Dive Into Your Imagination

November 17 1991 I left O’hare airport in Chicago for Melbourne Australia. Before cell phones, before the internet I would use postal restante and the telephone for any communications. And one of my first journal entries penned these words:

“The only thing that keeps me going is the anticipation of the unknowing. I am sure my travels will be more than I could ever dream.”

And so I encourage everyone to EMBRACE THE UNKOWN!

Little did I know what lay ahead, yet that is why I did not return. I did not return because for the first time in my life I was free. I had money saved in the bank to be away from home for 6-12 months. That was the intended journey. I wanted to build my portfolio and return to “life” as a photo-journalist. And after five hours sleep after a 40 hour departure I found myself in Mac’s place on Franklin Street #34, Melbourne Australia drinking pots of beer with men in the middle of the afternoon. Waiting for one of my five contacts to get home from work and pick me up. Mac’s place is the oldest pub in Australia next to the bus station that took me from the airport to the city. There were three bartenders named John and the first lesson I learned in Australia was you don’t tip the bartenders and waitresses. And as I sat in the pub awaiting where the path was going to take me next I wrote: “You really have to search for what you want out of life, nothing just falls in your lap.”

I don’t believe that anymore. I believe life is about living and not searching. There is no searching to be done, simply experience and living.

I believe somewhere along my travels I learned a balance of listening to my gut, following a path that leads me through life and being open to the experiences that present themselves. We have to be awakened in order to see the messages all around us. You can have the greatest opportunity and if you don’t see it, it just passes you right on by.

Three weeks later walking down a road in Perth, Australia I saw a sign: Learn to Scuba Dive $265 (Australian Dollars). On December 9, 1991 three weeks after leaving Chicago’s winter, I was breathing underwater for the first time in my life. I can still remember the first moment in my SCUBA diving class. It was silent and loud all at the same time. The bottom of the swimming pool never looked so good! The paint, the band-aids and hair...we could see EVERYTHING! And it was glorious. My mask kept flooding because of the laughter and joy...I couldn't stop smiling. As I write these words, I have a smile from ear to ear just thinking about the freedom of life below the surface...

I was breathing in and out off a regulator with a scuba tank attached to my back, looking at my instructor and thinking to myself, ‘Oh my gosh, I could do your job!’ I was doing the PADI open water diver course. Part of their program is brainwashing: advanced, rescue, divemaster, specialty divers, instructor…become a PADI dive instructor and travel the world. And that is exactly what happened to me! I completely bought into the whole system of teaching and after my first breaths underwater in a swimming pool, I knew I would become a scuba diving instructor!

I was breathing underwater in a freezing cold pool in Perth, Australia knowing that I had it in me to become a dive instructor so I could travel the world. After only three short weeks of leaving Chicago, I knew I needed to see the world and I had to find my ticket to freedom. And for the moment, diving became a huge possibility. Little did I know what a huge impact the ocean would have on my life!

GRATITUDE Kelp frond, California

CALIFORNIA COLLECTION Great Images from California.

CULTIVATE Rice fields, Indonesia