Patience

If there is one lesson I learned in 2014 it’s this: patience

At home it means spending more time listening instead of trying to fix. It means being in the moment and present.

With my photography it means learning that this whole thing is a process and good things take time to develop. You can’t force it.

With my work it means patience with investments I’ve made. Patience with management teams. Patience with fellow board members and co-investors.

Now I’m not saying I’m an expert at any of this. I’ve fallen on my face plenty. I suppose in this world at this moment there is such a sense of urgency that tends to drown out perspective. And reflecting on the mistakes I made this year I wish I had paused and held on longer.

But it does feel like at each challenging moment a little patience has paid off big time — even though it felt incredible hard and sometimes painful at the time.

It’s Christmas morning here in New Zealand. James was a bit anxious about being away Christmas morning. Would Santa still find him?

The only thing we could think of was to write Santa and tell him what’s going on in advance. And wouldn’t you know, Santa came a few days before we left. Good old Santa.

It’s a bit funny being away from the cold this time of year. We do try to our best to get away from it but at the same time to hear holiday music in shorts feels so strange to me still after all these years.

Right now the clock says 7am local time. I’ve been up for hours as my body still hasn’t fully adjusted to all the time zones we crossed.

I’m going to go get some coffee (“flat whites”) for me and lauren and then tackle the kids in bed to wake them up so we can find out what this day has in store for us.

Merry Christmas everyone!

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I’ve been shooting film mostly on this trip so it will take some time before I have photos to share. I took this one of a lovely beach near the place we are staying

Auckland, New Zealand. December 2014.

After a nearly 5 hour delay at Boston Logan Airport, we flew about 18 hours and made it to New Zealand Sunday morning local time. I am so happy to be here with my family.

This has been our list for a long time.

Bijan & Lauren 2014 Holiday Fundraiser

This time of year, we receive some nice gifts from friends and business associates. This year we wanted to encourage folks to make a donation to our fundraiser instead of sending us a gift.

We are trying to raise $5,000 for this holiday drive. The money will go to charity : water which is one of our favorite charities.

To kick it off Lauren and I are going to make a $1,000 contribution. In addition, we will match the total of the contributions made by December 31, 2014.

I hope you will consider joining us and make a donation. It doesn’t matter what size. It’s the thought and the act of doing something that matters.

Thanks for all your love and friendship. We appreciate it.