Did I mention that I like a challenge?

I am nothing if not inspired by a challenge, and this week has thrown up more than one in my workplace, one of which was completely out of the blue. It has provided us with the opportunity to work as a team, in order to work through a health crisis of one of our work mates, to get through a week which in the normal course of events would have been extremely busy, but thrown all together has been frantic.

For the Bombers fan who will probably not get a chance to read this any time soon, "Hang in there, mate! "

Last night, another reminder that the thread of life can be very thin, as we were sitting watch the Saints overcome a slow start to beat the Blues, a member of the crowd sitting in front of us was taken away for emergency medical attention.

"I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It's when you know you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. "
Harper Lee (1926 - ), To Kill a Mockingbird, 1960

In our sanitised, standardised modern world, we don't often have to suffer pain, hunger, heat or cold in the same way that our ancestors had to. When we do, it provides us with an opportunity to get in touch with our humanity, to remember the sorrows and pain, to celebrate happiness and joy, for it's experiencing them that defines us.