OUTDOORS is IN, the IN to my sane. Fear doesn't come to me. I go to it- the icy waters of the North Atlantic. Flights are on whether hold,the wind picking up, and there's no time like the present time to jump in the ice water and experience the exhilarating feeling of cold water thermal Genesis. This is truly one of those life hacks healthwise that costs basically nothing, and it benefits the aches and pains that come from working out.. so very restorative. "Burning body fat without exercising! Put me in coach."  Conditioning  my brain and my body to accept, endure and embrace cold water immersion may be challenging, but the health benefits in both the short- and long-run are well worth it. It is common for professional athletes such as marathon runners, triathletes, and football players to jump into a tub of ice water after an intense race or game. If  sitting is the new smoking , then  what about we digital nomads and remote workers who sit alot in front of our comp

What does the dog on top of the house say? Roof, roof View this post on Instagram A post shared by Ed Reif (@edreif)   View this post on Instagram A post shared by Ed Reif (@edreif) View this post on Instagram A post shared by Ed Reif (@edreif)

  Skyelark's Splendor In The Grass Skyelark takes early retirement, out of the Sheep Herding business(HAHA) Rock Pool Rocks! The resumption of the Cold Water Immerssion baths, after yesterday's gale winds stymied the ritual. A Little Reflection:   We all are co creators of our current world through our choices, our decisions, our intentions. The best we can do is live as various as possible. THE savage and beautiful country that we’ve created and are still creating between where we  begun and where we’re going continues.   This quote by Diane Ackerman speak to us Are you ready to climb aboard?   The great affair, the love affair with life, is to live as variously as possible, to groom one’s curiosity like a high-spirited thoroughbred, climb aboard, and gallop over the thick, sun-struck hills every day. Where there is no risk, the emotional terrain is flat and unyielding, and, despite all its dimensions, valleys, pinnacles, and detours, life will seem to have none of

 Malcom's Head Hike Today The word “genius” in the modern sense, after all, originates in the Latin phrase genius loci — “the spirit of a place.  So Fair Isle is/has  a genius! It's a great place to get lost.Huh?  The question then is how to get lost. Never to get lost is not to live, not to know how to get lost brings you to destruction, and somewhere in the terra incognita in between lies a life of discovery. There is a quote all who wander are not lost- but The things we want are life-changing and we don’t know or only think we know what is on the other side of that change… Never to get lost is not to live. Leave the door open for the unknown, the door into the dark. That’s where the most important things come from, where you yourself came from, and where you will go. An adventure is nothing more than bad planning-  t his act of orienting ourselves — to the moment, to the world, to our own selves — is perhaps the most elusive art of all, and our attempts to master it often l

  All of humanity’s problems,” the French scientist and philosopher Blaise Pascal wrote in 1654, “stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a COLD WATER IMMERSION ROCK POOL alone.”

Fertile solitude  is the basic unit of a full and contented life. The line between solitude and loneliness can be thin  but there is a difference. Loneliness is difficult to confess; difficult too to categorize. I have no such difficulty confessing solitude here on Fair Isle. What does it feel like to be lonely? It feels like being hungry: like being hungry when everyone around you is readying for a feast. Fertile solitude, however, is learning to enjoy your own company.More than that, it is a developmental achievement, on the road to knowing thy self.   “All of humanity’s problems,” the French scientist and philosopher Blaise Pascal wrote in 1654, “stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” Or for that matter, on Britian’s most remote inhabited island. The best things in life happen to you when you’re alone and despite the camaraderie and the spirit of cooperation, for the most part we are alone on this island.  That’s ok. Everyone should experience at leas

 

Fair Isle is a lyrical reminder to break the momentum of busyness that fuels  the sadness of never understanding ourselves. It makes a place to sit down. So: Sit down. Be quiet…The impulse to create begins… in a tunnel of silence.    Of all ridiculous things the most ridiculous seems to me, to be busy. It’s worth remembering, here, that “busy is a decision” — one we constantly make, and often to our own detriment.   Travel is an activity not an accomplishment, yet lately, because of the global pandemic, one of the great cruelties and great glories of  traveling nowadays is the wild discrepancy of timelines between vision and execution. When we dream up an itinerary , we invariably underestimate the amount of time and effort required to make it a reality. Our  Fair Isle return took 6 months!   Rather than a cognitive bug, perhaps this is the supreme coping mechanism of the pandemic mind — if we could see clearly the toil ahead at the outset of any travel plans, we might b

  These North Atlantic Grey Seals want to make a happy meal outta me! I was confident that seals are generally gentle creatures unless they feel threatened. Seals default is to choose flight over fight, but they are most likely to be aggressive if you come between:them, which is what I have been doing all week! SO I had to rework my plan, and change venues for the Cold Water Immerssion Therapy-back to the South Lighthouse on Fair Isle. Seals are the largest land breeding mammal in the UK and can be very intimidating in the water. Always let seals make the first move – let them approach you. Sit back, wait quietly and observe. Nah, I just won't get in the water with them.... View this post on Instagram A post shared by Ed Reif (@edreif)

 The Medicine We Take: View this post on Instagram A post shared by Ed Reif (@edreif)

Our 2020 Lake Tahoe Trip View this post on Instagram A post shared by Ed Reif (@edreif)   A tree is a little bit of the future Trees dominate the world’s oldest living organisms. Since the dawn of our species, they have been our silent companions, permeating our most enduring tales and never ceasing to inspire fantastical cosmogonies. Hermann Hesse called them “the most penetrating of preachers.” A forgotten seventeenth-century English gardener wrote of how they “speak to the mind, and tell us many things, and teach us many good lessons.-The Scret Lives Of Trees There are no trees on Fair Isle FADE IN: Beneath the canopy of trees, with  roots in the earth and arms stretching toward the sky, I come back to that place I have never been before - and this imense wonder comes over us as  if the trees are there to seek and to know the greater mysteries. I find this comforting, but on Fair Isle, and Shetland in general, there are no trees to speak of. So why d

Historically, the Scottie was bred by farmers to help them manage vermin problems. They  would follow prey, such as badgers, foxes, and other vermin, right into their burrows and then try to dig them out. Such breeds of dogs are known as Earth dogs. Scottish Terriers do well in earthdog trials, which are a simulated hunt. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Ed Reif (@edreif)