Memories in the Sun
“The ocean stirs the heart, inspires the imagination and brings eternal joy to the soul.” – Robert Wyland
Thinking back over the years, many of my happy memories were of the holidays I spent at the beach with my sister and brother, sometimes with our parents and on other occasions with my grandparents in Gonubie. While my father relaxed working his way through a pile of holiday reading, my mother would build castles, explore rock pools and collect shells with us. Curiosity motivates your mind to want to learn and makes it easier to remember interesting facts, and the information I gained from my mother during impromptu seaside lessons about sea anemones and the “ chameleons of the sea” whose skeletons we collected on our walks, was stored safely away to be shared many years later in Montessori group lessons with children before they headed off to holiday at the beach.
Life is like a jigsaw puzzle; Not a “ Box of chocolates.” – Andrea L’Artiste
As we grew older beach holidays took us further afield to Mauritius, Malaysia and Dar es Salaam and exploring the seaside with Anthony, Stu and Christine brought back the “memories in the sun”. When packing, along with the buckets, spades and bathing costumes there would also be packs of cards and a couple of jigsaw puzzles for a rainy day.
There are “dissectologists” in my family, and other happy holiday memories involve Jenny and Les, a bottle of wine, some chocolates and a challenging jigsaw like a 3D Sydney Opera House. While, like Forest Gump, some people are willing to take a chance on finding an orange crème or a ginger choclit, being a cautious Capricorn I would rather spend time hunting through the box for the blue coconut eclairs and the purple ones.
“Seein’ things that I may never see again and I can’t wait to get on the road again.” – Willie Nelson
My horoscope for 2023 had predicted a “slew of exciting opportunities” and “finding small moments of joy.” I knew that the next phase of my life was about to begin when finding a buyer for my unit at the Lodge and a cottage being available in the Pennington retirement village, fitted together like perfect puzzle pieces.
While Durban’s “spans of sea an’ sand an’ sun and fish in the aquari – yum” is only 8 hours away in a chevro – lay, moving which is listed as one of the 5 most stressful life events was a project requiring planning, preparation, plenty of paperwork , packing and problem solving. It also required a spot of magic fitting Scooby, Soni and myself and our luggage, including a picnic basket full of yummy treats and an inflatable mattress into the car and with our friends well wishes, we were on our way to our new seaside home.
“Life will only change when you become more committed to your dreams than you are to your comfort zone.” – Billy Cox
While I had been talking about moving to Umdoni for the past 10 years, watching my name moving slowly up the waiting list and telling my friends and family how great it was going to be living in this leisure resort style retirement village close to the beach, I wasn’t looking forward to needing to step outside out of my comfort zone. At any stage in your life while new experiences, joining a club, taking up a new sport and activities or moving to a new town or country, may be daunting they provide an opportunity to learn valuable life skills including independence, resilience, adaptability and critical thinking, to develop a growth mindset and to gain the confidence to set ambitious goals and embrace challenges.
“You can’t stop the waves, but you can learn to surf.” – John Kabat -Zinn
Living in a small “sleepy” seaside town has been quite an adjustment from bustling Bryanston. In life there are “swings and roundabouts” and while I miss having shopping centres, restaurants and fast food on my doorstep, I love the sunrises and sunsets, breakfasts at the Beach Café and catching up with old friends and finding new ones willing to share advice about doctors, vets and the best place to have sundowners or Sunday lunch. Last Monday celebrating a birthday with cake and champagne we talked about how moving to Pennington had changed our lives, and we all agreed that you were never too old to learn to surf.