The Happiest Man in the World

An inspirational video from Matthieu Ricard. Matthieu trained in biochemistry before moving to the Himalayas to become a Buddhist monk. His description of happiness is delivered with such congruity, it's impossible not to be impressed!

It's Not What We Know...

"To know and not to do is not to know" - Proverb.

I still remember learning to drive. In particular I remember that most tricky of manoeuvres, the hill-start. It was a warm summer's evening as I sat there in the driver’s seat, parked on a precipitous hill listening to my instructor patiently explaining the technique.

Handbrake on, engage first gear, easy on the accelerator and a little bit of clutch, watch the bonnet rise, off with the handbrake, a little more clutch, a little more accelerator and move smoothly off.

I repeated it back to him, all nine steps. I had it word for word, no problem. Then I started the engine and almost immediately, there was a problem!

Faces

“Love is what we were born with. Fear is what we learned here” - Marianne Williamson.

The Moche people of Northern Peru were known both for their exquisite pottery and their elaborate ritual sacrifices of their most elite warriors. 

On the north coast of Peru, close to the city of Trujillo, are the spectacular remains of one of their sacred temples, Huaca de la Luna. The finely painted murals, which survive to this day, are a fascinating insight into the Moche’s beliefs and rituals.

The God of the Moche

The Moche’s sacred god was known as Ai-Apaec and devoted subjects would go to great lengths to please their deity. Extreme weather events, of which there were many due to powerful El Ninos, were thought to be due to the wrath of Ai-Apaec which had to be appeased through any means.

The most elite warriors would engage in a ritual combat before the losers were led back to the sacred temple where their blood was sacrificed as an offering to their god.

The Big Ten: 10 - Never Give up

"Never Quit. Don't ever, ever quit. Recognize that stopping now, regrouping to try a new approach isn't quitting. If you quit you'll regret it forever." Rudy Ruettiger.

There is a story of a man named Aron Ralston, a mountain climber. Aron lived for the wilderness, to be out there in the wild, alone and climbing. The more remote the place the better, such was his desire for solitude that he often wouldn’t even tell anyone where he was going. 

One day he was climbing in a remote part of the Utah desert, as he put his weight on a lose boulder it came crashing down into a crevice, crushing and trapping his right arm. Miles from civilsation and with only a backpack of equipment, Aron was trapped in that crevice for days.

As Time Goes By

"How we spend our days is how we spend our lives." Annie Dillard. 

If you walk along a river bank on a summer’s evening you may be lucky enough to see clouds of Mayflies, sparkling gold in the evening sun. 

It’s an amazing spectacle, thousands of tiny creatures in constant motion, dancing almost rhythmically in a celebration of life.

Life is short for the Mayfly. After months or even years as larvae at the bottom of the river, the winged adult finally emerges from the water’s surface.

Courage and Vulnerability

“When we were children, we used to think that when we were grown-up we would no longer be vulnerable. But to grow up is to accept vulnerability... To be alive is to be vulnerable.” Madeleine L'Engle.  

For some time there has been a question percolating away at the back of my mind. That question was about how to reconcile the contradiction of vulnerability. 

In the Western world we are taught that vulnerability is a weakness. Individuality and self-sufficiency is highly prized and aspired to. 

That belief is reflected in so many areas of life. More and more we live in cities of millions of people but locked away in self-contained apartments. 

We don’t speak to our neighbours. We put up fences and trees so we can have our privacy, we don't want to be seen. 

We need protection. We don’t let people know what they really mean to us in case they don’t reciprocate. Power is everything and to be vulnerable is to be powerless.

The Porters of Tangier

"Though the barriers of life seem formidable, we find when we challenge them that they have no will."  Robert Brault.

A few days ago I returned from a small village in the mountains of Morocco. What I found there was an incredible amount of beauty – in nature, in the immaculately painted houses and most of all in the people. Their warmth, hard work and recognition of the oneness of all of us as human beings was amazing.

However, one of the things which had the biggest impact on me wasn’t found in the mountains but at the port while waiting for a ferry to cross back into Spain.

At the entrance to the port there is a very long drag of concrete steps which leads to an overpass. To board the ferry you must make the long steep trek with your luggage. In the centre of the steps there is a slope so you can push luggage carts up – if you’re Superman that is.

Here’s what amazed me. Waiting there at the port for every ferry was a small band of porters.