January 2011
I am starting out on a great adventure. My enjoyment on the journey is greater than when I arrive. Yes, I enjoy the fuzzy warm feeling of what it will be like when I get there. But I know that it won’t be like that. My journey, as always, will have its highs and lows. Sometimes interesting, sometimes boring. I can never be sure what is round the next corner. But my journey will not leave me feeling deflated as I feel when I arrive.
Why am I excited? I have taken over the Peapell one name from my mother three years and three months after she died. I do not have a final destination in mind but I do have a journey. I will find places that I arrive at and maybe stop at on the way but I will always have something ahead of me. It is a perfect adventure.
I do have ideas. I know that I am starting and perhaps even what I may achieve. I would like to make sure that the knowledge that mum gathered, assembled and nurtured is preserved and accessible. I want to gain understanding of my roots and family. I know how easy it is to lose knowledge when someone passes on; both big and small things are lost. I want to regain, keep and preserve that knowledge for the future. I want to make the knowledge available to anyone that is interested, and enhance the amount of knowledge. On the way I would like to learn, be challenged, find new friends, help others, and perhaps even gain recognition for the work that we have done.
I know I will have to work hard at keeping my enthusiasm for this fresh. I find it easy to start on a new project without getting to the end of the existing one. Having several things on the go is important so fitting this with my work, my research into missing relations, canoeing, and all my mind improving interests. And a question I keep coming back to – why am I doing this. Is it just for me – that would be selfish or will it have a greater good.