November 2022

Hello and welcome to the November 2022 edition of my newsletter. I write this sitting outside at dusk. I look out on the shadows of the night, as lights from distant houses break the darkness. It’s still. Very still. The wind of last week, and that which helps to keep these islands cool, has blown itself out. I sit listening to the crickets, to a distant dog bark, occasional traffic on the nearby highway (a two lane road running the length of Maui’s north east shore). Otherwise all is still and quiet, an atmosphere that fits me well. I am home alone this evening, and sometimes silence and stillness is what I do best in. It rests me, my mind and body. It quietens me. I allow myself to sit and listen to the quiet, to feel the stillness, to let both fill me and envelope me.

My return home

Give or take a few days, I have been back from Europe for a month now. I was pleased to return. To stop living out of a suitcase, to stop moving, to be in one place - specifically home - and just ground myself, taking stock of our last six weeks on the road.

Being home, a project that I wanted to start exploring in November was one of story, my personal story. I can’t say exactly what had prompted this, I think that it has been simmering for a good while. Next year I will be sixty. I am planning something for that time, to look forward, to what the next couple of decades of my life might hold. The story now was more about what have I done with my life so far? What have I learnt in the adventures that I have been blessed with? With this in mind, I decided to use NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month, as my vehicle for starting on this project. I didn’t expect to get far with writing until I was back home, though the irony is that I wrote more on the journey home than I wrote for the rest of the month.

The project isn’t dead though. The resolve is there. I want to see what the project will reveal. I just have to figure out the method of execution. I see some obstacles along the way - some self-inflicted (so some self-examination needed), some just what life throws at us - but better to keep an eye on the goal and navigate these as they arise. Step by step.

This month’s posts

One of the posts that I have shared this month is of a pile of letters and cards that my mother gave to me. They are writings from the road that I sent home while on my travels over the years. As I said in the post, ”Maybe there is a story in there?”

I hope that you enjoy this month’s collections of posts. Please do get in touch if you have any comments or questions. I’d love to hear from you.

As ever, thank you for reading.

David.