A Poem from Leonard Cohen

A LIFE OF ERRANDS

If You Are Lucky
You Will Grow Old
And Live
A Life Of Errands.
You Will Discern
What People Need
And Provide It
Before They Ask.
You Will Drive Your Car
Here And There
Delivering And Fetching
And Neither The Traffic
Nor The Weather
Will Bother You
In The Least.
You Will Whip Down The 405
To San Diego
To Pick Up An Acorn
For Someone's Proverb
And So On And So Forth.
In Spite Of The Ache
In Your Heart
About The Girl You
Never Found
And The Fact That
After Years Of
Spiritual Rigor You Did Not Manage
To Enlighten Yourself
A Certain Cheerfulness
Will Begin To
Arise Out Of Your Crushed
Hopes And Intentions.
How Thirstily
You Embrace Your Next Commission:
To Sift Through The Sunglasses
At A Lost And Found
In Las Vegas
Just A Few Hours
Across The Desert.
Your Hair Is White
You Have Breasts
And A Gut
Over Your Belt
You Are No Longer A Boy,
Or Even A Man
But A Sense Of Gratitude
Enlivens Every Move You Make.
Yes, Sir, These Are The
Very Gold-Rimmed Pair
She Left In The Plastic Tray
Beside The Dollar Slot Machines.
No, Sir, I Am Not Lying.

Leonard Cohen
December 31, 1999

2006 a retrospective

Greetings for 2006,
It has been another busy year, so I thought I might write a Christmas letter to those of you that I have not had a chance to catch up with recently.

I ventured to Western Australia in early 2006 with a cycle tour from Albany to Perth over two weeks. My first trip to WA and cycling was certainly a great way to see the countryside – pristine beaches and fabulous wineries. A small accident saw me fall into a ditch and break a rib, but I managed to continue riding – sleeping hurt though!

Less than a week after I got back from WA, I participated in the Oxfam Trailwalker – a 100km walk done over 48 hours raising funds for Oxfam. The weather was terrible, it rained heavily all night, and the last section of the walk up Mount Donna Buang was shut down due to snow dumping down. Injuries meant that I had to pull out 10kms from the finish, and although I was disappointed, it was still a great accomplishment.

April was a sad time with Miss Tigger finally running out of puff and having to be put down. I still miss her company, as does Harvey who relied on her.

With such a busy start to the year, I decided to have a couple of quiet months, and put my head down and worked. I have been contracting as a Project Manager at the Mothership since July 2005. I was fortunate enough to have the mothership sponsored me for Project Manager training, and so May and June saw me successfully completing my Prince2 Foundation and Practitioner qualifications.

September saw me thinking towards the future, and I purchased a new unit in Kensington. The long term view is to move there in three years time. Meanwhile, I will let it out, and stay in Ascot Vale Road for the time being.

November I was off on my next big adventure – New Zealand. At first, I hired a campervan and went to Kaikoura which is a great little town north of Christchurch. Swimming with the dolphins was a fantastic experience. I toured down to Hanmer Springs and then headed south for Queenstown to meet up with half the Vic state government economists (well 6 of them) to walk the Milford Track. What an experience – we had the best weather, including snow the night before we went over the McKinnon Pass – so it was blue skies and a winter wonderland on our walk over the pass.

Back to work just in time to be offered and accept a full time position with Medibank Private as a project manager, and get one of my major projects signed off. December saw settlement on the new property, and a flurry of activity – settlement was on the 5th December, and by the 15th the apartment (which was somewhat cosmetically challenged in shades of pink) had been repainted, new blinds and scrubbed from top to bottom. Now I get to stop (briefly) for Christmas and spend a week down at Port Fairy with the family.

So what is ahead in 2007 for Linda? Well, may be some more study, deepening my meditation practise and a few projects around the house for starters.

I hope 2007 is happy and productive for you all, and I hope to see you in the new year.
Love Linda
XXX OOO