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Ironing, On the Edge
I moved to Cayman aged 24 on my own, thousands of miles from family, friends and the familiar. It was wonderful, I threw myself into work, sports, meeting new people, learning about my new home. At the same time, sometimes it felt a little overwhelming, with one symptom of this being that my mind could never slow down. Luckily, I discovered something that helped me very much, and that was to borrow a friend’s 14 foot Hobie catamaran and take it out to sail up and down Seven Mile Beach. I then did this most weekends for a few hours for a relaxed sail.
What I had discovered is that sailing of this type is easy, but the use of both the eyes to observe and the body to do some basic motor functions (steering with one hand, trimming the sail with the other), together had the immediate impact of quieting my racing mind, bringing stillness. It was just enough to still the mind.
So what does this have to do with a post title of “Ironing, On the Edge”?
Well, I love to listen to podcasts, but I have found I can’t do this effectively while simply sitting still, either my mind gets distracted or I even may doze off. I’ve long known, then, that listening to podcasts (or audiobooks) while driving allows me to stay focussed on listening, as, once again, I am using my eyes to observe my surroundings and my hands and feet for driving. The thing is, I consciously seek to…
