The power of belief

There is a line in a Curtis Mayfield tune that states ‘educated fools from uneducated schools’, this pretty much sums many current western education systems up for me. Having worked for many years with young people and adults that were somewhat removed from the ‘mainstream’ system, especially in terms of education, I always referred to my clients as ‘spirited’ (especially those who were REALLY ‘off the rails’).

This simple word, as opposed to ‘disadvantaged’ or ‘at risk’ or ‘dis-engaged’ allowed a huge shift in the way that I [and others around me] thought about such clients, importantly from the word go. My style of teaching encompasses the mind, body and spirit and I believe one of THE most powerful tools any educator can employ is the power of BELIEF. To believe that clients have their own capacity for growth [and positive change], when the time is right for them.

This is not to say that I am a guru or live a life of cave dwelling purity, it does mean however that I use my experiences, knowledge and [apparent] wisdom to plant a seed of belief and compassion with people that I choose to interact with. One can gain insight into some of my influences by browsing my blog, Bruce Lee for instance - a huge inspiration to me. My teaching almost the art of 'teaching without teaching', I prefer to view it as 'allowing others to be open to learning'. The age old difference of being a leader who is feared or a leader who is followed...

There is a quote that helps explain this: "If I accept you as you are, I will make you worse; however if I treat you as though you are what you are capable of becoming, I help you become that."

More on this in future posts...

Be Like Water Media

Hey all, I've been busy working on my BLW Media blog - I trust you'll enjoy the wealth of information on there, from philosophy to surf to ecology to music...

Thanks


BLWM

TED SAID

Great clip from TED. The comments on the TED page are really interesting too!

Be Like Water

Bruce Lee's Taoist words on water...fluid

Stone and bone...

Great site selling all sorts of handcrafted loveliness...

http://www.etsy.com/shop/stoneandbone

Home is where the surf is!

Great short movie!

Home Is Where The Surf Is from Branden Aroyan on Vimeo.

Change is the only constant...

Some folks chat about climate change not being real or about over-exaggerated claims by people who care for the planet.

My thoughts on this are simple: be like water, fluid, flowing and fresh. It's plain and easy to deduce that surfing in clean seas and fresh waters is better than slicking about in crudeness, oil and filth.

Whale of a time!

Nice clip taken from Katherine Reed's facebook page!

Be.Like.Water. Taoism

A few words on Taosim, it is why Be.Like.Water is called as it is.

Surfing has allowed more insight into the simplicity of life and brings me closer to Tao, my aim is love and literally to flow, as water, knowing only the form it takes. A drop of water in the ocean becomes the ocean. A cup filled with water becomes the cup.

Some extracts taken from Alan Watts:

"The tao is a certain kind of order, and this kind of order is not quite what we call order when we arrange everything geometrically in boxes, or in rows. That is a very crude kind of order, but when you look at a plant it is perfectly obvious that the plant has order. We recognize at once that is not a mess, but it is not symmetrical and it is not geometrical looking. The plant looks like a Chinese drawing, because they appreciated this kind of non-symmetrical order so much that it became an integral aspect of their painting. In the Chinese language this is called li, and the character for li means the markings in jade. It also means the grain in wood and the fiber in muscle. We could say, too, that clouds have li, marble has li, the human body has li. We all recognize it, and the artist copies it whether he is a landscape painter, a portrait painter, an abstract painter, or a non-objective painter. They all are trying to express the essence of li. The interesting thing is, that although we all know what it is, there is no way of defining it. Because tao is the course, we can also call li the watercourse, and the patterns of li are also the patterns of flowing water. We see those patterns of flow memorialized, as it were, as sculpture in the grain in wood, which is the flow of sap, in marble, in bones, in muscles. All these things are patterned according to the basic principles of flow. In the patterns of flowing water you will all kind of motifs from Chinese art, immediately recognizable, including the S-curve in the circle of yang-yin.

So li means then the order of flow, the wonderful dancing pattern of liquid, because Lao-tzu likens tao to water:

The great tao flows everywhere, to the left and to the right,
It loves and nourishes all things, but does not lord it over them.

For as he comments elsewhere, water always seeks the lowest level, which men abhor, because we are always trying to play games of one-upmanship, and be on top of each other. But Lao-tzu explains that the top position is the most insecure. Everybody wants to get to the top of the tree, but then if they do the tree will collapse."

Wonderful folk

Was it as I watching my shadow loom its own projection onto a 30ft mysterious canvas constructed from the thick sea mist after chatting with the wonderful folk at Manobier, perhaps the couple in their 80's shed some new joi de vie upon my travels. Could perchance the solitude have evoked melding between I and the ocean blue?

Or, sat on the wall at The Kings Head and having my jaw ache from true laughter that happens when wonderful folk combine, was it this perhaps?

The artists, chemical heads Bobbing about, the shapers of alaia boards, the driftwood craft makers, the scribes, the illustrators and organisers, the travellers and fellow hobo's, the older folk reclining in their furniture comprised of a community. The shop owners and their tales, the charity shoppers, the film animators, the fish and chip shop birthday man, could it be that somehow the ocean sewed it's watery weave into a magical cloak that I shall forever wear?

It feels warm, there is pure love, the wonderful folk, the bluebells casting their hues along the wooded warriors path of lightness...

All folk are wonderful...

For the love...

Gonna lay my head down soon to sleep tonight,
wake some dreams until morning light,
taste the air of an adventure real
put my trust in all things positive
in my daily quest to truly live
and make right choices all the while I feel...

this ocean love rise up like a tide,
pushing all things negative aside
there’s no longer room for them inside
when all I live is for the ride,
that marrys me towards the glide
this is now my life
I feel alive!

And when I wake into fresh days
I pray that nature clears my cup
lifts with spirits, raises me up
sets in motion, removes the haze
brings me closer to potential
washes me in love torrential

Bring on the rain, let sunlight shine,
the glass conditions
flat spells too
big and stormy
log or stick
for the love of surf
for me
for you


TR 25.4.10

Sea Shame

Click here to watch rubbish clip!

BBC page documenting the amount of rubbish that is washed up on the beach!

Story of stuff!

Great clip about why simple, low impact living is best. Ironic that it should start with an advert about buying more stuff!

My take is that it isn't the 'stuff' 'out there' but the 'stuff' in our minds or our approach to 'stuff' that is the issue.

It's not an issue to own a wetsuit for instance, but surely true sustainability is about patching up our old wetsuits until they are hanging by a thread (buying second hand or e.g. Patagonia in the first place may help) therefore reducing initial impact, repairing, reusing and then recycling.

AJ boules and banter!

If two people can combine, and remain two people, then a wonder has occurred, for it is not the joining but the understanding of togetherness in individuality that cements us as one.

I reside in many places and one of these, close to my heart is right here. The magical fires we have shared, the boules games we have played. Chats and northern humour have kept dreams alive and sanity at bay.

The simplicity behind the esoteric is an invisible banner through which Alan and Jane flag, and both shed a gloriously bright light that cast many shadows, illuminating many paths…

No introduction is required, no goodbye needs to be voiced, we all are and we always will be.

Smiling and at peace, really.

For Alan and Jane and the winged friends that share this lovely space!

BLW 23.4.10

CASH

Been getting some good feedback from folks on this poem I wrote over 10yrs ago!

It's about cash!

Cash

Money, the paper god - how much is it worth ?
The Earth is elliptical; money makes the world go round...
Money equals food and clothes, something we depend on to live.
It should just be there to give.
Our dear sources install the pleasures of having it, the griefs of not.
How much money is a lot ?

Ocean's healing!

Check out this link, looks amazing! more to follow on this soon...

SHAKA

Surfing4peace

www.surfing4peace.org

What can be better, surfing and peace!

Surfing 4 Peace was founded in the Summer of 2007 by legendary surf ambassador Dorian “Doc” Paskowitz, Arthur Rashkovan, an Israeli surfer and surf-industry professional, Dorian’s son David Paskowitz and 8-time world surfing champion Kelly Slater.

In order to implement projects and initiatives, Surfing 4 Peace relies on personal contributions of time and expertise from concerned members of the local and international surfing community, as well as its official project partners, Explore Corps and Gaza Surf Relief.

Be sure to check out S4P on:

Myspace:

www.myspace.com/surfingforpeace

Facebook

Surfing 4 Peace Group

Camps Breakerz

www.campsbreakerz.com

Look out for djalaia special breakdance mix for these guys...coming soon - if they like it!!!

Gaza surf club

Some really good information on here about surfing and peace in Gaza...

www.gazasurfclub.com

Edith Widder: Glowing life in an underwater world | Video on TED.com

Bioluminescence!!!

Acorns to Oak

Some time ago, not long after that serendipitous first wave where surfing plunged her watery roots into my very being and took a loving hold of me in her open palms, I rediscovered my hobo, shunning the serried lifestyle in adoption of a two-wheeled caravanserai.

Caravan life brought me closer to the land and now the little owl replaces sirens, it shows its hunt through calls, I witness sparrow hawks instead of a fashion parade, prey in claws, swooping low over the thick hedges that border nocturnal badgers under the fields.

My border collie Benbo met a badger during an evening walk, they went nose to nose, an investigative Inuit-style greeting, perhaps they wondered how they came to be wearing the same outfits - a magical moment allowed through silence and being able to walk out at night without fear and in the countryside!

Hoboism lends itself to less consumerism: water use is amplified in its scrutiny, how much propane gas (it has a lower freezing temperature, I found out the hard way) it takes to keep me warm in the dead grip of Winter is directly related to cost of the fuel bottles and the cost to collect them in the first place. The effort it takes to walk to the water point to refill the ‘aquaroll’ is real, I don’t just turn a tap to a never ending water supply. If I want water, I have to get it myself, this simple act still makes me ponder the shear scale of global consumption and reminds me how easy it is, to forget to remember that the hydrological cycle travels many journeys prior to being imbibed.

Recycling in the caravan morphs to a focus on initial reduction on producing waste (through the purchase of items with non-essential packaging) in the first place. My consumer choices can create a small mountain of utter waste after just one day, perhaps this draws me to grow my own food or at least buy local and bag free.

I noticed how much crap I had too, I mean stuff I just do not need to lead a happy life. I have not once missed the TV, and read a lot more now too…this means I consume less and learn more.

It is ludicrous that here in the UK, we use drinking water to flush our toilets!!! It really beggers belief.

The eco bog (toilet), as used in many parts of the world, is a great idea, it reduces water use and there is zero smell, plus the compost heap is healthier for it…if you ask me – that’s the shit we need!

Especially so, in todays age of Goliath monocultured, gargantuan globalised greed and crazy collective consumerism, is the ever important requirement for nurturing a community focused social conscience.

This obvious ethical finger points at me first, “Be the change you want to see in the world”, as Ghandi so peacefully observes.

As a human being and planetary resource consumer, each and every day the ethical finger points at me and like the ‘bang’ sign from a cartoon gun, it gives me a wonderful thing: CHOICE

And with it, the CHANCE to make the right choice, not because it’s fashionable or makes me feel better (which it does), but because I want to surf clean oceans and echo David Brower’s words: “We do not inherit the earth from our forefathers, we borrow it from our children”, most of all though, because I have enough knowledge and freedom to have the chance to make a positive difference.

If you feel like making a positive difference (because it does however small the act) then have a ponder at these pages.

From green (i.e. sensible) and clean (i.e. sustainable) tips and tricks, like making a wind turbine from hamster farts or running a car on dog hairs and monkey sweat to links on ethical products, such as Howies, Patagonia and Finisterre, or top quality links to information treasure troves like the Beach Clean Network, Surfers Against Sewage, or other equally worthwhile golden nuggets of self-respecting, planet loving, cost saving information that’s sure to score a goal with your soul and put more pride in your glide!

I was born an acorn and I becoming my oak.

Like camping? Like campervans? Like cooking?

OUT SOON....go on and buy it!

Underwater love

Check out this link for some stunning and beautiful ocean immersion photography!

“The ocean is a wealth of knowledge that teaches us how to live if we listen.  My hope is to inspire others with the simple beauty of what the ocean has to share. Mahalo Nui” - Dana Richardson

Here's a few teasers...

Dolphins: (Nai’a)
"Diviner than the dolphin is nothing yet created; for indeed they were aforetime men and lived in cities along with mortals, but by the devising of Dionysos they exchanged the land for the sea and put on the form of fishes."  -Oppian (Third Century Greek poet)

 

Go on, get in touch with Tom Wegener and buy an alaia...

Here's why!

A super clip showing us simple is good...! The beauty of wood, and what a legend of a surfer...

Sixtree something....a tribute to hoboland.

There are two fir trees guarding the entrance, efficient doormen with their green tuxedos, tall and proud they stand, swaying in response to any wind that conjours their movement. They are like twins, only feet apart, and over the course of twelve months have moved skyward fast, sapping water as firs do, to quench their thirst and fuel such growth.

Many other trees are visible from my vantage but only six line the hawthorn / holly hedge that border the field. The other hedge skirts a well trodden canal footpath which after 200m meets the fence marking equine territory.

Walter, one of the oak trees is situated to the left of the firs, he stands majestic, mighty limbs supporting a myriad of life, from the acrobatic squirrels performing daily to a colourful range of birdlife that flutter amongst the branches waiting their seat at the (bird) table, which almost all year round is as busy, lively and cultured as one may imagine an upmarket contemporary cafe in Salzburg to be, old friends meeting new friends, sipping coffee in the fresh morning air, vibrant chatter as others come and go about their business.

To the right of the firs the other oak stands, Arthur is strong, still fending creeping vines that would strangle the very life from him given a chance. Arthur however is a mighty oak, a symbol of wisdom accentuated by the little owl that frequents it. A sparrow hawk hunts from its crown, a mirror of the powerful legacy that this traditional and familiar tree represents as found right across the length and breadth of the British countyside.

When I first saw these oaks, in the cold throw of Winter, the oaks were infact visibly strangled, one could see evergreen on deciduous, breath restricted by ivy entwining its parasitic glue-like clutches to the branches in a bid to blanket the life and claim Darwinian victory, killing one life to make way for another.

In the following summertime the combined foliage blocked sunlight, too many leaves competing, both Walter and Arthur overwhelmed and almost consumed, near gasping, they were in need of ressucitation.

The simple act of cutting the vines at their base has, almost eight months later, paid dividends. Although more is required on Arthur, Walter is now flourishing and simply more alive.

Arthur too, but just a month in between the original vine removal has set Arthur back a year; it will be another four seasons until Arthur experiences the freedom of self growth that Walter now has, that is to be rid of the vines thus providing more life to burrowers, diggers, hoppers, scrapers, scamperers and all the creatures great and small that call the oak their home.

That makes four trees in total. The remaining two are situated at each corner of the field, to the very left and the extreme right of the hedge. On the left, next to Walter is another oak, with no name and almost wasted into submission as a wrestler would overwhelm an opponent, the ivy has won this contest and provides balance as nature does.

To make the sixth is arguably not a tree. The ‘father of all herbs’ as is sometimes known,   marks the entrance to the towpath, the Elder survives, just. Complete with ‘Jews Ear’ so called as belief historically states that this is the tree that Judas Escariot hung himself from!

To the medicinal practicioners, the elder is of great importance, not a hedging tree for its gapping ability but nonetheless an important addition and to some symbolic of history and healing, both the oak and the elder steeped in mythology and magic!

Nature provides, the six trees reflect their own tales through the seasons, the life they support, the heat they give when their droppped wood is transformed in a winter’s fire. The prescence they emit by just being, nature in all it’s facets brought to recognition by proximity and time.

Spring 2010

coming soon!

Be.Like.Water Media presents djalaia a new concept in music provision for surf events, beach cleans and high quality gatherings!

Coming soon................

When it's raining

When rain falls outside as it is doing now, I sometimes feel gloomy and don't really know how - I should feel refreshed and alive seeing rain, but I know it spells mud, underfoot, once again. Yet who am I to quarrel wet earth? Life is life, it could be much worse.

So I post this picture of a drier time, smiling, already, I'm in a sunnier clime!

Sliding Liberia

Hats off to the people involved in making this documentary - very moving and full of soul...

God went surfing with the devil

Trailer of a film that shows the transcendental power of surfing.

Joel Tudor

I like to watch this clip when I'm land-locked to remind me of the soul in surfing, enjoy!

Glass Love

A great clip from the classic 'Glass Love' by Andrew Kidman. The song is by Cat Power.

Clouds

A new poem inspired by a casual gaze upwards!

"Wingless they soar, shape-shifters suspended in motion at the mercy of the wind - visible cogs in nature's mechanics.

Oft circurated are these wispy precipitates behind lens or with brush, evanescent moods framed in layered expression, skyscapes mirror landscapes respectively and vice versa.

Provoking deep thought, shielding hazy sun or opening their gates, releasing our sodden dreams, clouds refresh the soul heuristically"

Fickle Filey flappings!

PART 1: Hobo Life and Heroin

The high wind growls, huffs and occasionally wisps, as it tries prising open the nearly closed jeep door. (Shuts door) Now, the window slightly open, I hear the tent, nestled between cliff, car and fence, ruffling, resonating the gales as a dog shakes after being in water. She stands her ground, tail-like guy ropes strongly pegged down, years of pitching experience pays dividends at times like these.

The site is a car park, found after much driving around in the dark of this winter's eve. I'd encountered muddy fields, dead ends, the boy racers in other car parks and deliberating the least likely location to draw attention and the most likely to fall into the 'adventurous' category, I'd found a great spot high up on the cliffs. And so it was, exposed to the elements in defiance of the norm, I could see eastwards, the town of Filey; it's lights shaping the curve of the bay below as it fended against the sea.

2hrs prior saw me at Cayton Bay. 'You should have ben here yesterday!' He He...

I know this to be true for this trip, as speaking to the surf shop and checking the swell, I knew I'd missed the best of the waves by staying the extra days in Ripon. Hey Ho, I was at my sister's at the time of the call and a quick jaunt over to the coast was inevitable, I'd just left it too late. (I contracted surfitis on that first wave nearly two years ago and firmly in its grip, a mere 100miles was a stones throw to catch some waves)

Arriving in Scarborough I instinctively drove to Cayton. Letting Benbo out of his portable house in the boot, we went to say hello to the sea, the third visit to this spot spelled millpond, that dreaded witch's tit!

Never mind, I'm involved in the process of surfing and that's food enough to fill this hunger. It's medicine for my condition.

More on this trip on my next blog...

Copyright © 2010 Thomas Ramwell.

A grom grows up!

The Taoist’s say ‘Be like water’

Outer Space

Written post surf, totally consumed with the glide...

Feb 2010

Perfect waves on the Welsh Coast