I need to create things. Usually by writing something like this. It's sort of an unstoppable compulsion really.

I love thinking up a new thing, trying a different take on something or just straight repeating something that has been done before just because it's cool and I want to have a go at doing it myself.

Why share at all

I want to make/do those things I do because I have to. There's also the secondary hope it piques the interest of someone else and, praise be, maybe inspires them to make something themselves.

Usually it's a blog post that's inspired me to do something so I fell it's my duty, you know today you, tomorrow me etc etc.

But doing so means sharing what I've written, done or made. And I HATE this part. Being put up for scrutiny, having to face the opinions of others and deal with the fallout of disagreement and criticism.

It's been 9 months since I posted an update here. 9 months. I've done loads in that time. Moved house. Learnt lots of new things. Been to lots of new places. Even spent a month in the Caribbean with Team Rubicon to provide Disaster Response in the wake of the devastation caused by hurricanes Irma and Maria.

And in all that time I didn't find the motivation to write a post. Why?

Truth number 1

Motivation is built on the premise that you need a specific set of circumstances to be just right, or you need to feel a specific way, in order to undertake a task.

Motivation is lying to you. It's not the force for good you think it is. It won't help you when times get difficult, when routines are disrupted and inconveniences raise bumps in your road.

Yesterday, Thursday 30th March 2017 at 22:27GMT Space X launched a Falcon 9 rocket. This rocket had previously launched an orbital payload and successfully landed. Following the successful orbital insertion of a geostationary payload yesterday's rocket then successfully completed a boostback burn and landed on an autonomous drone ship in the Atlantic ocean.

Let's just take a moment to understand what happened, because it's unbelievable.

Space X launched and landed a rocket in one mission, then used it again in a second mission to launch a payload - then relanded the rocket again.

Let's let that sink in...

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Incredible.

One of the most astounding discoveries you'll see in your lifetime. The last tenet of Einstein's Theory of General Relativity confirmed.

Until now we've only seen the cosmos through the electromagnetic spectrum. From today we can hear and feel the eb and flow of space-time itself.

Just think of that, it's mind-bending! The very essence of what binds our universe together, that bathes and surrounds us, and now we can reach out and know it!

At some point in your day today please take a moment try to get a sense, however small and fleeting, of what it must have been like sailing in those little boats across the calm sea to throw yourself upon beaches of Normandy.

And think of those in the skies and on the seas who had gone the night before into the maelstrom, that you might have a sliver of hope of making it up that beach.

And then to those in the planning offices, the spies, the code breakers, the factory workers, the merchants, the farmers, the families and all the other walks of life - all working for months towards this single moment in time upon which so much rested.

Search your imagination for the merest glimpse of the all consuming totality of it all.

Then perhaps give a moment to think of all those that came before and after them, in that war, in those before and in those since - and realise what we enjoy today is in no small part due to those who have had courage enough to fight so that we may live in peace.

More is better. That's what the modern world teaches us. More TV channels, more websites, more apps for your phone, more consumer goods for you to buy, more more more. More choice could certainly be seen as a good thing. More choice generally equals greater 'freedom' of choice which is often seen as a positive; but at what cost to quality of choice? In my experience, quality and quantity are most often mutually exclusive, you can have one or the other, not both.