Blessings in disguise

I am often guilty of not writing about sailing in this sailing blog and today is one of those days! This entry is more of an observation through experiences of pure joy but also through experiencing adversity!

In the most recent Adventure Now video I talked about blessings and gifts constantly raining down in this world. It’s true, they are, but we’re not always standing in the right place to receive them. We all know the expression ‘In the right place at the right time’ but what about the seemingly wrong place and the wrong time actually being the right place at the right time?

Today I am counting blessings again. In fact I have had two reasons over the last two days to count my blessings although at first blush, a more pessimistic soul might be feeling hard done by.

Normally when anyone talks about blessings they are talking about things that are obviously good and I will list the following in that way.

Animal sightings for this trip so far:

Seals, porpoises, dolphins, hawks, eagles, albatrosses, foxes, puffins, whales and most recently otters! We have also caught and eaten some lovely fish on this trip and as an animal lover it is tough to be responsible for the kill but unless we are about to become vegans we can’t be hypocritical and not face up to the fact that to eat an animal, it has to give its life. Just because you don't make the kill, it doesn't make you any less responsible. These fish were blessings too and they need to be respected and appreciated rather than being extinguished without a second thought.

Now that we have dealt with the murderous side of things, lets get back to the animal sightings. Please take a little time to look at that list again. It’s impressive and if these experiences do not constitute blessings then I do not know what would. We are extremely lucky and privileged to see such animals in the flesh so we must not allow ourselves to slip into complacency.

Ok, lets move on to some slightly less obvious blessings. Yesterday I cut my nose fairly convincingly. Asha and I were out walking and we went to explore an abandoned house. As we were walking out I bent down to walk under some low branches. I saw it before I felt it but it was too late to stop myself and a stiff stick hit me square in the middle of the right lens of my glasses. It slipped off to the side and stabbed my nose. Blood, tears and screaming followed! Actually there were no tears or screams but blood was running down the side of my nose. I immediately felt an overwhelming sense of gratitude and a feeling of being blessed. Firstly, the blood hadn't dripped on the lovely Musto jacket that Asha bought for my birthday and secondly (I’m being serious now) I wasn’t in a situation where the stick had gone into my eye. It hit hard and if I’d been wearing my contact lenses I would have been in serious trouble. An urgent hospital visit would definitely have been on the cards and it is open to speculation as to whether or not I would have turned up with an eye on a stick!

I was a little bit shaken but also fully aware of how much of a blessing it was that I had chosen to wear my glasses that day and thus a cut nose meant a very good day indeed. A total blessing in disguise.

Today I cut my thumb, quite well in fact, while opening a can of food! Once again there was plenty of blood and despite a small outburst of F and C bombs I quickly moved into a state of gratitude. I have no idea what may have been avoided by this little mishap. It’s not as easy to see the horrible alternative in this situation as it was to imagine my eyeball on a stick but I do feel that for some reason I have been prevented from carelessly sticking my thumb where it might not fair so well over the next few days. Maybe this is all for Asha’s benefit but I guess we will never know.

By writing this I have let you into the wibbly wobbly world that exists between my ears but I hope you get the general gist.

Not everything that appears bad is bad. I’d rather tread barefoot in sh*t than barefoot on glass. I am starting to see the world differently. It’s not that every cloud has a silver lining. It might just be that every cloud is the silver lining. I’m no pessimist but things can always be worse!

Anyway, I’d better go. I’m going to sit in the cockpit, have a drink and wait for Pterodactyl to fly past.

Latest animal sighting.

People keep taking the piss out of my hair. I can't imagine why!