Words of wisdom

It has been a weird day after yesterday. The shock waves from the events of the weekend are still reverberating around our pilot community, which reaches all the way across the world.

There’s shock, disorientation, disbelief, numbness, sadness – and a huge sense of a gaping loss having opened up in all our lives.

But thanks to all of you who took the time to say such comforting words on yesterday’s blip. Although we are strangers, somehow we’re brought together by this strange love of photography and this desire to share in a deeper way than one could ever achieve somehow on the likes of F…book (I can’t even speak it’s name, I loathe it so much) or Twitter.

This Blip thing is hard, but I love it.

The “one photo a day” thing seems somehow so much more intimate – it requires thought, and it requires effort, and it requires us to “tune in” to our lives in a way that perhaps we didn’t do before we started to Blip.

And when we spend time looking at other people’s photos of their lives, then they demand a measured and thoughtful response too.

The fact that you’ve taken time to respond means a lot. Thank you.

The events of the past week – two deaths, one person close to an old friend, and one person close to me – have reminded me of how precious our lives and our friendships are. Life is not a right. It is a gift.

Work and wealth and status and stuff seem to just fade into insignificance compared to the importance of telling our loved ones how we feel about them, or of repairing broken relationships, or of just waking up and being glad to be alive.

I spent the afternoon at my Chief Pilot’s house discussing a Service of Remembrance for our friend, and I noticed this on his wall, and thought how much better life would be for each one of us on a very small scale if we put some of it into practice a little more with our friends and families.

You have today – you maybe have tomorrow. The rest? There are no guarantees.

Suck every drop of joy that you can from each day you’re given.

God bless. Thanks for reading.

By the way, the last three items are Dream Big, Respect one another, and Laugh out Loud. My flash covered them up a bit. It was a rushed picture ☺