Saltwater Guru.

It is said that a Guru appears to you exactly when you are supposed to have one in your life - Well I got two in the space of a week. 

My first Guru appeared like all my spiritual apparitions seems to occur, in the passenger seat of a taxi coming back from Handsworth, Birmingham (UK). What started as a generic conversation between me and the taxi driver somehow turned into a deep analysis on meditation and the power of positive thinking. So in depth did our conversation become that he ended up writing me down the name of his guru. I've had the briefest of looks on google upon the Sanskrit name he wrote down but in actuality I can't help but think he was perhaps the teacher to embrace and learn from. 

My second guru came in the flawed but incredible form of 85 year old Dorian "Doc" Paskowitz. To my delight Netflix put another surf film up to watch which I wasted no time in watching! Surfwise is an intriguing documentary about "Doc" a Stanford educated Doctor who at the height of his success quit his job, left his tumultuous marriage and traveled the length and breadth of America, surfing. Along this journey he becomes a sex guru (no seriously), meets the love of his life and ends up having 9 children which he raises in a camper van on the beach. Surfers out there may of heard of the Paskowitz family, that's because many of the children became very successful pro surfers and set up a surf camp which had non other than Kelly Slater working there as one of its up and coming instructors. Yeah they are that cool. 

Doc had a strict philosophy upon health and the power of surfing as being a spiritual experience. Whilst the documentary didn't hold back in exposing his flaws (he was to his detriment extreme with his left wing views, which was sometimes at the expense of his children), I valued his attempts at trying to carve a less commercially driven lifestyle. 

I like my guru's flawed, I like someone I can identify with and who is able to understand the human predicament. At the end of the documentary Doc was able to admit that he had failed his children in his blinkered pursuit of perfect health, surfer lifestyle and impoverished economy (Doc devalued money and placed emphasis on hard work over riches). He quoted his only ambition in life was to be a good husband and father. 

This whole guru conversation got me thinking about soul mates. It is my belief that you have more than one soul mate in life and that this person isn't necessarily a romantic interest. Sometimes soul mates are really great friends, or they even can be lovers who are bad for us and don't work out. Soul mates act like a mirror reflecting our image back to ourselves and offer us up an opportunity to learn or change something about ourselves. 

Perhaps I am a tad flippant throwing around the soul mate label but I think I have a fair few, many of whom surfers. Not all surfers float around in a haze of Eastern philosophy and compassion, I've met a few (rare) cantankerous ones but I do think generally surfers have a tendency towards spirituality, being that their domain offers up so many life lessons. 

Surfing recreates you. I went into the water ready to literally blow my brains out and I came out of the water a warrior 

- Dorian "Doc" Paskowitz 

Anyway. That's enough babble for one post (my internet has been down for a week so I've been desperate to get on here and write. I'm finding it hard to restrain myself)! 

Here's a round up of little events from my life, hope you enjoy! 

Simple pleasures! I discovered in an otherwise trashy girly magazine a whole feature about surfer girls, which was actually pretty enlightening. Hoozar for media actually portraying something positive and empowering about women! 

My beau, affectionately known as 'Mr Sunny' doesn't want to be featured on the blog as he's a very modest kind of person, but I can't help but be a perv and take photos of him when he's not looking! This was a date we had to a local art gallery, minutes before this picture was taken he was acting silly mimicking the sculpture but unfortunately was too quick for me to capture him doing it! 

This is what I wore for our date out. The skirt was £2.95 from a charity shop and can only be described as 'Granny chic.' As you can see I'm wearing my beloved wave necklace too. 

This is one of my favorite paintings in Birmingham Art Gallery, its surf related (obviously) because its a picture of Cornish cliffs, I can't for the life of me remember the artist or the name of said cliffs but it makes me happy looking at it! 

 Another simple pleasure this week, Jack the dog and I went for a long run which culminated on this rather striking Blackcountry hill and Blackcountry view. 

Although I've been making a conscious effort to take more 'style' shots I didn't want to become too stylized so the above and below pictures are clothes I wore to work and when I took Jack out. There's nothing fancy about them or anything particularly special it's just me being me. 

Until next time, 

Stay strong and surf well 

Love