Last week I had to travel interstate, to Ballarat, for the Dragons Abreast National Convention. It’s cold down that way and I needed to find the winter woolies so as I rattled about re-organising my wardrobe my mind wandered off in though (as it has a tendency to do when involved in tasks that do not need much concentration).

I pulled out a bunch of higgeldy piggeldy piled t-shirts and began to fold them properly – yes, I must confess I do not always put things away as neatly as I should – images began to play in my head – scenes of when and where I had bought the shirts.

The memories were mostly great ones, although some of them were not my finer moments – like when I managed to splodge curry laksa down the front of one – the stain never comes out! BUT the prevailing memories were all of the nice experiences and ‘special’ moments. Like the magic of being part of the first Internationally Abreast team (2001 shirt from Jones New York), of paddling down the Ord (2004 much too large blue T-shirt), another Jones New York shirt brought back memories of the Telstra Business Awards in Melbourne as I’d worn that one to make the mad dash back from Shanghai for my interview.

When the my shirts get too old and worn they become dusters, so my memories still surround me. They may be old ones, just like my duster but they are each very special and in the same way as the duster polishes up the furniture,the memories polish up my day to day living and remind me of where I have been.

This brings me then to the issue of how we need to always remember to work at relationships, be they business, social or our kids. Life happens – it runs past us – but we need to live in the moments. My t-shirt pile was full of ‘living moments’ – I hope yours is too!