Category: That’s Life

For many people photographs aren’t just pictures – they’re precious memories.

Pulling out the family photo album to relive the events of the past is usually accompanied by groans from the younger members of the family.

To them, looking at the width of their father’s tie, the way their mother wore her hair and their own antics as a baby in the bath, often seems painfully embarrassing.

I guess we felt the same as kids, but as we get older these moments of history carry a lot more meaning. Looking at old family photos is a bit like opening up a folder, the cover of which, carries the gold-plated inscription “This is your life”.

Today, in our paperless society, our photos are stored on our telephones, laptops and in ‘the cloud’. It is important we ensure we have back-up storage for what, in the future will become the source of our reviewing of our life’s adventures and the maintenance of our family history.

In the future, when we find the time to once more relive our precious memories of today, let’s try and ensure that what we’ve done today, will bring us pleasure and not pain.

I’m Peter Mack and that’s life.

More stories  

If you look closely at the convict made bricks used on some of the older buildings in Hobart, you will occasionally detect a thumb sized indentation near one of the corners.  These were made by the first convicts who left their mark for posterity when they laid the bricks.

Even today, company owners in business and industry register trademarks, to ensure the uniqueness of their product is recognised by their particular mark.

In years to come, perhaps the world won’t recognise anything special about our individual lives, but nevertheless we will have made a contribution.  Whether we realise it or not, we will have left our mark on society.

When you think about it, even though we live in a rapidly changing world, we still perform many tasks the way our parents and teachers taught us.  Our own children learn from us and will no doubt pass on some of our traits and values to their children.

Let’s ensure what we give of ourselves today, might become the building blocks of tomorrow’s personalities, that will carry a mark we are proud to say is ours.

I’m Peter Mack and that’s life.

More stories   

It seems the universal language of love is one we Australians often tend to shy away from.

It just doesn’t seem to be ‘the done thing’ to be seen kissing your partner in public where even holding hands can sometimes raise some odd looks.

If kids are required to walk with their parents in public, they think it’s embarrassing to hold hands and even prefer to walk a pace or two behind.  To them and their peers, parents are defined as, ‘the oldies’.

A wise person once said, “Love is a decision, not a feeling”.  When you think about it, feelings can come and go like the weather, but our decision to love one another is a commitment and survives all our feelings, frustrations and anxieties.

The song writer tells us, “Learning to love oneself is the greatest love of all”. Perhaps, if we could come to accept ourselves as we are and not be so concerned about how others see us, we would be proud to be seen to be in love with those we love.

Showing love and respect to one another in public can be infectious.

What say we start an epidemic!

I’m Peter Mack and that’s life.

 More stories

From our earliest years we are taught about life by our parents, teachers and those with whom we mix socially, or in work situations.

Some of us learn about life the hard way. We find it difficult to grasp the accepted teachings and theories and feel we have to experience things for ourselves, before we can say we have learned.

Others seem to be born with a silver spoon in their mouth, as the saying goes. They never seem to have any financial worries and things in life just magically always turn out right for them.

However, all this learning and compiling of knowledge and wisdom about life can quite often cloud our understanding about how we must learn to actually LIVE.

When our grand kids want to question us about our life, they will be more interested in how we lived our life rather that the life in which we lived.

I’m Peter Mack and that’s life.

More stories 

At times we have all experienced that inner feeling of relief, which comes after having unburdened the problems of our heart to a friend.

The friend may not have contributed any solutions to our problems, but they listened to us and showed interest in what we had to say as we bared our soul.

For some reason our problems seem less intense and it invariably feels so much better, when we find the opportunity to get our problems off our chest.

Sometimes, when others talk with us, we often tend to concentrate more on what we want to say, than on what is being said to us.

While they are speaking, we may well be hearing them, but not necessarily listening to them.  Often this situation occurs because we are too busy waiting for the opportunity to butt in with what we want to say.

The simple art of being an effective listener is to consciously decide to allow someone else to express their opinions, without contributing our views until we’re asked.

I’m Peter Mack and that’s life.

More stories

Sometimes we deliberately shy away from performing tasks we have had little or no experience with in the past.  We may argue there are others more capable and they can save us the bother of learning new skills.

While it is obvious there are times when we must accept our limitations and call on an expert, there are also many occasions when a little knowledge can save us considerable time and money.

Many of us use a variety of excuses so we can avoid change and experience new learning concepts.  Sometimes, we might feel embarrassed being seen making mistakes as we acquire new skills.

Quite often, If we are prepared to admit it, we just deliberately close our minds to getting involved in any new ideas and new ways of achieving outcomes.

Learning keeps our mind open and active and there is no doubt this will enhance our enjoyment of life.  ‘Learning something new every day’ is a practice we could all take into our old age.

I’m Peter Mack and that’s life.

More stories 

In raising our children, we often encourage them to perform tasks the way we  would perform them ourselves. We reason, this was the way we were taught by our own parents and if it was O.K. for us, it should be right for our kids as well.

Sometimes, we forget to make allowances for the differences that exist in our personalities. By forcing our children to act the way we act, we may well be restricting them from being their own natural selves.

Today’s education is entirely different from when we went to school. Just watch the kids solving simple mathematical exercises. While we might well come up with the same answers, the process we use is entirely unrelated to that used by the kids of today.

Their personalities are developed in a very different environment from ours. They have access to the world wide web and can research information far more effectively using their laptop computers, tablets or their phones.  It severely reduces the time and effort we used up in visiting the local library to look up volumes of encyclopaedias.

So, while they may have different ways of achieving the same results, by allowing them to proceed in their own way helps them develop their independency, problem solving ability and self worth.

In the process we may well learn some new ways ourselves.

I’m Peter Mack and that’s life.

More stories

It must have been love when our Mums went through the pain of childbirth, just so we might be able to live.

To have nappies changed, to be fed, clothed and cared for when we were growing up and to be cared for when we were sick.  That too, must have been love.

For our parents and grandparents to fight and die under the Australian flag so we could be free, must have also been love.

For Mums and Dads to still care for us, even though we deliberately made life tough for them during our adolescence, proved love for them must have been in giving and not receiving.

When your best friend sat with you when the family pet died or was there beside you while the judge passed sentence on your child, you knew how supportive love could be.

Real love needs to be unconditional, where we give without expecting a return.  When we question within ourselves what the definition of love really means, we’ll generally find the answer if we look back on our own lives and at those who have supported us during difficult times. 

I’m Peter Mack and that’s life.

 More stories

Often you will hear it said that travelling overseas may well broaden our mind but it also makes us more appreciative of the home we have left.

There is definitely a real thrill in receiving a text message from home when you are overseas or perhaps getting a note in the in-box when you check your emails. Hearing a familiar voice on the phone, in an unfamiliar hotel room in a far away country, is a joyful reminder that, ‘home is where the heart is’.

In our country today there are many people living here, who for numerous reasons, cannot return to their homeland. Perhaps they live in our street or work with us.

We meet them shopping and on the sporting field, yet do we ever consider how inwardly their thoughts might drift far away occasionally, wondering about their families and loved ones left behind in the country of their birth?

Those who come from war-ravaged or politically oppressed countries often suffer the pain of not even knowing the whereabouts of family and friends, or for that matter whether they are even alive.

How fortunate we are having the freedom of life we enjoy in this country. Perhaps we should take more time out to be thankful for the closeness of family.

I’m Peter Mack and that’s life.

More stories 

As a kid, mum’s big healer for any hurt was to kiss it and make it better. As we travel along life’s pathways, we will inevitably suffer some hurts that require more than a kiss, a smile and a pat on the head. There is the physical kind, that can usually be repaired with anything from a band-aid to major surgery.  But the worst kind of hurt is that which pierces your heart.

This type of hurt is a deep ache, that at times can even question the value of life itself.  It doesn’t go away easily and can leave scars that last for years.

In being a friend to someone with a hurt that is deeply entrenched, we need to have patience, available time, understanding and most of all, we need to be a good listener. We don’t necessarily need to have all the answers.  Often, just working through the problem will allow the hurting one to resolve the situation themselves.

Giving our friends support and the opportunity to share with us their burden, will enable them to commence the healing process. Let’s be there for our friends when they need us.

I’m Peter Mack and that’s life.

More stories