100 Days of Wonder – #73
Here’s me in September 2017 on a sun lounger at the Contemporary Resort. It was 31degrees C and I was a very happy Jess. This wasn’t my original plan for today’s photo but it feels like I need to remind myself that rest and escapism and hopefully some warm sun is coming.
We’ve just got back from a lovely few days in Hamburg but I wouldn’t call them restful and our return journey was made more stressful by motorway closures which meant a detour into the unknown and significant delay getting home.
I was looking for a photo that would make me smiles, give you all a break from Christmas stuff and provide a promise of warm and calm. I can almost feel the sun on my skin looking at the photo and finding it and writing this post have made me pause long enough to remember that I don’t have to log onto work email tonight to get ready for the work day tomorrow- that’s tomorrow’s job. Tonight is just about enjoying my evening off, reflecting on the last few days, getting more excited about how close the Disney trip now is and getting to bed early.
Happy Tuesday Evening.
100 Days of Wonder – #71
Happy 2nd Advent
Happy 2nd Sunday in Advent. To the Magic Kingdom tree picture I took, I’ve added Disney tree number 2, a tree from Wilderness Lodge. I have seen a few pictures of it online recently and it always looks magnificent. I re-watched a documentary about decorating the Disney parks for the holidays the other day and was again struck by the detail and effort. Christmas decorations are refurbished annually, there are so many individual touches that are perhaps not necessary and so many corners that could be cut… but they are not.
I think for me Disney World is always a reminder that if something is worth doing, it is worth doing right, with attention to detail and proper pride in doing good work. I think sometimes we, or certainly I, rush from task to task and am focused on getting it ticked off the list that ‘good enough’ is all that matters. In many ways that is a good thing. I have way too much work to not work on a good enough principle but that should not take away from some things taking more priority than that. Which are the good enough things and which are the doing it right things will vary between us and over time. There is also joy to be found in perfection, sometimes more so than in just getting things done.
100 Days of Wonder – #68
It’s about time I introduced Figment. Here he is. He’s usually more purple than that but here he is in his Disney World 50th Anniversary celebration statue look. It will come as no surprise that I like Figment. (If you are now humming the tune from the ride, you are my people). Figment seems appropriate today because this week I have given two very different papers/talks that have left my little grey cells in overdrive. The good sort of overdrive. The sort that sparks the imagination, the sort that makes you optimistic about all of the possible futures and begins to get to work on ways of making them happen. The events have reminded me to dare to dream and that work which takes us closer to our dreams is always worth doing. Sometimes the idea of changing the world seems too big, too impossible. But as I have said before and Walt Disney reminded us ‘It is kind of fun to do the impossible’. And as Figment puts it:
We all have sparks, imaginations
That’s how our minds, create creations
For they can make, our wildest dreams come true
Those magic sparks, in me and you
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