life

Cracking the Code

Stanley

If you’ve been following my posts for even a short while, you’ve probably realized I look at the sky and clouds a lot and a huge percentage of the photos I share are of the sky, peering into the heavens above. Perhaps that’s because I am drawn to seek answers there, or to be inspired there, or to escape there, from this world down here. Perhaps all of the above.

This morning the clouds looked like a page full of Morse-like code, a message laid out above me, for me to understand and heed, if only I could decipher it. I could not interpret the message verbatim in human words, but the message I got was: this world is beautiful, just take time to see it, to experience it.

Continue reading →

Soon…

Stanley

Soon the sun will rise above those trees at the top of the hollow, sending bright life giving light down to dry the dew in the meadow along the creek.

Soon the sunlight will pass through these trees around the meadow turning into angel’s fingers dancing across the flowers, touching every dew drenched petal and leaf and transforming a common green field into a magic carpet of sparkling rhinestones.

Everywhere hang garlands seemingly tossed casually like discarded diamond necklaces draped between the stems of the taller plants.

You can see this, and feel this too, if you know where to stand and look.

I can show you, but only if you come here early in the morning to the place I call Happy Hollow.

My Resurrection

Stanley

An Easter Awakening

I have been going through some rough times, being attacked personally by someone I once thought a friend, now perceiving me as an enemy, attacking me and defaming me among others, both friends and strangers alike, for reasons unfathomable to me.

I have fought anxiety attacks, depression and as a result, for the first time in a life filled with recurring episodes of despair, even faced down thoughts of a final escape from what is only a temporary problem…I held the full bottle of pills in my hand…wondered if it would be enough…and then set it down again. Closest I ever came to considering taking that final step to find peace. Continue reading →

Homeward Bound

Stanley

As I sat on my deck enjoying the rare sunshine and 65° warmth this afternoon, sipping my post nap coffee, gazing at the heavens, floating up there among the clouds, I heard a familiar sound in the distance. As always, my heart rose up there with them as they flew above me, honking with pure joy and what I perceived as exhilaration to just be flying, traveling, moving on. Continue reading →

Desperado

Stanley

I’m coming to this post via a sort of backwards completion process. Only the reverse of that. LOL.

Backwards completion is the method of visualizing your end point or goal and then figuring out how to get there. I did the opposite to come to the insight I hope to share in this post and this video compilation of images. One step in front of the other until I realized where I was. Continue reading →

Life On The Edge

Stanley

There is a place called Three Fathom Harbour I’d seen on the maps and driven past a road to it on the way to Lawrencetown. We didn’t head over that way more than a couple times this year, so I never checked it out. I’d heard there was a pretty consistent surf break out on the point of land on the west side of it called The Wreck. I was told it was a nice easy walk out along the well maintained public Atlantic View Trail.

Edging...its a very long way down.

Edging…its a very long way down.

Finally in early October I determined we were going to go check it out, so off we went early one morning. As usual I brought along George and my phone and snapped a few shots along the way. Turns out the fork we took led to a very steep cliff and along the edge of it for a ways. Looking at the soft crumbling soil and remembering the heavy rains we’d had the past week, and George’s newfound penchant for living life on the edge…I decided to backtrack and find another route out to the point rather than the one along the cliff edge. I think I know the real reason the beach below it is called Terminal Beach. Very surprised there are no warning signs or flags or anything. A truly dangerous place… Continue reading →

Male Bonding

Stanley

I walk a lot more now. I walked a lot before too. But now I walk more times a day, just not as far as before.

It’s essential for my recovery.

Open Heart Surgery, Mitral Valve Repair. One week ago yesterday.

Age 56. Been healthy all my life, no known prior health problems.

Nothing like a little wake up call late in middle age to start you thinking about things. Continue reading →

9/11

Stanley

Tuesday, September 11, early in the morning, unknowing of what was to come, I finally made the choice to go surfing at the Jersey shore for the first time since moving east 3 years ago. I checked my email, handled the few chores requested by clients and packed the truck with my board and gear and headed out.

It was a pristine and crystal clear day, the early signs of fall in the air. I rejoiced as I drove across the garden state with my beloved lab, Lulu, at my side and surfboard in the back, that at last my life had reached my idea of perfection. I had finally, after years of struggle and hard work, found the life I had always dreamed of, a beautiful home in the country, animals to love and care for and an occupation I enjoyed which allowed me to work at home and go surfing whenever the ocean provided the waves. This day would be the day that signified the completion and fruition of my lifelong quest to get it all together.

Then the world changed. Continue reading →