Pam McFarlane

For 40 years an educator, now an accredited life coach specializing in coaching educators.

It’s a SMART World

Scrolling through the television channels to see what I could watch started this train of thought. My usual TV, a lovely large SMART Samsung, had decided to turn blue. Blue permeated every single channel and nothing could be done about it. So I am now watching an old TV, which is not SMART at all. […]

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Patience and piña coladas

Patience. The very word is slow, spoken with a rounded “a” sound and a soft, squishy “sh” middle sound. Even the ending is a silky “s”. It is almost soporific. It conjures up the concept of mañana, meaning that “at some point in the future this will happen”. Said under a palm tree in the

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At peace with poppies

Yesterday was not a good day for me. I am not sure if you identify with not having a good day. When I am in a funk it seems like everyone else has it good. Their lives are dandy. They have problems such as trying to cram in a little getaway to Spain before starting

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Through the looking glasses

A few weeks ago, a few days after Christmas, both my husband and I felt somewhat peaky. A swell of nausea rose from our stomachs and we felt almost seasick. Was that final spoonful of trifle worth it? Did we have to eat seconds of almost everything? Was eating eight pigs in blankets on the

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I see you, you see me

Recently a sweet child’s cheerful but brutal honesty brought me up short. I was at a school where the manager’s office is separated from the children’s play area solely by a child-proof safety gate. This means the Future Hope of our Nation can peek in at any time to make observations about whoever is inside.

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How many coaches …

Having an official launch is like preparing for Christmas dinner. First of all, one must plan for Christmas. That one word, plan, covers planning the time (the date for Christmas dinner is pretty much a given), guest list, seating arrangements, menu and entertainment. There are intense deliberations about every aspect of planning. Both sets of

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Sundowners and surfing

These days, there are so many words or phrases that I’m sure didn’t exist back in the days of my African youth. Spending my formative years in dusty Bulawayo (Google it, it is actually a place), the language I heard was clear and immediately understandable. “Sundowners, darling?” was my mother’s cue to open the generously

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Teach a man to fish…

I love a good quote. A quote can be edifying, affirming, revealing and comforting. Take for example, these words from Malala Yousafzai: “Once I asked God for one or two extra inches in height, but instead he made me as tall as the sky, so high that I could not measure myself.” When I was

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