Tag Archives: ocean

Reasons to be cheerful,

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Many of us are attracted to the sea or the Ocean or just a body of water. It’s evident in the property prices near the Sea, it’s evident in any map of any country, people given the option will live close to the coast rather than in the midlands.

 

 

 

Problems seem smaller when you stare out at the vast infinity of the Ocean,  all the issues of this terrestrial existence melt away when you are on, under or just beside water but in particular the Ocean. If you are reading this blog chances are you have some kind of affinity with the liquid element too. No matter where I go, if there’s water nearby my fins come too. Even if conditions are bad I’ll still dive in just cross it off the list. I am with child to dive somewhere in the Pacific, maybe less so The Arctic and Antarctica but under ice somewhere at some stage has to be on the cards.

Some people take this one step further and abandon the land, maybe not altogether but they do sail off into the wild blue yonder on a regular basis. This isn’t just to travel but a way of life. A way of seeing the world and seeing yourself from another plane. The real you we are all so afraid of seeing. I am sure you might feel like Robinson Crusoe until you find out thousands of people do this all the time. There are thousands that have either retired, dropped out or decided that this is the path of life for them. “A tourist doesn’t know where they have been and a traveller doesn’t know where he’s going”. Paul Theurox.

We evolved from water so it’s only natural that once used to it, we feel right at home peaceful and connected. Our bodies if not our minds remember the ancient reflex that helps us stay down longer and deeper. Living on the West coast of an Island in the Atlantic you can’t helped but be moved by it, whether by the sunsets, the calm, the peace, the solitude or conversely the omnipotent raging power that sweeps all before it.The Ocean is a vast, vast beautiful thing and I hope and pray it’s still in good enough condition for future generations to enjoy down the road.

The film Blackfish aired on CNN recently and the storm of protest against cetacean captivity is building momentum year on year. Go see it and be moved. It’s hard to think what an individual can do against the tidal wave of problems and pollution that we seem intent on inducing into Oceans that provide the vast majority of oxygen we breath on this spinning little ball of ours. But you can, you don’t have to start a movement, you don’t have to throw stones through the windows of dolphinariums (but don’t let me stop you). Just pick up a single piece of litter from the beach and bring it home.

1. You will feel better about yourself.

2. The Ocean will thank you for it in some way shape or form.

3. Someone might see you and be inspired to do the same.

Reasons to be cheerful 1,2,3.

 

Living or just existing?

 

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It’s a valid question. I think!

You read and hear in so many formats that very question. Maybe Alan Watts sums it up best. Many of the self help or self development books and gurus seek to clarify or help us answer it.

 

Is it better to have the well paying job that you hate in order to try and live the life you want at the weekend? Or better to have uncertain income but the joy of living fully everyday? Answering your call instead of the organisations.  Exploring your creativity instead of being stifled by the rules and wants of the organisation.

There’s no right or wrong answer to this. There is only your answer. Justify it anyway you want to logically but if it’s not right then it won’t sit right within you. It will keep you up at night, it will gnaw at any given moment and a feeling of dissatisfaction will prevail. Do whatever you “feel” is right but search for it first. Live life, don’t exist.

“Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.”

Theodore Roosevelt.

We can also gain much inspiration from a man like Burt Munro, the world is full of ordinary people doing extraordinary things but we tend not to hear much about them as mainstream media continues its dumbing down run to oblivion. If you haven’t watched it go see the Worlds fastest Indian. Hopkins said it was one of his best films to work on as it was more him, his own character. The tapestry of your life is always just in front of you, always just ahead and something we should pay more attention to. It’s up to you where you will put in the stitches. The alternative is to have someone else do the stitching for you.

Perhaps the easiest way to drill down through the dross is to answer the ultimate question.

What will they say about me when I’m dead? Good. Bad or nothing at all?

Depths of the mind

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Walking in to the Ocean is like walking in to your soul.

At the start you just sit on the edge of the shore, on a rock and everything is fine. Everything is secure, everything is familiar. The gentle lap of the swell is calm and peaceful. Fins on and you fin out just a little bit. The Ocean floor falls away to the depths as you get further from the shore, further from security, further from the familiar. So too the wanderings of the soul or mind.

At some point we can no longer see the Ocean floor, we know it’s there but we just can’t see it. Same in the soul, we can’t see it or comprehend it but we know it’s there. We don’t know where it will lead us, afraid if we go too far down we may never come back. Like in The Big Blue sometimes you need a good reason to come back up. Time and time again though, we do come back and so with each passing episode we go deeper and deeper.

Exploring one or both. I don’t think we should be afraid. It’s what we are here to do.

If you are reading this blog chances are you have a relatively privileged life. Compared to two-thirds of the world anyway. Of course there will be someone better off than you but also someone one worse off. If you are not on the constant search for food or water for survival it’s beholden to you and your duty to humanity in my humble opinion, to search your soul and explore. Find out. Explore the planet, the beauty of nature, the Oceans and yourself.

Plumb the depths, its worth it.