roses from my friends

It is the birthday of one of my best friends on Monday.

Now a lot of people have life-long friends but strictly speaking I was still in utero when we first met.

Growing up and through to adult life we kept ending up roughly in the same place. That run ended though and now a hemisphere and a day of flying separates.

This is simply a tremendous person and someone with one of the biggest hearts I have ever seen in a man. I miss him.

Another of my best friends is going through a tough time right now. A relative newcomer, I have only known him for 20 years. He is only 9 hours or so away by plane.

Just about the single most intelligent person I know and yet somehow simultaneously one of the most foolish. But in his perfectly symmetrical and round head he knows this. An amazing individual.

I couldn’t ask for two better friends and I admire and respect them both very much.

There are myriad tales, some repeatable and some not.

Time was passed. Lives lived. Loves lost and won.

If you really are judged by the company you keep then I should be set-up nicely.

Time and distance may divide but the same sun sets on us all.

The bonds are permanent.

And they can only imagine how much they are loved.

in your place

There are a lot of things ready to put you in your place in this world. Good job too. Everyone needs reminding, some more than others.

One of the most effective reminders of my place in the world is the ocean.

Beautiful, nurturing and giving, it welcomes every morning. It offers to take you as you are and then deliver you reborn onto the wet sand.

Always moving, always changing; the swell, the wind, the tides, the sand underneath. A constant state of flux and rhythm.

Occasionally whilst visiting you get to meet the locals. Fish dart underneath. A penguin pops up in the rip. A sea lion appears out of the fog. Dolphins show you how waves should be addressed. Even a passing humpback stops in the bay to remind you how small you really are.

Often though, all it takes is the ocean itself. It doesn’t even have to be big. Attempting to dive below, swim within, or glide on top, you are just another collection of particles in the current.

Sometimes you are granted the illusion of control but even a little wave can put you exactly where it wants.

Such a human quest to find something bigger than themselves. We will look in the strangest of places before looking at the very thing we came from.