Counting Blessings..

Let’s just say that it’s quite easy to get depressed when you are living far away from everyone and everything you know and love. The novelty of living in a new place gradually wears off and one day you wake up to find that Reality (previously just trying to sneak in the back door) is now comfortably entrenched at your kitchen table having coffee from the espresso machine. With milk and one sugar, if you don’t mind, thanks.

But the thing is, just when you think you’ve had enough, something extraordinary happens.

Like a spontaneous trip to Thailand.

Magical, glorious, Thailand.

I’ve never been to the East before, but I had seen loads of footage on the wildlife, so I was uber-excited. (Make that doubly-triply excited after months and months in the desert with only date palms to quench my thirst for something green.)

And Thailand delivered spectacularly. I don’t think that I have ever seen a more beautiful place than Phi-Phi Island (one of the bays is where they filmed the movie “The Beach” with Leo di Caprio.)

It’s so beautiful you feel like your soul has removed your heart and gently placed it on a boat floating to nowhere, slowly bobbing on the most sparklingly-clear, warm water you have ever experienced. And when your heart looks up from the boat and sees the lush, green rainforests hugging the cliffs that plunge into the ocean.... it knows that this is what heaven looks like.

Mother Nature must have been in a brilliant mood when creating Thailand. It feels like she was inspired by the most magnificently poignant symphonies that would only composed millions of years later, ringing in her ears. I certainly heard them when the sun set over the cliffs, leaving the sky painted in colours that make you weep with joy. It’s that incredible. A true paradise.

One of the first things I noticed was that I felt so alive. I bounced out of bed early every morning, scared that I would miss out on something. A bird. A new flower. Breakfast.

I had energy..I could breathe. Trees, as it turns out, will do that to you. I realised that I’ve been starved of life-giving oxygen, and Thailand has trees in abundance. (Sigh). I’ve even come up with my own mathematical equation for this phenomenon (‘cos it’s obviously never been done before...):

No trees = no oxygen = look crap = feel crap = depressed. Or as scientists would probably write it:

NT / NcO2 = UG LE + FC = DP x 10000000.00

Who said I couldn’t do maths?

I also decided to honour the trees, and wrote this little poem which I have cryptically entitled:

“Ode to the Tree”

Oh beautiful tree
How I love thee
You’re making me
Breathe eas-ee
And very hap-pee.

Step aside William Blake.


Clearly all that fresh air has gone to my head! Sorry about that...erm, moving on....

Am back in Dubai now, and was really expecting to hate it. If there is an opposite of the Middle East, it’s Thailand.

But strangely enough, Reality and I are now pretty good mates and regularly have coffee together (except mine’s without the sugar).
I am counting my blessings and they are infinite...
I have friends and a support system here.... My colleagues are amazing and hilarious... There are people doing incredible environmental work in this harsh, barren place... I get to see things I never ever would have. I saw Nellie Furtado in concert this weekend... And I’m going home for Christmas!

I’m happy. I’m refreshed. And I’ve been reminded why I do the work that I do.
Dear God... Planet Earth is Amazing. And I’m so grateful to be alive and experiencing it.
Thank you.