A bumper sticker caught my eye as I was driving to a client today. It read: No one actually gives a shit what you think!

This got me thinking (again) about what Richard Rohr has to say about the two stages of life, narcism, ego development and whether we think we are the centre of the world. For a toddler, they have to be the centre of the world. It’s a prerequisite for ego and identity development. It’s the incessant “Look at me, look at me!” of toddlers at play. Daniel, at nearly two, is all about that. His daily word count is made up primarily of “Look Daddy!”, repeated ad nauseum. He jumps. Look Daddy. He sits. Look Daddy. He goes to sleep. Look Daddy.
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This year has kicked off with a flourish and I’ve been left with a few sensations of things that were brewing in my sub-conscious over the holidays (that I would have ordinarily reflected upon and processed while sitting on the beach, but alas, parenting requirements too precedence).

What has been lurking below the surface is best described as a feeling of loss regarding novelty. Let me give you an example. I love epic movies. The Lord of the Rings Trilogy  was a serious highlight for me during the years in which they were released. There is just something about the opening scens of an epic movie that move me! Movies just don’t move me like that anymore. The novelty of that experience has now become, well, bland. I’ve been drawn to Richard Rohr’s teachings on Adult Christianity where he teaches about the two stages of life and spirituality. I’ve now realised that feeling associated with a loss of novelty in life is actually a symptom of my transition into the second stage of my life.  Read the rest of this entry »

Being this side of 30 years of age has made me a little more serious about life. So, in an effort to restore some fun into my life, in a serious kind of way, I decided to play the share market a little. I haven’t been able to invest millions, but the little bit that I have invested has been hard earned & I watch it daily to make sure the companies I chose treat it nicely.

Here are some reflections on the experience of being a first time share investor – it’s a story of frustrations (mainly) and a bunch of unanswered questions (that no one seems to ever tell you about). Many of these reflections would be “duh, didn’t you know?” kind of things for the experienced traders, but I am a novice and hopefully these reflections will assist some newbies in cracking it into a generally unfriendly field.

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At 22h15 this evening I would have been a father to Daniel James Choles for exactly one year.

Happy birthday my boy. Read the rest of this entry »