Seemingly the vibrancy in life involves coming and going not remaining static. At the beginning of March we’ve begun to contemplate our departure from Hilton Head Island and our return to Canada for the summer.  It’s not that we’re anxious to leave. Indeed just moments ago upon our return from an early morning breakfast at the Palmetto Bay Sunrise Café (Local Favourite for 18 years!) we revelled in the exceeding delight of the sojourn so far this year. Yet knowing the upcoming commotion of the RBC Heritage Classic golf tournament – and frankly having exhausted the novelty of our quotidian affairs – we cannot but react hesitatingly to an invasion of our erstwhile private space and instead look with renewed enthusiasm upon our approaching return home.  Since December last year the Island has been predominantly secluded from the precipitous traffic that is to follow marking the start of the season here. Our reclusive and nomadic instincts are once again percolating within us.

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scruples
a feeling that prevents you from doing something that you think may be morally wrong;
In common terms, conscience is often described as leading to feelings of remorse when a person commits an act that conflicts with their moral values;
connected with principles of right and wrong behaviour;
Middle English scrupil, scriple, from Anglo-French scruple, from Latin scrupulus a unit of weight, diminutive of scrupus sharp stone

diffidence
Shyness (also called diffidence) is the feeling of apprehension, lack of comfort, or awkwardness especially when a person is around other people;
Middle English dyffidence, borrowed from Latin diffīdentia,from diffīdent-, diffīdens “distrustful, DIFFIDENT”

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You’d think with all the tennis activity practically at our front doorstep (well, actually, just across the laneway from the balcony) I’d have a photo of a tennis court but I don’t.  My preoccupation has been averted from both tennis and golf – which are the two most proximate absorptions of many others in the immediate neighbourhood – by my worship of the Ocean. I never tire of the allure of the sea notwithstanding it is all of 2 kms from here by bicycle (or perhaps as little as 100 yards if I preferred instead to walk to the yacht basin on the other side of our apartment).

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Judging by my quotidian activity and observable preferences,  I relate most emphatically to music not mathematics or science. Nonetheless harmony is to me best described in the context of physics; namely, component frequencies of a complex oscillation (movement back and forth in a regular rhythm). I see my life as just that.

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As dreary and uninspiring as the weather is today I have oddly accomplished things.  First and foremost, I didn’t get out of bed until approaching ten o’clock this morning.  That wouldn’t normally be either a compliment or an advantage but it required the dull weather to keep me at rest for a change. In a rare admission it has been the exceptionally fine weather we’ve enjoyed for a prolonged period that has kept me buoyant beyond my capacity.  In short, I needed a break.  Instead of launching myself as has been my custom somewhat reluctantly – and automatically – from bed every morning at 7:00 am (for which an alarm on my iPhone was set), I succumbed instead to natural fatigue.  I’m hoping the break will relieve my expiring knees.  The daily bicycling looks good on my c.v. but it patently harms my aging mechanism.  It will however require a lot more than a one-day break to stop me from bicycling but it’s an accommodation.

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“Yes, Maupeou, pucker those sinister brows of thine, and peer out on it with thy malign rat-eyes: it is a questionable case. Sure only that man is mortal; that with the life of one mortal snaps irrevocably the wonderfulest talisman, and all Dubarrydom rushes off, with tumult, into infinite Space; and ye, as subterranean Apparitions are wont, vanish utterly,—leaving only a smell of sulphur!

“For indeed it is well said, ‘in every object there is inexhaustible meaning; the eye sees in it what the eye brings means of seeing.’ ”

Excerpt From
The French Revolution
by Thomas Carlyle

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Living (or, should I say, vacationing) as we do on Hilton Head Island it is quite impossible not to be taken in by the Lucifer that is the weather.  There is spiritual legitimacy to the magnetism because so much of what we enjoy doing here and what vitalizes us involves out-of-doors affairs.  I hesitate to identify my base activity as an elevated exercise because bicycling is the only thing I do repeatedly; and, mine is but a casually conducted leisure activity to expiate my guilt and to photograph the magnificent scenery throughout the island. It fulfills my inner need for self-expression and identity. Bicycling is also my major source of socialization even though I seldom talk with anyone.  There is something about tourism which, unless it involves drinking, doesn’t invite correspondence with others; mostly people are understandably within the bubble of their traveling companions. Nonetheless I entertain myself to watch people, sometimes to judge them, often to imagine what are their circumstances and sometimes with outright curiosity. For the most part however it is a perspective kept well at a distance.

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The singular feature of yesterday’s ritual bicycle ride upon the beach was the sudden appearance of people swimming in the ocean. As I watched them I was instantly envious. The recollection of the swimmers has since invaded my thoughts. Repeatedly I have contemplated when it will be appropriate for me to wade among the crashing waves, to plunge into the depths, to restore that elemental connection we all reputedly have as erstwhile amphibians.

Origin: mid 17th century (in the sense ‘having two modes of existence or of doubtful nature’): from modern Latin amphibium ‘an amphibian’, from Greek amphibion (noun use of amphibios ‘living both in water and on land’, from amphi ‘both’ + bios ‘life’).

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Today marks the anniversary of our 26th year together. From a casual martini at a friendly bar in the By Ward Market we have since spent a great deal of time together both working and playing. Our common interests have included in particular three real estate ventures, the law practice, our lovely French bulldog Monroe, family, friends and considerable travel together mostly on this continent but also the Caribbean, Mexico, Europe and Sardinia.

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Though the 18 km/h wind was from the west today, I early resolved to cycle along the beach from Coligny Beach Park against the wind in order to have the blazing sun in my face and the wind in my hair. Besides, because the high tide was at 01:32 PM and that was about the time I’d be venturing onto the beach, I proposed to recline on the sand just beyond the crowds for an hour as usual.  During that time I could await the partial descent of the tide from its peak. It was in this happy pluck that I began my ride.

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