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 – #70
I said yesterday that I was beginning to feel Christmassy so here’s a Christmas greeting from me to you. The photo is actually from January 2023 but when we arrived a lot of the festive stuff was still all over the Disney parks. I’m currently waiting to fly out to Hamburg today to see Dad, have a wander around the Hamburg Christmas markets and enjoy some childhood memories. The pull to reminisce and reflect is strong.
At the same time the Disney anticipation is building. I have probably said before that the planning is as much part of the excitement, joy and wonder as the trip itself. There’s not much planning left to do now. Everything is booked. I’m getting excited, I’m increasingly thinking about the happy headspace Disney world gives me and thinking about it means I am spending more time thinking happy.
So I think Christmas reflectiveness coupled with Disney excitement mean that my tolerance of drama and bullshit is at an all time low and I am really just interested in stories of hope and joy and wonder. May your run up to Christmas be peaceful, calm and filled with kindness and love.
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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