Monday, June 28, 2010

Far and away























What a blissful day. I stayed in mostly and out of the sun and away from all activity. Evening came and after a happy nap, I awoke and strolled to the restaurant located at the tip of the island where it stands on stilts out in the sea. Whipped by the wind and drizzle that come in, you look out and see the edge of grey where the full moon lurks behind, and the bright blue of night. Then you realise you are indeed in the middle of an ocean, and somehow you are embraced by this sweetness of spirit that ripple the water surface and turn the turquiose sea like an lantern beneath your feet. I contemplate with thanks all the grace of peace received today. I count my blessings the friends I embraced and those I missed. The heart of all quiet rests in my soul and sits with me like the dew on a lotus in the break of day.

A Perfect Circle - Take a look at this satellite image of Hurricane Celia

Celia continued to strengthen after this image was acquired. At 8:00 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time on June 24, 2010, the National Hurricane Center reported that Celia had strengthened to a Category 5 hurricane. By 8:00 a.m. the following morning, Celia had weakened to a Category 4 storm, but it still had maximum sustained winds of 240 kilometers (150 miles) per hour, said the National Hurricane Center.



On the morning of June 25, Celia was roughly 1,330 kilometers (825 miles) southwest of the southern tip of Baja California. The National Hurricane Center anticipated that Celia would continue to weaken as it tracked north and west across the Pacific Ocean. The storm was not forecast to come ashore over land.

[Off NASA website.]

Saturday, June 26, 2010

How I got AWAY last Saturday with Bliss when I missed an appointment on the island...

There are few experiences as blissful as when your mind and body is readied for some unwind time. There candlelight meditation was supposed to start at 6 pm and I walked to the Spa thinking this would be a lovely try out, a novel experience. I had called just earlier and was now at the spa lobby, but was then told that there was no other persons interested so the meditation session had been cancelled. I was disappointed to miss the opportunity. But it was already evening and half the long awaited weekend had ebbed away. So I asked if there were any chance I could get a treatment if the villas were not fully booked. I was lucky and I was scheduled in for one last appointment of the day at 7 pm, and the room was prepared so that I could get into the steam room to relax taut muscles and ease myself into the nice therapeutic rub down. The steam room was invigorating at 42 degrees and it was slightly exhilarating to stand in the open air shower facing the open ocean and hose down under the raindrop shower head. The therapist came in and after getting a good sense of what I wanted, went swiftly to work. It was superb and I wish that the treatment was only longer. But some extra time had already been alloted to me and I was very appreciative of it. The therapist has since left the spa to return to her home in Indonesia. Just a while ago, I wrote her a thank you note and wished her every success. With the bump in my head and given the monsoon weather that has struck the island all day, I would have loved to relax in the spa to get away once more and ease off into relased Wonder and sensory Lust. I will just have to locate the therapist I can be most comfortable with to replace the one that has left, and will have to patient. But I have always been lucky there.

What A Bump!

Perhaps I was plainly too delighted to have received the long awaited packages from Singapore, which after three weeks of being in transit and held up at Customs, was finally arrayed before me. I stooped to move the heaviest of the lot, shifting it to the side of the storeroom so that it would not obstruct the passageway. Then after letting the box down, I shoved it to rest at the corner and stooped up. I hit my head hard at the base of an electrical switchboard box and was just lucky enough to have been cut by it. But the mild concussion was enough to cause the back of my crown to feel acute pain, my eyes blinking against the harsh afternoon light and squinting in agony. The pain throbbed - literally - in waves, and I tried to steady myself. Later, the island's resort doctor very graciously brought me a NEX ice-pak which we left in the freezer to quickly chill. I spend the afternoon in pain, my eyes being more sensitive then usual and dizzy. The ice-pak sat gingerly over my head as I eased around my desk to work, trying to forget the pain. I could swear that for a while I did feel nauseous from the slight-headed dizziness, and headache inside my head. I found myself taking deeper breadths and slowing down. By evening, the pain had ripened into a low throbbing headache, exactly as if someone had hit you on the head with a bat. Your vision seems narrowed and greyed at the periphery. I hope my neurons can heal - I hate to be losing my memory after cramming in a great deal of new data for the coaching and training to be held here and around the region. Anyway, pain is only temporary - I worry about any permanent damage; fortunately, I am probably do done with being damaged now that whatever is left if probably beyond any hope of salvaging! I slept later than usual last night, after a long bout of laughter and jokes when some friends came over. It was a real relief. The dopamine the brain produces with laughter is definitely good medicine. If I had an aneurysm and flipped into a coma, I would have wanted to do laughing anyway and with the right company! But I woke up early as usual but felt almost unable to crawl out of bed. My head rolled from side to side just not wanting to be lifted. It was my sprained neck from the sudden impact. I finally lifted myself off the bed at about 7 am, which was already rather bright with the sun sending gleams of light through the swaying palms. I decided that it was best not to try and hit the gym as I might regularly do, but sit around and update my Facebook for a while. The headache is still lingering and I still feel sleepy and tired out. It may not be the bump but just the body intuitively easing into the weekend mode which does not exist here in these parts. My body will have to relearn that the old circadian as well as weekend routine in Singapore would not apply here. Fortunately, a great deal does not. That includes, walking from my room to the shoreline and instantly swimming out the edge of the reef which falls to about 30 metres below. Ijust want to free dive down and slip pass the reef wall into the great blue. All I need is a friend to add recklessness to beauty that is all around. I must be losing my sight right now.