{"id":15731,"date":"2006-12-18T02:39:00","date_gmt":"2006-12-18T07:39:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hame.ink\/hameblog\/2006\/12\/18\/can-i-have-all-this\/"},"modified":"2025-09-12T07:49:46","modified_gmt":"2025-09-12T10:49:46","slug":"can-i-have-all-this","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hame.ink\/blether\/2006\/12\/18\/can-i-have-all-this\/","title":{"rendered":"Can I have all this?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday I got a pay-rise. And a free lunch with some of my team-mates at The Coach. And a gift certificate — which I had to spend last night ’cause I’m leaving town tomorrow. I bought myself some smelly stuff at Aveda, which I would never have bought on my own.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

<<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

p><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Just now at the office, I got gifts from Catherine (my editor) and Julia (who visited this summer).<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

<<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

p><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

It’s all a bit overwhelming to me, and it feels like it’s underlining something I need to learn about gracefully accepting gifts, rewards, and compliments — and handling the idea that I might be worth them.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

<<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

p><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Before my mad dash to the mall, I had dinner with my friend Robert. He’s such an amazing man. Not only does he run a great restaurant here in Ontario for the half of the year when he’s not in Trinidad, he also works tirelessly raising money for charities. Last year he collected $30,000 for other people in need. Even better: he makes it fun<\/em>. He’s not long-suffering or showy about it; he does it purely out of love. Being in his presence last night, I was so moved I couldn’t help getting teary.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

<<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

p><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The richest people I know are also the people who give away the most and live the biggest adventures.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

<<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

p><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Over our excellent dinner (at a Thai restaurant at Alexander and Yonge — check it out) Robert acknowledged the life I’m living: “I look at you,” he said, “and you’ve really got it made.” Me?<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

<<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

p><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

I do, I really do.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

<<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

p><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

I remember the instructor saying in a workshop I took years ago, “How good can you stand it to be?” It’s true: we can do great things, or we can create messes. It all ends the same, but the experience along the way is so completely different. I know that I’m the author of this abundance that I’m blessed with right now. At the same time, I know that it flows around me; I didn’t do this at all. A life that works is a combination of sweat<\/em> and magic<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

<<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

p><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

I’m overwhelmed with joy and gratitude.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/div><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday I got a pay-rise. And a free lunch with some of my team-mates at The Coach. And a gift certificate — which I had to spend last night ’cause I’m leaving town tomorrow. I bought myself some smelly stuff at Aveda, which I would never have bought on my own. < p> Just now […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hame.ink\/blether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hame.ink\/blether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hame.ink\/blether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hame.ink\/blether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hame.ink\/blether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15731"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hame.ink\/blether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15731\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hame.ink\/blether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hame.ink\/blether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hame.ink\/blether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}