The good side of 6am?

Life is all about perception. Sometime getting up at 6am is great and feels invigorating, other times you wish 6am didn't exist. At times, being alone is peaceful and relaxing, other times its lonely and depressing. Sometimes being busy gives you a sense of purpose and accomplishment, satisfaction even. Other times you wish more than anything you could have free time. Two people can almost get hit by a bus. One perceives it as a near-death experience and has a life altering moment, thinking about how lucky he is to still be alive. The other adds it up to a bad day, and that life is nothing but one car accident after another. Your outlook makes the difference between enjoying yourself at the party, wishing you were elsewhere, and mopping at home missing it. I guess we all do need a sense of balance, and a bit of these things at one time or another. But, my question is, how can we get to seeing the good things? How can we alter our perception to enjoy the alone quiet time, to relish the sense of accomplishment in work, and to truly enjoy the moment that we're in, rather than hope and wait for the next good one?

Lately I've been trying my best to get to that other side.. I'll only be at this stage in my life, having these particular opportunities and moments, living this particular life once. So the question remains, how to live each day to the fullest? How to better appreciate what I have? I suppose that is the million dollar question in life though; how to live in the moment while still on a solid path to the future.

I would also like to apologize to my blog for neglecting it. When you're concerned about your legal status in a country, your place to live and whether you will continue to have one, your funding for paying tuition, rent, and groceries, and trying to keep up with classes, readings, and assignments, all while trying to keep a positive spirit about it, or at least have the will to get out of bed in the mornings, isn't exactly conducive to positive, critical thought and reflection, nor does it leave the time for it. Things have gotten better though. The light is at the end of the tunnel again, the end is near. In exactly 3 weeks I will be in landing in Winnipeg airport. Whether this is actually relieves the stress or is more stress inducing is another question.

One thing I do really love right now is this project for my Negotiation and Mediation class. We are partaking in a simulation of a multilateral negotiation. It is designed to be as realistic as possible. We were given an 11 pages document of general background information on the area in question, the 2 ethnic groups living there, short history of their past grievances, their present issue(s), all including all the actors that are involved. We are also given maps, statistics, municipal budgets, and project funding by particular actors and organisations. We're then given our private instructions as one of the actors in the situation. We're then to prepare for the meeting and mediation (which happens all day this Friday) completely in character. This involves studying the case, preparing interest tools, options chart, perception tools, alternatives assessments, and having bilateral meetings with parties involved to assess their interests and issues in order to better prepare for the meeting. Because as in a real life situation, our private instructions entail our perceptions of the situation, our issues, and our view on it. These can include correct information or false, can be misleading, and can be contradictory to other actors.

I was given the role of OUS representative, the Organisation of Unified States that is intervening in the conflict to replace the IMIO (another international organisation that stopped the violence). Today alone I have a meeting with a local NGO involved in the conflict at 12:30, the IMIO representative at 13:00, and the mediator from PSP conducting the mediation Friday at 14:00. I even got up at 6am this morning to have lots of time to get ready and prepare myself for the meetings. Let's just examine that again. I, me, got up, out of bed, awake, at 6 in the morning. Without having to get to work, being coerced, or woken up by anyone. I think that says something.. I mean, I love it. I could really see myself doing this, and I hope I will.

That is, provided that I eventually actually manage to get through all my other classes and assignments to finish my Masters.