Searching For Treasure

Have you ever done something that is easy first time around and feels almost impossible the next time? It doesn't go as you expect it to? What do you do? Do you keep on trying or do you give up?

My family and I drove a 3 hour journey to East Bali over the weekend. We stayed at our friend's hotel called Life in Amed, an attractive boutique hotel that overlooks the calm sea and beautiful coral formations. On Sunday morning, I went out snorkelling with my 11 and 9 year old daughters. We had stayed at Life in Amed before and had ventured out snorkelling the last time we visited, so we decided to do this again.

I encouraged my daughters to follow me as I knew where I was going. Or so I thought I did.......... I noticed this time that the tide seemed to be further in. We swam and swam, further and further out and all we could see through our snorkelling head gear was sandy, blurry sea water. There wasn't a fish in sight, let alone the coral that we saw last time.

Disenchanted, my eldest daughter decided that her flippers were making her feet hurt, so she headed back to the shore. I wasn't sure whether to give up myself, but we had paid for the snorkelling gear and I was determined to find a fish before returning to shore.

"It must be here." I exclaimed to my younger daughter. "The coral couldn't have disappeared. It was definitely 6 coconut trees along the beach the last time we saw all those fish. Let's keep on looking." My daughter dilligently followed as we found ourselves going further and further out to sea.

Although part of me was saying 'just give up', the other part wasn't happy to stop looking until I had searched all of the sea. I could have been on a long trip! As we were heading a bit far out, I decided to change direction, swimming across the sea rather than further out and heading closer to the shore.

Magically, we found the hidden treasure. The coral wasn't at all in line with the sixth coconut tree. It was in the complete opposite direction! I'm not sure what was going on with my bearings on this day, but it was worth persevering, changing our direction and having belief that we would find the fish. The wonderful display of tropical fish of all colours, shapes and sizes made our determination to keep on trying very rewarding.

When have you felt like giving up and have you failed to try?

“You can't always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you might find, you get what you need” The Rolling Stones.