I went hiking near Wānaka with some mates a few weeks and it gave me an interesting perspective on things. Please bear with me.
Think rugged terrain, sturdy footwear and frequent cups of energising tea over stunning vistas. 7 days without the comforts or stresses of modern life. Unwinding through endeavour.
The Task - One foot in front of the other
I failed this task after two days.
I lost my footing, slipped off a bank and fell 2.5 meters. Luckily I landed on my pack which took most of the impact but it was serious enough that I definitely couldn’t continue. We used our satellite phone to organise a helicopter to come and pick me up and take me to Makarora as dramatically as possible.
New Task - Get home as quickly and painlessly as possible
From there I boarded a bus to take me toward home. By this point I was battered, bruised and not much in the mood for small talk but I thought I had a pretty good idea of the way home.
“Where ya headin’?”, asked the driver.
I told him my planned route home. He told me why my route was garbage. Basically, due to an anomaly in the bus labelling, I would have ended up detouring massively had he not set me right.
Thank god this legend of the lanes was driving the bus that day and took the time to be friendly. By this point any adrenaline had well and truly worn off so the prospect of not being horizontal for longer than was absolutely necessary was grim.
What a Hero.
By exerting a tiny bit of effort beyond his job of driving the bus safely, this man prevented what was a pretty bad day from being a horrendous one. He almost transformed it back into a good day. Almost.
“But Doug, how does this relate to Tea?” I hear you scream into your screen…
Well it doesn’t really but I do think there are parallels. You never know what impact a small, generous act will have for someone down the line. In this case it was a few words of local knowledge but it could be anything really.
Like bringing someone a cup of tea without asking just because you have a hunch they might want one. You never know what little acts like that might mean to someone.
At best it might give them a little extra positivity to do something really significant or help them spot an opportunity to pay it forward in some way.
At worst they get a lovely cup of tea!
So that was a roundabout way of asking you to put the kettle on and make someone a brew.
