7 Day Positivity Challenge | Day 1 | My first love the ocean 🌊🏄‍♂️

Goodevening Steemians,

The place I'm living

I’ve got a new challenge, I was tagged earlier this week by my friend @mrprofessor. It’s about a challenge where I need to talk about seven things that we are grateful for. One per day of the week. Still not finished with al the things I wanted to write about, but this challenge triggers me…

Complaining we all do it, but do we really need to...

I don’t think I’m the guy that complains a lot about things so why does this trigger me? People in the country where I live, like to complain a lot. I know complaining is one of the needs of humanity. It’s in the genes of people I think, but some cultures complain more than others. For the people in my country, well I think the whole world knows us as a nation that always says things as they are. We simply like to get to the point. But that’s also the reason we complain quick. Who likes rain? Nobody, but a Dutch person will complain right away about how he hates the rain, or how soaking wet he just got while riding his bike to work for example. If you don’t know anything about the Netherlands. We have a TV-host called Lubach who created a short introduction for the American president Trump about the Dutch people.

Image still from short film created by Lubach

Inspiration

I just got out with my drone for a lovely sunset walk and shoot some material for a new Steemit item in the future. While walking I realized how happy I’m when I do this. Just walk out of the street and touch the water of the sea with my toes. And let it just be World Oceans Day today. So my first “thanks for … today” post will be how thankful I’m that I have the opportunity to live right next to the sea. I realize not everyone has this opportunity. But I wish I could give everyone the opportunity to try it once.

While typing this article, I’m sitting in my garden with my toes almost touching a fire, there’s a beer and some candy right next to me. I can show you those, but I can’t let you hear the soft sound of the waves rolling in with occasionally a gull screaming. Although Oceans cover more than two-thirds of the earth's surface not everyone has the option to live nearby it.

So I’m blessed that I could still live in this house (it’s been a difficult time when my ex-girlfriend and I broke up but I managed to keep the house paying the mortgage on my own) right next to the sea. Just imagine walk 150 steps and I lookout over the water.

World Oceans Day

So today on World Ocean Day I’m really thankful that I’m one of those lucky bastards that enjoy the ocean day by day. World Oceans Day is an annual observation to honor protect and conserve the oceans worldwide. Oceans provide mankind with so many resources. Oxygen climate regulation, food, medicine and lots more. But we pollute the oceans day by day, especially with plastics. Every year there is more than 5 million tons of plastic garbage that ends in the ocean. Plastic trash is a serious problem for our oceans and the animals in it. We really need to end this, earth can’t exist without it’s oceans.

*Movie created by www.WorldOceansDay.org

Facts

Why so serious? Just some fun facts to keep the subject light.

• If you would share all the water from the oceans worldwide with all the people on earth, each one would get 450 billion litres
• Did you know the highest mountain on earth is actually in the ocean? It’s mount Mauna Kea (near Hawaii) The mountain is 10.200m high, but because 6000m of it are under water they don’t recognize it as a mountain.
• The deepest point on earth is in the ocean as well. It is the Mariana Trench, this one is 10.911m deep.
• Only 5% of the oceans mankind did discover. What more will we find in this beautiful world under water?
• Although we only did discover 5% of the oceans, there is a fun fact I need to share with you. Did you know we have waterfalls underwater? Neither did I! There are 7 of these falls that we know off. How is this possible? The differences in salt and temperature between ocean parts gets the water flowing. Is this real or a illusion? One of those falls is in Europe, it’s called the Denmark Strait cataract. This fall is 3500m high (or deep… depends how you look at it)!

• The world is always complaining about the high price of gold, but did you know there is twenty million tons of gold in the oceans worldwide. Think when we find an option to get to these resources the price of gold will dump.
• The reason I got out tonight, there are more than 3 million shipwrecks on the bottom of the oceans worldwide
• The deepest parts of the oceans won’t see any sunshine at all? This funny fact does create some strange life underwater. Animals like the frilled shark, goblin shark and the oarfish.

Other Ocean Lovers

• Jacques-Yves Cousteau (explorer)
• Clark Little (photographer)
  
  Clark Little
• Nina Dobrev (actress and ambassador for ocean conservation charity Oceana)
• Anja Rubik (outspoken about ocean conservation issues on social media)
• Richard Branson (one of a group of influential figures who lend their time and expertise to ocean conservation projects)

Being Thankful

But let’s get back to being thankful today. Living right next to the ocean is the best there is. Here in the Netherlands it’s the place where we have the most hours of sunshine. Every day the ocean looks different, never the same wave rolls in twice. Sometimes it’s friendly and calm, sometimes its raging and smashing with its big waves. While the next day after a storm it reveals some of its hidden treasures. @mrprofessor talking about treasures when is your next picture hunt? 😉

I was tagged by @mrprofessor to:

Write a post about something you have to be positive about today - this could be anything from being thankful for your current situation, someone being nice to you, being thankful for your friends and family, or even being thankful for the opportunity you have been given here on Steemit - just keep it positive :)

• Do this for 7 days in a row if you get nominated.
• Mention three people who should do this on each day.
• Tag it with #7daypositivitychallenge and include these rules at the bottom of your post Include a picture of something positive (related to your story if possible.)
• Tip: You need to put the # in front of 7daypositivitychallenge or it will not let you use the tag.

I would like to tag my friends @thetimminator @valderrama @dboontje whom I believe would write some beautiful texts - please don't feel obligated, but you've been tagged!

The place I'm living, same spot different sunset