This past weekend I had a fortunate day off in Hilton Head Island, SC. I had never been there before and actually had never even head of it but it was quite a lovely
place. And I had some wonderful company with me there that knew of some places to go and things to do.
In you adventures there are few things more important than carefully choosing who you are with. First think about your physical level versus theirs because what is challenging for you may be really easy for them and you wont really share the same experiences but that can be ok, especially if you acknowledge it before you begin. What I find to be most important is to have similar personalities, that way you will have much you can talk about or all be ok not talking much at all. But if you are looking for a nice quiet hike and you decide to bring someone you know is a chatterbox, well you might spend a lot of time annoyed with them instead of enjoying the lovely walk you are on. The last thing I will say on this is also have an idea of who would be the best person to be in charge for the group(It might not be you...) this isint always necessary, if say, you have a group of strong outdoors people who do fine on their own. But if you have some inexperienced people or people who dont like that sort of adventure, someone should look out for them. Also if things do start going wrong someone will need to make choices for the group. Now I'm not saying that the "head" or "leader" should be telling people what to do all the time or really any of the time, but just have an idea so IF people need someone to turn to it is not a surprise to anyone.
Back to the beach though.
On this day it was what many people would call "too cold for the beach" but I come from the north and it was above freezing, so a good start there. now it was also windy. I love the wind though. We walked out onto the beach and the sand was very flat and wet with almost no footprints in it, the wind was bring sand whipping across it, and it very much reminded me of drifting snow, except a bit warmer and more abrasive. It was very pretty though. Lets clear something up right now.. I love water, I always have. Any time i spend in it I consider time well spent. So of course I had to head down to it and stick my feet in. It actually wasn't as cold as I had expected. As we ventured into the water we watched the brave people out doing water sports start to come in, I guess the wind had reached the point where you couldn't really control what was going on anymore. it did remind me how much i want to try these sports though, surfing and wind surfing even wake boarding which i think I have tried before though I was not very good at it. After a few more minutes we decided to head back to the nice little bar on the beach, we had a couple drink and watched the game on tv as well as the ocean. Eventually we got in the car and headed off to another part of the island, walked for a bit and again found a bar had a couple drink and watched part of a different game. So far a lovely day. Soon it started to get cold and we began looking for a place where we could do these activities inside or at least somewhere a bit warmer. After a little search we found a nice sports bar and settled in for a little while. Had a few more drinks and watched several games. This brings me to a topic I wanted to talk about, patience...
While at the bar we were the only two at the outdoor bar and the gentleman working behind it was closing up, most people wanted to be inside. We decided that it was still nice enough out and they had large heaters blowing onto us so we stayed out. he closed up all but what we were having and was more than happy to get us whatever we needed from the inside bar. when the first game we were watching came to a close we asked if he could change it to another station, he put up a pathetic amount of effort. Now some people might get annoyed and some people did.. But not I, then I was asked how I have so much patience. If you don't know me personally, I do have a very large amount of patience with people and things. I began thinking about how I became the way that I am in this regard. I have come to this conclusion, patience is a skill. It is something you have to work at getting better at. You can practice it and people will give you chances all the time to do so. You should look at the situation and ask yourself a couple of questions. Is this worth the effort and energy of getting upset? Could this situation/person get worse? If so, is my getting upset going to help anything? "We" stayed calm and asked him politely again to try and he went inside and asked someone else then came back and set it up just like we had asked him to. It worked out very well and he was still very nice to us afterwards... If you are making someone else feel bad to make yourself feel better, whether you are justified or not, then you are a bully and bad karma will be coming your way...
All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.
Walt Disney
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