Swimming with Gandhi and Einstein - Will Colwell

Swimming with Gandhi and Einstein (eBook)

Will Colwell (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2021 | 1. Auflage
233 Seiten
Bookbaby (Verlag)
978-1-0983-8485-2 (ISBN)

Travel half-way around the world to an exotic paradise. Once there, you'll be taught and guided by two of humanity's greatest thinkers and creators. As you journey with them, what will be revealed? That the true paradise is the one that exists within you. If you choose, your journey's destination can be greater clarity of mind, freedom, peace and joy.

James Connelly is a man who lives a half-baked life. He's neither in, nor out of a loving relationship. His career is a series of get rich schemes that go nowhere. He seeks a future always out of his grasp and his past is nothing more than disappointing memories. That's all about to profoundly change when he travels halfway around the world to the heart of a beautiful and exotic land. During his travels through Lombok, Bali and Java, James crosses paths with two mysterious and fun-loving characters. They guide and teach him about life, love and finding ultimate joy and peace. Who are these guides and teachers? Gandhi and Einstein have inexplicably returned and have joined James in histrek throughout Indonesia. Swimming with Gandhi and Einstein is a series of big thoughts and conversations between these three men. James' new mentor's lifetime ideas intermingle with new mind, body and spirit ideas they've gatheredalong the way.Ultimately, it's an excursion through the heart of what it means to be human.Swimming with Gandhi and Einstein is far more than just a travel and mindfulness story. Within it's pages is a simple yet powerful step-by-step exploration of you. By placing your life between the lines you can begin to experience an unfolding discovery of your own human spirit and human potential as Swimming with Gandhi and Einstein ascends to a series of inspiring and thought provoking crescendos.

TWO

The rays of sun sliced through the water illuminating the sea life in swaths of brilliant color. Fish of every hue and even a few colors I’d never seen before swam and were being carried away by the lazy current. I glanced up above the water line through my diver’s mask to see my position in relation to the shore and found that I too had slowly drifted along and was now quite a distance from where I jumped into the surf. Life under water was far too serene to notice or even care about such things.

As I began my swim back, I was distracted by the mass of life at play beneath me. Especially the life I couldn’t quite see but knew was out there somewhere in the distant deep blue water. My tranquility was occasionally interrupted by my uneasiness about what lay, or should I say swam, way out there. The larger beasts that could, with a flick of their tail, overtake me in a second and devour me in half that time.

I suddenly felt a small bite at my ankle and swung my head around to see what it was, but I saw nothing. As I continued to swim I felt a second and then third attack on my legs, which were much more like stings than bites, but once again the source of the pain was a mystery to me. Turning back around in the direction I was heading I was halted by the sight of a small almost transparent creature. It was performing an aquatic ballet directly in front of my mask.

The tiny jellyfish danced and swayed in the current and for a moment I forgot about the pain in my legs. The pain soon resurfaced and I immediately froze when I discovered the source of the stinging.

I was surrounded by hundreds, maybe even thousands of tiny jellyfish. Engulfed in a massive cloud of them that extended as far as I could see. I wanted to panic. I wanted to thrash my legs and propel myself to shore as fast as I could, but I was frozen knowing that any sudden movement might lead to many more painful stings. I floated helplessly while these equally beautiful and painfully dangerous creatures danced all around me.

I then discovered my only way out. Below, there were far fewer of them than there were floating around me. “Now would be a good time to have an air tank instead of just a snorkel,” I thought to myself.

I took a deep breath and flung my feet and legs up into the air. I went down like a battleship after a disastrous battle. On the way down I was stung once more for good measure; perhaps their way of saying goodbye.

Once I was as far down as I could go without my head imploding, I made my quick escape to the shore. I stood up in thigh deep water, glad to be back in the land of the air breathers. After taking off my mask and snorkel I reached down into the water and removed my flippers.

On the beach I sat by the water’s edge to examine my wounds. They were long thin red welts and the pain was intense. Far more pain than such beautiful and harmless looking animals have the right to cause.

“Are you okay?” I turned to see a tall blonde woman with a European accent standing over me.

“Yes,” I replied, “I’m just a little stung.”

“My husband and I,” she pointed in the direction of a man sitting under a large umbrella, “saw you come out of the water in the same area he was swimming when he got stung. They hurt, don’t they?”

“Yeah, a bit,” I said, not wanting to let on that the pain was as excruciating as it was.

“If you want to come over to where we are, I have something that might help.”

I followed her back to where they were sitting and, shaking his hand, I introduced myself to her husband Gerard. I sat down and the woman, whose name was Helena, applied some ointment that relieved some of the pain. We sat and talked for about a half an hour, trading stories about where we were from, what we did for a living, and what our plans were while in Indonesia.

They were kind and friendly people and before I left we made arrangements to meet for dinner at one of the restaurants on the island. I told them I had planned on spending the rest of the day exploring the other side of the island. They declined my offer to join me, and we said goodbye until later that night.

I made my way back to my losman to put away my snorkel and flippers and changed into my walking shoes and a shirt. I then stopped by a restaurant to pick up a large bottle of water and a take-out lunch.

I left the village on the only road around the island. That road soon became a path just wide enough for the carts and donkeys that occasionally passed me while taking tourists to the more secluded losmans.

After walking for about fifteen minutes the beach vista that was always on my left turned into a more rugged shoreline with waves crashing on black jagged rocks. I could see two men far off in the distance fishing from the top of one of those rocks. As I approached I realized that one of them was the pipe smoking man from the night before.

“Hey, star man!” I shouted over the roar of the surf. He didn’t seem to hear me at first, so I whistled and waved. Turning around he waved back, said something to his friend and pointed in my direction. His friend, who had been fishing, began to reel in his line as the old man with the pipe stood up, hopped off the rock into thigh-deep water and began walking toward me. The other man followed.

“Hello my friend,” he said with an outstretched hand. I took his hand and shook it while he put his other hand around my shoulder and gave me a half hug. It felt awkward and I pulled away before he was done. “How was your party last night?”

“Oh, I didn’t end up going actually,” I replied.

“Why not?” he asked with genuine concern.

“I don’t know. I guess after our conversation I just felt like hanging around the fire for a while. What happened to you? You just disappeared.”

The other man was now standing with us. He was small and quite thin. He wore Bermuda shorts and an open shirt that exposed his ribs. His round wire rim glasses hung low on his nose and a baseball cap sat crooked on his bald head.

“This is the young fellow I was telling you about,” the old man said, as I shook his friend’s hand. “His name is James.”

“Wait a minute. How did you know that? I didn’t tell you my name,” I said, a little surprised.

“Are you sure? I thought you did.”

“I’m pretty sure I didn’t,” I said defensively.

“Perhaps I heard it in conversation,” he offered.

“Right…” I said, still not believing him. “Anyway, what’s your name?”

“Oh, I am sorry,” the old man said. “My name is Al and this is….”

“How do you do?” His little friend interrupted. “You can call me Kara,” he had an accent that I thought placed him from India or Pakistan. “Where are you headed?”

“I was just taking a walk to the other side of the island,” I replied. “You know, to check out the sights, that kind of thing.”

“That sounds like a great idea. Would you mind if we were to join you in your trek?” Kara asked.

“Sure, sounds great,” I replied. His proper almost old-world way of speaking kind of amused me.

“Perhaps you will be more adept at walking than fishing,” Al said to Kara, as we began down the broad path.

“Perhaps I am even more adept at a foot race against an old man such as you,” Kara said laughing.

“Is that a challenge?” replied Al.

“It most certainly is my friend.”

“James, if you wouldn’t mind officiating the race?” Al asked.

“Sure,” I said shrugging my shoulders. Kara handed his fishing rod to a small girl who was passing us in the opposite direction. He said something in her language and she gratefully accepted his gift and walked on with a smile on her face. The two of them lined up at an imaginary line.

“Okay gentlemen, this will be a fair race and cheaters will be shot,” I informed them. “The first one to pass that line of trees,” I pointed down the road, “will be the winner.”

“I hope you will be able to breathe for all the dust I will be creating as I pass you like a great wind,” Kara tauntingly said to Al with a smirk on his face.

“Yes my friend, you are indeed a great wind,” Al said in response.

“Are you two sure you want to do this?” I asked, concerned for their health. Neither looked all that athletic. “We can go back to the village and you can arm wrestle or something.”

“James my young friend,” Al said, “this will only take me a few minutes

“HA!” Kara half yelled, half laughed.

I stood in front of them at the side of the road. “Okay then…On your mark, get set,” they tensed in anticipation, “GO!” I shouted.

They both just stood there for a few seconds focusing on the finishing line and then slowly looked over at each other not moving. They broke out in loud, uncontrolled laughter, as they released their tension and put an arm around each...

Erscheint lt. Verlag	9.6.2021
Sprache	englisch
Themenwelt	Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Gesundheit / Leben / Psychologie ► Lebenshilfe / Lebensführung
ISBN-10	1-0983-8485-7 / 1098384857
ISBN-13	978-1-0983-8485-2 / 9781098384852

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