The sea, the beautiful sea

The bay has heaved and shuddered as the swell from storms thousands of kilometres away has released its pent up energy on our sandy beaches.


Joy hides deep inside the straddling of a block of fibreglass covered foam in a violent sea. Surrounded by endless ocean, looked down upon by mountain vistas, comforted by endless beaches. Pure freedom! Whales and otters, seals and dolphins, even sting rays make interesting companions. My crew, whether at my side or seeking waves down the point, are one with me in pursuit of that momentary high. A bond forged in adversity and filled with companionship.

I am humbled by the surf. Each wave has a lesson for me; a lesson of patience, or courage, or a deeper belief in God. The lessons are tough, and wrong answers are punished. I am so small and yet I am here, laughing, thrilled, and hungry for more.

Sometimes, very rarely; I swoop, glide, and fly.

And in that instant, Mother Nature takes hold of my heart in her bountiful hands, and loves me!

Poverty of Spirit

The book I am reading has had me in tears from all of the laughter, much to my wife’s amusement! It is titled, ‘Around Africa on my bicycle’ and is written by the hero of the story, Riaan Manser. Riaan is the mad chap who pedalled around our small continent a couple of years ago, a mere 36,000 kilometres.

Having spent a fair bit of time working in Africa over the last 18 months, I have a different appreciation for Africa and its people. That might be why I have found his commentary so amusing. It might also be that he has written a thoroughly humorous book!

One of his insights really struck me. He writes about the many people that he met along the way, most of whom were very poor. Yet he found them to be full of joy and incredibly generous with the little that they had. He wondered if most people who are well off have the joy of their material possessions but have perhaps lost the joy of life and the spirit of humanity that makes life wonderful.

I think it is entirely plausible that the wealthy have too much invested in wealth to risk losing it all to find true happiness and joy. Wealth continually breeds the need for more wealth, at the expense of everything else! The same is true of those with nothing who have much invested in their joy of life to risk losing it to find wealth. Although the opportunities to make the change are probably limited! Each side has something wonderful and yet it seems that finding the happy medium is incredibly difficult.

Is it possible that poverty can refer not only to material things but also to one's spirit?

Perhaps if you have managed to build a life that if filled with love, joy, complete peace of mind, and just enough to survive on; you have found the elusive Holy Grail?

To my dear little girl

To my dear darling Isabella,


Yesterday morning you exploded into being in the form of a tiny pink baby. So small, wrinkled, and helpless! I was humbled by the notion that God chose your mom and I to be your parents. To love you, care for you, and possibly even sacrifice our lives for you. I so look forward to getting to know you better, to guiding you as you grow, to hugging you when you are sad, and to helping you explore all that you are.

I could not help but think of the life that lies before the feet you don’t even know that you have. A life wide open with possibilities just waiting to be explored. The choices you will make will either lead you to fulfilment, a mundane existence, or a life of destruction. I hope that I have the strength and wisdom to prepare you for those choices. I pray for the humility and courage to share my life with you and show you a better way to live.

Through all of the arguments we will have, through the failure you will see in me, and through those times when life just does not seem fair, know that through it all, I have loved you from the start. I will always try and give you the best of me, but in those times when it isn’t so, I hope you will forgive me, smile on me, and reach out to me again.

There is a long road ahead of us. I hope that it is filled with much excitement, laughter, and joy. It is only fair to warn you that it will also be filled with disappointments, tears, and loss. Yes, there will be bad times but they will be much easier to bear if we face them together as a family.

Your life, like mine, will be full of its own twists and turns. At times life will flow and at others become incredibly complex. Regardless, I will be there for you whenever you need me!

Remember always that you are special because you are you. That in your uniqueness you have something valuable to offer the world, the gift of you! Cherish life, learn something new each day, challenge those around you, brighten the world with your smile, and love fiercely!

All my love, dad.

The written word

Writing is a strange sport!

There are times when nothing comes to my mind. When I sit in my chair and stare at the screen until the words blur into unintelligible script. I type a few hesitant lines. I delete them all. I edit some text and realise that my edits are worse than the stuff that was there all along. Any distraction is enough to make me leave my spot. Anything has to be better than writing! The tank seems empty, there is nothing more to give!

I should know by now that on days like this, it is better to go surfing and try to write again later.

There are also times when words seem to flow out of my very being, down through my arms and out of my fingers. Which then blur as they touch type the thoughts and emotions that pour out of my soul. Word upon word, paragraph upon paragraph, page upon page, they stream past my eyes.

Sometimes writing just happens. It flows without stopping until it suddenly does. In those times, writing is a pleasure, a joyous exhalation of my spirit! And the stuff I write at these times is nothing short of brilliant.

So good that the few good times are more than enough to inspire me to carry on through the many bad ones!

Joy

I was wondering about the relativity of joy.

Definitions from a couple of web dictionaries define joy as rejoicing as well as the emotion of great delight or happiness caused by something exceptionally good or satisfying.

If I had absolutely nothing; a free meal or a grotty jacket before winter would probably provide much joy. Both could be classified as exceptionally good or satisfying events. In my current situation, being forced to eat a meal from a soup kitchen or receiving a grotty jacket would be tough to handle. Interestingly enough, giving soup to a hungry person or giving away an old jacket would provide me with some measure of joy.

The question I have for myself is do I only rejoice in the big things like a new car, a baby’s birth, or an unexpected windfall? Have I become so jaded that I am unable to find joy in a smile or a kind word; the simple things of life that spring from loving hearts? Do I appreciate the dawn of each new day, the beauty that surrounds me, and the fact that I have been blessed with life for another day? And do I use each of those days to spread joy or bemoan the fact that I don’t have the things I really want?

Is it possible that whether I have nothing or own the world, the most valuable gift I can give is free and it comes from the heart? And it is in giving love and respect that I receive great joy and peace of mind?

Or is it better to work my butt off so I can go out and buy some cool stuff, knowing that it will soon break and become worthless. Then I can give it away and feel good that somebody else will get joy from it!

Just wondering...

Welcome to the Family

There is much joy and celebration in my house. My youngest surfed his first two waves yesterday!!!!

He has pestered me all week long about going to surf. This from a child who has been scared of anything bigger than his ankle depth from birth. In fact, I was beginning to think he would never get into the sea. His favourite trick has been to ask to come and surf and then when we get to the beach with all of the equipment, he changes his mind and plays in the sand dunes.

So with the sea temperature at a cool 14 degrees Celsius and a summer wetsuit far too big for him, he eventually convinced me that yesterday was the day for surfing. Talk about stacking the deck against yourself!

I was amazed when he let me take him deeper than my knees. I was further amazed when I pushed him into a tiny wave and he rode it on his stomach to the beach. I was dumbfounded when he came back for more. My face almost split into two when I told him to stand on a wave and he did. And then he did it again!

He was shivering so violently I suddenly thought I needed glasses he was so blurred! Yet when we got home, he asked to go surfing again today. That’s my boy!!! What a beautiful experience to be part of a person’s journey to conquer a fear.

I dream that one day the three of us will spend hours surfing together! Father and sons sharing a common passion, rejoicing in the beauty of nature, and wallowing in each other company! It may just come to pass!!

This morning while pounding the tar back into shape, surfing was very far from my mind. That is unusual as I often find myself day dreaming about these perfect waves and my perfect form as I carve them into bits. The joy about day dreams is that they are perfectly acceptable no matter how far from reality they may be. Nope, instead I focussed on smiling and complimenting my breathing like any good person would do. “That was a great breath, take another one, and another one”.....

It was just after a welcome shower that I received a text from a friend of mine, inquiring if I was as keen as him to indulge in surfing some real waves. And so I found myself in the sea surfing little waves on a nine foot long board having a glorious time. I have never had the opportunity to surf this kind of board before and this was a fantastic and fun learning experience. The real joy was there were just a handful of guys and a girl in a very calm sea simply enjoying life. And it was that simple.

The question that I get asked a lot these days is “how is the surfing?” I find it difficult to answer as I have spent so much of this wonderful time of mine on so many other activities that I have always wanted to do. I have actually not surfed very much at all. Perhaps I just write about it now with more passion.

This morning, this handful of strangers were all in the water rooting for each other. Something that does not happen too often. I certainly walked away feeling revived in body and spirit. I also walked away with a little gift, an appreciation for how blessed and privileged I am.

It is strange to think that after a lifetime spent focussed on work, I am now a pilgrim in that same life. Every day I try and take all of the opportunities that present themselves. I have some serious long term goals that guide my choices but I still have this surreal feeling of being led somewhere. I am already in a place I could never have daydreamed about. I think it has come about through being open to opportunity, having a better understanding of myself and feeling life for the first time. It is not my daydream of perfectly carved waves but something so much better. It is a place filled with love and joy and life.

Deep within me somewhere, it is all right!