In the evening, Karaj, George and I dug the floor between the utility block and the conservatory (118 buckets). Karaj found the pipe he had predicted was there. That’s the thing with Karaj: he gets what he wants because he never gives up. The downside of this, according to him, is that he attracts people (clients) who do not help themselves and he ends up giving everything and getting nowhere. Karaj: ‘That’s the wisdom I don’t have.’
Karaj has a high level of integrity and only has one small issue to sort out in his life. It may be small but it has large consequences: Why does he attract the sort of clients he does, who need intensive work and don’t listen? Why has he always been accused of lies and theft in his life? Why does nobody believe him?
[11 years later, as we discussed the above point, Karaj added this: ‘The reason is that they cannot see what I see. I have the wisdom but I have been so focused on solutions, I refused to see that the problems I was trying to solve for people were ones they could not see.’]
During the tidying up, the lengths of angle iron stacked behind one of the corridor roof supports fell on my back and leg as we tried to put one of the boards underneath the support. They cut my right shin to the bone and scraped my lower back. Karaj and George removed the angle iron and I got out. The injury was a lucky escape. I commented over dinner that these things will happen to me because that is my script, but Karaj told me I am becoming more aware. The thing is, when things are going well I have to be very, very careful.
I talked about the day my grandmother had asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. She then proceeded to walk all over my dream of being a footballer by asking ‘What if you get a serious injury?’ I was 13 years old at the time. If she was going to pick apart my dream, why did she ask me in the first place? Some time later I had an accident in her back garden when a lump of concrete fell on me whilst playing football. Today’s accident brought back that memory and I reflected on the power of suggestion. (My playing career ended at 18 because of a serious injury.)
Summary: Because of the garden work, I achieved more than I thought I’d be able to today. The accident has been a warning to me. Be careful. Be vigilant. At night I tried to sleep but couldn’t. I was awake until around 06:30. My mind was busy, but there was nothing in particular worrying me or keeping me awake. I need to quieten my mind.