This is Elias. He was the captain of our little 8 cabin Turkish guillet for four days last week as we travelled from Fethiye to Demre. Elias is a terrific guy. He is one with the sea, having grown up in Demre and worked all his life on boats. Captaining the Alaturka for tourist cruises is hard work but for him it is a labour of love. Elias was one of the original Blue Cruise captains who got together around 15 years ago to discuss sharing the south coast of Turkey with visitors from around the world. Until he and …
This is a photo i took of the bust of the Emperor Augustus in the Ephasus Museaum this afternoon. He was quite a guy. He ruled during the time that Jesus Christ was born but he died before Jesus got really going. At Ephesus, he was the subject of a cult, which transferred love and affection from the official state gods to heads of state. You can see how that can happen. But there is something really interesting about this bust. Carved into the Emperors forehead is a cross. It is a result of the Christians getting their comeuppance on …
We’ve moved from the splendour and imperial regency of Istanbul to the remote and incredible Cappadocia. This is a place of unreal geography and living history. I love the way ruins here aren’t preserved, but rather used as the basis for building new things. The region is known for the thousands of ancient cave settlements, built as long as 4000 years ago from the soft volcanic rock. Nowadays parts of those ancient caves are incorporated into modern buildings, and form the basis for themed hotels like the beautiful Esbeli Evi, in which we are staying. Cappadocia is also a cradle …
Good piece on knowing oneself… I am more and more compelled by my friend Carol Sanford’s notion that those of us who strive to be “helpers” are most of service when we see ourselves as “re-sources,” agents of helping others re-connect and return to themselves more fully and deeply. Our tools for this are not “best practices” and expert advice, as Carol notes, but observation, inquiry and developmentally-oriented questions, and care-full listening. These are what help to create more space for discovery. Our gain is very much mutual.
I have been mostly taking off the month of July, staying home, reconnecting with my kids and partner and spending a lot of time alone, reflecting and letting the lessons of the past year sink in. July is always a time of new practices emerging for me and this summer I have found myself on the water more. It has taken me 11 years of living on an island (and 18 years living on the coast) to finally make friends with the sea. I grew up on lakes, canoeing, rowing and swimming in fresh water where there are no currents, …