Good morning,
Good evening,
Good afternoon,
Wherever you may be,
Whatever you may be doing,
Hello,
And welcome to this talk.
I,
Thinking about it now,
Rather fittingly have given this talk two or three times now,
And I say rather fittingly because it's one which I have kind of pondered for a long time.
I don't know the answer,
The reason as to what I have pondered for so long,
But it just is,
And it refers to,
I think the best way to describe it is as a children's entertainment set which consists of colourful interlocking plastic bricks that can be assembled into shapes,
Structures,
Or features like planes,
Trains,
Automobiles,
People,
I think you get the gist,
And I,
Oh and it's Danish,
I've played a lot with,
A lot more now with my son who loves the stuff,
And I've really enjoyed doing it with him,
Playing with those blocks with him,
Constructing with him.
It's allowed me to connect with him,
Play,
Engage with my inner child more,
And that whole process of creating with those blocks for me has really mirrored the journey,
My journey,
A journey which has been going on now since 2020,
2021.
And you know people,
And I include myself in this,
Often talk about trusting the process,
Trusting the process,
Trusting the process.
You know I have it as one of my fundamental tenets,
Trust the process,
And that has and continues to serve me very well.
And I guess the question is,
What is the process?
And I've thought,
Mulled and pondered over that,
And where I am with it is,
Trusting the process is very much like the analogy of those blocks.
As I said,
I really enjoy blocks with my son.
It's a moment to connect,
It's a moment to lean in,
To be present,
It's time,
And it's just simply fun.
And one of the things that I've learned while sitting there with originally probably a two and a half year old,
Who's now seven,
Is that in doing blocks,
You know what,
Do yourself a favor.
After this,
Consider going and buying yourself some of these blocks.
It doesn't have to be expensive,
It doesn't have to be big.
It can just be,
You know,
They come in just small packets with a few pages of instructions,
Not even instructions.
And just take the time to sit down and go through that process.
And remember the words that I say in this talk as you do so.
So when you do,
You know,
You may buy something,
A car,
A boat,
A house,
A fire station,
Even a flower.
It comes with a whole bunch of pieces,
Blocks,
And you know,
The more intricate ones comes with tracks to put on cranes,
And it comes with a book,
Which has a set of instructions,
And they're not written instruction,
They are just pictures.
Pictures showing this block connecting with this piece.
And depending on what you've purchased,
It may be more or less complicated.
And typically what happens is that as you turn the pages and the more and further you get into construction,
It becomes more and more complicated.
And speaking for myself,
You at times begin to wonder and say,
Hang on,
What is going on here?
Because this doesn't make any sense whatsoever.
Why are we doing this?
What is this going to become?
How is this even relevant?
And you look at the image on the box and you're like,
What?
And the beauty of those instructions is that they are telling you how to construct that piece.
And the analogy for me in life is,
Focus on the present,
On the now.
Bring your attention here.
And yeah,
You'll say,
How on earth is this block of greens and yellows and blacks and blues going to turn into an engine?
A forklift truck?
And the interesting thing about the blocks is it also exposes people's character.
So if you watch people doing it,
Quite often it mimics the way they do things.
So you'll get some of those people who have to flick through and go all the way to the end.
Almost like those people who have to watch or read the last chapter of a book.
And then you'll get the people who will go methodically,
Step by step,
Page by page.
And then you have the myriad in between the two.
And the thing with Lego and the thing with even between those two is that there are two types of engaging with it.
At some point in time,
You simply have to surrender.
You have to surrender to the process.
You have to surrender to the process of the pages,
Of the books,
Of the instructions.
The final set of instructions on the final page,
And typically with Lego,
Especially if you're doing cars,
And my son loves cars,
So we do a lot of cars,
That's where they put the wheels on.
That's where they put the wheels on.
And that's when you,
And for me,
Sometimes I'm like,
Wow,
I didn't see that coming.
Even though I know the wheels are going to come,
I didn't see that coming.
And one of the benefits I've gained in doing this with my son is trusting the process.
Trusting that the next page will bring just a little more clarity.
And even if it doesn't bring a little bit more clarity,
I know that I have to keep going to get to the wheels.
And that for me has been such a spiritual and freeing experience.
And as I've done more and more of these,
Yeah,
You begin to understand and you begin to,
As I say,
Read the tea leaves and see,
Okay,
You know what?
I've done this before and so this is how I see this is going to connect into this and this is the drivetrain.
Oh yes,
It's the drivetrain.
And much like life,
You begin to read the tea leaves,
You begin to trust your gut more,
You begin to accept the fact that you have choice,
Begin to embrace the fact that you can only control yourself,
Begin to lean into positive intention,
Simply accept the fact that this blue brick needs to connect with this red brick and surrender to the fact that you will get to the wheels.
And so for me,
In kind of closing,
It's all about leaning into the unknown,
Surrendering and fundamentally believing that there is a process,
Trusting it,
That in time,
And not just in time,
But also accepting and realizing the fact that,
Much like I started doing this with my son when he was two and a half years old,
He's now seven,
My daughter is now three.
I look back at pictures of him when he was her age.
And as though as I may not have done it as much as I want to,
I've been very conscious of the fact that today is today.
Yesterday will never happen again.
So to allow them to be a three-year-old in that moment in time,
Allow them to be a seven-year-old in this moment in time,
And to really enjoy it,
To enjoy the gift of life,
Gift of sitting and piece by piece constructing a plane,
A boat,
A car,
And taking the time to savor and enjoy the moments with the people around you.
You know,
It might be for two days,
Two hours,
Two weeks,
Two decades.
Just surrender and enjoy the present moment.
Focus and lean in on the present moment.
Don't just trust the process,
But surrender to it.
Because in there comes peace,
In there comes joy.
There was a time when control was my middle name.
And I always had to know,
I had to hold things tight,
I needed control,
I needed to be involved to control the process.
And there was a time that came in my life where it was very evident that I had no control over anything.
I just had to trust,
Trust other people,
Trust the universe,
Trust God,
And release and surrender and accept.
I don't do that that much anymore.
Some people say,
Inshallah,
Others say,
God willing,
Both are the same.
Whether for you,
It's God,
Whether for you,
It's Allah,
Whether for you,
It's source,
Whether it's for you,
It's the universe,
Whatever it is that you believe in to be higher,
Higher power.
Surrender,
Lean in,
Let go,
And just simply enjoy every page,
Every piece.
