by Guest Writers Suzie Cheel and Des Walsh

A couple of times recently we have seen this man at our local beach, Rainbow Bay, with a didgeridoo ( or yidaki), the traditional Australian Aboriginal musical intrument.

This day we saw and heard him playing with the end of the “didge” submerged at the water’s edge.

My thought was that there might be some spiritual explanation, connecting with the spirits of the sea, etc. A bit of a web search suggests something more mundane. Evidently the exercise of playing the instrument in this way trains the diaphragm and builds the player’s ability to maintain the constant pressure to produce the long drawn out sounds that are such a feature of didgeridoo playing.

So we think he was not just blowing bubbles or even communing with the spirits of the sea, so much as practising, training his body to support his playing.

Of course, we could have asked. But when we came back, he was gone and we have not seen him on subsequent days.

Inspirational thought from this? When you watch and listen to an indigenous or even a skilled non-indigenous Australian play the didgeridoo for an extended period, it seems so effortless. And maybe it is. But as with many apparently effortless displays of high level skills, such as those of a champion sports person, there is usually many hours of practice, training and self-discipline that have gone into that “effortless” performance.

Suzie Cheel & Des Walsh

by Guest Writers Suzie Cheel and Des Walsh

This is the fourth of our “Sandimal” pictures of sand-sculpted animals and probably the last, unless our mystery sculptor returns one day. We have called this one Tina Turtle.

We couldn’t think of anything particular to say about Tina, so we did some research on the well known fact of turtles’ longevity.

Did you know that the longest living turtle on record was kept by the royal family of the island nation Tonga, from 1777 to 1965? That’s 188 years and to put it in perspective, it’s from the year after the US Declaration of Independence to the 100th anniversary of the American Civil War. In relation to the history of music, that turtle was born in the year Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart turned 21 and died in the year in which Bob Dylan performed at London’s Royal Albert Hall, with audience members including the Beatles and Donovan.

Make of all that what you will, but a lot sure happened while that old turtle was around.

Suzie Cheel & Des Walsh

by Guest Writers Suzie Cheel and Des Walsh

In this second of our “Sandimal” posts from the beach, we feature the obviously intelligent Elma the Elephant, who is clearly using her time on the beach to do a lot of remembering as well as sunbaking.

Elma prompted us to think about how a lot of people at this time of the year seem a bit fixated on bad things that happened last year and using that as some kind of motivation to expect good things this year. We prefer the old NLP technique of focusing on good experiences and successes we have had, whether yesterday, last year or many years ago and using that to put ourselves in a state of high expectation of achieving outstandingly positive results and multiple successes in the year ahead.

Happy remembering!.

Suzie Cheel & Des Walsh

by Guest Writers Suzie Cheel and Des Walsh

The other day, on our morning beach walk, we came across some skilfully sculptured animals in the sand, the work of some anonymous artist. We loved the demonstration of imagination and creativity at play.

We will share these “sandimals” in coming weeks.

We thought the posture of Fido on the beach, the picture today, was a good reminder of how pleasant – and useful for our sanity – it can be to take time out to do nothing but relax and dream.

For many or most of us it is too easy, in the daily hustle and bustle of business, to become unduly serious and forget the creative power of allowing ourselves to relax and give our imaginations some room to range. And if we did that more often, who knows what brilliance might shine forth?

Suzie Cheel & Des Walsh

by Guest Writers Suzie Cheel and Des Walsh

We thought of calling this picture “Anchors Aweigh, My Buoys” but did not want to upset the US Navy. No doubt others can do better.

Suzie Cheel & Des Walsh