variety is the seaweed of life!

Tuesday 7th October 2008

i was back again at pantai geger over the idulfitri holidays and managed to get up close and personal with some of the seaweed that is farmed there. it was pretty mesmerising - i mean blankets of seaweed just lying in the sun and each blanket an interesting array of greens, purples and yellows. and the smell, the air was thick with it. which i absolutely don't mind because for me the strong smell of seaweed makes me feel like i am back where i belong...by the sea.

so i have been thinking a lot recently about variety and specifically about choices. life is full of choices...sometimes too many so that we don't know which one to choose, which one will be right for us and then again sometimes we feel like we have no choice and we are stuck with no way out. ultimately though the seaweed is always greener on the other side of the beach because when we are faced with too many choices we often wish there was just one clear one with a great big, flashing neon sign over it saying 'pick me for instant success!' and yet when we feel we have no choice, we want the plethora of options to just beam across the sky in front of us like a rainbow. oh, we are but such ungrateful beings at times.

do we make wrong choices sometimes? not necessarily 'wrong' choices but rather i like to think of them as 'alternative' choices that are like little side alleys that lead us off from the main path we want to see ourselves following and with a little more thought and extra searching we can get ourselves back to that main path, but along the way we have seen and heard things we never expected, we might have learnt some new skills or made some new friends that we want in our lives and would never have met if we hadn't taken that alternative route. it's all about how you see it, what angle you take it from and how you choose to frame things. i mean, i am by nature a positive person, i try to see the best in everyone and everything. i try to look for the positive in every 'alternative' choice and come out of it knowing that i am a better person for it. it is a constant challenge to view it that way and often i trip up but without these challenges that life throws our way, there would be no opportunity to grow, love, laugh, cry, dance and sing. so with wild abandon i pick a handful of seaweed and look for the variety of life...