The Boxing Day Miracles

There are some days which are almost too perfect to be true.  These are the days when every element combines to create magical moment after magical moment.  A day when it feels as though miracles are occurring all around and the air is full of hope, happiness and expectation.  Today it seems, was destined to be one such day.

I cannot say why such days occur.  All I can tell you is that they do.  It was as though my inner feelings were reflected in perfect symmetry by the material world that surrounded me.  The day started well.  The winter sun was shining in a sky bereft of a single cloud, and although that sun is only a few days past its most distant from the Northern Hemisphere, there was a warmth in those rays, that hurtled towards the Earth at the speed of light, to strike at this particular spot on the planet, basking my parents home town in all of its radiant glory.  That is enough to make me feel a deep and profound sense of happiness well up from within.  That is enough to make me smile on the inside.  That is enough to know that there is goodness in the universe.

My parents home town of Bognor Regis is fortunate enough to benefit from some great feats of Victorian ingenuity and foresight.  The best of these is the promenade that runs parallel to the sea, and stretches for a distance of some 2.5 miles, from the western end of the town's reaches at Aldwick, to its eastern most at Felpham.  This is where Victorians would flock to the coast to take in the medicinal air of the sea.  Today, it was no different.  People of all types, all shapes, all sizes, all nationalities, all religions flocked to the promenade, to walk alongside the ocean, to enjoy the rays of sun, and to take in some fresh sea air.  Perhaps it was the time of year, it was the day after Christmas after all (the day known as Boxing Day in England), or perhaps it was just that for three days before today, England had been suffering from continual bouts of strong winds and rain and very little glimpses of  the sun, but whatever it was, there was something magical that hung in the air, that swirled in and around the people.

Bognor Regis Promenade circa 1934

© Standard.co.uk

It was this something magical that created a common bond between everyone.  Whether they were as aware of it as I was, I could not tell, but one thing was certain, each one of us who walked along the promenade did so with souls that were joined together with one single purpose.  We combined the energy of our hearts and we became one people.  I felt it.  To me, it was palpable.  I could discern the mystical lines of energy and I am sure that if I wished it, I could have reached out my hand and grasped at individual strands.  These were the fibres of an ancient, primeval energy, that joined together in unison to create a force whose whole was far greater than the sum of each individual strand.  As I walked along the promenade on this day, I knew that I was witnessing a miracle, I was part of the magic, I was contributor and witness both.  I could not help but to smile and to laugh and to engage with those that I saw.  I wanted everyone to know that I was there, that I was with them and that I too was part of the miracle that was taking place all around.

Later in the day, I walked with my parents and my sister across the South Downs of southern England, across the fields clogged with mud and puddles, footprints and hoof prints mixed in an almost indistinguishable mess.  We were walking in the hills, near to the village of Slindon, West Sussex.  It was one of those afternoons.  Did I know that further magic was in the air as I spoke with my father and mentioned how amazing it would be to see some wild deer running free across the fields?  How could I have known?  I am not, as far as I am aware, gifted (cursed?) with foresight.  However, this area of the South Downs is populated by deer and although it is not exactly rare to see deer, it is not a particularly common occurrence either.  Wild deer tend to shy away from humans.

At the top of one particular hill sits Nore Folly, an odd looking structure built in the mid eighteenth century.  A folly is an oddity of its time.  It was a non-functional structure, often built in the Gothic style by the land owners of the day as a show of wealth.  Our path today took us to the top of this hill and up to the folly itself. At the sight of the folly, we were afforded glorious views out across the flat lands of the flood plains, that stretch from the base of the hills, all the way to the line of the coast, some five miles as the crow flies.  The waters of the English Channel appeared to be in flame and were almost too bright to look upon, as they reflected the late afternoon sun.

Nore Folly at Slindon

 © dailytelepgraph.co.uk

Looking down the hill to our left, across the furrows of the ploughed winter fields bare of crop, down to the dell below, there was a movement.  Bounding from the cover of trees came a deer, then another, leaping across the fields, moving ever further away, until they abruptly changed direction and swung around to head up the field and straight towards our position.  This would have been enough to confirm the magic of the day, but there was to be more.  Two deer became three, became four, then five, six, seven, eight!  The first two deer, perhaps braver than the rest, had been followed a few bounds behind by a further six deers, all of whom were now bounding their way up the hill and straight towards us!  Eight wild deer raced past us, cold air vapourising from their nostrils, leaving us standing silently in spellbound rapture.

This had truly been a day when magic was created.  Or perhaps that magic continues to exist all around us every single moment of every single day.  Only our cluttered lives, our rushing from one place to another, our cocooned lifestyles, that have become ever more disconnected from the natural world, perhaps it is these things that prevent us from experiencing this magic on a daily basis.  When we unplug, when we allow ourselves the time to experience and to enjoy nature, then the possibilities for magic are created.  Step outside of your door, take a walk, open your heart and your soul, and allow yourself to breathe in the magic.  Let your eyes see the world as it truly is, a world that is full of miracles, just waiting for you.

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Pledge Of Allegiance To Life

This morning, I happened upon a Facebook post displaying the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America.  The post was requesting citizens of the US to get behind the reciting of this pledge once more, as it has been fading out of use in the school system.  While I have absolutely no problem with the reciting of such a pledge to flag and country, and neither with the singing of national anthems for that matter, it did make me wonder whether perhaps it was now time that people dispensed with the notion of flag and country, and instead embraced a new kind of pledge: a pledge of allegiance to life. 

Let's face it, this planet on which we live has shrunk.  With the rise of commercial air travel and the dawning of the digital age, our world has gotten a whole lot smaller.  In fact, with space travel and the ability to understand the known universe, we now know that actually this planet of ours we call Earth, is just one incredibly, insignificant item in a vast cosmos, a cosmos that is littered with billions upon billions of other planets, stars, asteroids, comets and galaxies.  Take a moment and imagine a white sand beach stretching off into the distance, and then imagine a single, solitary grain of sand.  That one grain would be Earth, and all the other grains would represent all of the other objects in the universe.

But there is a very remarkable thing about this planet and it is one thing that sets it apart from every other known object in the universe - it supports life.  Our planet is a miracle.  As far as we know, it is unique.  Probability theorists would have us believe that the chances are high that other planets must exist that will also support life forms, but as yet, that is speculation and remains only a theory.  Earth is amazing, it is incredible.  Space travel has allowed humans to become the first animals to view their planet from afar.  And what a beautiful sight it is too.  Every aspect of this planet is extraordinary.  The mighty oceans; the lofty peaks of snow covered mountains; vast valleys and canyons; barren deserts and wastelands; jungles and forests; waterfalls and snaking rivers; frozen ice caps and glaciers; plains, prairies and steppes; lakes and fjords; seasonal changes, weather patterns, wind, rain, snow, hot blistering sun, clouds... It is incredible.  And I didn't even mention a single animal, fish or bird yet.  The sheer number of species of life form is staggering and scientists are still, even now, when we think we know so much, discovering new species and even in places that have no right to support life, like deep in the ocean, by volcanic thermal vents.  If I were to chose one single word to describe Earth it would be this: miracle.       

When you view the Earth from space, there are no visible borders between countries, no delineation lines that can be seen.  Country is a human invention, a term used to describe a group of people that occupy a certain parcel of land, governed by one single group.  The same is true for race and religion.  These are notions and concepts that exist only in the mind and as such, that thinking can be altered.  It is time to let go of these old ideas and it is time to embrace the new.  I propose a new view of life and I call it simply: One.

One planet

One life

One people

One heart

One soul

One spirit

One.

With this in mind, I believe that it is now time for a new kind of pledge, a pledge that unites all peoples of Earth, all nations.  It's a pledge to life:-

"I pledge allegiance to the Earth and to the universe in which it exists. To all of life, I make the promise to always protect and nurture you, to the best of my abilities, to see fairness and justice prevail. I will take responsibility for everything that I do, and bear all consequences with humility. I acknowledge and understand that everything is one life and one life only, interconnected, interwoven, and intrinsically linked, and as such, I will make good on my duty of care to all of life, until the ending of my days.  For all things are One."

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Barbaric Yawps And Why They Are Absolutely Necessary

The sun beats down upon me, it's relentless heat seeps into my skin, causing droplets of perspiration to form on my brow, on my neck, on my chest.  I'm breathing hard now, sucking great gulps of air into my lungs, fighting for my breath, in desperate need of oxygen.  I'm standing up on my pedals, my legs continue to push hard, one, two, one, two, over and over, as I sway the bike from side to side, in the rhythmic dance of man and machine versus gravity.  I look up the road ahead and finally I am able to see the crest of the hill approaching, tanterlisingly close now, I can sense that this hill is conquered, and the feeling spurs me on.  I push harder, dance a little more and I'm there!  The hill is mine at last but there is no time for celebration because now begins the wild exhilaration of racing down the other side.  As I hurtle down, bent low over the frame and handlebars, I sweep around a bend at great speed, and as I do, I let out a great yell, an untamed roar, an expression of freedom and of deviance.  I feel a deeply intense moment of joy and well-being, as my soul soars and my heart flies free. 

In this moment, when I yelled out, I was experiencing a moment of absolute love.  Love of life, love of my path, love of the possibilities, love of myself.  As this wave of love washing over me, I could not help myself.  I felt a strong impulse to shout out, to let the world around me know that I was in a moment of pure and unadulterated happiness.  I was reminded of a couple of lines that Walt Whitman wrote, in his poem entitled, Song of Myself and that feature in the movie, Dead Poets Society:-

"I too am not a bit tamed, I too am untranslatable, I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world."

I understand you truly Walt.  These are the moments when heart and soul are completely free and unshackled from the physical body.  These are the moments when a primeval sense of pure joy and freedom engulf you, sweep through you.  You transcend the physical and become your true spiritual self.  These feelings do not come from without, they come from within.  They surge through you, an unstoppable force that no one can control.  These feelings are your true soul, you true self, your true power and beauty.  In these moments, you truly become a god.  For in these moments you are the mountain, the river, the lake, the forest, the valley, the ocean, the bird, the fish, the beast, the clouds, the wind, the sun, the moon, and the stars.  In these moments, your spirit returns to the centre of all things, and all things become one thing only.  And that one thing is love.

I had experienced another moment before this, a moment that was the complete opposite.  A moment of incredible deep serenity, peace and calm.  I had spied a rope tied to the bough of a tree, with a large knot on the lower end, just perfect for swinging on.  Grasping the rope in my hands, I stepped backwards, one, two, three paces, then ran and launched myself skywards, pulling my legs up and locking them around the rope in a tight grip.  Whoosh! Back and forth I swung, slowly twisting around one way and then the other.  I lent back, taking the weight of my body against my arms, pushing my legs forward, and I gazed up at the tree top above.  It was mesmerising.  Through the small gaps in the foliage of the leaves, the sun broke through with a shimmering light of radiant brilliance, glittering and sparkling like a million diamonds.  As I swung, so the angle changed and the light appeared to dance, reflecting off the deep green of the leaves.  Here was a beauty that was hard to surpass, here was a miracle of nature playing out above me, here, in this moment, I felt blessed, and I knew I was witnessing a special moment.  An upwelling of joy came to me and I felt such pleasure, lost in that moment, a moment of sun, leaves, bough, rope and me.  I wonder now, as I think back and picture it once more in my mind, whether the sun looked down upon me, and felt the same joy that I felt in that moment, to see a heart that was so full of love.

During this one morning, I beheld two very different experiences, and one thing linked them both.  Through letting go of our conscious thought, we can find moments of intense emotional pleasure.  Moments when we are able to connect to everything that surrounds us.  In these moments, we transcend the physical and we enter the place where our true spiritual self resides.  These are moments when we feel an undeniable connection to everything that surrounds us, a connection with life itself.  When we experience these moments, our hearts journey to the centre of the universe, to the place where time and creation itself began.  And in that place, in the great heart of all things, is found the one thing that connects every other thing and makes all of life possible.  That one thing is love.

The next time that you find yourself in such a situation, in a place where you feel an intense connection to all that surrounds you, when you know that your heart and soul are flying free, do not be afraid, give voice to your own barbaric yawp, share the moment, and shout it out across the roofs of the world.

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Why Daring Is A Must And Why Routine Is The Silent Killer

Darkness.  My eyes tried in vain to penetrate its cloak, but all that I was able to discern were the vague shapes of the boats, that I knew were tethered to their mooring lines further out.  The quiet was interrupted only by the gentle swells that rolled in, becoming waves that broke upon the shore.  Into this darkness then, out into the deep water, did we venture.  What craziness was this, I wondered.  Crazy?  Perhaps it was, but it was something more than crazy to me, it was adventure and it was daring and it was something that I had wished to do for as long as I could remember.  Now, here I was, here we were, walking out into the depths of the black ink that was the ocean.  The cool water rose slowly up to my chest, I prepared to swim and I thrust my arm out, ready to take my first stroke.  In this moment, life decided to show us its magic and it presented us with a miracle.

Life is full of possibilities, it is full of opportunities, and it is full of miracles.  Every single moment, you are surrounded by them.  The first problem is perceiving them and it is not always easy.  Each of us becomes entrapped in the daily routines of our lives.  We do the same things, we perform the same tasks, and we do them at the same times.  Life begins to become a monotony.  Routine is the silent killer.  It stalks us, it sneaks up behind us and it ensnares us.  It is far too easy to be caught.  I know that myself all too well.

There are many moments in my life when I have a sudden realisation that I have become deeply entrenched in my routines.  Yes, some routines are necessary and helpful.  Take for example my own morning ritual.  I get up, I fire up the laptop (it needs a lot of time to run through its own routines), I put the coffee on brew, I wash my face, I do some push ups, some stomach crunches, I make my cereal with chopped banana and milk, and I pour out the coffee.  While I have been doing all of this, my laptop has become ready to use, so I sit down and catch up on the news, check my e-mails and Facebook happenings.  It's my twenty minutes of peace and quiet before I have to get myself ready and leave for work.  I need it to be able to function in the morning.  It's part of my wake up routine and because of it, I know that at certain times, I need to perform certain tasks and by doing so, I will be ready to leave for work just at the right time.  That all seems quite normal enough, so where is the danger in routine?

Let me use an example.  There are people who commute to London every day by train.  They end up standing in exactly the same spot on the platform and they sit in the same seat of the same carriage, with the same people, every day.  They have become so completely conditioned to their routine.  But that's good though, right?  These people get to hang out and talk with their acquaintances and friends, they know they'll have a seat and they know where that seat is going to be.  It all sounds so logical and it is, which is exactly the problem.

These people are missing out on the chance of making important and new discoveries.  No new opportunities will come their way, no new people will enter their lives, people who may bring with them an important message that could alter the course of their destiny.  These commuters have closed themselves off to chance and in so doing, they have closed themselves off to the opportunity to learn and to evolve.  Life begins to become dull and boring, always the same.  This is the danger with routine.  It prevents us from discovering the new because we seek comfort in all that is old, all that is comfortable, secure and known to us.  Routine blinkers our eyes, it deafens our ears, and it quietens the voice of our heart to all of life's opportunities and possibilities.

So, the first task in beginning to open yourself up to opportunities is to break some of your old routines and habits and to do things differently.  Be spontaneous.  Be a little crazy.  Say yes rather than saying no.  Take a different route to work. Sit in a different seat on the train or bus.  Leave ten minutes later or ten minutes earlier.  I recall a scene in the movie Dead Poets Society, where Mr Keating (Robin Williams) asks the boys to stand up on his desk and to view the world differently.  "You must open your eyes to possibility", he tells them.  This then is the trick.  You need to find your own desk and to look upon your world from another angle.

You also need to heed the voice of your heart and to be a little daring.  The moment that you do, life will reward you.  In order to achieve all that you wish for, it is necessary to step outside of your comfort zone.  Inside that zone, everything is known to you and it is safe.  You can spend the rest of your life in there and you might be content, but you will never have any chance of discovering what lies elsewhere, what incredible things could occur to you, if you were to just take a single step outside.  You will never discover your one true path from the safety of your comfort zone, you will never realise your dreams.  It can be scary, there is no denying it.  It can be a little overwhelming.  That too can happen.  But, it can also deliver to you the most rewarding experiences that will ever occur in your life.  In order to make discoveries we must be bold and we must be daring and we must follow the urges of our heart's.

There are times in my life when I chose to do exactly that.  The time I booked my plane tickets to New Zealand for my first solo vacation, taking that job in Budapest, giving up my career with IBM, booking those tickets to Bangkok, enrolling in university in New Zealand, going to Honduras and becoming a dive instructor.  Each time I have dared, I have been rewarded more richly than I could ever possibly have imagined.  Even in the times when things did not quite go the way I had thought or had planned, I was still rewarded with new experiences, new people and I learned.  Everything that I experienced was necessary.  It has helped me evolve my spirit.  This is how life works.  This is how we discover our true selves.  Each of us is far more capable than we can possibly imagine.

This is exactly what happened the other night.  I had an urge in my heart, I wanted to go night swimming but for some reason, I always knew that it had to happen in a certain way.  When that opportunity presented itself, when I heard the words that asked me if I wanted to take a swim, I could not deny the voice of my heart.  I knew it was this moment, I knew that it had to be right there and then.  I could have said no, it was too late, that I wanted to stay dry, that I wanted to get home, but I did not.  Instead, I dared.  And in the moment of my daring, I opened up myself to the possibilities of life.  There I was, in the water, at the moment in which I thrust my arm forward.  As my finger tips separated water from water, something extraordinary happened, the water exploded with a shimmering light that surrounded my hand and my arm.  I was stunned, amazed.  I did it again and the same thing happened.  Then I lifted my arm out of the water and hundreds of tiny drops of light fell from me, slowly cascading down to fall back into the black of the water and disappear.  Truly this was one of the most incredibly beautiful spectacles I have ever seen.  There in that moment, the two of us shared together a moment of pure magic.  It was a moment when life chose to reveal one of its miracles to us, as if it had been waiting there all of this time, for the right moment, for the moment when we dared.  And by daring we discovered one of life's miracles, we found an ocean of bioluminescence. 

Those same miracles await you too.  They are out there, all you have to do is to believe, to dare, to switch up your routines and to let yourself open up to the possibilities and opportunities of life.  Once you begin to see the miracles, you will never stop.  Once you hear the voice of your heart and heed its message, you can never go back.  Opportunities will come to you. Miracles will occur.  And with them, so too will you come to see and to know the one simple thing that connects every single thing in the universe: love.

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Do You Believe In Signs?

The other day at work, I was talking with the hotel concierge in the lobby, when an elderly guest approached.  After he had finished speaking with the concierge, he turned to me and told me that he had thoroughly enjoyed watching me teach scuba diving the day before.  He told me that he thought I was a very good teacher, because I possessed the right qualities for it: knowledge and skills in my subject matter, enthusiasm, and patience.  We talked some more and he told me his name was John and that he was himself a teacher of many years standing.  I thanked him for his compliments and I told him that they meant a great deal to me, as I was thinking of going into teaching formally as a high school teacher.  What he said to me next was the sign for which I had been seeking.      

For many of us, making tough decisions is a difficult process.  I know that at times, despite everything that my heart is yelling at me, despite all of its urges, I feel completely unsure and afraid of the consequences, afraid of the unknown that lies down the particular path I am considering.  Even if I know and understand the logic and rationale behind the decision that must be taken, I still feel a deep sense of trepidation.  When this occurs, I feel the need to seek out something illogical, something mystical, something spiritual.  It is as though some primeval sense demands it of me.  I start to look for something that will show to me the rightness of the decision that I am going to make.  I begin the search for a sign.

A sign.  It shows us the way to go, it tells us the direction to take.  Without them, we would quickly become lost.  Imagine driving down the highway and not having any sign posts to show you which exit you needed to take.  You could guess and you might be right, but until you turned off and tried one of the exits, you would encounter uncertainty and doubt.  Life is like this too.  Throughout our lives, we are taught to read signs of all kinds.  A smile means that someone is happy, dark clouds gathering on the horizon means rain, a feeling of thirst means we are dehydrated.  To get through life, we need to know the signs, to be able to read them, and we need to be able react to them.

For sometime now, I have had the idea of becoming a teacher running through my mind.  To tell the truth, it's been there for many years as an idle thought, perhaps nothing more than a curiosity, since I was ten years old.  More recently, it has begun to turn into something more, it has started to grow wings.  This is an idea that keeps on coming back to me, time and time again, it seems like I cannot rid myself of it and it cannot rid itself of me.  If I were to go through with the idea, it would mean a significant life change and a commitment.  It would mean turning my back on my current life and turning instead to something completely new - a path that is unknown and dark to me.  I am afraid of this idea because of what it means, but at the same time, I also believe that it is something that I must do, something important for my life.  To help me with my decision, I have been on the look out for a sign to show me the right way.

The other day at the hotel, John came as the bearer of that sign.  In those words that he spoke to me, I knew the rightness of the path that lies ahead of me.  We cannot create the signs, they have to come to us of their own free will.  There are days when we are desperate to find the answer for which we urgently seek and we see nothing.  Those are the times when we feel as though we have been deserted and left to our own devices.  Sometimes that is a sign in itself.  There are certain decisions that can only be made between you and your heart.  There need not be any other external factor involved.  Other times, we look and we are rewarded.  I remember a time when I was alone in Malaysia.  I had just separated from my partner and travel partner and we had decided to go our own ways.  I was travelling back to the Perhentians Islands to continue my scuba diving education.  On the boat from the mainland across the South China Sea to the islands, I felt lonely, sad and afraid of what was happening.  I can remember looking over the side of the boat, towards the bow to watch the white water that sprayed up as the boat cut through the ocean.  There, in the spray I saw small rainbows, brilliant colours of arcing light that just hung there, motionless, as if they had been waiting for me.  It was the sign that the decision that I had taken was the right one, I felt a sense of peace sweep over me, and my heart felt at ease.

Sometimes we misread the signs, we see only those things that only exist in our own truth of a situation.  How many times have I made the mistake of believing that a girl I liked very much and was giving me lots of attention, was attracted to me?  I figure that because of the attention, this girl must really be in to me, so I decide to ask her for a date.  The reality is that she is only being her usual friendly self and is this way with everyone.  I misread the signs because I saw only what I wanted to see, not the reality and the real truth of the situation.  I am completely unable to read women - period.  They remain a complete enigma and a mystery to me, but that is for a different post.

A sign reinforces our point of view and helps us to feel more comfortable with our decision.  Whether we like it or not, humans have a deep need to establish a spiritual connection, to believe that something exists that is greater than ourselves.  We are part of this great mystery of life, we are part of the miracle.  Signs hep us because they meet our psychological need for reassurance, that a greater power is willing us to go in a certain direction, that we are being helped along our path.  Maybe none of this is correct.  Perhaps it is all too easy to make the pieces fit, to look back with hindsight and to make certain things become the truth.  Would my life have turned out exactly the same if I had not seen the rainbows that day?  Perhaps it would, perhaps it would not.  It really does not matter.  All that matters is that I believe that life places signs in front of us to help us, to guide us, to show us the way that we need to go.

The other day at the hotel, John was the bearer of my sign.  When I told him that I had long thought of becoming a school teacher and that I was now seriously considering the idea, his words held meaning for me.  "It is your calling", he said.  And you know something?  I truly believe that what he said is right.  John is an angel, a messenger that came to me, that spoke the words that my heart needed to hear.  I do believe in signs, do you? 

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A Time For Spirituality

Let's face it, our daily lives tend to be pretty full.  First off, there's that thing called work that most of us have to do.  To get to work, there's the daily commute, which seems to take longer and longer.  Then there's the family.  Looking after the children, if you have them, is another full-time job.  Perhaps there are elderly parents that need your care.  There's the grocery shopping, chores around the house, cooking, the dirty dishes, the lawns that require cutting and the regular maintenance of the garden, the car that needs a wash, household bills and the accounts to be paid.  Then you need to go to the gym, go for a run, play some sports, go to the movies, watch that TV program, visit friends, go to the bar, go to a restaurant.  Perhaps there's a dog to walk. There are a lot of things to take care of and all of them take up our precious time.  Where, in all of this do we find the time to connect with our soul, to sit quietly and talk with our heart?  Are we in danger of losing our spirituality?

For the past week, I have been participating in the 21 Day Meditation Challenge from Oprah and Deepak Chopra.  It has been the process of setting aside a specific amount of time each day, to sit down and to formally meditate, that triggered my thinking about spirituality in a modern society, and the questions of when and how do people find the time to meditate and to reconnect with themselves and the universe?

For me personally, I know that I have meditated throughout my life, albeit, not in a conventional sense.  I have always sought out peace and calm, quiet oases where I could sit and think, and just be me.  Down at the beach watching the waves; in a clearing in the woods amongst the trees; on the top of a hill or mountain, looking down upon the world; under the ocean, listening to the rhythmic sound of my own breathing; sitting quietly inside of a church or cathedral.  Wherever I have been, I have made time for these moments. 

There have been several significant advances in technology during human existence: fire, the wheel, agriculture, the industrial revolution, electricity, telecommunications, the combustion engine, computers and the digital age.  With each step, humanity has moved progressively ever further away from the natural world.  As a race, we are spending increasing amounts of time enclosed within the confines of our self made spaces, whether that be the car, the office, the home, the mall, restaurants, cafes, cinemas, or at the gym.  Then, there is our  immersion in television, music,  movies, the internet, video games, text messaging, and social media.  Human society is becoming ever more closed off from the natural world.  We are shutting ourselves away from nature and moving further away from our natural surroundings, cocooned in a world of concrete, steel, glass, bricks, mortar, and an endless stream of ones and zeros.

This has a detrimental impact on our ability to find moments to commune with our inner selves, that we are no longer finding quiet moments of solace, where we can be one with our natural environment.  Because of this, I believe that as a race, humanity is losing touch with its spiritual self, and with the spiritual world in which we live.   It seems to me that our collective belief is increasingly to see ourselves as separate from the natural world, able to control nature, but we are not separate and neither can we control the elemental force that is nature.  Humanity is as much an integral part of the life on this planet as a tree, a flower, an insect, a fish, or a bird.  Immersing ourselves in nature reconnects our souls with the force of life.  Losing those moments, takes us further from a spiritual path and understanding of life.

I see that there are two fundamental problems in modern society, in regards to finding spirituality.  The first is that our lives have become too busy, and the second is that we are increasingly closing off from the natural world.  I do not believe that either of these can be good for our race.  Something is being lost, something which, although intangible, is nonetheless an essential quality of what it is to be human.  Spirituality is being slowly eroded away.

Take the Sabbath for example.  There was a time in the England, when Sunday was a special day, preserved for prayer and family time, when the shops were not allowed to open, where pubs had restricted hours for the sale of alcohol, when large numbers of people used to attend morning church services, when lunch was a traditional roast dinner involving all of the family.  Now shops are allowed to open and trade, pub opening hours are far less restrictive, church attendances have long been in steady decline, and the traditional Sunday roast?  Well, in my family at least, that was lost long ago.  Where the Sabbath was once preserved as a day of thought, reflection and prayer, and for family time, it has been steadily reduced to just another day of the week, no longer as sacred, no longer set aside as a special day, and many people are now required to work.  It is just another sign of our increasing loss of spirituality in society.  A further distancing from our spiritual needs.

I am very fortunate.  My current work as a scuba diving instructor means I am usually out on the ocean, or immersed under it.  The very nature of my work allows me the time to connect with nature.  When I exchanged my corporate life in the UK for an alternative lifestyle, there was a big part of me that wished to find this very connection.  Now, living in Costa Rica, it is impossible not to connect with my natural surroundings.  As I do not own a car, I either cycle or walk to all local places, which allows me the time to look around, to think, to see, to feel.  When I am outside, I never listen to an iPod or other music player, I prefer instead, to listen to the pulse of nature.  I choose to hear the songs of the birds as they call and whistle one another.  I like to listen to the waves as they break on the shore.  I smile whenever I hear the calls of the monkeys that are hiding up in the foliage of the trees, somewhere in the jungle.  These are the natural rhythms of life, they help me to stay connected to nature.  They have helped me to become more spiritually aware.

Since I left the corporate world, it has been my immersion into the natural world that has truly opened my heart, so that I now see truly.  I have learned to see the miracles of life that surround us, that occur every single moment.  Everything that I have learned and now express in this blog, has been learned as a direct result of walking my one true path.  Perhaps I was always this way inclined, someone once told me that I was spiritual even before my life change.  I have always followed my heart, so I guess this is true.  But now, by choosing to be surrounded by the natural world, I have found a far greater insight and awareness of myself.

Don't lose your spirituality.  Find yourself a quiet moment to stop and reflect.  Take time to get outside, into a park, to go and walk in the woods or along the beach.  Stare up to the sky and watch the clouds roll by, see the rays of sunlight, gaze at the stars and the moon.  Unplug yourself and listen to the world.  Let your thoughts drift.  Slowly and surely, you will begin to recover your soul, you will begin to regain your spiritual self, and through this, will come self awareness, and you will open your heart and see the miracles that exist in every single moment.  Life is simplicity.  Peel away the layers and finally be your true and natural self.

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Today I Am Open To The Presence Of Miracles

Today, I am commencing the 21 Day Meditation Challenge from Oprah and Chopra Deepak.  In fact, I am starting this challenge with a dear friend and kindred spirit, and it was this friend who invited me to join her on this particular journey.  The purpose of day one is entitled, Miraculous Journey, with the objective being to begin to open yourself to the presence of the miracles that surround us each moment of every day.  Those of you who have been following my blog, will already know that I talk about this, and that I see it as just one of the amazing and enriching by-products of following your heart.  Today, as I sat down to meditate, with the intent of being open to miracles, something extraordinary happened.

Most evenings, when the working day is completed, if I have time, I like to cycle down to the beach at Playa Flamingo, and to watch the sun, as it sets slowly over the Pacific Ocean.  It is always a beautiful sight, and I love the quiet calm that transcends over all of those who are watching.  It is a time for thought, for reflection on the day, and for thinking about what tomorrow will bring.  It brings peace and tranquility to all life.

This evening, I sat on the sand watching, and it occurred to me that right then, in the glow of the evening sun, was the perfect time to meditate, to open my heart, and to think of the miracles of life.  I looked at the sun, as it dropped below the line of clouds that stretched across the horizon, changing the grey to hues of purple, mauve, and orange.  I saw that the clouds were lined with a brilliant shine, reminding me that every cloud really does have a silver lining.  I looked at the rippled surface of the ocean, and I saw the reflective glow of the sun, as the water shimmered with the breeze, giving the illusion that the ocean was on fire.  My eyes fixed on the volcanic rock formations that line the coast of Flamingo, and then further out, I looked upon the Santa Catalina Islands.  I turned and looked at the land, at the rocky headland, covered with a sea of green, all the trees carrying the lush foilage of the wet season.  I watched as the waves broke on the beach, their waters racing up the sand, reaching out as far as possible, clawing their way over the grains, until they could hold on no longer, and could only fall away and recede once more.  I saw people on the beach, playing, watching, taking photographs, laughing, smiling, talking, sharing.  A flicker of movement and my eyes glanced down to my left, to fix on a small shell on the dry sand.  And as I watched, that shell turned itself into a crab, that scurried forwards, then stopped, and abruptly became only a shell once more.  Then, in a flash, it transformed, it ran and had become a crab again.  I followed its path and my eyes saw that there was not just one crab, there were many, all intent on their end of day business,  every one of them hiding down at the slightest movement, the lightest tremor, to become simple shells again.  And in this moment, I smiled to myself.  I smiled because I understood and I knew.

I knew that I already could see the miracles that surround us each and every moment.  I smiled because my heart knew the truth of it, and my heart, in that moment, felt at peace, and it felt happy.  It was grateful that I was there, that I dared to dream, and that I had the courage to reach out for that dream.  In this moment, my heart was open.  In this moment, I was surrounded by life, by love, and by the countless millions, the infinite billions of precious miracles.  I absorbed all of this in a single instant of time, I took it all in and I let it flood into my heart. And, during this blink of an eye, because my heart was open, I let love flow out from me.  I let the energy of the universe out, so that I could keep the balance within.  I released my light, and in that single moment, I was brighter than the sun, I shone more brilliantly than the greatest star in all the universe.

Afterward, I felt an urge to create and so I scribed some words into the sand.

I saw life and it was good

I opened my heart to the miracles

That surround us each and every moment

Let your light shine forth

Because that light is pure love.

~ ~ ~

I do not know what day two of the 21 Day Meditation Challenge will bring to me.  Perhaps it will be a new lesson.  Perhaps it will be an old lesson.  Some how, of my own volition and experiences, I have moved along the path towards the light.  I have become spiritually enlightened, without trying to do so.  I did not read any books to learn what I know.  Rather, I opened my heart to possibility, I opened my heart to my dreams, and I took a chance on life. 

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Reading The Signs Of Life

Life is full of signs.  Learning to see them, to recognise them and to understand them is a necessary part of the learning process of the walk along the path.  Heeding the signs, that is probably the hardest thing of all.  But heed the signs we must if we are to be rewarded with the miracles of life that lie along our path, waiting for us to discover them.  The other day, life showed me two signs and by reading them, and more importantly, by heeding them, I discovered two miracles.

Life is truly full of signs.  Some of them are simple, like seeing dark, heavy and threatening clouds on the horizon, usually means that rain is surely on the way.  When the leaves begin to change colour and fall from the branches of trees, then we know winter is coming.  These are two very simple examples of the signs of life, but they are signs sent to us by nature and therefore by the Creator of all things.  We know them and we trust them.

In the ocean the other day, during the first dive of the morning, I was leading my divers around the north end of the rock formation and dive site known as Los Sombreros.  The visibility in the water was very good for this area of the Pacific, around 15m (50 feet) and coming around the north end, there lots of schools of fish to be seen in the water.  The north end of Sombreros is always an interesting dive because here, the ocean floor drops down to 23m (75 feet) and the currents coming around the rock attract large number of fish.  Due to those conditions, this dive site offers some great surprises and this day would prove to be no different.  As I passed to the side of one such large school of grunts, suddenly and as one body, all of the fish darted away.  Something had got them very spooked and that could only mean one thing - a large predator.  Immediately, I swam out towards the fish.  My instinct told me that there was something out there, lurking out in the deeper water.  My instincts were not wrong.

As I scanned out through the water and across the sand bottom, cruising into my view came a large shark.  My initial shock led to surprise, which led to disbelief.  We have sharks here in the waters around Playa Flamingo and those are usually white tip reef sharks and nurse sharks.  White tips are easy to distinguish by their, well, white tips on the top of their dorsal fin and tail and by their overall shape and size.  This was no white tip.  Nurse sharks tend to hide away during the day time, preferring to seek refuge and sanctuary in holes under rocks and in sheltered channels.  To the best of my knowledge, neither of these sharks is usually a direct threat to so many fish and cause the panicked reaction that had occurred.  I noted the shape and the tail of this shark.  It was large, possibly 8 - 10 feet in length.  It never came close enough for me to get a great look, but I had seen enough of it to know that it was something out of the ordinary.  My gut feeling is that this was a bull shark.  The reaction of the fish leads me to this conclusion, as does the tail shape and the general view that I was given of it.  Bull shark sightings here are very rare.  This was a privilege to witness.

The second dive was at a rock pinnacle known as Dirty Rock.  Here, there is a large population of king angel fish, that act as cleaners for the manta rays, when the manta rays are in season (December - March).  The angel fish pick off the parasites that live on the manta rays and essentially, clean them.  On this particular day, as the group of divers came around the rock, I saw that there was a small group of angel fish on the wrong side - they always tend to be on the sheltered side of the rock pinnacle, and this is where the manta rays come for their cleaning.  Almost at the moment that I noted that to myself, this group of angel fish swam passed me, clearly with some intent.  I turned around and there behind me was an almost entirely dark grey/black manta ray, probably 10 - 12 feet in wing span.  A second miracle of the morning had occurred.

This blog post is not meant to be a post about scuba diving and the joys that this activity brings to my life.  I used these two examples to illustrate only how life places the signs before our eyes.  Instead, what is important are the signs of life and the ability to read them and to understand them.  You see, life shows us the way.  Whether that is in the oceans, the forests, or the deserts, the signs of life are there for you to see.  Learning to read see the signs, to read them and to comprehend their meaning, is a necessary part of the journey that we all make along our one true path.

I believe that the signs that you need to discover are littered throughout your journey.  If you pass one by and fail to see it, then it will come again later on.  Perhaps not exactly the same sign, perhaps not exactly in the same way.  A sign might be an overheard conversation, it might involve the meeting with someone new and an exchange of information, it could be as simple as the shape of a cloud drifting slowly above you head.  The signs are there, they always have been and always will be.  I know that the Big Guy gave me many signs on my own journey and by being able to read them, I moved my life on.  I was able to evolve my spirit, to learn the lessons that I needed to learn.  I'm also sure that I have misread or even missed completely other signs and I know that these will come again, when I am ready for them.

If you travel along the path too quickly, always in a rush to be some place, you will miss the signs that have been laid out for you.  Rather, take your time, look about you, see the world for that which it truly is and as you do so, then so too will the signs begin to appear.  And how do you know when the sign is the right one for you?  You hearts tells it.  And your heart is the best reader of the signs that there can ever be. Trust it. Listen to it.  Follow it.  Your path, your one true path is out there, just waiting for you.  But then, you knew that already.

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Some Days The Clouds Appear

Not every day walking the one true path can be filled with carefree days of brightness and sun.  There will inevitably come days when the clouds form on the horizon, and no matter where you try to go, there is no way of evading their ever present threat.  Soon, you find that the light begins to fade as the clouds cover the sun, the gloom descends, and with it, so too comes a feeling of despair and hopelessness.  You begin to question the direction in which you are walking.  You wonder if you have made the right choices in life, made the right decisions.  And you lose sight of where you were headed.  The tendrils of doubt creep around your heart, squeezing tight, injecting an inky darkness to your thoughts.  The light fades further and with it, so too does hope for the future.  You feel alone and lost, ready to give up the fight, ready to relinquish your dreams.

The other evening, I began to feel myself becoming lost.  I started to question my purpose in life and my reasons for continuing to exist.  I asked myself what it was that I was doing and what it is that I am trying to achieve with my life.  I reasoned that I had already achieved my dreams, that I have led an incredibly blessed life, that I have reached so many of the goals that I have set for myself.  So why should I continue?  Have I not been a warrior long enough, fought enough battles, and is it not now my time to take a well earned rest?  Why should I keep pushing myself forward along my chosen path?  Why should I keep on raising my shield to fend off the blows of my enemies and why should I continue to swing my sword to strike my enemies down?  Would it not just be easier to lie down, to sleep and to rest.

The reason for these feelings for me was abundantly clear, as it so often is.  Love.  Or rather, the lack of love in my life.  You see, I thrive on love.  Love is the force that propels each and every one of us through the universe as we travel on our journeys, as we each walk our own unique path.  Love is what fuels us, and despite what Red Bull would have you believe, it is love that give us our wings and lets us fly.  In short, love is the reason and the sole purpose of our existence.  Love is life and life is love.  They are inseparable, they are one, and that is the miracle. 

For my entire life, I have struggled with love.  Everything I have ever done in my life, I am now able to see, was driven by a desire to be loved and to find love.  Ultimately though, I have always been doomed from the beginning, since it is not possible to make other people love you, not matter what you do, no matter how hard you try.  And I have tried.  From my weight gain as a young child, to my moving overseas, and even the discovery of my passion for scuba diving, love was the key driver.  Through the last year, and as a result of beginning to write this blog, I have unlocked many deep thoughts and come to the realisation of many things that were previously stored away in some dark recess of my mind.  Locked away and hidden, they may have been, but I think perhaps I always knew deep inside of their existence, but was afraid to recognise, give legitimacy to, and give voice to them, from fear of the consequences and what it would mean to my life.  Knowing and understanding what has driven my entire life is both a great comfort and an incredible curse to me.

On the one had, it gives me immense pleasure, joy and comfort to know that love is what drives me in my life.  I know that I thrive on the greatest emotion that there is, and that it pushes me forward, ever on.  I am of the belief that it is because of my deep connection with love, that I am able to connect with the world around me in a strong and meaningful way, that I am able to truly see life and the simplicity and miracles that are present in each and every moment.  I recognise love in the world and I speak plainly and openly of it, and it has given to me many unbelievable moments of pure high and elation.   

Then there is the curse.  To know that love is the driver and the very substance that gives my life so much meaning, and to comprehend and understand that my life has been deprived and is devoid of knowing love from the hearts of other people, fills me with such sadness, sorrow and despair.  When I look back over my life and realise how I gained weight as a child to attract attention and love, how I put up with name calling and teasing because I felt unworthy of anything else, how I have constantly sought out the kind of love of which I felt I deserved - the unhealthy, one-sided, unrequited kind - how I have tried so hard to make others love me and have failed time and again, and how I have spent so much of my life living alone, then the dark clouds gather to obscure the light that gives my life its balance, purpose and meaning, and I fall into deep, dark, despair.

And this is what has been happening over the last few days.  I have been caught and trapped in self-pity and remorse for my life and for my existence.  Everything has become obscured by the mists and the dense fog that appeared in my mind.  My heart wept tears of great sadness at being so alone and knowing that it has been so completely and utterly unloved.  I really did question my purpose and the point of it all.  But I understand my heart very well, since we have been ever constant companions on the path and the journey on which we embarked, so long before.  There is a reason I still raise my shield and swing my sword, there is always hope and the faith in love and life, and knowing that the darkness will lift and the sun will find its way back again.

Yesterday evening, I sat down at the beach alone, and I gazed out over the ocean, across the great expanse of ocean, towards the slowly sinking sun.  Flocks of pelicans flew across the sky, one after another and I sat and watched as a child watches, with delight, with marvel and with wonder, at the amazing sight of a great bird on the wind.  In this moment, I smiled and I laughed.  I may never have known the long-lasting, true love of a woman, but I have discovered love nonetheless.  I have discovered the love of life, I am able to see the world in simplicity and as a miracle, and for that, I shall always be grateful.  Because of that, I shall keep on walking my one true path, until one day, the other kind of love will appear.  And I know that it will.

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