Page 76 - Wake Up and do Your Thing

WAKE UP AND DO YOUR THING
Through Thomas’ connections and sweet serendipity I met spiritual mentors from a variety of religious backgrounds and digested their stories of faith, of wisdoms and awakenings as they “took five” or passed through on their way to or from Fatima, The Camino de Santiago, Turkey and the Middle East.
The stunning natural light of the Algarve attracted fashion photographers, art directors and models from the UK, France and Germany; from them I learned about beauty and style and sass.
Then there were the mercenaries taking time off from the wars in the Portuguese territories of Angola and Mozambique; with them came tales of greed, brutalities and betrayals that highlighted humanity’s capacity for moral depravity even amidst so much natural splendor.
I listened to accounts of passion, performance and persistence from visiting movie stars; about inspiration and artistry from pop and rock stars taking time off to create; and about insight, knowledge and culture from writers, sculptors and fugitives living in the local hills and slowly drinking themselves stupid on cheap Portuguese booze (back then you could get a gallon of gin for today’s equivalent of ten bucks!)
By word-of-mouth, Thomas’ secluded bar with its eclectic music, its Take Five menu of five items: toasted hotdogs, steak sandwiches, cod fish cakes, hard-boiled eggs, and coffee, became a magnet for all kinds of fascinating
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