Good evening. Happy Christmas Eve for you wherever you are in the world. [Elody 00:00:07] and I currently in Salzburg at the Villa Trapp. So, if you don’t know the story The Sound of Music, the Von Trapp family singers. And this is their original house where they grew up, where all the stories were formed, that then went on to become a book which went on to become probably one of the world’s most famous movie musicals of all time. I think five Academy awards.
Anyway, I digress. I’ll have a flip around, so you can see a little bit of the place. I’m currently in the main living room. There’s the most incredible dining room where all 10 children, yeah, 10 children, not seven used to sit and have breakfast and lunch and all that kind of thing. I don’t want to talk about today. It’s been funny doing these lives on the way. I kind of lost the stuff I teach and talk about and things I want to share. While I’m away, it kind of just doesn’t feel right to be sticking to the schedule. Not that I used to stick to the schedule that much.
But today I wanted to talk about gratitude, I guess. There’s stuff going on in Australia at the moment that’s horrible. Half the country’s just burning to cinders. And we have a prime minister that apparently now cares. But on the flip side, here I am on the other side of the world where it’s cold. Apparently not cold enough because there’s not much snow. And the locals are disappointed in that.
But you’re confronted everywhere you go in Europe with this history, just this deep, deep, deep history. And especially moments where Elody and I spent four hours at Dachau, which was the first concentration camp. And it was one of the training grounds for the SS and where they learned how to do all the atrocities that they did.
And when you’re in those places, it gives you a whole new perspective of, God, we take shit for granted, unbelievable. But so I’m walking around Austria, seeing these majestic buildings and hearing the history. And I’m so grateful that people got out and people did get to show the world bright, bright, beautiful parts of this world and their history. And that Hitler was stopped. And it took a long time, took way too long, but he was stopped.
It’s funny, I’m so grateful for the history that’s here. It’s incredible. Everywhere you turn, it’s a church that’s hundreds of years old, or it’s a restaurant that’s been there for 200 years, or it’s a family that have been tailors for 400, all these things. And as a Kiwi and an Australian, we kind of don’t have that. We have this a couple hundred years of history.
But I’m beginning to understand how important it is to do what you do and what you do well, and to be grateful for what you have and to love what you do. Because in a couple hundred years, someone might be saying, “Oh, that’s Marie, who’s been watching today. Marie has a part of this beautiful artwork. It’s still sitting here 400 years later.” Someone still has that piece of art.
So it’s legacy. I guess the emotions that get to me when I’m in places like this are gratitude, thinking about legacy constantly. And I guess that true appreciation. I’m really appreciative of life when I’m in places that are historic, I think. So from my family, Elody’s running around taking photos of Villa Trapp because we’re were about to leave, to yours, Happy Christmas Eve.
In Europe here all the traditions kind of happen tonight. So we’re going to go to a church service and be steeped in more history. And I’ll give you an update on that and stay safe. Despite the awful things that are going on in the world, stay grateful for what we do have. And try and do something to better what we do have, where we can. Because I think part of the problem with any of the atrocities in the world is those of us, and I’ve been guilty of it. I’ve just gone, not my background, not my problem. And it is our background and it is our problem. We do need to stand up and take notice. So, Merry Christmas.