WOW: Fulfillment of the Heart

After playing with my daughter under a morning sky lit by the pink full moon, I walk up to my beachside office at Casa Azul for the last time during our stay in Baja this season. Here, I have watched whales breech while clients shared victories; listened to birds underscore coaching certification calls; and found…

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WOW: The Power of Endings

“One’s destination is never a place but rather a new way of looking at things.”  Henry Miller The ends of the dried palm leaves hanging from the palapa roof seem to dance in slower motion with the wind today. The air feels heavy, even thick. With my office door propped open, I listen to the…

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WOW: Wonder Fatigue

Closing a day with dear family friends that included swimming alongside a 24-foot-long whale shark, watching sea lions dart around in spirals an arms distance away, and boating through a pod of a hundred dolphins, I sit here writing tired. This is a day that I would think a blog on wonder would spill right…

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WOW: In the Small Moments of Easter Sunday

Walking around the kitchen counter to gather up the remaining dishes after dinner, my eye catches a ripe mandarin hue beaming through the window. I stop and turn to see a whale spout just south of the sun that is settling itself atop the horizon line for a final glow before dripping into dusk. “Mama,…

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WOW: The White Dress

The slit in the thick silk curtain spreads, and the glisten of a satin skirt leads her towards the mirror that is framed in whitewashed wood carved with floral detail in front of us. Shoulders softened down and slightly back, she glides up onto the circular wooden platform before the mirror.  A small crystal chandelier…

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WOW: Saying Goodbye to Early Motherhood

I stand at the kitchen counter pulling cilantro leaves one-by-one from their stems.  I rarely put this much attention into prepping guacamole. Pluck.  Gently place.  Pluck.  And, place. The gathering of delicate greens grows into a soft, fluffy hill. I look through the open arch between the kitchen counter and living room to watch my…

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WOW: A Father’s Tribute

Wonder : a feeling of surprise mingled with admiration, caused by something beautiful, unexpected, unfamiliar, or inexplicable. This week’s experience of wonder came when I read a father’s tribute to his preemie son who had just left this world for heaven. Callen Jeremiah Rooney was born at 22 weeks. Although I am not currently on…

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WOW: Wonder, Wonder Everywhere

A sea bird with origami-like wings and a pointed tail soars up above; Flies over giant palm fronds dancing on trees in the breeze just north of where I am surfing. I look out to the horizon to catch wave number 19, Another lined up in perfect geometry. Short side toward the rocks to my…

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WOW: “Mama, Mano”

As mandarin light climbs up and over shadowy peaks in the distance, rays of canary and maize outstretch like arms reaching skyward as the sun takes its first yawn of the morning. I breathe in a salted dewy mist as my daughter’s voice breaks the bird songs in the breeze. “Mama, mano,” she says. I…

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WOW: Psychedelic Waves

Hues of strawberry, orange creamsicle and lavender swirl against varying shades of silver and grey to create a psychedelic glass over the open ocean. I drop the longboard from under my right arm so that it floats beneath my fingertips as I wade out into the water. Large seabirds fly through the sky, and a…

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