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Showing posts from September, 2022

Threads of Fair Isle

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Fertile Solitude & Loneliness “All of humanity’s problems,” the French scientist and philosopher Blaise Pascal wrote in 1654, “stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” Or for that matter, on Britain’s most remote inhabited island. Fertile solitude is the basic unit of a full and contented life. The line between solitude and loneliness can be thin, but there is a difference. Loneliness is difficult to confess; difficult too to categorize. I have no such difficulty confessing solitude here on Fair Isle. What does it feel like to be lonely? It feels like being hungry: like being hungry when everyone around you is readying for a feast. Fertile solitude, however, is learning to enjoy your own company. More than that, it is a developmental achievement, on the road to knowing thyself. The best things in life happen to you when you’re alone and despite the camaraderie and the spirit of cooperation, for...

Into the Deep Freeze: Arctic Plunge in Shetland

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Outdoor Cold Water Immersion Outdoor Cold Water Immersion An exhilarating practice with remarkable health benefits "OUTDOORS is IN, the IN to my sane. Fear doesn't come to me. I go to it- the icy waters of the North Atlantic." Flights are on weather hold, the wind picking up, and there's no time like the present to jump in the ice water and experience the exhilarating feeling of cold water thermal Genesis. This is truly one of those life hacks healthwise that costs basically nothing, and it benefits the aches and pains that come from working out... so very restorative. "Burning body fat without exercising! Put me in coach." Conditioning my brain and my body to accept, endure and embrace cold water immersion may be challenging, but the health benefits in both the short- and long-run are well worth it. ...