While my Mom and I were visiting the UK for a family wedding, I took the opportunity to take us both up to Edinburgh in Scotland for the world famous Edinburgh Tattoo. Because it was a relatively late decision, the whole city was already packed out, and we were unable to get any accommodation.
Fortunately we found a little fishing village called Dunbar, about 20 minutes by train from Edinburgh, where we managed to secure a room in a B&B. One day, while sitting on the pebbled beach in Dunbar watching the seagulls and listening to their raucous and incessant calls, I was suddenly struck by the fact that the seagulls back home in Durban don’t actually make a noise! What I had taken to be to be the same ol’ seagulls as back home, were in fact very different. I hadn’t really thought about it before, but that noisy Scottish beach made me aware of the difference.
Even though something may appear familiar, there may be differences we don’t expect. We shouldn’t take things at face value – rather make an effort to learn and appreciate individual characteristics.
While touring through the States, I had the opportunity to visit Venice Beach, in Los Angeles, California. This world famous spot is renowned for its long boardwalk, packed with people roller-blading, running, cycling etc, as well as for the aptly-named Muscle Beach Gym.
It was fascinating to watch not only the people working out in the gym, but also the people watching the people working out in the gym! Everywhere I looked there were gym bunnies showing off their bodies in barely-there outfits. I found the whole experience very shallow and superficial. It’s not that I’m not into health and fitness – I’m hugely in favour of staying healthy. But it was sad to see people working out not for the health benefits, but for the ego boost they got from having others stare at their bodies.
Don’t place emphasis on those things that you will lose – looks, for example. Rather invest time and energy into things that will yield long-term and lasting benefits.
While travelling through Andalucia, the southern province of Spain, I had the opportunity to spend some time in the town of Malaga, birthplace of world-renowned artist, Pablo Picasso. The residents of the town are justifiably proud of their most famous son, and of course there is a Picasso Museum there, with works of art donated by the Picasso family.
When I visited this museum, what really surprised me were the works of art in styles that I had never previously associated with Picasso. I had always known him for his Cubist and Surrealist paintings, but in the museum there were many examples of work in other styles – line drawings, still lifes...styles that I think of as "normal". I was struck by how much Picasso's work had evolved over his years of painting.
So much of what we are today is not what we were before, but we have nevertheless been shaped by where we've come from. We are not static, stagnating beings, but instead are always evolving. We should recognize and embrace this constant evolution of ourselves!
One year, after spending the winter ski season working at an exclusive resort in Denver, I decided to use my earnings to see as much of America as I could before returning home to SA.
One of the many places I visited was the Zion National Park – the oldest National Park in Utah, and known for its incredible canyons. I joined a Green Tortoise Adventure Bus Tour, a budget, backpacker-type organisation that arranges trips to many of America’s most famous national parks. The costs of the trip are kept low by, among others, getting the people taking the tour to muck in with some of the chores – preparing meals being one of them.
One day, I was helping one of the other girls make a fruit salad. We were chopping pineapple and, because I love the hard core of the fruit, I put it into the salad. The other girl, however, was throwing it away. I was horrified that she was chucking it out, and she – because she never ate the hard core - was equally horrified that I was putting it in!
There are actually two lessons here. The first one is that even people who like doing the same thing (exploring America’s Parks) in the same way (on a low-cost backpacker bus), will not always like doing everything in the same way. We are all so different and we all believe that our way is the best way (otherwise, why would we do it?). Tolerance and compromise are key.
The second lesson is almost a corollary of the first. Just because you have always done something in a certain way doesn’t mean someone else may not have worked out a better – or a different but equal – way to do it. We can all learn from each other.
While working on a yacht in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, I met and befriended a young South African couple. They invited me to join them on an overland trip into Kenya to the Serengeti National Park to watch the famous wildebeest migration. It was awe-inspiring – open plains filled with wildebeest, antelope and zebra as far as the eye could see, and of course all the predators. I saw lion and cheetah, with many vultures and hyena cleaning up the carcasses left behind after a kill.
On this particular day, I watched three male lions as they ran towards the massive herds of animals grazing on the plains. Two of the lions were young and in their prime, but the third was clearly much older. As they ran, the older lion grew tired and slowed down. One of the young lions ran on ahead, soon leaving him behind.
The behaviour of the other young lion, was, however, markedly different. As if realising the plight of the older lion, he also slowed down, frequently stopping altogether to look back. It was as if he was encouraging him not to give up, to keep going.
I was very touched by what I saw. I realised that there are indeed times when even the King of Beasts needs encouragement.
The life lesson here is that we should never be too busy with our own purpose to look back at those who may be slower than ourselves, and encourage them to keep going. Let us never walk so tall that we cannot stoop to help those who have fallen.
During my stay in Tanzania, I was fortunate enough to visit the Ngorongoro Crater, located inside the Nogorongoro Conservation Area. To get there, we had to drive up a steep pass, which cut through really beautiful vegetation and indigenous bush. As we wound our way upwards, I was struck by the enormity of my surroundings. It felt as though my guide and I could be the last two people left on Earth. We really were in the middle of nowhere!
At the top of the pass, we stopped to read a plaque, which had been attached to a small stone wall. The wording on the plaque read: "A candle loses nothing by lighting another candle." This famous quote by Father James Keller was the last thing I expected to read on top of an African pass in the middle of a UNESCO World Heritage Site! I was amazed – not only at the profundity of the words, but that someone had taken the time to have them engraved on a plaque and placed in one of the most remote areas I had ever visited. The person who had done this would never know who stopped to read the plaque, or whether the words touched the people who read them. But he did it anyway.
The life lesson here is that if something is meaningful to us, we should just do it, without the intent of personal gain or worrying about whether or not other people will understand our reasons, or take pleasure in our actions. We should do it for no other reason than it is worthwhile.
As a South African, there are many things about my country which make me extremely proud. One of these has to be the Sterkfontein Caves, located just outside Johannesburg. I had the opportunity to visit these ancient caves a few months ago, and was humbled by the immense global significance of the caves to our understanding of the origins of people on our planet.
The Sterkfontein Caves are the most famous of the 15 major fossils sites which make up The Cradle of Humankind, an area covering about 47 000 hectares where the 2.3-million year-old fossil Australopithecus africanus (nicknamed "Mrs. Ples") was found in 1947 by Dr. Robert Broom and John T. Robinson. The Caves are owned by the University of the Witwatersrand, whose scientists have been responsible for the main excavations.
What's remarkable is that, despite the many highly qualified and experienced scientists working on the site since its discovery, one of the most significant finds was made by a mere schoolboy, Gert Terblanche, in 1938. He found fossils, including a damaged skull and half a jaw bone, which were later confirmed by Dr Broom as an entirely new genus and species - Paranthropus robustus – dating back over two million years.
Don't ever underestimate what you are capable of. Learn the value of just starting to do something – you may be amazed at what you will achieve.
One of my favourite places to visit in France is the Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat on the French Riviera. Built in the early 1900's by Baroness Beatrice de Rothschild, the villa is today the only great house on the Riviera open to the public. It is an extremely impressive example of the magnificent summer residences built by the very wealthy of the day, but it is the nine themed gardens in which it is set which are the true masterpieces. Strolling visitors will be surprised and enchanted by the exact symmetry of the formal French garden, the lush vegetation of the Spanish and Florentine gardens, the fragrant profusion of the rose garden, the rare trees in the exotic garden, and the archaeological remains in the Stone garden. I was really struck by how the Baroness's dream villa and its magnificent gardens are still bringing joy to thousands of people from all over the world over a hundred years later.
Something worth doing is worth doing well. The Baroness built something beautiful, which took many years to complete, but she made sure it was exactly as she wanted. Her determination to get it right has left us with a lasting legacy which will continue to bring pleasure to people for generations to come.
While on a wilderness trail in Umfolozi Game Reserve, South Africa, I took a bath in a pool of water surrounded by reeds and indigenous grasses, while watching the sunset. The water was cold, but so refreshing after the hot, dusty day. My music was the symphony of the animals and insects. The fragrance, the intoxicating blend of the many scents of the wild, blown gently towards me by the breeze. It was glorious and I enjoyed it far more than any bubble bath with champagne in a 5-star hotel.
Superb, inspiring experiences don’t have to be sophisticated or cost money. Pleasure can be found in the most humble situations and places.
While the shopping malls in Nice, France are magnificent to look at and wander through, and offer everything money can buy, they have no character. Shopping there was interesting, but soulless. I was alone and really felt it.
In the local open market in
Money can’t buy soul. Sometimes we get so caught up making a living that we forget how to make a life! Take time to step back and put things into perspective.
