The people I admire and look to for advice

List the people you admire and look to for advice…

My best friend

She is the most patient, loving, kind and gentle person I’ve ever known. We met when we were young about 17, at a rave and back then we were both completely different people, like two butterflies in full flight with multicolored wings, embodying our most vibrant physical forms.

When we met I had a great feeling inside. It always happens with people I know are going to be significant in my life. A light clicks on in my heart and my third eye, as though this person is a beacon and I am a beacon and our lights have crossed over like two lighthouse beams on a dark stormy night. She is very smart and has a PhD in maths. She took a different path to me and had two kids, and has become the most devoted and attentive mum you could possibly imagine. I greatly admire her for this and always seek her advice, as she has a high degree of emotional intelligence.

My Polish bear 🐻

He would hate me calling this and cringe so hard he would need to wear a hoodie over his eyes permanently to mask the level of cringe I have created just now, but nevertheless I can’t call him by his real name here because he is an intensely private person. I’ve written at length about our first fortuitous meeting here. So important this person is to me and integral to my life I can’t really accurately quantify it.

Everything I’ve learned about how to be a responsible human being and an adult I’ve learned from him. In return I think I’ve loosened up his serious self and made him live in the moment more, made him long for adventure and new experiences, as I do. We couldn’t be more different in our ways of seeing the world, I am definitely a glass half full and an optimist, he is a glass half empty and a natural pessimist. There is often a lot of tension because of our differences, but somehow it all comes out in the wash because we really do love each other. I am grateful every single day and every time I get to hug him that I have him in my life. Sure…he shits me to tears and we do insult each other in a joking way but it’s all in jest. I have grown as a person so much because of him and definitely become less of a chaotic and unpredictably spirited wild horse, more like a working Clydesdale with sturdy hooves and a sensible temperament now. I guess he broke me in and domesticated me…this is a good thing.

My late grandfather

My late grandfather was from Yorkshire and spent his childhood working in the mines. He had a deep understanding of poverty and deprivation and spent his later life protecting those he loved from having the same fate by making wise financial decisions and helping my parents. He was really the only adult who saw me, really saw me and knew the potential I had and nurtured that self-belief in me. The rest of the world including my parents either ignored me completely or made fun of what I had to say. His strong and solid never wavering belief in me and in my intelligence was what helped me to lift myself out of the difficult and childhood and teenage years I found myself in. His lifetime love of learning became my own. His endless curiosity about the world became my own. His tenacious and courageous way of seizing every opportunity that came his way became my own. His keeping of an extensive personal library became my own thing I would do. Even though he’s no longer physically here I can still hear his laugh and his voice and feel his quiet loving observation of everything I am doing now as an adult. When things get difficult I seek his counsel by closing my eyes and when I need strength I ask him for it.