34 and counting. HB Jon.

The Paris 2024 Olympics

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REUTERS - Christian Hartmann

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Juliette Armanet and Sofiane Pamart performing 'Imagine' afloat a flaming piano (Image via Photo by Alex Pantling/Getty Images)

It was a Friday coming into the weekend, and what a week it was son. Ending into a new era of consciousness and blessings in my personal journey.

It was always a fresh new personal beginning for me and your day was marked by the opening of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

Finding online comments and reactions strangely negative, even hostile, I, on the other hand was totally enthralled by the 5-hour long opening ceremony that marked the coming of age of human creativity and ingenuity in the telling of the story of the Olympics in the modern era to people of all ages. 

The French did just that by bringing French culture- art, history, music, dance, fashion, theatre and digital storytelling to the streets, skies and rivers from the cities of Marseilles to Paris turning the entire opening ceremony into a long and extended indulgent foreplay with no end in sight. Until the opening speeches at the Trocadero, one would guess that the Olympic cauldron would be lit, at the base of the Eiffel Tower erupting at the top of the tower as the climax, but it wasn't to be. 

It was instead designated to another venue of significance when the torch emerged, from it's long journey, under the catwalk of the Trocadero to continue it's extended journey to the Tuileries Gardens. Located just outside the Louvre Museum in the heart of Paris to a flying cauldron- A ring of fire 7 meters in diameter harnessed to a hot air balloon. 

The French Montgolfier brothers invented the hot air balloon in 1783 and launched it at the very same spot. Once lit it hovers 60 meters over the city at night turning itself into another breathtaking landmark or 'skymark' to compliment the Eiffel Tower and the Champs Elysees during the games. You'd make an excellent conversationalist, commentator, pundit, writer, journalist, historian and fanatic when it comes to these things I guess.

Time has passed quickly since your sixteenth and two weeks after your sixteenth. Eighteen years have flown by in a heartbeat. In comparison, gfh now aka gfhX is on our 27th year and growing. 

One can only imagine how magnificent you look at 34. But then again, you have looked magnificent since the day you were born. Seeing you at thirteen, fifteen or sixteen is witnessing a phenomenon unfold like a flower from the bud. As you stride into proper adulthood you're probably just a more substantial, more matured, more thoughtful, kind and compassionate human being. Shouldering the weights and burdens of this world with a light-heartedness that only you know how. You'd have your fair share of heartaches, heartbreaks, joy and happiness, disappointments and unexpected blessings and you'd treat all these imposters just the same. With nonchalance. With a disenchanted wonder. Because you know that life is ephemeral and if I might add, that one should not attach oneself to people, places and things that are impermanent.  

"A flower is only a flower because it falls." ~ Lady Mariko in Shogun. 

Nothing delivers the message of impermanence more than a flower and no other race of people understand the certainty of death more than the Japanese. Perhaps that is why they kill, and are willing to die so readily. 

Despite their brutality, cruelty, and lust for power and conquest, the Japanese seem to have regaled in an extraordinary past and to a lesser extent in possession of a beautiful present as a wonderful legacy gifted by the ancients. 

The games ended last night, Sunday 11 August, 3 days after your departure on the 9th. 

What an eventful and enjoyable fortnight of 26 July to 11 August and what a brilliant & fitting coincidence to celebrate your 34th. 

My personal highlights (apart from the opening gambit) of the games were as follows;

• two bronze medals for Malaysia by the men's badminton singles and doubles team. Lee Zii Jia silenced his critics with silence. This makes Malaysia the most successful country in the Olympic Games winning 15 medals without winning a gold medal. 

• a tenacious, spunky and quick as lightning 22 year-old singles badminton player from India, Laksya Sen who lost to Zii Jia and the bronze medal in a thrilling three setter. 

• the surprise gold medalist in the mens 200M finals- Letsile Tobogo 21, won Botswana's first gold medal at the olympics. 

• another super feat was achieved by Julien Alfred 23, from St. Lucia who soundly beat 3 American sprinters to the tape in the premier event of the womens 100M finals to win her country's first Olympic medal- a Gold. Three days later she was edged out by an American by two tenth, and settled for the Silver in the womens 200M finals earning 2 medals for St. Lucia with a total delegation of four athletes. 

• China's men and women's dominance on the diving platforms were breathtaking to watch. 

• The most individual gold medals was won by 22 year-old new French swimming superstar Leon Marchand. He won 4 golds and 1 bronze. He was also the athlete given the honour to carry the Olympic flame contained in an antique lamp to be extinguished at the closing ceremony. 

Thus ends another instalment of the greatest show on earth in the form of the Paris 2024 Olympics. What fitting tribute it was to a sportsman like you for it to fall on your birthday. 

Happy 34th son. 

Au Revoir.

I love you. Happy New Year.

A Holiday

Sunrise @BeachHut by PineForest

I left on the 2nd day of Xmas for my long awaited holiday (anticipated for several years) & returned on the 13th day of Xmas. 

I flew as far away as I could to the remotest, deserted islands within the region. I had a fabulous time every single day. Even the day I had a disagreement with a female trigger fish. I was snorkelling at a small island T, stumbled upon her lair and startled her. She attacked me, pursued and bit me on my left achilles heel. 

Perhaps the most significant experience of my entire trip was the meeting I had with myself. I had decided to book a last minute escape from party island to a quiet island to spend New Year's eve in silent retreat. It was the most basic, rustic, authentic beach hut on a near deserted beach save for chickens & cows. No air-con, no hot water, no attached bathroom, no sink for washing. Just a fan, a mosquito net, a comfortable large mattress with hard pillows in a sturdy wooden hut on concrete stilts. After almost a week of people and activities on party island, I was yearning for some quiet time with myself on a deserted island. I was ecstatic at the idea.

On the second night, I awoke suddenly like a scene from a horror movie at 3.38am feeling fearful of my surroundings. I immediately sat up on my mattress, drank some water and sat in silent contemplation in my hut conscious of the huge banana tree in front of my door. I needed to overcome the gripping fear of Mara looming outside my door. I recalled childhood horror tales related to banana trees bearing young fruits & female ghouls dressed in white. I was all alone with no one around me and nowhere to go. 

I took refuge in feeling what Siddhartha felt the night before his enlightenment when he sat to meditate against Mara's torments & temptations. He was under a bodhi tree and he finally succeeded. I was under coconut trees and succeeded too, two hours later Mara fled my life. I sat and meditated relentlessly and felt indescribable bliss at dawn. Despite the beach, the breeze and the waves, it was just the silent stillness that I felt.The stillness solidified into a thick immense cloud swathing me as I merged into it. 

Perhaps I remember this episode most of all is the fact that it was the only spiritual experience I could intellectually recall. 

The other intellectually exhilarating experience I can recall is the vibrant underwater life fringing the islands especially the remotest ones within reach by boat. The corals & underwater flora and fauna were tourist brochure worthy. While I am convinced that nature is very much alive & thriving, the threat of plastic pollution is real as sunset. It permeates every facet, phase and strata of human existence and excesses. Every morning, plastic debris of all shape and size wash ashore polluting the most pristine of beaches with waste excreted from the cluster of neighbouring islands. This is probably the biggest elephant in the room that the whole world is ignoring with apathy. I see native islanders themselves littering, children tossing candy wrappers as casually as pushing back hair from their sun-browned little faces. Plastic pollution, like most problems facing our world needs to be addressed from the grassroots by individuals not only government. The owner of my beach hut, Gun, a strapping islander who harbours ambitions of being a politician bent on improving the lives of his fellow islanders by mitigating the plastic menace. I wished him success as he, accompanied his wife and infant daughter transported me by boat to the main island and by car to my next destination.

I stayed on the main island for the rest of my holiday. Throughout, my trip was dotted with interesting meetings and connections with locals and individuals largely genuine. People and pets living in paradise and realising they do and those who wished they were somewhere else. I sat more with the former kind, shared stories and meals with them while nursing a swollen foot that seemed to have crept up on me exactly a week after the underwater altercation. 

Doctors and nurses from two nations could do nothing except prescribe a cocktail of antibiotics and pain killers for the swelling. I ditched both after 5 days of no visible results and hobbled along while observing the phenomenon on my foot for several weeks. I resigned myself to the fact that there is no known medication for trigger fish bites. Yet.

Best Friends in Paradise by PineForest

Best Video capture this year by PineForest

Sunset in Paradise by PineForest.

Happy New Year 2024.

I love you. Success #1

 The definition of a successful life. Now.

Image by PineForest

There is no need to wait until a ripe old age to assess if you have lived a successful life. You can do it now.

Ultimately life as we know it, boils down to three simple questions. 

Just answer these three questions with as much clarity as possible.

1. Where do I live?

2. Who am I with?

3. What am I doing?

These are the notes to guide you in the assessment;

Today we deal with the first.

Question 1 simply covers all aspects from where, to what sort of conditions, to how close to your dream abode are you living in.

This is the most important question because; Where I live determines where I am now. 

Right now is where life happens. The place, the conditions and how close to my dream abode all must contribute to my wellbeing, no matter how humble. Or opulent. 

It doesn't matter whether I own the place I live in. 

The key is my physical, mental, emotional and spiritual well being.

I may live in the slums yet I am happy. Likewise I may live in the swankiest neighbourhood in a palatial mansion but I may not be happy. 

This is how I benchmark my success against "Where I live?" 

- Is safety a tried and tested feature? 

We are responsible for our own safety- external & internal 

- Do my surroundings contribute to my overall peace of mind? 

Do the premises allow for physical activities, to move around to exercise. 

To be close enough to the community to not have to intrude and be intruded upon?

- Is the space within the walls conducive to my wellbeing?  

Can I conduct my personal pursuits and daily rituals in total silence and in absolute privacy? 

Can I play my music anytime. And loud? 

- Am I close to nature and space? 

Being from nature we need to connect with the source and free ourselves from time to time. 

Where do you live?