Back to the book

I had this urge to pull out my old writing last night. Reading a number of chapters had me smiling and excited. The stuff I had written was not bad at all. In fact it is funny and engaging. It is also written in a typical ‘me’ style, a big rush. Opportunity abounds to slow it down, to expand and embellish.


I skipped ahead to the last chapter that I had written. It was difficult to read, disjointed and all over the place. Obviously not a well edited chapter. Not my best work. The result of my last attempt to get the book on the go again.

Regardless, it was good to read matter that I could call mine. Gave me this little glow deep within. I’m a little inspired to sharpen my pencil and get writing. A mere 35 months after the last piece of real lead broke.

I wonder how long this inspiration will last. Perhaps I can even push through the next 6 chapters to the end.

It really is not far at all...

Achieving the Impossible

I have started to read Lewis Pugh’s book, ‘Achieving the Impossible‘. I am only a couple of chapters in and find myself more than thoroughly inspired. If you don’t know Lewis, he is also known as the human polar bear and has spent much of his life attempting the impossible, in terms of long distance swimming. The human polar bear moniker comes from his kilometre swim at one of the poles.


Having my own wild long distance never done before event at the back of my mind, makes this book a very interesting read!

I found myself so inspired that a run at 05h30 this morning seemed to be a brilliant idea. Lewis wrote about long distance running in snow storms. I figured if that was possible, then there was no way I could shirk almost winter morning running.

And so I was on the road at the crack of dawn fumbling my way through the dark and loving every moment!

I so love books that rock my world!

Easter Inspiration

I had a wonderful Easter weekend. An added bonus was a little insight into my future!

For many years I have wanted to change my life and do what I am meant to do. The only problem has been that I have no idea what I am meant to do. I do know that I want to add value in some way to society, but that is rather broad and unclear.

Some time back, I made my ‘big’ move, giving up corporate life to go and write a book and focus on my family. It has been wonderful time resulting in an unfinished book (although 16 chapters of good stuff have been written), an increase in my family, a pumping business, good health, low stress levels, and good community involvement. Yet here I am almost two and a half years after my day job and still wondering why I have not found the big thing that will define my life’s value.

For a guy without a defined day job, I am incredibly busy, mainly flitting from one thing to the next. In order to appease my unsatisfied mind, I have committed myself to a wide array of things. This has been my interim measure while I wait for that great inspiration to consume my life. But I find myself not really committed to all of my committments as I have this feeling that they are not the big thing I am looking for, regardless of how valuable they all are.

This Easter, I was struck by the realisation that my life does not need a radical change of direction or the next big thing. Instead and here is the good part, I need to do everything that is in my life now, really well. I think it is that simple. By doing things to the best of my ability, I will immediately make a massive contribution to the people and communities around me.

I love it when things are so simple, although it has taken me about 15 years to work this one out! I think I will use the rest of the month to put my new theory to the test.

HOT IN ACCRA

This morning began bright and early. The only thing is nobody told the sun and even though it was not yet doing its thing, it was hot and humid. My host here in Accra, an old school mate of mine, decided I needed to experience the joy of exercise in an outdoor sauna. And so at 05h45 in the morning I was preparing for a run.

Warming up in this place is an activity to be severely frowned upon. More than anything else, I needed to cool down! And I was yet to take my first step.

I have recently spent a good deal of time pounding the streets of Dar es Salaam. It is hot there too and I had hoped that my time in the sun there would have acclimatised me for anything. I was wrong!

After three steps, perhaps it was four, my body started to respond. There could be no doubt that the lovely houses and well maintained roads had nothing to do with it. Actually Accra was a revelation to me. It is for the most part a well kept and orderly town. Everything works from traffic lights to the rules of the road. That is apart from the police officer who climbed into our car the other day. He told the driver that he was under arrest for a serious traffic violation. Yes, I remember now, we turned left! After extracting the princely sum of four dollars from the driver, he proceeded to ask me for his present from South Africa. While fiddling with my camera, I replied that I would happily take his photo, and mail it to him. He did not seem keen to take me up on the offer. This I deduced from the fact that he suddenly vanished and reappeared down the block moving at a hectic pace. Strangely this incident did little to dampen my surprise and wonder at this West African country. Most of it was the people here that are so friendly and helpful that they put me to shame!

But I digress.

It was definitely after step number three and just before step number four that my face grew intensely hot. It felt like my brain was sending signals through my body like an old ship siren warning of imminent disaster. By step six, I was glowing. A meltdown was inevitable! Step ten saw great big shiny drops of sweat extrude through my pores, en masse. Then slowly at first they started to move, gathering speed and momentum as they joined other streams, forming great rivers, torrents really, that gushed to the floor.

About five kilograms lighter and much faster on my feet, we arrived back at the hotel. Thankfully I had had the foresight to set my air conditioner to its lowest setting. Changing from my wet kit into my swimming costume was an irony in itself.

And so there I was totally inspired for the day and raring to go. Who would have thought that an outdoor sauna could have had such a positive effect on me?

Just as well it is the middle of winter here!

I set off early on Wednesday morning for the slopes of the Helderberg. I was looking for a bit of space and beauty and inspiration. Once again, the book and I required some alignment and fine tuning. The theory was that sitting on top of a mountain ought to provide my mind with a veritable feast of inspiration. The sun lifted its single fiery eye over the mountains as I set forth. It was still cold yet within a few hundred metres my fleece was tied to the top of my camera bag. As silly as it was to have a fleece on an expected warm day, I was breaking a golden hiking rule. Never hike on your own. But on my own was precisely where I wanted and needed to be. And a jersey could come in handy on a cold mountainside night should a broken limb impede my progress.

This mountain is covered in Fynbos and on the lower reaches the Proteas are plentiful. Each with their large flowers expectantly waiting to open. Birds abound down here busily flitting from bush to bush, Cape sugar birds and Starlings and plenty of others . But then I am not a very good bird spotter. I did take pictures of flowers and tried out some macro techniques for fun. The track I was on led steadily upward and it was hard going. My packing definitely needed refinement, what with a full camera backpack, my lunch, two litres of water and a full size tripod, I was a walking porter.

After a good two hours of walking I ended up in a beautiful tree filled gorge. Some of the original Yellowwoods still grow here. But the sun had not yet warmed them up and it was cool and gloomy. I decided to press on as my inspiration lay not there. After another hour of climbing, I arrived at a pinnacle just below a saddle in the mountain. Nowhere near the top but close enough to enjoy the vista that lay before me. I found some shade just below a leopard’s lair and settled in for lunch. Sadly the leopard did not seem to be in!

I drank it all in, opened up my notes and wrote like a man possessed. Oh I love the inspiration that the splendour of the nature can provide!! It is a tonic for the soul.

This all happened last Wednesday. This Wednesday I took my mom on a similar walk. We climbed to the very top of the Helderberg and it was truly spectacular. More than six hours of walking later, we arrived back at my car. Tired and dirty but fulfilled in a way that only nature can.

I hope my mom will still be able to walk tomorrow....

I have discovered that writing is an art form and to date I have just been dabbling on the fringes. On Saturday something changed! I got wordacious! 3000 words just tumbled out of my fingers and onto my Word document, poised to catch such wonderful musings. It was a fantastic experience to be in the flow with a amazing story just aching to come alive in words.

Hopefully I have broken my writing drought! Prior to this, I had only revised my current chapter about four times and ended up with something very preachy. Not where I wanted my writing to be at all. The Saturday attempt was off the wall and it worked. I now have another new angle through which I may just be able to communicate my own social commentary. I was telling somebody the other day that it feels like I am a moth circling a flame. I am getting closer and closer to the end product and hopefully soon I, as the moth, will merge with the flame in a great explosion of celebration as I put this chapter to bed!!! Then I can move on to the next infernally frustrating chapter.

Truth be told, that burst of writing made all of the frustration and procrastination and lack of imagination all worth while. I cannot wait for another experience of electrifying insight. Like anything in life, it will be the product of some hard and dedicated work. Gonna get busy now!