You know, when you have so much happenings it is hard to calm down the mind and start writing. I need to develop this skill to be more consistent in writing. I would like to separate the recent happenings in different posts, to make a comfortable read. Let’s just start with a very recent one from last week.

We went to see Garett McNamara the big wave surfer talking about Fear and Sustainability.

Now you might say:

-What? How do these things come together???!!! Well apparently they have a lot to do with each other… In fact they go hand in hand.

I remember, I was so scared the first time, when I started a beach clean up with the kids. I could feel the looks and almost hear the thoughts of the ignorant crowd, saying things like:

“Look at this careless mom making her children picking trash instead of letting them play…”

Or

“Look how they try to make us feel guilty, they don’t know that this doesn’t even make a difference…” Etc…

And guess what: I believe, we do make a difference. And we feel better!

I don’t let them pick it up with their bare hands I give them gloves or a plastic bag or something. And we also play a lot and we don’t this every day… but we think about it every day because it is an issue.

What is even better is that, Garrett McNamara is doing beach clean ups with his family and others can get involved too with their organization.

Next big beach clean up event is coming up in March, so stay tuned and look for it on there site ig you want to participate! What I liked more about his speech was that he is proud of his son Barrel, picking up trash already and growing up with this mindset. It was a very inspirational evening for a lot more other reasons.

We were brave enough to ask for a photo at the end 🙂 I found it important to go there all together with the kids because it was good for them to hear this from a person that is using his popularity for a great cause.

For those of you who don’t know him: He is a big wave surfer from Hawaii. He came over to Portugal some years ago and made Nazaré the small fishing village a Big Wave Surf Capital, cooperating with locals.. Meanwhile setting a new world record with his nearly 30meters wave (100foot?!)

We have been talking about these extreme sports and courage with the kids lately. And we tried to explain the difference between courage and recklessness. Because the boundary is a tiny line between them. I think, when you sort of consider the conditions and consequences and come to a conclusion that can be called courage, whereas doing something without the above mentioned premeditation is pure recklessness that needs a lot of luck to end up well 🙂

Garrett consideres himself very lucky because he has a beautiful family, loves what he does for a living and can even turn this whole sponsorship thing around by introducing sustainability to big companies like Mercedes, isn’t that awesome?

Just a side note here: I was invited to Nazare back then, when he set the new world record and I canceled. Crazy, right? This is how important it is to make good choices and live in the present! I could have witnessed history right there…

Anyway as some of you may know I went this year. It was lovely weather and beautiful, not so big but still quite spectacular waves. To see the surfers sliding down on those beauties was a complete awesomeness and getting splashed by the waves that smashed on the rocks at the feet of the lighthouse was part of the story and we didn’t mind at all, you can imagine, right? but there is more to this, you can read about it in a separate post 🙂 Let’s get back to the main topic just for a few more words: The place that hosted this event – Second Home Lisboa – worths a visit too. It is this coworking office at the second floor of Mercado Ribeira or Time Out as others call it. Right at the center of Lisbon, next to Cais do Sodré railway station. My son fell in love with the place. He told me every school should look like this coz this atmosphere is very inspiring and relaxing. We are even considering going there for studying at least sometimes. As you know, great places attract great people with great ideas and that’s where magic happens 🙂 hopefully I can be a part of it! So don’t be afraid to go against fear, my friend told me this great motivational quote:

“The best things are on the other side of fear”

Here is a link where you can see the recording of the event if you are interested: https://www.facebook.com/163839373642847/posts/2514727245220703/ And also their organization: https://www.garrettmcnamara.com/