A powerful Earth Day 2021
Last year I wrote about a really cool farm walk our son James and I did on Earth Day. The only constant was change. That piece is here if you want to have a gander at the year that was 2020 for our family farm and home : Haut Espoir.
I have been meaning to write another post for Earth Day this year, but have been really struggling with what to write about. And it came to me in the dam over the weekend. Water . The earth day I am writing about this year focuses on H20. This is me by the way, having an absolute blast with the open water swimming tribe in the valley.
With the energy of the lover and the element of water holding space for me this year so far, the topics I have been sitting on are two words, Transformation and Regeneration . A lot of friends have been asking me about the changes I have gone through. To put it in some perspective, I have always been a rather large and imposing chunk of flesh. In the last two years I have managed to shed 35 kilograms and really start to feel and live better. Similar to this image from my favourite rock art site in the Cederberg, the feeling is freedom. And I float in the water . I was struggling with really bad gout attacks, and over these last two years have discovered a great deal about myself and my place on this Earth. That is the fact that there will always be pain. Transformation is; in my experience, not easy or pain free. But most importantly, one can choose to continue suffering. Or not. Thank you Brene Brown. And it was in the water on Saturday that I felt really held. By the water. And while I honor myself for the physical transformation, the real magic for me has been in the Regeneration I have felt in my spiritual and mental capacities. And the thing that helped me most was being vulnerable and honest enough with myself to know when I need help. Yes diet and exercise has helped, finding the right help for head and heart was a very messy and slow process, and i’m by no means done with that part of the journey, learning what I choose to hold onto and what I choose to let go of. A special mention needs to go to The Mankind Project. Wow. Powerful stuff there if you feel the need to do the work. Thank you to the sacred powerful men and divine woman in my life.
I also realised that I need to keep moving. Stroke by stroke. Swim or drown. Thank you to the swimmers, you know who you are. And to my supporters, family and friends, your encouragement means the world to me. Especially you Erica, my wife, best friend and favourite person to be with. I love swimming with you all in the rivers of life. (Gratitude has also helped immensely)
With regards the farm and our brand, it feels like we are moving from strength to strength . We have all worked hard and well together despite the ups and downs of running a wine farm when we were not allowed to sell booze in South Africa with our draconian government laws on lockdowns. We swivelled and transformed our winery and farm businesses. It’s been easy to swivel with a new and young team : Gwen our winegrower joined us last year, along with Whuanita, together with Erica are proving a competent and able force to drive the winery and farm units back to self sustaining goals and action plans. We had a really good harvest this year and I am excited about the wines in barrel and how Gwen is looking to regenerate our vineyards with Bio Dynamic agriculture. Sales have ticked along nicely and we look forward to sharing the new vintage of our estate blend called the Gentle Giant with you soon.
On the personal and mostly swimming front, I have managed to hit my goal of doing a Robben Island crossing last year, managing to raise some well deserved funds for our favourite animal welfare organisation, Watershed.
A toe amputation early this year hampered the swimming training a bit, i’ve lost a few seconds in the water and edge slightly left now…. but its so great to be able to swim. It has changed my life.
Mom has travelled to New Zealand to visit my sister Laura, and a parting gift was the coolest set of waterproof headphones for long swims, and its kept me company powering through the cold water listening to some pretty cool stuff. Learning a lot of deep inner work with this Jungian Life, and it struck me how similar the Jungian concepts creep into my every day life. And the archetype of the lover has been very strong this month,(what a full moon that was), I needed to double up on my crystals and meditations to keep me grounded. A powerful shift indeed. We still only doing tastings and visits by appointment. Look me up for a chin wag.
