Manuel Moreale’s recent post on Celebrating Failure resonated with me. I’ve read it a few times now.
You can ingest only so many success stories before starting to feel bad for not being one of them. It’s partly why social media mostly sucks. It’s performative. Everyone is showing the best parts of their lives while the shitty moments are kept private, away from public eyes.
At times I feel as though the online world shows so much of the celebratory fun and fireworks - holding a hand up to recognize that I get sucked into doing that. But perhaps sadly, life isn’t always about celebration. There is grind, suck and failure.
If I don’t share failure or struggle, some comes from wanting to keep things private, other comes from shame.
🌧️ We are waking up to a wet morning, the first for a long time. Gentle drizzle accompanying the sounds of small waves breaking. A quick glance at the weather forecast says that we won’t be going far for the next few hours.
🌧️ Waking up to a wet morning, the first for a long time. Gentle drizzle accompanying the sounds of small waves breaking. A quick glance at the weather forecast says that we won’t be going far for the next few hours.
Monday 17th June, 2024 Dear Friends,
This one will be brief. My wife and I left Portugal yesterday and are making our way across Spain to Barcelona where we fly back to Hawaii. I hope to pull over during our journey tomorrow to add this to the newsletter - it’s just how the newsletter system works that I use. I have a window to add this initial letter.
I’m sitting here in Madrid with a bunch of mixed emotions, reflecting on the last two and a half months which all started in Bristol, England with my mother’s 90th birthday party.
🚗 Starting the journey home. Driving across Spain to Barcelona to catch a flight. Writing this from a hotel in Madrid. The sounds (mainly traffic) of a busy city rumbles below. The wind blows around the terrace. A different world. Change. Reflecting on so much.
🚗 Starting the journey home. Driving across Spain to Barcelona to catch a flight. Writing this from a hotel in Madrid. The sounds (mainly traffic) of a busy city rumbles below. The wind blows around the terrace. A different world. Change. Reflecting on so much.
🐦 I like how in some Portuguese motorway service stations they play the sounds of birds. After the noise and stress of highway driving, the sounds of birds I find relaxing.
🐦 I like how in some Portuguese motorway service stations they play the sounds of birds. After the noise and stress of highway driving, the sounds of birds I find relaxing.
When I was younger and my grandfather came to visit he use to give me the empty end of an ice cream cone. I never knew the reason why, and asking my mother she does not know why either? My wife and I were eating at this very good Gelato place in Possanco, Comporta called Gulato, and I was reminded of my grandfather’s gifts as I bit down towards the end of my cone.
By the way, I can’t say enough good things about Gulato. It is a bit off the beaten track but still not far away from everything else in the area. Hunt it down. Lovely staff, the owner trained in making Gelato in Italy. Delicious gelato all made on the property. A beautiful location.
Some friends in Alcácer very kindly arranged a sunset boat ride for us along the Sado River yesterday evening. This was completely unexpected and a lovely gift. The boat was solar powered and so there was no noise of an engine or exhaust fumes. There was just the sound of water lapping against the boat as we sailed forward along the river, of fish jumping, of the wind blowing through the grasses at the river’s edge. This made for a very relaxing trip.
Drinks and snacks were provided for the ride. The boat’s captain, Manual, shared with us the history of the Sado River, once a busy trade route through the Alentejo area of Portugal and further afield. Earlier that day a new Alcácer acquaintance shared the trade that use to take place between Alcácer do Sal and Cornwall, England. Cornwall had tin and this was used for making steel in Portugal. With the history of human settlement in the Alcácer do Sal area going back 40,000 years, the river has been an important trade route for a long time.
Heavy skies over the beach at Carvalhal yesterday while we were out walking. That said it was warm when the sun broke through, and some people were I the water. The threatening clouds came to nothing.
Monday June 10, 2024 Dear Friends,
I write this on Portugal Day, a national holiday, celebrated every 10th June. I did not know what Portugal Day actually celebrated and so I headed over to Wikipedia. According to the Free Encyclopedia’s entry for Portugal Day,
It commemorates the death on 10 June 1580 of Luís de Camões, a poet and national literary icon.
Wikipedia’s page for Luís de Camões states that,
This story share by Robert Rackley on his blog Canned Dragons reminded me of a story that I heard about a Tibetan Buddhist nun.
A friend of mine, herself a Buddhist nun at the time, was studying at the Institute of Buddhist Dialectics in Dharamsala in Northern India. I’ll call my friend Ani-la, meaning nun in Tibetan. A friend came to visit Ani-la. Ani-la took her friend on a walk around the Institute and Dharamsala, showing her North Indian home.
