My Pride and Joy

When I was a young kid my pride and joy was a small ¾ sized nylon string guitar. I loved that guitar so much. I played, I practiced, I took it everywhere I could. I even slept with it. It brought me a great amount of enjoyment and fun. When I was much older I got a new guitar….



I again fell in love with this guitar, didn’t sleep with it but I still play it any chance I get. And take it anywhere I can. And I jealously defend it when little hands try and touch, grab or pull on it.

I’ve realised now that as I’ve gotten older my priorities have changed and now my pride and joy is my son. Unlike my unremarkable nylon string guitar, my son is very remarkable! He is learning and growing so fast. I’m sure if I blink I’m going to miss it.

What’s better than having a passion for playing guitar? Sharing it with your son.



Noah’s first guitar lesson. – John Williamson’s “I Was Only 19”.

He loved it!

I've never really enjoyed taking photos of people. I always thought people just get in the way of a good landscape...that was of course until my boy came along. He's got a million different expressions and I'm determined to catch everyone of them. Here are a few so far.


Mum makes the best pillow!


Like most babies he likes to grab anything within reach...fun.


The next generation of "Monastery Boys"




Gee he's cute and he knows it!

BOOM Family

I once saw a newspaper article that was titled “Boom Town”. In the article it said that you could tell the economic future of a town by how many cranes were on the horizon. I think that that is an interesting and easy measure against which to see if the town is moving in the right direction. It’s a simple formula really, the more cranes the better the growth and the better the news for the town.

But how do you tell if your family is on the right track? It’s not as easy as looking at the horizon and counting the cranes you see. But it is necessary to have some sort of measuring stick so you know if you’re moving in the right direction.

When I was at uni, a lecturer said that the family was the “Oldest financial institution in history”. I am so glad that I have a greater and deeper understanding of what the family really is and not what the world would have me believe.

On the horizon of life there are many “cranes” we can look for that will tell us not of our family’s economic future but of our spiritual future. Obviously the more the better but a few that I believe to be most important are:

1. Family Home Evening (FHE). When I was growing up, my mother did her best to get my sister and me to participate in FHE. I’m sad to admit that we didn’t make it easy for her and therefore it only happened sporadically at best. Since the birth of our son, Treen and I have been doing our best to have FHE every week. It’s so much fun with the little guy. He doesn’t last long but we sing, pray, have a very short lesson then sing and pray again and it’s over. It probably lasts a total of 8 minutes but we do it. Now I know that Noah probably doesn’t get much out of it now but we do. I’m hoping that by the time Noah learns how to say no to things, FHE will be so ingrained in him that he won’t even think about trying to get out of it.

2. Doing dishes together. I guess this is probably a Woodfield family thing and seems a little odd. In a talk John Bytheway suggests that you should go home and start doing the dishes and when your parents (or spouse) walk in, see what you’re doing, are completely shocked and say “What are you doing?” You should reply with a completely straight face “A clean sink is a happy sink.” And go right back to work. Well I think that a clean sink is a happy family. I find doing the dishes with my wife is a great opportunity to work together and spend time just chatting about the day and life and stuff. Many a life problem has been nutted out over a sudsy sink and a damp tea towel.

3. Exercise. The way Treen and I got to know each other before we started dating was by going for a run each morning around Southbank. It was such a good and healthy way to start the day and it provided us with a good opportunity to talk and get to know each other. We kept up a pretty good regime since then by going to the gym and keeping an active and healthy lifestyle. However, since the little fella has come along we are finding it harder to keep up any kind of exercise routine. I do miss being as active as I used to be. I guess we just have to try harder because “Exercise gives you endorphins. Endorphins make you happy. Happy people just don’t shoot their husbands” – words to live by, thanks Reece Witherspoon.


These are my three cranes of a happy family. They help my family keep things together. We’re not quite a “Boom Town” yet but we’re working on it. We’ll build more cranes and find new ways to strengthen each other. The important thing is that we work together and make it together. I love my family and think the world of them. There’s nothing better than having my own family!

Low Tide

For most of us life is not a continual plateau on the high ground of happiness. Our lives are more like the ocean. If you go to the beach (those of us who are fortunate enough to live close enough to one) spend sometime there, watch how it changes. You’ll notice that the water is not always there. It ebbs and flows in a continuous cycle of high tide and low tide.

Our life is not so different from the tide. Sometimes we feel that its high tide in our life. We’re busting at the seams with excitement, energy and just as the waves push the sand away to make room, our excitement and energy push back the boundaries of our own possibilities and we grow as a result and become better and larger than we were before. At moments like these we generally feel like all is well and we can conquer anything life throws at us. We feel like we know where we’re going and how to get there.

Other times however, life is more like low tide, we feel high and dry, stagnant and empty. Its times like these that we are emotionally and spiritually at our weakest. We get thoughts in our mind like “You’re no good” or “You can’t make it”. We may feel that we are alone and helpless and there is nothing we can do to change it.

I learned something from the tide this week. The beauty of the tide is that there is always another high tide on its way. And with the high tide comes fresh, clean water, to rejuvenate the seashore and provide a means whereby life may live. Fish can swim, birds can feed and all the grossness of low tide is washed away.

There is a special time twice a month in relation to the tides. This is at the full moon and the new moon. This is when the sun, moon and earth all line up causing the greatest effect on the tide. This results in what’s known as a “Spring tide”. A spring tide means that the high tide is at its highest. However, it also means that the low tide is at its lowest.

Most people time their trip to the beach to coincide with high tide, when the waves are crashing on the shore and all is good. Lately I’ve been taking Ruby (my dog) to the beach at low tide so she can have a good run around and expel some of that wonderful energy she has inside her.




This has been a great time for me to take a closer look at what happens at low tide. At first glance the beach at low tide is pretty bare and nothing nice to look at. But as you look more closely there is life that flourishes at low tide. All the soldier crabs start their march and are able to feed without fear. I also learned that they travel together in a pack or flock or battalion or whatever. The birds are also able benefit from the low tide as they pick at the sea grass in the calm of the low and gentle water. And my dog can run and have a great time chasing a tennis ball across kilometres of open beach. I guess what I’m trying to say is next time you feel like you’re high and dry at low tide in your life, take a look around…it’s probably not as bad as it seems. And if that doesn’t help try to stick it out, and remember there’s a high tide on its way…it’ll sneak up on you, slowly but it’s exciting to watch the tide turn and start to come in….God may even throw in a rainbow for you.