Dear friends,

I am taking this Blog Post down. For now, anyway.

Firstly, I call all of you friends. Including Brendi Richards. For we are all fellow humans living on the same planet.

I realise my Blog Post has caused quite a bit of hurt for many of you affected by crime in South Africa, especially Brendi Richards. My name-calling was unnecessary and thoughtless in my exuberance. And for it I sincerely, sincerely apologise.

I realise Brendi and many others have been violently abused at the hands of heartless criminals in South Africa, and this is nothing to make light of. Something I should have been more considerate of in my outburst. I do not make light at all of what Brendi and others have faced at the hands of South African criminals, and I deeply sympathise with all of you.

I too have been affected by crime in South Africa, having been mugged once at gunpoint, once at knifepoint, and once beaten for my cellphone (three times). My father has been held up in a bank heist, and tied up in his home along with his secretary while the house was looted. He has also been held at gunpoint in his car while thieves took his cellphone. My mother and sister were attacked in their driveway by would-be hijackers, but supernaturally my mother, calling on the name of Jesus, literally chased them away with her prayers. I have had my car stolen at Pavilion, and my wife's parents have had their home broken into while at work.

So it is not like I have not been affected by crime. Please understand this. I am not coming from a naive or ignorant perspective. I am just an extremely positive guy and choose to see the best in everything. I am very aware South Africa has a crime epidemic and something must be done.

Again, please forgive me for any hurt I have caused. I can't take that hurt back. I am so sorry. All I ask is that you find it in your heart to forgive me.

I sincerely mean it when I say I love all of you. Even those who say they have no respect for me, or call me a "little s**t" etc. I am sorry you would feel that way about me but you are entitled to your opinion and I do hope you can see past this situation and know I am not out to hurt anyone. If you would be so kind as to delete your comments I would be extremely grateful, but if not, that's understandable.

I will be responding to your comments in due time. But it will require a fair amount of emotional energy which I do not have at this moment in time. So the best thing to do right is to take the Blog Post down. But I do look forward to engaging in healthy debate about this topic some time in the near future. Until then, let's move on from this unfortunate situation.

Again I apologise for any offence. And once again plea your forgiveness.

All my love,

James Preston

I'm really proud to introduce my incredible wife for the first time on this Blog. Despite me encouraging her over the years that she has much to offer, she's never taken the plunge of actually doing some serious writing!
But the other night after an interesting day and coffee with a friend, she had unusual inspiration to journal her emotions coming out of the day. When I read it, I knew it had to be published somewhere! What better place to start than my Blog! Enjoy this great piece from my incredible wife Corinne. Please drop a comment and leave your thoughts afterwards!

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My mom gave me a gold nugget of advice recently, she said, "sometimes you just have to close your eyes, jump and hope for the best." - this seems to be true wisdom...

Today I mourn  the loss of a good friend who is a legacy leaver, she left our world at 03:30 this morning, my Facebook has not stopped with tributes, condolences and loving memories of this incredible woman Gail Parker. She gave life to so many: her family, her children and all she came into contact with! She personally taught me to get on with the job.
"Just do it, don't worry how... the hows will come as long as you start." - I can hear her words in my mind like it was yesterday.

I have come to realise that the most interesting people in life are those that take risks! Those that have more stories of failures than success, hardships than plain easy sailing, cause what is failure after all? What do we measure the word failure against? Perhaps you have only failed if you have not learnt from your mistakes.

There is LIFE in jumping, taking that risk! Not knowing how it's all going to work out, riding on the opportunities of new exciting ventures some working and some just not going anywhere, that's okay, as long as you're learning, as long as life does t get you down.

I sat in a coffee shop listening to an old friend of mine as she was telling me about her exciting life in Zambia. By no means a piece of cake... She is home schooling two beautiful children with a third on the way, she has lived with no electricity at times, lived in a tent for 2 months with her two children, moved house plenty times, had months where they did not know where their next salary would come from, endured the hardships of different cultures, looks after 70-80 sheep every day with her two children, not unwise to the crocs and snakes that lurk near in the river below their home and the hippos that arrive when the rains come. Let alone the malaria and typhoid that are constant challenges! And the story goes on and on...

YET she looks at me, her eyes are beaming full of life, there is a richness a deep beauty that is no fake, no mask, this woman has true character, flexibility, grace and strength. This woman knows love, knows how to love and oozes wisdom (She is turns 30 this year). She does not harp on the challenges, she speaks about the goodness of God, she loves her life and you can see it. She enjoys the challenges and gets over the hard days when they do come, many hours spent in prayer next to her bed! I say it again; I look at her and see radiance. She is truly happy, and she sees her life as one exciting adventure.

I came home inspired, what if life is more exciting taking that jump? Allowing myself to take a risk and make an exchange to live a life with no regrets rather than focusing on my ducks that need to be in a row? This option seems safe, but on the other hand could be quite boring! Gail's words echo in the back of my mind, "just do it, don't worry how... the hows will come to you" along with my mom's words, "sometimes we just need to to close our eyes, jump and hope for the best."

What are we scared off? Can we fail? I don't think so... I think the knocks of life make us stronger, make us flexible, gives us wisdom, force the masks of fickleness and shallowness to dissipate and bring out a strength and beauty that this world cannot buy.

So don' t be scared now... I say..."Close your eyes, jump and enjoy the ride!"