Liam wrote this reflection just as 2024 was coming to a close. The year, we felt as if we were always trying to "keep up" with it all. We hope that in 2025 we can feel the business flourish with a bit more ease and abundance. We'll see where life leads. Thank you for being here with us.
Dear beloved bowlers,
We would like to thank you for the year that has been, it has been a big one for us. This was a year of transformation. We made the kitchen bigger, started the frozen meal program, built a freezer, invested in machinery, invested in our team, imported 6 tonnes of coconut, worried about it all most of the time, had some fun along the way, and after all has been said and done, it’s been a good year. It’s been a hard year. Jackie and I have been making fun of each other for talking too much about how tired we are. At the end of the day the refrain is often “I’m exhausted”. We say it jokingly, but some days, it all feels a bit much.
So next year, we hope to make the year of blooming for the bowling club. This has been a year of building gardens for us. We have made so many gardens and probably planted about 500 flowers all over the place, and at the back of the restaurant, there are flowers everywhere. To me, flowers are a sign of the pure joy and beauty that can still be felt in the world. How nature flocks to the flowers and spreads their joy around the place. How the sun and the rain can fall on the soil to create this thing of beauty, that nobody built, which is made of nothing but the air, the water, the earth and the sunshine. To me this is a thing of wonder.
I feel hope for humanity when I look at a flower. Because even people, who are capable of so many horrible things, are able to take in the pure joy of a flower. We are still able to recognise and cultivate the pure and beautiful in the world, even though it seems the darkness is forever winning. Have you walked around Dunedin lately? You should. There are so many flowers, flowers planted by someone somewhere. Someone who wanted some light, beauty and joy in their lives, even if they did not admit it. The fact that almost every house has a garden and has flowers is proof that most people still value the pure and the beautiful in life, and that gives me hope.
That is why next year shall be the year of blooming for the bowling club. For I wish the bowling club to be like a flower. I want the bowling club to shine and for it to draw the people to it. Because they crave some light and beauty in their lives. And I hope for the people who are in the bowling club to bloom with it.
My first responsibility as a manager of the bowling club is to my employees. I hope for the soils of the bowling club to be nourished so our employees thrive personally and professionally. So it is a place that they come to, to be lifted up. And the bowling club is able to nourish in the practical ways of providing money to them in order for them to thrive. I hope the bowling club team continues to be a family which supports and nourishes one another. I hope for us to laugh together more often.
One of mine and Jackie’s problems is that we do not nourish ourselves enough. So I hope we can nourish ourselves just as we would any other employee. Our main goal is for us not to be tired most of the time, and for us to finally be financially supported from the business. We have not been paying ourselves for a long time now, and feel the time has come. Like any gardener, we feel it has been most important to tend to the soils of the bowling club, but now we feel it is time for us to take a rest and enjoy some of the rewards. So we aim for the bowling club to bloom, not only in a spiritual way where all who come to it are nourished, but we also hope for it to bloom in a business sense, so that we all may be served by the bowling club.
To that end, we hope to add a few new sources of income. We hope to start regularly selling sauces, expand deliveries and set up a non-profit wing so the free frozen meal program is able to support itself financially.
We want the bowling club to always be a source of comfort and warmth. So we aim to provide the bowling club as a space to come to during the day and have a cup of tea and a piece of cake, and to just hang out.
Because where would we be without all the people of the bowling club. We hope to keep people at the heart of all that we do. We hope to continue to faithfully serve you all, but also to be served by the community. We hope that we may do our little bit in the world to make it a place where we help each other out. I think that’s all I could ever hope for.
I hope you all had a bloomin' good Xmas and a positively rosy new year!
With love,
Liam and Jackie