Rā 231,  Rāpare, 18 o Here-turi-kōkā

Posted by robeanne

Just pondering today about leadership and the language of leading change… I recently read an article that talked about following being a voluntary act which made me consider how important leading change was.  We cannot make people change unless they believe in the purpose of change. And to foster belief we have to believe in our own dreams and model the practice ourselves.  I have also been grappling with learning Te Reo and one of the intricacies of the language is the pronouns.

Both mātou and tātou mean ‘we’ but mātou is used when we doesn’t include the person /s being addressed ie we three but not you two as well.  Tātou includes everyone. For me this is the essence of leading change, get rid of the ‘we’ and ‘you’ or the ‘them’and ‘us’. We’re all in this waka together.

Rā 230,  Rāapa, 17 o Here-turi-kōkā

Posted by robeanne

An emotional day. The rollercoaster ride of life as a parent seems to never stop. Lachlan has done a whole heap of growing up this week as he has coped with the tragic death of a close friend.  It has touched all of us since we all knew Mitchell; he was a relatively permanent fixture in our house for a couple of years.  The hardest thing as a parent is the sense of powerlessness – what do you say to a 21yr old who has just lost a friend?  Hold him, be there, let him cry,  wait until he is ready to talk. Then do it all again.  I think what struck me today, and what made me proud, was how close this large group of friends were.  Watching them as they carried their friend on his final journey, laughed at their memories, told their stories – irreverent and touching – of a friend who brought so much to their lives, and then held each as they cried together, I could only think that they were strong together and will continue to support each other. Probably even more ferociously than before. Very young, they have learned how precious friendship is and how fleeting life can be.


Rā 225  Rāmere, 12 o Here-turi-kōkā

Posted by robeanne

I nearly didn’t go for a run this morning. Lots to do before getting to the edchatnz conference and feeling very sad after last night’s news. But I’m glad I did.  I’ve decided that my hash tag for the day is going to be #theworldisbeautiful.

I made sure that I took the time this morning to notice the little things. The things that we take for granted.  The things that we forget when we are bogged down in other “stuff” over which we have no control.  I cannot possibly understand how desperate and sad someone must feel to want to leave our beautiful world. But it happens far too often to far too many young men especially in NZ.  My heart is heavy. But our world is beautiful. We should hold on to that.