Light and Shadows

"There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you."

 ~ Maya Angelou in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

The dance of light and shadow happens in ALL our lives. 

Light illuminates and shadows define.

Together they tell a great story.

I’ve learnt not to question the shadows of the past and not to apportion blame.  

Only idiots drive forward whilst looking in the rearview mirror.

We each  have our own story to tell. 

Mine’s in the present.

And I choose for it to be happy.

Friends and family add to that happiness.

They understand the peculiarities of the person I am and aren’t fazed by it.

Well.

Most of the time they’re not.

Some of the wackiest of individuals are in my corner, 

braving the wild waters with me.

They add their own brand of humour and craziness to the world we inhabit.

Their kaleidoscope swirling in unison with mine.

Both illuminating AND defining it.

This is a good thing.

They lift me up when I’m down.

Give me wings when I struggle to fly

and kick my backside when all else fails.

I find Christmas a difficult time of the year.

Chock full of light and shadows of Christmas past.

As I navigate the treacherous waters this month brings

there’s an overwhelming sense of gratitude.

Gratitude for the steps taken.

Gratitude for the lessons learnt

and gratitude for the those glorious souls 

who illuminate and define my every day.

It’s a cheerful thought indeed!

“I prefer the company of happy people who are believers in magic

... and of magical people who are believers in happy.”

~ courtesy of the Wild Woman Sisterhood

BUT ... she had wings!

“When she transformed into a butterfly, the caterpillars spoke not of her beauty but of her weirdness. They wanted her to change back into what she had always been.

But she had wings.”

~ Dean Jackson

Sun worshippers and wave-wallowers enjoying our bay.

Change IS inevitable.  

Apparently the weather’s supposed to turn ape this week.  

Wouldn’t you know it.

Looking back towards our bay from Kohi Yacht Club

The sunshine and blue skies in paradise are about to go awol.

It’s fortuitous then that the hound and I don’t mind rambling in the rain.

Sunshine on a stalk!

We haven’t had to do much rambling in the rain of late as the weather has been superb.

So much so that not only has my bay been filled with sunworshippers and wave wallowers during the day, but at low tide the waves are brimful of kiteboarders too.

Browns Island in the distance ... it looks way closer than what it actually is.

They make for a gorgeous vista.  

Unbeknown to me, and only visible when I viewed the photos on the big screen at home, was a nudist walking across the beach at Ladies Bay.  I hadn’t realised how visible Browns Island, Ladies Bay and the staircase down to Ladies Bay are at low tide on a sunshiny afternoon

 ... especially when photographed from Kohi Yacht Club.

You can even see the nudist on Ladies Bay ... it's clearer at full resolution on my big screen.

Ladies Bay isn’t QUITE as private or invisible to the general public as I'd thought.

Might have to rethink my swim sessions there.

The jogger this morning came clambering over those rocks ... socks and shoes and very little else.

It’s not EVERY morning EITHER that the beauty of one’s early morning ramble is disturbed by the appearance of a naked man jogging along the sand ... the sand of Ladies Bay that is.  This gentleman was only wearing shoes and socks.  All the better to negotiate the rocks I guess.  He sprinted up and down the beach several times and then did push-ups on the sand.

Quite bizarre.  

That supermoon on New Year’s Day has a lot to answer for.

If you look closely on the LHS of the photo you can just see the bee going into the flower

.... and there he is, busy as the proverbial bee!

Sting ray carcasses on the beach have had the hound’s nose working overtime.  She’s seldom bothered by scents on the sand but even WE were left reeling by this sensory overload.

A completely cleaned sting ray carcass

One or two sting ray carcasses isn’t unusual, but a dozen or more are.

This is MY beach!

  Sting rays are the primary food source of Orcas.  

The recent sting ray smorgasbord is indicative of them having been chased into the bay by Orcas.

The Yellow-bill Gulls and Skua weren’t complaining at the unexpected breakfast bounty.

Nor were the hounds.

Marco ... saying hello to everyone is exhausting.

Considering there are estimated to be less than 200 Orcas in New Zealand waters,

 it would have been special to have spotted them. 

 It wasn’t our lucky day for Orca sightings though.

I had to content myself with Herons and Hounds 

as even the Kingfishers had abandoned the rock pools.

“Life is for DEEP kisses, STRANGE adventures, 

MIDNIGHT swims and RAMBLING conversations.” 

~ unknown

No wonder I love life.

Hercules ... friend to the hound.

She wasn't keen on going home this morning and lay on the grass trying to convince me to return to the beach

Apparently I'd been wearing a hat!

One can only get into the groove by taking one’s wings out of storage and wearing them all the time, no matter what!

That’s paraphrased from a quotation I’ve seen recently but my paraphrasing of it doesn’t change the philosophy behind it.

I am WHO I choose to be. I can embrace the person I am and all that entails or try to be something I’m not. It’s a CHOICE I make to be HAPPY regardless of any situation or circumstance I find myself in.

It was bought home to me so succinctly on Sunday. I’d been at the inaugural Albany Market Bizarre .... and yes, Bizarre is spelt incorrectly ... but there were many bizarre offerings there so maybe it’s incorrect spelling is not so incorrect after all. It was a really well organised market with a wide diversity of stalls and plenty of foot-traffic despite the cloudy cool weather. Sales weren’t fantastic but the interest and exposure was sublime.

I walk away from markets like this convinced that I’m on the right track. That little voice in my head telling me to go with my gut ... it’s NOT wrong.

We meet some interesting people too. On the one side of us we had a lady from Matakana, Terry, who makes hats ... Matakana Millinery. I spent money I HADN’T earned yet at her stall. Our other neighbour Billy sells frozen yoghurt and has made it his mission to convert Gav to yoghurt ice-cream. I think he might have bitten off more than he can chew! 

One of our cars is out of action at the moment so we’re having to “share” Gareth’s car. He took us through to the market and then went off to a wedding at which he was “best man” and for which he wrote an awesome speech, click here to read it.

All well and good .... except we’re at the market now without any transport .... so we asked Dave to come and fetch us. Dave finally arrives, gets out of the car and tells me it’s my fault he couldn’t find us. He had me stumped .... what had I done that he couldn’t find us??? 

Apparently I’d been wearing a hat ... yep, the one I bought from Matakana Millinery ... and Dave had been looking for my hair!

Now I KNOW what to do when I DON’T want to be recognised!

The gorgeous sunshine and blue skies we experienced on Friday and Saturday have disappeared. It’s been grey clouds and rain again .... AND the most magical of rainbows this evening. I guess there must have been SOME sunshine cause the rainbow wouldn’t have been so amazing if the sun hadn’t of been shining SOMEWHERE!

We OFTEN see double rainbows but tonight’s one had a THIRD reflection too .... angling away from the bottom of the primary rainbow. As for that primary rainbow .... what an amazing explosion of colour it bought to my world! 

I just LOVE rainbows.