The Oscars are over, the grape harvest is just beginning, and life on an isolated island in the Hauraki Gulf goes on. We are entering into the Autumn down here in the Southern Hemisphere, and cool southwesterlies are making their way up the islands of New Zealand.

I am an ex-pat (what exactly does that mean anyway?) American and have been living in New Zealand for about 20 years. I love writing, and hopefully I will have something of interest to say for those that stumble across my blog. Karakia means prayer in our indigenous language of Maori, and I am very grateful for the coast I look out on every day from my cottage window. My writing is my prayer of thanks.

I need to figure out a few more things about this blogging business, as I have been writing for years, but not online, and not many publications. It is more my expression, my connection with the myself first, and others as well. I will need to get sorted on all the different information that needs to go on to this blog, and make a few decisions about the kind of articles I will be writing. I mainly stay with natural beauty and social phenomenon, but of late the ecology of media has been fascinating me. I read alot, and hope to publish more once I get myself organised with certain obligations (i.e. paid work).

I have been in management and corporate stuff for many years, and having this lovely island to live and work on the last couple of years has been a godsend. I drive a tractor around olive groves and vineyards that overlook the Pacific Ocean, which I jump into when it gets a bit hot, and really am fortunate to be where I am. I am slowly trying to stay connected with society in many ways, mostly technological, at the same time not entirely engaged in what it is all about. Hence the comment on the Oscars. Nothing could be farther from my life, but at the same time, there it is on my cable showing me the way certain people live their lives. And good for them. The world is in a precarious position right now, and if we can all communicate just a little bit easier with some of these tools, then perhaps there will be less intolerance and more understanding. That is the essence of what I will want to convey as we journey through this process together.