Looking & Feeling Silly For A Season

Some of you have landed here from the link in my Twitter homepage or some of you got here from the gallery of pictures that I showcase but whichever the case, let me clarify what this blog is to me as is to you who have followed me since the inception in 2005. Maybe you got here to get an idea of who I am and what I do or maybe you are a client or prospective client for my services. What I write here is entirely my personal expression of what God had been doing in my life and how He has brought me to see much of the world to bring about the purposes He has in store for His people. I am merely the messenger who lives a life doing what she does best, diving, teaching, writing and photography. When I’m not teaching diving, I’m writing.

Friends say that I bare too much here but that’s because I don’t believe I have anything to hide. It’s not like I air dirty laundry in public that people might take and fling it back at me, it’s stuff that I encounter and personal difficulties that make me human. I’m in touch with myself, my emotions and my ability (sometimes not) to handle situations. In a world where people look at what you have, how much you earn (or think you earn), whom you know, what you know and how your popularity ranks amongst the Joneses as a measure of your success, I’d say, that’s not God’s standard of how I should live. With what I have (not a lot) I give of myself, with what I know, I share it to make others empowered, with whom I befriend, I make it worthwhile for the time spent in each other’s presence. When clients come to this blog, they will get an idea of the person that I am, not a person who has a facade that shields a warped mind or an incapable person for the task that is to be bestowed. Having said this, it’s also not the right platform to see my professional capabilities because everything here is an honest view and expression of integrity in my day-to-day living that’s above all that I do. I promote stuff that I use, places that I think is worth going because my opinion matters to students who have benefitted from my experience as someone who’s qualified, well-travelled and capable of making use of gadgets, equipment and computers.

Sometimes, you will read of my professional challenges here, but most often, you will read about how I overcome them instead. God did not call me to be a victim of circumstances nor did He say that I would be free of trouble but He promised me that He would see me through each situation as I encounter them. In my pursuit of underwater photography, I’d been messing up a lot. Firstly, in wanting to buy over Derrick’s strobes, he insisted that I take them on loan first to try. So I did. Both his SeaandSea YS110 were so powerful that at the lowest manual setting and the highest aperture and shutter speed on my LX3, I still had to pull the arms that secured the strobes back. And for some reason, the fibre-optic cable was not registering the light emission to fire in sync so I get a proper shot and several dark shots that followed. I missed a great number of shots of moving subjects and was extremely frustrated. Secondly, I get so excited going on a night dive without students that I forget to attach the fibre-optic cable to fire my strobes! Aaaah…..what a klutz! I’ve got to accept that things happen even when you are ultra meticulous.

A lot of my works, cannot be published here due to copyright issues and contracts signed with my clients (magazine publishers, portals, corporate companies, travel agents, tourism authorities and the likes) hence, until such a time that such contract cease to operate or when such term expires, I’m able to share them randomly on the net. Yes, it’s somewhat restricting to what many of you like to read about my exploits and adventure but it pays my bills and I’ve got to abide by them. I’m thinking of putting them up in a different section of my blog, once I’m able to, to show you what I’ve done with my literary pursuits. I am available for commissioning with due notice given.

Of late, there has been a string of projects that warrant me to give feasibility studies report and tourism activities potential feedback to the prospective clients and I’ve completed one in West Sumatra last month. Naturally, the piece that I’m writing cannot be published until the client accepts it and approves it for publication.

In the passed few weeks (maybe even months), I’d been having mental blocks, a period where words just wouldn’t flow. Inspiration was not forthcoming and despite putting myself under tremendous undue pressure, I couldn’t write pass 10 words. Worse, I didn’t know where to start. I thought it may be because I had abandoned my love for sharing, for the work that I am due to submit and I’m right!

Since the arrival of my nieces, sister and bro-in-law from North Carolina two weeks ago, I endeavoured to spend as much time with them as possible, thereby, abandoning work, writing, blogging and the Macbook altogether. How liberating it has been! I’m aware that I need to live and to have fun to be able to generate an output worthy of my clients’ engagement! What a tough time it has been! I’ve been sitting in the shell for too long, looking and feeling silly like this Hermit Decorator Crab that I shot. Looking at what I’ve put together so far, indicate that I’m on the road to recovery and am ready to take on challenges of having a column in a noteworthy magazine and being on the waitlist for a faraway expedition of a lifetime.