Don’t feel sorry for yourself…get up!

At the age of eighteen, on the way to a party, after a Saturday shift, I got into a workmates car…there was no warrant of fitness/pink slip or any adequate brakes, or wind wipers. The car was a 1949 Ford Popular that was customised. No seat belts either.

Anyway the year is 1974 June 6th at about 4 pm, going through a give way sign at a T intersection in the rain (remember no window wipers) and along comes this Austin A40 at 60 Kilometres an hour straight into my side of the car. I am pushed out through the windscreen as the car rolls end over end 3 times and sides ways at the same time.

The ambulance officers thought I was dead at the scene..I cannot remember anything of the accident but I do remember an officer saying he too far gone, go work on the other one.

I woke up in hospital on a glass slab getting X-rayed, it took 5 orderlies to hold me down, cause I thought someone had bottled me from behind. I couldn’t see as my whole face was bruised black and my eyes were shut tight.

My brother was allowed in to see me and promptly vomited over the floor, so shocked at my appearance. The top of my head had been peeled back over my skull, both my ears were hanging on thin threads of flesh. I had a piece of glass stuck in my neck just below my chin. The knuckles on my left hand had been skinned on the road.

The doctors said afterwards that I must have had the thickest skull in Auckland as I did not have any fractures or splinters in the brain. The leather jacket I was wearing had also saved me from more extensions injury..of which I am grateful.

They sewed me up…stopped counting the stitches at 130 and sent me to ICU where I was in coma for 3-4 days, all I can remember is when they squeezed the blood transfusion bags to unblock the clots…my goodness I have never felt such pain in my life oh and when they stuck the morphine (fortral) in my leg every 2-3 hours…ouch!

When I woke up I was dizzy, dazed and confused (Isn’t that a song?). I remember at 2pm in the morning a couple of days after I woke up, havinf such a headache as they had stopped the morphoine, so I clutched the walls for support and made my way to the nurses station. The senior nurse was locking up the drugs cabinet, took one look at me a screamed her head off…afterwards whe said I looked like Frankenstein and just wasn’t expecting anyone to creep up on her.

OK, OK I am gettiing to the point of this blog…About a week afterwaking up I was feeling really very depressed and sulky and moody…a doctor one of the older ones comes to my bed ( I am now in the ward) tells me to grab the flowers at the end of the bed and come with him. He takes me toa private room near ICU and tells me to take a look. I see a small, woman, lying in the bed and she has no face left, she had been in an accident a couple of days after mine.

The Doctor then proceeds to tell me “Don’t feel sorry for yourself, there is always someone worse off than you”, then he turns and walks away.

I thought I was in a bad place until I saw that poor young woman (she died a day later). I at least had life… something to go on with, something to build on.

Today 35 years later I am married to a beautiful Fijian woman named Ani, have 6 kids between us..I have had to cope with effects of the accident but I am still here and enjoying life. We have lived in New Zealand, Fiji and now Australia.

We are going through a recession that has not hit the world in this way for 60 years and there will be a lot of heartache and sorrow. Much soul searching and sadness…many will think that suicide is the only way out.

Just BELIEVE ME when I tell you this from my heart…THERE IS ALWAYS SOMEONE WORSE OFF THAN YOU! Instead of accepting the recession let’s fight together to end it.. how can I do that you ask…just by getting up and carrying on as best you as you can… ask for support from others and when you see those around you not coping, offer to help them too.

Shalom brothers and sisters.

David

By the way, YES I am a Follower of Yah’shua I started a relationship with Yah’shua/Jesus in 1977 and He has never let me down!

Kiwi’s in Oz and what if

As a Kiwi (not the fruit) living in Australia I find that there is a wonderful rivalry between us ANZAC cousins something akin to the sibling rivalry of the USA and Canada. Our relationship goes back to the 18th century and the European discoverers who ventured far from their comfortable homes in that place to explore the unknown.

When growing up the one explorer who was pre-eminent, the great Captain James Cook who sailed in the Endeavour around the South Pacific, caught our imagination.

The story of Captain Cook was he visited and mapped many islands and lands during his 2 or 3 trips down under and finally tried to make friends with some native people in Polynesia who unfortunately wasn’t friendly at all and promptly killed him on the beach where he had landed. (They were obviously not intimidated by the white man and his big boat).

But this you say is in direct conflict with your last blog where you stated we should all try to get over our preconceptions of others and look beyond the outward appearance. YES I am still convinced of this!

My oldest daughter commented on my blog and queried the commonsense in some areas, of my argument that is why I am writing this. Sure Captain Cook was killed because he chose to to look beyond the outward appearance and not to have the preconception that because these people look uncivilised they might hurt me.

I am coming to the point now, Captain Cook was not afraid to experience other people and their cultures, he sought them out and with his crew he documented their existence. He did put himself in very scary situations and I for one would never advise anyone to enter a place or situation that made them feel afraid, scared, terrified or upset.

For all that he made a fantastic contribution to the natural history and political/social history of mankind. Just because he was not phased by someones appearance. He made more friends than he did enemies.

The question is why are we afraid to approach others. Are we just comfortable where we are, scared we may have to actually work toward somekind of platonic relationship or just plain disinterested in any type of relationship (man they are hard, try being successfully married for 32 years)

Ah! but the fruit that results from these relationships far outreach, outshines and overcomes any problems by the way. I would not give up the last 32 years for anything, even through all the the hard times they are gold and silver and precious stones to me.

On Facebook the other day I did a “Find” on the name of an old friend, what came up looked something like my friends name but I was a little apprehensive about adding him as a friend after all it had been 35 years and totally different paths we had pursued. My mind was made up just because he is a Solicitor and I a lowly worker didn’t make any difference, so I added him as a friend.

Guess what, less than a day later and he accepted me a s a friend and now we have an awful lot of catching up to do. Life is filled with “what if s” don’t let an opportunity slip by you to reach out to others in friendship. What if I never did this, what if I had done that.. live life to it’s fullest that is what you were created for.

And the only way to do that is with others…

PS. I doubt very much that any of us will ever be in Captain Cooks situation on a beach in the South Pacific with angry Islanders wanting to kill us.

Hello world!

This morning I received an interesting comment on Twitter, ” no offense, man, but kinda creepy.” this was in response to my simple statement that I love to make knives. this person ad been following me then promptly unfollowed me, which is his prerogative.

He doesn’t know me at all and this sort of attitude has dogged me all my life. I am 6′ 2″ with a beard and tattoos…so what! I have had people walk on the other side of the road because I intimidated them. This is the world we live in.. frightened of personal interaction with the unknown.

This world is running scared and right now most people would be able to beat an Olympic sprinter when it comes to avoiding others who don’t fit their world view.

If only you would take the time to look beyond the outward appearance. You find that I and others like me are decent nearly average people who laugh, cry (yes I cry and not ashamed of it) who love and are loved. Who bring richness and variety to others. You would find that I care about you…if only you took the time not to avoid my gaze.

You know going to the dentist it is not the pain while you are there but the anticipation of the pain before you get there that creeps out most of us.

We have such negative anticipation of each other. Oh he looks like he would hurt me and we imagine all sorts of horrific outcomes.

Well thats what this blog is all about. Sure I make knives and I give them away to family and friends in the Fiji Islands who will never have the opportunity to have a decently made knife that will last for 20 years. A knife that will go with them fishing, hunting and to the vegetable patch when they are gardening.

I get pleasure from creating out of steel, wood and leather,  something not only aesthetically beautiful; but useful as well and it blesses. Is that a reason to avoid or censure someone? Hopefully not. Let’s meet each with one another without preconceptions and learn together about one another.

Maybe it will be a better world for it?

Watch this space