I threw my guitar on my back and headed for the beach. I decided to follow Cook Street all the way to the ocean because I had never gone that way before. It was a good choice, because I passed through a very cute, little area called Cook St. Village, where there's wonderful looking cafés, a British pub called The Beagle, and everybody smiles back. At the beach, I found my own little, private spot amongst the driftwood to strum a few tunes. I've been working on barre chords ever since I had the action on my guitar adjusted in Vancouver a few weeks back. Honestly, I was still having a bit of trouble with it just a couple of nights ago... but all of the sudden, on this beach, with the ocean as my audience, I'm throwing down F's and B minors like it's my job! It really felt great to know I'm making progress.
After a while, my hands started getting a little chilly, so I decided to walk down the beach for a bit and give them a chance to warm up in my pockets. A little ways down, I came across a couple of guys, one was putting the finishing touches on a true work of art. I introduced myself to José, the artist, and Tim, the friend, and told them how incredible I thought the installation was. José creates art using whatever he comes across in nature. Today, he had collected dozens of small pieces of driftwood and, amazingly, was able to use balance and weight distribution to weave them together in an almost basket-like sculpture. Then he balanced a big, long piece of driftwood across the top, without toppling the whole thing, and started stacking stones on either end!
It looked like this:
About 3 minutes later, it looked like this:
And you know what the best part was? After José inadvertently destroyed something he had spent over four hours on, he laughed. Wasn't bothered at all. He reminded me of Tibetan Buddhist monks, who create beautiful works of art using coloured sand called, dul-tson-kyil-khor (mandala of coloured powders). The monks spend days on their sand mandalas, only to have them swept or blown away shortly after their completion. It's a great lesson in impermanence; don't get too attached to anything!
Today, I went for a walk.
And I started to master a few new chords.
And I met an artist with Buddhist tendencies who creates art from nature.
And today was awesome.
(What made your day awesome? Tell me in the comments section below. I'd love to hear about it!)
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