I Should Be Writing a Blog Post: What I’m Doing In Crete

I should be writing a blog post.  But I’ve been so busy…

…making signs for a restaurant…

The bees in this area collect pollen from wild thyme creating very unique and delicious honey.  What the hand of God has to do with it is up to you.

and eating my payment…

Delicious salad of feta, olives, tomatoes ,cucumbers and greens.  All veggies fresh-picked that day.  Delicious olives brined in seawater.

…and watching sheep for odd amounts of time.

Sheep in Agia Roumeli. They stare back at me so it’s not a one-sided relationship.

Sometimes, I break up the sheep-gazing routine by watching goats come down from the hills for the first time since last summer.

Jurgo and his goats. Usually, he hikes for three hours to visit his goats in the mountains. But, sometimes he feeds them in the village. At this time of year, his goats that he hasn’t seen since last Summer return for water.  And oranges.

He whistles and they come, running down craggy, crumbly mountains…

Jurgo has an uncanny ability to spot goats on the mountainside with his naked eye.  I can not see them.  He tries to point out microscopic goats on the mountain.  I look and look but see nothing.  “Get the glasses” is his conclusion.  Or a lifetime of goat-spotting experience.

If that weren’t enough, I also squeeze in swimming every day in the Libyan Sea!

Swimming every day.  The water is cool but comfortable this time of year.  It’s crystal clear and at the shore it’s full of tiny fish–like being in an aquarium. Swimming in the sea is so nourishing for my soul.

I tried to capture this experience for you by putting my iPhone in a ziplock bag and bringing it into the sea.  Unfortunately, what I captured looks a lot like I put my iPhone in a ziplock bag and brought it into the sea.  Next year, I hope to have a better camera and will deliver something better.

Then I check my day-planner to be sure I have enough time to collect rocks.  Crete has the best rocks.

Rocks on the beach in Agia Roumeli are so smooth and tactilely pleasing.  I’ve collected hundreds and now my pack weighs three-thousand pounds.

It’s not all fun and games. I spend a lot of time staring at the sea having what some would call a mid-life crisis.  I’m on board with the crisis part but rather than one crisis per lifetime, my crisisis, crisi, crisusses, crises seem to happen every year.  “What am I doing?  What do I want?  Where am I headed?” — you know, all those unsettling and disturbing questions that were much easier to ignore answer when I had a regular work schedule and was exhausted all the time.  There is a lot of comfort, even if an illusion, in a day-to-day routine.  Do I want that again?

Fresh magnolias outside a taverna.

To distract myself from thinking too much I read Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail and I enjoyed it thoroughly.  As a traveler, I get many book suggestions: Eat, Pray, Love for example, which instilled fury in me because I could have written it better.  But didn’t.  But Wild is inspiring in its literary perfection.  I learned a lot and could relate in so many ways to the “journey”.  Highly recommended.

Beach reading of “Wild”

When I find a moment, I take selfies that mask my wrinkles and hide my confusion. See?  Everything fine here!

The author in selfie action.

And that’s what I’m doing here.  Relaxing, appreciating, observing, reflecting, relishing, renewing, reassessing.  Thankful for this time.

Does that make a blog post?

Photo Gallery (click to enlarge)