Hey there Reader,
Many years ago, Ben and I went to a cricket match at Mount Maunganui.
It was the middle of summer and, for reasons I still can’t explain, we arrived completely unprepared.
No hats. No sunglasses. No shade.
We were sitting directly in the sun and it was brutal. The kind of heat where the sweat drips into your eyes and your arms get prickly and flushed.
Our eyes were squinting against the glare. Our skin felt like it was burning. We couldn’t relax.
At one point Ben said he actually felt like leaving.
If you know Ben, that tells you everything. He loves cricket. For him to say that meant it was really bad.
All we wanted was shade.
Somewhere to sit where we could breathe again.
I'm currently reading a book called Shade by Sam Bloch, and that cricket memory came straight back to me.
It made me realise how powerful shade actually is.
When you're standing in the sun, shade stops feeling like a luxury. It becomes a necessity.
When you're dealing with something as powerful as the sun, you need shade.
🔍 One thing to notice
Where is the shade in your life right now?
Not literal shade, but the places where you can step out of the intensity for a while.
A walk. A quiet moment before the day starts. A conversation that lets you breathe again.
Modern life generates a lot of heat.
Work pressure. Constant information. Expectations. Noise.
Without noticing it, we can stay out in the glare longer than we should.
🌍 A wider lens
One thing that struck me reading about shade is that it rarely appears by accident.
Someone plants the tree. Someone builds the structure. Someone designs the space.
Shade is created.
And the same is true in our lives.
The places where we rest, think clearly, and reconnect with ourselves usually don’t happen by accident either.
We have to choose them. Sometimes we even have to build them deliberately.
And part of that process is understanding what brings energy into your life — and what helps you recover from it.
In other words, learning where you need sun, and where you need shade.
That’s a big part of what happens in my Self Discovery coaching program.
It’s a space to step out of the glare for a while and take a deeper look at your life — what matters now, what needs to change, and how you want to shape the next chapter.
You can learn more about it here:
👉 Click to explore Self discovery
If you prefer to reflect on ideas like this more slowly, we explore themes like these inside The Good Life Book Club.
👉 Click to join the book club