The Importance of Mindfulness

It started with a small book of poetry. One of my flying partners gave it to me-sharing that she met the author, Neville Cloleman on a flight and that she felt the book was meant to be  mine.

“Fly with me, on the winds of time….Set yor Spirit free,  and I’ll paint rainbows in your eyes, for all …ee…ter…nity.”-Neville Coleman

This poet had touched my heart and I had to meet him. So I wrote him a letter and we became penpals.

Soon after, on the 4th of July, I called Australia so he could hear the firework celebration that we Americans have. A few weeks after that , I flew to his home in Brisbane.

What a leprechun of a man he was. There was something magical about him.

Yet when we arrived at his remote house, he told me that he was a hermit–a true loner.  And as I spent the few days with him, I realized that Neville had a very sad -almost haunting side to him and his life. He claimed to have no family, and his friends were the creatures of the world -especially those of the ocean. He was an avid scuba diver and published the first underwater photography magazine in Australia.

Neville took me to the Rain Forest and we had a delightful picnic amidst this land of giant trees. I have a photo somewhere of me looking so small standing next to one of them.  I was so grateful that this quiet, gentle man took time away from his love of diving to share a bit of his Australian world with me.

And yet, he may have been a bit dissappointed by some of my young American attitudes. (He was 20 years my senior) and when I departed, we lost touch.

Today I learned that Neville Coleman died last year on May 5th and as I googled his life, I was amazed at all that this kind man  had achieved. I had no idea what a precious gem he was to the scientific underwater community.

“Neville Coleman has achieved excellence in many fields of self-taught expertise, including his career as an underwater explorer, naturalist and environmental photographer, photojournalist, educator, conservationist, philosopher, publisher and even as a poet, becoming to one of the most accomplished underwater natural history authors in the world. Recently (he was) awarded the Order of Australia Medal OAM- and in 2007 the naturalist Neville Coleman was inducted to the International Scuba Diving Hall Of Fame. He said on that occasion: “I realized that in the water it doesn’t matter what shaped peg you are……… round or square? UNDERWATER, everybody fits!”                –from the obit of Neville Coleman

How I wish I had been more mindful back then..more present when I was with him.

Loner that he was, he shared with me a part of himself that very few had ever known…

and  he could have taught me so much more about the meaning of life.–had I, the student been ready……

“Disguised it lies behind the eyes….. it’s there for all to find.                                    The secret source within yourself…….your magic power mind.”                                                                                                                  -Neville  Coleman

www.nevillecoleman.com.au