Can we rename the stormy capes of our lives?

Ana visits the Discovery Monument in Portugal - July 2012

Looking forward and facing what's head of us with hope is essential to make a productive contribution to life, yet challenges will always be there during the process. That is why learning what others have done when they faced challenges to move forward is a rewarding and uplifting experience, every time we come to Portugal we have abundant history around us to remind us of this principle.

The enormous compass rose made of fine marble stone that paves the floor on our way to the entrance of the Discoveries Monument is a good example of that principle. This impressive piece of art occupies a surface of 50 meters in diameter and at the center of it there is a world map that depicts the routes of the maritime discoveries of the Portuguese navigators in the XV and XVI centuries, what many do not know is that this popular tourist attraction was designed by a Portuguese architect but it was a gift from South Africa in 1960.

To me this is an interesting detail, because it was exactly in South Africa that the navigators found one of their greatest challenges, the needed to conquer a stormy cape to be able move forward towards the East. The first navigator to reach the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa was Bartolomeu Dias in 1488 who name it as the "The Cape of Storms" or in Portuguese "Cabo das Tormentas", he and other navigators struggled to pass this cape to reach the seas that would put them in the route to the orient, it was the King John II that renamed the Cape latter to Cape of Good Hope because of his spirit of looking forward to open a sea route to India and the East.

The days of glory in the Portuguese history books did not came without sacrifice and perseverance and without hope in the future. Can we too rename the stormy capes of our lives today?

Link: More photos of this summer at home in Portugal

Comments

Dèjá vu

Today as Filomena and I were walking in downtown Frankfurt we saw a Mercedes Benz of the same color and and style of the Mercedes Benz that my father-in-law bought in 1969 in the factory of Stuttgart, Germany . He traveled from Luanda, Angola in Africa to Germany to buy it as he was a fan of German cars because of their quality and reliability. As an Engineer himself he had a taste for quality and durability. This car has an history that is worth telling. In 1975 when the civil war of Angola forced thousands Portuguese families to return to Portugal, my father in law was not an exception, he sent his family first to Portugal for safety reasons and stayed longer to protect the interests of the customers of the bank he worked with, then the Banco de Fomento e Exterior and now part of the Banco BPI. Prior to his departure he gave is Mercedes Benz to a dear friend from the old days of primary school to help him take his mother to South Africa to receive needed and urgen...

How old are our Christmas traditions?

Theatrical representation: "O Boi e o Burro" The four traditions listed below have been with us for as long as we remember, how old are they? and why do we still keep them? 1. The Nativity The representation of the birth of Christ in Bethlehem, the humble yet sublime scene of Joseph and Mary with baby Jesus in the stable with the animals, the shepherds and the star was always a central ornament at the home of our parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents. Just after our wedding, we bought our own set of the nativity, that we still use until today. No other tradition has brought Christ to our Christmas more than this one! 2. Christmas Eve Reading the account of the nativity in the scriptures and theatrical representations of the nativity is a key part of Christmas Eve. Fish is the traditional meal of Christmas Eve. As far as I can tell this is a tradition that comes from the XVI century. The exact reasons for this tradition are unknown, in my p...

Is it an attitude or financial skill?

Is saving an attitude or a financial skill? Most likely you need both, but my comments today will focus on how attitude can influence our capacity to generate savings. By definition saving is income not spend or deferred consumption or goods or services. It is the ongoing practice of this simple definition in day to day activities that will allow us to put aside financial resources for a time of need. There is a difference between saving and investing, when we save we use low-risk methods of preservation of our financial income, such as a savings account as opposed to investing where the methods employed have always a higher risk involved. Saving is often not accomplished by just being disciplined to make a bank transfer from your checking account to your savings account but more so as an attitude towards needs and wants of life. Link: A good video to watch, not about savings but attitude!...

Family Snippets

Search This Blog