This page contains longer, titled posts that I have made to my blog, so as to more easily separate them from other posts that I make here. If you would like to subscribe to the feed for this page, point your RSS reader here.
July 2022 Hello Friend,
Sharing reflections
July has been an unseasonably wet month in the part of Maui where I live. Parts of the island have been struggling with water shortages, while my family’s property is looking green and healthy. For that I am grateful, and at the same time I sense the wet weather ending and the drier weather of summer approaching.
Earlier this month I was on a Zoom call with a charity in the UK of which I am a Board member.
My analogue journaling and tracking of todo lists happens in Field Notes notebooks. Over the last couple of years I have grown to love the convenience (for me) of the size of Field Notes and occasionally will buy notebooks of a similar size but made by a different brand.
While my wife and I were in Portugal earlier this year, we visited a beautiful stationary and graphics store in the city of Porto, Peninsular.
Unintentionally this post is following close on the heals of my last post. I came across the article to which I refer in that post while writing this one.
I still have an image in my mind of when I left my house in South Wales about sixteen years ago. All personal belongings gone, just an empty shell, echoing loudly with that sound only an empty house has that is now just full of memories.
June 2022 Hello Friend,
Well I have been quieter in my posts this month. Not that I am the most frequent of posters at the best of times, but I feel that I have been vocal in my quietness through June.
I look back through the month and believe that the main thing that saw this lack of writing output was a lack of space in my life. I work much better when I know that I won’t be disturbed.
May 2022 Dear Friend,
Following a day of interruptions and what I might call discombobulation I wrote the following in my journal last week (and posted it to my blog),
It’s been hard to find time to write today. I’m feeling it.
Writing is important to me, very important. I can trace the start of my time putting pen to paper back to when I was traveling in my mid-twenties.
There is a wonderful description of meditation which describes the role that the mind’s innate spaciousness can play in meditation practice. I have read a couple of versions of this story, my retelling probably borrows from both. It goes something like this…
Meditation is like trying to tame a wild horse. I could keep that horse in a small compound, giving it little room to move around in the hope that that will quieten it down.
Not my choice of title, but the title that journalist Sarah Ruppenthal used following her interview with me four years ago. I was reminded of the article recently when an old friend got in touch having come across it online.
I first met Sarah when she came to do an article about the house that my wife, Melissa, and I built here in Maui. As Melissa is an Interior Designer and had done most of the design work on the house, I stepped back a lot for that interview.
Summer has arrived here in Maui, at least a preview of what summer is to bring. The last few days have been devoid of wind, hot and muggy - and has included a well timed air conditioning breakdown (hopefully that is not a preview of summer as well!). By late afternoon the air is still and feels as though it is sitting waiting for something to happen.
Thankfully mornings are still cool.
I spent yesterday at the Menehune Mayhem competition at Ho’okipa Beach Park. This is a surf competition for kids established a number of years ago by pro-surfer Ian Walsh. The thin sliver of a beach that Ho’okipa is was packed, with all visitors and competitors being focused on one end of the beach where the competition was taking place. With little space to sit, I was perched on the water line, a victim to any big waves that broke that day.
April 2022 Hello Friend,
Welcome to my roundup of posts from April 2022. This is my first newsletter for a couple of months. No sooner had I re-booted my newsletter in the month of February, encouraged by Manton Reece introducing a newsletter feature to Micro.blog, my blogging platform, then I pressed pause for March.
March was a challenge for me, and when it came to putting together the final touches to that month’s newsletter, the process of sharing just felt too vulnerable a move.
We arrived at the restaurant. A sign hanging from a rope in front of the door asked us to ring the doorbell. A waiter opened the door, greeted us, asked if we had a reservation, "no," we replied. This did not appear to matter as the rope was unclipped, we were gestured to enter and shown to a table. One couple was already seated and were perusing the menu. The other tables sat empty, awaiting the arrival of lunchtime customers.
It was last year, 2021. I was back in Bristol, England. My dad was unwell, nearing the end of his life. I went to sit on The Downs, and area of public open space of 400 acres that looks out over the Avon Gorge. Wide open spaces, woodland, trees and bushes. I was blessed to grow up around The Downs. I’m at home when I am up there.
This time I went up there not to just get some air, but to take a break, to fluff the feathers after time spent indoors.
A couple of weeks back I had an early morning Hawaiian Airlines flight to catch to Honolulu. In flight time the journey is a hop, skip and jump. Throw in airport time and it can take just as long as any long haul flight from parking the car to getting to the gate. And this was rush hour. For the flight that I was catching, to manage the commuter traffic a slightly larger aircraft is made available than the usual interisland airplane.
Some days something happens which changes our lives forever, even if in that moment we are unaware of what the consequences will be. Sometimes that change will happen consciously, being planned and prepared for. Other times life just throws them upon us unexpectedly and possibly, in that moment, unwelcome as well. But come what may, our life is never the same again.
I can bookmark a couple of episodes in my life,
Mindfulness is available to us at all times. I say that to myself - and then I forget. The opportunity is there, and then it is gone. Too late. Feels like too much effort. Or something puts in an appearance that has more icing on the top, or at least appears to and feels easier to consume - but ultimately leaves me with a sense of no satisfaction. The ship has sailed.
My first letter to accompany my first Micro.blog newsletter.
Welcome to my first newsletter hosted on Micro.blog. This newsletter contains the long form writings that I made through the month of February 2022. There were ’x’ such posts.
Unsure at the moment how to fold the posts so that this email is not so long, I thought that this index of the posts might make it a little easier to navigate the newsletter.
Minimal spoilers here. Less than you would get in a theatrical preview.
We watched the movie Belfast a few weeks or so ago. My appreciation of the movie has increased since then. I thought that it was beautifully filmed in black and white with a wonderful performance from all the cast. A special shout out though goes to the young Jude Hill who carried most of the film on his young shoulders.
Sitting on the beach this afternoon an incident popped into my mind from over three decades ago. Why I thought of this I don’t know, but here is what happened.
I was in Australia. I spent a year traveling around the country, mainly hitchhiking. I was somewhere south of Sidney, heading south. It was a baking hot day and I had just had my hair cut. Why is that relevant you might ask?
The south east side of Maui is a place of the elements. Wind, sun and ocean meet in strong presence at that place where the vast flanks of Haleakala descend from its 10,000 feet summit to meet the Pacific Ocean at the ʻAlenuihāhā Channel, meaning aptly “great billows smashing.” A 30 mile channel of ocean lying between the Islands of Hawai’i and Maui, wind and water are funneled between the two land masses.
Just in time for the start of “Mahina ‘Ōlelo Hawai‘i” (Month of the Hawaiian Language), University of Hawaiʻi Maui College Assistant Professor of Music Dr. Keola Donaghy has released a Hawaiian language version of the popular “Wordle” online game.
~ Maui Now
The game is called _ Hulihua_ and can be found at https://hulihua.net/. The game play is the same as for the original Wordle game, with a new word each day.
Through May 2020, during the height of the COVID-19 lockdown, I offered a daily Meditation Nudge. This was a new article that I wrote each day through that month, with each one exploring an aspect of meditation.
I have felt remiss to not have put together a comprehensive list of all of those posts, something that I believe would be a helpful resource.
So now I am making good on this aspiration, and below is a list of all the Meditation Nudges that I offered during May 2020.
Gratitude is an important practice. While I might like to think of myself as independent and able to manage my life on my own, truth is little, indeed nothing in life can ultimately be done alone. From the time that I get out of bed in the morning, until I go to sleep, I live my life in dependence upon others - both seen and unseen. These can be other humans, those keeping my water running or lights on, to non-humans, the sun in the sky or the worms tilling the soil.
Buddhist monk, teacher and peace activist Thich Naht Hanh died tonight at his root temple, Tu Hien Temple, in Hue, Vietnam. He was 95.
His community in Plum Village, France said,
Our beloved teacher Thich Nhat Hanh has passed away peacefully. We invite our global spiritual family to take a few moments to be still, to come back to our mindful breathing, as we together hold Thay in our hearts in peace and loving gratitude for all he has offered the world.
Between the ages of 8 and 10, so from about 1971 to 1973, my family lived in Jamaica. My father was a radiologist and worked for two years at the University Hospital in Kingston, Jamaica. As a child, I remember the time fondly. My sister and I went to a wonderful school there and made good friends both at our school and with kids who lived in our neighbourhood. I remember being allowed to stay up late when my parents had parties, standing at the gate of our house (for some reason), listening to music watching everyone chatting inside.
My annual watching of A Charlie Brown Christmas is complete.
I feel that whether one believes in the Christian message of Christmas, this short cartoon offers a reflective look at what Christmas has been turned into with all the accompanying consumerism.
Charlie Brown: Isn’t there anyone, who knows what Christmas is all about?!
Linus: Sure Charlie Brown, I can tell you what Christmas is all about.
[Linus walks to center stage.
On the western edge of the world, as defined by the International Date Line, it’s Sunday afternoon. I’m sitting at 39,993ft above the Pacific Ocean, according to the screen in front of me, just under two hours out from Honolulu. From there I’ll have one more leg to fly before two days of travel will see be back home in Maui. Though right now I am feeling conflicted by that word ’home’.
Yesterday it was pouring with rain outside, really pouring. The proximity of my parents’ top floor flat to the roof amplified the sound of the falling water. For the most part the rest of the day was overcast, it was humid. Today is the same, perhaps a little clearer.
Following my father’s passing away on Tuesday, this weather has been a real comfort to me. I don’t want to venture far from my parents’ home at the moment, feeling safe and comfortable here, while feeling raw and vulnerable in my emotions.
I’m walking to the shops, walking down back streets, residential streets instead of the main road. I find more joy and interest in looking at the houses and front yards instead the busy main street. Houses that I use to pass most every day as a kid. I haven’t been back to Bristol to visit my parents for two years. COVID has been the culprit there. I wasn’t planning on visiting until next year when hopefully COVID might have been a little quieter.
Self-induced peer pressure? I don’t know, but I have just signed up for an invite to the new photograph app Glass after reading about it in multiple places on the Micro.blog timeline, and after John Gruber sung its praises.
I wasn’t looking for a photos app, and don’t particularly want another subscription right now. I certainly don’t want an app that is going to encourage another distraction habit in me, especially as I feel that I am just beginning to get them under control!