Mining Magic in Paradise

In the early evening a solitary Noisy Miner bird enjoyed the nectar willingly served up by the brilliant new bloom. This marvellous bird of paradise flower is the focal point at the end of my garden. The bird, a resolute creature, came each day, working with diligence and persistence to extract every essence from that single flower and enjoy the fruits of his labour.

I appreciate my garden and smiled as I wandered by this wonderful display of nature at work. My own enjoyment was short lived however, as I later noticed that in his somewhat over zealous activity he had pecked the centre right out of the flower... there it lay wilting on the ground!

It had bloomed brightly and early bursting with youthful pride and served as an exciting vibrancy of colour against the grey February skies of that last few days. Oh well, I mused, c'est la vie, just the cycle of life.

Imagine my surprise when two days later I noticed that the centre of the same flower had re-grown, a new and proud burst of life! Sure enough the bird returned and within a day the centre fell yet again. I was amazed at this and even more-so when it again was decimated re-grew a third time!

Well now things were getting interesting, I wondered what would happen next? I know something about the resilience of people but I had never been so focused on the resilience of a single flower. Amazing stuff happening right under my nose, which up until now I had overlooked!

A fleeting glance to the end of my garden two days on, rapidly became entranced focus. It seemed to me that there was more colour than is possible from this one stem. On closer inspection the most amazingly beautiful transformation had taken place. The single stem stood strong and the marvellous plant had brought forth two complete blooms from that one stem!

A double bird of paradise flower is not some new phenomenon unique to my garden. However, it may as well have been, given it had escaped my notice. For me it was a new and exciting discovery. I have never witnessed anything first hand that quite so obviously exudes the wonders of nature! A true and natural example of resilience, natural magic easily overlooked on an average day.

It seems to me that both bird and plant played the game. What initially appeared to be disaster for one ultimately provided a win for both. Each persisted with their natural instincts to grow, to endure, to be resilient and to find mutual benefit in the process.

There is no natural growth without sacrifice, no bloom without first weathering the seasons and the natural external elements. However, growth is dependent on the health of the specimen, the natural ability to grow with and from experience, and the resilience to keep blooming after storms and strife.

It is on the greyest of days that my double orange flower in its pot at the end of my garden fully displays its colour. In the overcast hue the orange, in direct contrast to the background, is more obvious, more intense, more easily noticed and appreciated. Whereas on other brighter days it may be lost amongst the blue of the sky and the myriad of garden colours competing for an appreciative eye.

Like life itself, when days are grey we have an opportunity to either overlook or to notice the beauty in things and people that otherwise elude us.

On grey days, lift your head a little and appreciate what you see anew. As if by magic your emotional resilience will rise within you and your ability to reason and respond will come to the fore.

Grey days then become an opportunity to mine the magic that may be in range of sight yet not apparent to our mindset. Uncovering these gems allows us to fully display our own full colours, magically influencing others and leading them into a brighter day.

Until next time, keep blooming!

Noelene Dawes

A Scintillating Sense of Spice

"Miss Nolan, you seem so like Indonesian people, maybe you should stay here permanently". My dear friend and business colleague Bapak Dharmapoli made this remark on one of our trips to provincial Indonesia, this time to Medan in Sumatra.

It's funny how some comments stay with you, how they tend to cause you to reflect on the greater inference. How was it that I seemed to my Indonesian friends to be like them... and, what did that say about how I had changed?

My role was Technical Advisor to Asuransi Jasa Indonesia, a state owned enterprise with branches as entrenched throughout the archipelago as jack fruit and palm trees are on the vast 17,000 plus islands. I was representing my Australian company, the only expatriate, my mission to gather market intelligence and seek potential joint venture partners. Given my success in sales, with people and relating, my CEO said I was the one for the job.

You learn a lot about communicating over four years in a challenging environment, make a lot of friends in the process and understand well what you don't understand about communicating and don't need to.

My first week was one of awkward adventure...

The cloud of clove cigarettes wafted through the dining room, and, combined with the sweet smells of spice and unrecognisable dishes, told me I was definitely in foreign territory. The President Director ushered me in and offered me a seat.

I had met each of the senior executives beforehand and made a dull attempt to pronounce their names and attune my foreign ear to their unique accents. A soft yet proper friendliness permeated the room and made me feel very welcome. This environment allowed an awkward yet fascinated and dedicated learning to begin. Subsequently this allowed for my slow yet real progress over the next few months and years where I gained and gave trust and information for mutual benefit and understanding.

How did I seem to become like my friends? Because I was fascinated and could take nothing for granted. I continued to focus on each person, continued to gently ask questions, to listen with more finely attuned ears, to see with new eyes, to appreciate the scintillating sense of spice in the variety of personalities as well as culture.

In doing so I had not changed at all, but found a new way to release more of my real self, showing my respect and love for people and personality. I came to know that learning about people is a constant and open art. Business results follow as a natural consequence.

This is a part of my drive, for assisting you to connect with clarity, to be curious, fascinated, and not take anyone or anything for granted in your communicating, lest you diminish your influence.

Whether it is your closest family member or a corporate colleague, as soon as you make automatic judgements when communicating with others you muddy the mix of messages and compound the potential for conflict and mistrust.

Communication is a noun, communicate is a verb... one of the continuous kind! By that I mean there can be no end to the art of communicating since it is open to interpretation.

It is less than ninety years since people throughout the Indonesian archipelago have been speaking one language, Bahasa Indonesia. Three hundred and seventy five different dialects are spoken and cultures within the culture itself are diverse. As they grow together as a nation I have witnessed first hand the way in which they show real respect to and appreciation for each other's differences in the nuances of doing business.

So imagine if you took a foreigner's perspective, stopped assuming you know absolutely what another person is thinking, that you are right about his/her intentions and motivations? What might you learn about how well you communicate? and... What difference could that potentially make to your business and your life?

I challenge you to become fascinated with, curious about and scintillated by the people you assume you know. They will feel more important and your authentic influence will begin to permeate with a new and scintillating sense of spice!

Enjoy the experience!

Noelene Dawes