesday. Then some work for my Dad business, and on my way home I… NEARLY DIED. Literally – I’m not just making this up to add excitement to my first blog entry.

So I was turning right off a main road and judging the distance between the oncoming traffic I decided there was space to go. Suddenly there was a big white van approaching my right hand side at an alarming speed. I pressed down on the accelerator and swerved to my left. The driver saw me and slowed down and swerved to his left. We missed each other, and missed the traffic that was approaching. My heart skipped a beat and is now a couple of hours later, still beating faster than normal. Thank you my Guardian Angel – I owe you one – AGAIN…

With a renewed appreciation for life I got home and relived our travel tradition – cooked tuna in it’s tin. And since this is a photo blog and I have to upload a photo to each blog entry so that it works, I thought I’d upload a shot of my tuna and share this tip given to me by my Israeli friend Liran Katzir on the road from Pucon in Chile, to Bariloche in Argentina – two stunning lakes and mountains districts where I had so say goodbye to my Brazilian lover (for the time being) and hello to the long road south.

Ok, so here’s the best traveler’s trick of the book:

1. buy tuna IN OIL

2. cut a square of paper towel (toilet paper will also suffice if you can stomach that idea)

3. soak the square in the oil and light the corners

4. watch the flames for 20 minutes

5. remove the paper, take a fork and enjoy!!!

Also good for lazy nights. Tonight I teamed it with a raw carrot (while waiting – 20 min is a long time when you are hungry), sweet potato and broccoli and corn – all cooked very lazily in the microwave… and Bob’s your uncle – dinner is done. Ok it’s not so glamorous but it does the job. Don’t get me wrong – I love to cook. In fact I cook for my grandfather all the time. But seriously, this tuna tastes great. And well, the vegies are good for you and with a little salt and pepper it tastes pretty alright too.

tuna on fire



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