“Revelation” – ” a revealing , esp. the supposed disclosure of knowledge to man by a divine or supernatural agency” – South African Pocket Oxford Dictionary.
Attend only one event at the SASAPD (South African Sport Association for People with Disabilities) national games and the divine essence of Humanity will be revealed to you. I will put a wager on my life!
Everything on this earth is relative – what is ‘normal’, what is ‘happiness’, what is ‘confidence’ and ‘courage’? To the hundreds of kids, teens and grown-ups with physical disabilities who participated in the SASAPD National Games their lives are ‘normal’, their ‘happiness’ real and their ‘ confidence’ and ‘courage’ huge.
Our so-called ‘mainstream’ and ‘normal’ children are growing up in the so-called ‘normal’ society and very little overlap, if any, exists between the various ‘normal’.
When you spend time with the participants in the national games you observe their ‘normal’, ‘happiness, ‘confidence’, ‘courage’ and love. Suddenly your ‘normal’ society’s emotional poverty hits home. Also, the pettiness of most of the issues draining parents’ hearts, minds and pockets. Integral part of life skills ought to be a greater overlap of ‘worlds’.
There is a time for everything – April 2006 introduced us to the grief therapy of Pringle Bay. Friday evening 23 September 2005 at precisely 19:05 our lives, as we lived it, came to an end. We died. How does one deal with the death of a child. There is no ‘user guide’, there are no rules……..
Jy word verplaas na ‘n nuwe dimensie – ‘n onwerklike bestaan, waarin jy verwyder staan van die hede en almal om jou vreemdelinge word.
C.S Lewis – A Grief Observed – remarks as follows in the very first paragraph of his book: “No one ever told me that grief felt so like fear. I am not afraid, but the sensation is like being afraid. The same fluttering in the stomach, the same restlessness, the yawning. I keep on swallowing.”
Ons gemeenskap van meer as twee dekades het ‘n vreemde planeet geword. Ons het vreemdelinge geword. Ons wou ontsnap – van ontmoeting, oogkontak, retoriese meelewing uit onkunde, kommentaar sonder jurisdiksie.
Vroeg in 2006 kom Pringlebaai oor ons pad met ‘n advertensie vir die verkoop van ‘n klein cottage. Nog nooit daar gewees nie, maar kom ons gaan kyk. Ek, Rosemarie en Rozanne, boeta is in Engeland.
Ceasarweg 1374 word deel van ons terapie.
Our hideout – were we could be away, alone and adjust to our ‘new’ lives. Renovating and building our new den. To hammer away, scrape off old paint, sand, repaint and cry through intense pain and sadness became our catalist towards acceptance of that which we could not undo and where the only way was through.
Pringle het soos mos aan ons gegroei en ‘n kombersie van troos om ons kom vou deur die winter. Nella was by ons – in die wolke oor Hangklip se kop, in die swiep van die Suid-Oos op die strand, in die sand tussen jou tone, die klipbokkie op die koppie agter die huis, die tol en blombosse se uitbundigheid en die Safari Sunset se Kersfeesmooi. When some 7 years later we decided that it was perhaps time to move on and venture into the world to do other things, the unexpected quick selling of 1374 Caesar took us a bit off guard! When walking on the beach the last few times before saying goodbye and having just been joined by our new canine kid Emma, we suddenly realised that we have so grown into Pringle that leaving was easier said than done!
Let’s stay! Then came 565 Clarence! Magic setting next to the nature reserve! Another 5 years of bliss! Hearts were lighter and friendships grew. Pringle’s therapy. The rough edges of the stone in the heart wearing off slightly…..
Alas, there is a time for everything…..
It is time to really move on and write a new chapter. Time to explore a bigger world. Pringle will be dearly missed for many reasons – the healing, the sunsets, the locals, the memorable kuiers with family and dear friends, the best ever retirement farewell and Emma’s passion for the beach!
“All reality is iconoclastic. The earthly beloved, even in this life, incessantly triumphs over your mere idea of her. And you want her to; you want her with all her resistances, all her faults, all her unexpectedness. That is, in her foursquare and independent reality.And this, not any image or memory, is what we are to love still, after she is dead.”
How do we help our children to be free? To help and guide them towards creating their very own paradigm for thinking, understanding, action and responsibility.
Om die essensie te beklemtoon en wat belangrik is, en wat nie.
Everyone has dreams, young and old. In between there is parenthood for some, and less time for dreams. The dreams I am talking about are not those Vicky Leandros is singing about. I am talking about dreams to master something meaningful in addition to mainstream career, day to day living and secularism – to create something that sets your mind free and allows one to enter a sphere of the soul where inner peace can be found, sorrow can be processed, emotions can be set free, beauty can be honored and expression becomes limitless.
Ek wou van kleins af gedigte skryf, maar na enkele adolosente gediggies wel die lig gesien het, het die potlood gou stomp geraak en die pen droog. Dit was eers in my diepste smart wat kop en hart versoening gesoek en gevind het. Dit word mooi verwoord in ‘n gedig van Bruce Relly in sy bundel getitel: First Wild Chords
Head and Heart
I see no endless war
between head and heart,
for does the mind
not surf the crest
of the heart’s tidal longing
to let in currents
of the Universe
and , faithful to its purpose,
does the heart
not warm at these bright surges
of the striving mind
Kosbaar is ook hierdie strofe uit Stef Bos se ‘Ik Heb Je Lief’:
Wat ik ook wil zeggen Jij krijgt mijn woorden klein Was ik maar een dichter Dan kon ik dichter bij je zijn Was ik maar het bloed Dat door jouw lichaam stroomt Dan sliep ik in jouw hart En ik woonde in jouw hoofd
En toe – 23 September 2005 – ‘n beker waaruit ons nooit wou drink nie, wat jy by jou wil laat verby gaan – ‘n kind se dood. Rou het nie ‘n handleiding nie, maar skryf het my Prozac geraak, ondermeer…
waar is jy –
vertel vir my
praat met my
skreeu teen die Suidoos
fluister in my oor met bakkiehand
skryf dit in die sand met laaggety
kaligrafeer dit teen die donker nag so langs die Suiderkruis
in die wolke bokant Hangklip
deur die branderraas in die windswiep op die strand
My primary partners on this journey – Rosebud and Emma. Rosebud is a favorite alias for Rosemarie (compliments of Gys Botha during our Skedelkus safari in 2012), my other half for some 45 years through magic and struggle, happiness and hardship, bliss and blues, immeasurable blessings and sorrow………. Emma, our canine girl traveling with since 2014. Dan is daar natuurlik my en Rosebud se permanente metgesel op hierdie pad – ons Groot Seer.
Daar is vele ander wat van tyd tot tyd saam reis in ‘n verskeidenheid van dimensies. Ons pragtige seun en dogter, kleinkinders, familie en kosbare vriende.
Rosebud
Emma
Hierdie reis handel inderdaad met twee aftredes – die eerste in 2011 en die tweede in 2017. Die eerste kort en uit vlug gebore, die tweede afgedwing en finaal. Nou, meer as ‘n jaar na permanente aftrede weet ek dat aftrede nie vir sussies is nie. Ons hele werkslewe stoei ons met wat die lewe is en waaroor dit gaan, is dit oor ‘n dop of om ‘n vuur dikwels die kring se dieper intellektuele gesprek. Tog is dit so eenvoudig –
Ek het geen idee waarheen ek op pad is nie…. Nooit as kind ‘n dagboek gehou nie. Dagboeke was vir meisies. Nou afgetree na meer as 4 dekades van werk en die stilte en nabetragting bring jou hierby uit.
My reisgenote Rosebud en Emma (meer oor hulle later), beide in diepe verwarring oor waarheen hierdie reis ons gaan neem!
My eerste missie is om #Wordpress te verstaan! Ouderdom is nie speletjies nie.
The idea is to capture and share – thinking, moments, feelings, taste and more. Perhaps some enlightenment re the name of the blog – Safari Sunset. The Safari Sunset is the popular name for one of the most beautiful protecea hybrids in the Protea floral creation – botanical name Leucadendron laureolum. It captures all of your senses as does an African sunset that can only truly be experienced during a journey through Africa – a Safari. This magical experience greets you with the setting of the sun as the day comes to an end. Such a moment brings a profound embrace of your entire being and the end of all journeys.
Bekende woorde van Jean-Valjean uit Les Miserables in sy soeke na sy diepste identiteit. Krisis of groot verandering in ‘n mens se lewe roep dikwels hierdie vraag op! Aftrede is so ‘n groot verandering en kan jou tot in jou fondament skud. As dit nie, is jy of breindood of onder narkose.
As relatiewe jong pensioenaris wil ek aspekte van my reis met oud en jonk deel. Nie om enige indruk te maak nie, maar eerder as terapie vir myself en ander. Die idee is beslis nie om sosiale kommentaar, gewaande wyshede of filosofiese denke op pen te sit, of te ontlok nie! Die idee is om te vertel en te deel – van reisverhale, die mooi van die natuur, kosmaak en kuier, medemenslikheid en die hart van Verandering.
Maar hierdie pad gaan baie rustig geloop word……
“When you are getting on in years (but not ill, of course), you get very sleepy at times, and the hours seem to pass like lazy cattle moving across a landscape.” – GOOD-BYE, MR. CHIPS, James Hilton.
Safari Sunset 