Focus and Direction

The new convergence of technology is causing an avalanche of information to arrive on our doorstep everyday. The skill of knowing how to deal with important or urgent will become even more critical in the life of every human being.Do I read my emails? Do I answer calls? Do I write blog entries? Do I read my google alerts? My magazines and newspapers call daily. How much information can we take in and what is important to retain?..... and then there is still the human interaction. It will take real discipline and clear understanding of what road one is on to ensure that we do not all become basket cases with much information but of no use to any human being or organisation!!!!!!

The Vulnerable Children of the World

Bronwyn is on a three month leadership school in Bangkok and is being exposed to some wonderful global material that she has been sharing with me.

She sent through this wonderful quote today:
" Every child has a name, a passion, a story, and a place in history. There are no ordinary children." Dr Elizabeth Youmans- Principia international

She also shared with me a wonderful networking site for christian groups working with children. www.viva.org
According to this site there are more than one billion vulnerable children in the world. It blows the mind. How do we make a difference when the number is so large.I know the answer is one at a time but I do believe that technology and connections can go along way to make a difference as well.
I certainly commit to thinking through how I can make a dent in this number and allow more children to complete their story and have a positive place in history.

Our Family Blog

I have discovered that the wonderful tool of blogging has helped me to stay connected to my family. I have 2 brothers and a sister and between us we have 9 children. My two are married so the total number of people in the family is 20. The age range is from 12 to 74 ( my mom) We are living on 4 different continents and even those of us left in South Africa do not live in the same city. I would say that we are typical of many families all over the world dealing with globalisation and the challenges this brings to staying connected.
What a joy to wake up and log on to the blog and communicate or read about some activity or exciting adventure. The comments for me form such an important part of the conversation as the humour, comments and interaction fly across my screen. The other morning my 13 year niece discovered that her sugar glider is pregnant and going tp produce babies. Within an hour there was comment from London , then Thailand and back home to White River then from my sister in the USA and my mom here in Johannesburg. We have all learnt about the gestation period and pictures have been posted to keep us all in the loop.I believe that this tool is helping us to keep up with the GLUE type conversations that normally happen when one lives in the same house. In fact I think we know more about one another than some families that do live within close proximty but never seem to have the time to chat and connect.
In a world that is so fast and spread out I have found this tool to be invaluable in keeping me connected to the most important people in my life. Family values are critical for society. Thak goodness technology is there to help us stay connected. ….. one last comment on the subject, I have noticed that the female members of my family connect more and make more of an effort…. that is another story for another day and the lessons we need to learn about the Connection Economy.