Crikey.

Long time no post and the list of apocalyptic craziness that's occurred/ing on our planet since a pregnant praying mantis caught my eye, is very grim indeed. I've donated, I've thanked my lucky stars and as it's easy for me to get overwhelmed with the intensity of it all, I believe the best thing I can do is to keep living a meaningful, joy filled life.

As I was surfing the Web, I came across the Pale Blue Dot photo and then this clip of Carl Sagan's thoughts prompted by it. If I allow the catastrophic headlines to get too close, it re-calibrates my thinking reminding me how totally privileged I am to exist on our beautiful Earth.

With all this fire and brimstone stuff, it probably doesn't help that I've just finished reading Susan Casey's terrific book The Wave. Which reminds me, this footage of the recent tsunami taken three miles off the coast of Japan is really something. The scientific models don't bode well and as our planet heats up, predictions for more earthquakes, volcano eruptions and hurricanes seem to be the inevitable fall out (cue Pale Blue Dot)!

And if the Pale Blue Dot doesn't do it, then this never fails!

So following the instructions for my own prescription on life, today (post Uke lesson) I went sailing bang on 11:00am hoping not to be blown to smithereens. It didn't work and I came in after 20 minutes as it was total pedal to the metal- first to fourth in waaaaay to short a time! I like my limbs and am way too attached to keeping them intact to stay out longer. Still, given the return reading on my iphone, 26 gusting to 41 mph I didn't do too bad!

So I headed to Ho'okipa, as there are always sailors skilled and crazy enough to put on a show in such gusty conditions.

There were some decent sets to make it worth watching (though I didn't get any good pics) and as Francky was in the water shooting, that always creates some good show-off action.

That's him there, the Pale Red Dot.