Dear Inner Circle,

Here’s hoping we don’t get a severe fire season next summer because I fear the response of our government will be to disband the fire brigade. It is true that whenever we have fires, those pesky red trucks show up and I’m pretty sure that if we could stop the trucks, we’d solve the problem of fires. While I’m solving the country’s problems, have you considered how hospitals are a black hole for money? Have you seen the way these things attract sick people? They are a veritable honey pot for the sick and by building them, we’re sending the wrong message to the public. Ambulance drivers are akin to people smugglers, making a living on the back of people’s suffering. Surely if we could stop the ambulances, the sick would think twice before flocking to hospitals. Really it should be we who decides who will be sick and the manner in which they will be treated. I can hear the slogans of our next election, stop the boats, stop the firetrucks, stop the ambulances. OK, I’m being stupid but I’m hoping that by laughing, we might see how pathetic is the behaviour of our country in the face of so many people perishing at sea.

A young man, a warmly dressed and articulate fellow with the loveliest face, told me this week that it was addiction that put him on the street. He’s fighting the addiction and it’s a daily struggle. Last week he took all of his money and gave it to World Vision for their work in Nepal. He’d rather starve himself than throw his money away on his wretched addiction. What a struggle and what a beautiful heart is revealed, fighting for life and survival.

Keep reading here.

Dear Inner Circle,
Our ambassador, Kylie Kwong, brought her entire team into Wayside yesterday for a talk and walk around Kings Cross with Rob Holt, our Community Educator, who was once on the street. I’m certain the day opened their eyes to a side of this city that could be known no other way, and that I guess would help weld her team together putting most of their problems into a healthy perspective. People who order noodles in our cafe on Friday don’t realise it but they are eating straight from Kylie’s kitchen. We’re a class act here.

Last night getting out of a cab on my way to a speaking engagement, the door flung open quicker than I expected and connected with a flash looking white BMW. It left a mark on the paint but I couldn’t tell if it was a scratch or a mark that might rub off. A woman got out of the flash BMW and I apologised and handed her my card. I told her that if the mark didn’t come off that I’d be glad to get it fixed. She said, “I’ve come here tonight to hear you speak.” I love cars probably more than I should and if I owned a lovely BMW like this one, it would be hard to be gracious about someone damaging it. As the night passed, the BMW owner become more and more gracious. At the end of the night,
I gave her a copy of my book and so from a most awkward beginning we ended the evening in mutual admiration and bucket loads of thanks to each other. It could have been a disaster but grace transforms negatives into positives.

Keep reading here.

Dear Inner Circle,

“Hey, Papa, one of my friends got into a lot of trouble today,” said my 8-year-old granddaughter as I met her at the school gate.

“Really,” I said, “Why did she get into trouble?”

“She was accidentally talking,” she said.

“‘Accidentally’ talking? Baby, you should consider a career in the law.”

“What?” she asked!

“Darling, please say these words for me, ‘Accidentally, Your Honour’”

She repeated the words and I said, “That’s it, I’m saving for a wig and gown”.

My girl looked at me like she recognised this as one of those grandfather moments for which there isn’t an explanation and that it wouldn’t be worth her energy to try and help her old grandfather make any sense.

“Can we get an ice cream?” she asked.

It was my turn to pull a facial expression, waiting for the ‘magic word’ that unlocks the heart and wallet of all grandfathers.

A beautiful little face looked into mine and after pause she said, “Your honour”.

There’s been lots of talk around the SBS program Struggle Street this past week or so. I’m probably not the greatest authority on this subject because most of the people we work with at Wayside, aspire to Struggle Street. The thought of having a roof over your head and the struggle to pay rent and find food and clothing, sounds like luxury to most around here. I saw the program and warmed quickly to each of the characters whom I thought were revealed in their vulnerable but wonderful humanity. I thought SBS made a pretty good job of it however some who had some serious misgivings are far better placed than I to make a judgement and I differ to them. Jon Owen and his wife Lisa choose to live in Mount Druitt where they raise their young family. Jon and Lisa run something that is akin to Wayside but it all happens in their family home. They are inspiring and probably a little crazy. I’m sure they are crazy in the same way that Ghandi or...[read more]

‘Mission’ and ‘vision’ are both words that indicate a forward look. When we talk of our mission, we are looking forward as far as we can see. When we talk of vision, we are looking forward beyond what we can see. Whenever we ask the question, ‘What do we want to do” the discussion that follows will be about ‘mission’. Whenever we ask, “Who do we want to be” the discussion that follows will always be about vision.

Wayside’s mission is to “Create Community with no Us and Them”. That’s what we aim for in everything we do. Sometimes we hit mission and a phenomenal burst of life and transformation takes place; sometimes we are miles away from mission and simply in a state of “wishin”. We’ve learned that mature leaders are those who don’t panic in the wishin stage but rather use it to sort our stuff and look to be captured by our mission again.

The phrase, “Love over Hate” describes our vision. We want to be an organization that lives on the intersection of love and hate. Often enough, it’s a dangerous intersection. We want to find our place in the intersection between the haves and have-nots; between the Christians and the Muslims; the theists and the atheists; the in and the out; the sick and the well. We want to be a people who live in this dangerous intersection in a way that maximizes the chances of love prevailing.

We don’t own our vision. We can’t franchise our vision. Our vision is always out there, always ahead, always calling us to be more. If we could be experts in our own vision and seek to proselytize, we would have destroyed our vision. Our vision admits no experts. No formula leads us to our vision and when we really get it, we emerge with no formula. We do not go to people and say, “Believe the following propositions and you’ll get it”, instead we say, “Walk with us and you’ll get it”. Or allow us to walk with you and we’ll get it.

Our mission is our boat, our sails and our rigging....[read more]

Dear Inner Circle,

On my way in this morning I noticed the children's playground was busier than usual and memories of the days when my children were little and such parks had a gravitational pull for them came back to me. I was running late this morning and content to walk past quickly but a little boy recognised me and came over to me at the fence. He had news that I needed to hear. His jeans had nine pockets! He knew this news was probably beyond my capacity to believe so I had to carefully count each pocket and confirm the total of nine. My day is off to such a great start because I’ve counted nine pockets. How often is the awesome wrapped in the ordinary?

Our most valuable assets are not in bank vaults and showroom windows but within us and all around us. Kings Cross is an awesome place with an awesome history and Wayside is inviting everyone from all walks of life to pause and ponder how awesome are the people in our community. We’re putting on a photographic exhibition that highlights how awesome is the ordinary. Join us if you can on Tuesday 12th May at 6pm.

He is a little sample of the astonishing ordinary.

“I have created a life of dust, grit, thirst and itch. Every trace of beauty and freshness had to be excluded. It has had the effect of smothering me, before I am done. I’ve got a grudge against my life for not having been a different life.”

Keep reading here.