Paths and Adventures – – and – – Slowing it Down.

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”  -Mark Twain

 

The shape of a path in no way determines the adventure.

There is very little I fear more than thinking about staying in one place 444444 evahhhhhhhh!!!  I have been moving around nearly all of my life.  First through my imagination. On through books, movies, art, and music.  Followed by the actual physical act of moving around through the military, teaching, and now my current job.

 “Every man’s life ends the same way. It is only the details of how he lived and how he died that distinguish one man from another.”    -Ernest Hemingway

Moving, moving, moving.

 “Oh, the places you’ll go.”    -Dr. Seuss

The paths I have followed and the decisions I have made have provided me more adventures than I can ever recount.  So many paths and so many emotions with each of those paths.

“To travel is to discover that everyone is wrong about other countries.”  -Aldous Huxley

I have learned so much from the places I have been.  Maybe the biggest thing is that we are all the same.  Even in our greatest differences, we are the same.  We have kids, we have homes, we have happiness and sadness, we have a life and we long for more.  Each of us longs for more.  More safety, more money, more happiness, more education, more life.  More of everything.. … …

“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.”   -Helen Keller

“For my part, I travel not to go anywhere but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move.”  -Robert Louis Stevenson

As I think back on it all, it’s hard to believe how many places I have traveled to.  what I have seen and heard and tasted and drank and experienced.

Great experiences all of them.  But as I look back in wonder and happiness, I also feel a bit of a black hole.  Through all of my travels, even when surrounded by many, I was often alone .. felt alone .. sometimes disconnected .. sometimes and only sometimes .. a little sad.  More happy than sad… but sometimes still sad.

I love coming back home and seeing old friends and family. I would say it keeps me grounded.   ~~Coy Bowles

Because of that, I am now oddly considering slowing down.  Considering remaining in one place with only normal, average (never really average with me) vacations that might take me mere miles from my home.  Maybe further, but finding a home base that I will exist in and travel to and from.  The same place always returning to.. the same place..

The ache for home lives in all of us, the safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned.  ~~ Maya Angelou 

Part of me feels a stirring of panic at that thought.  The mere notion of not packing up my life every 2-4 years and starting over seems unnatural.  Makes me feel tense and uncomfortable. However, there are reasons to really start thinking about the possibilities of finding a home base.

These two pictures reflects only five years of separation.  Only five years but a life time of growth.  What am I missing by being so far away all of the time.  I do not regret my travels or my time away.  I just know that for every path and adventure, there are other paths that provide other adventures.  I have traveled the world as well as my home country and I am ready to rebuild and bond with the paths I have left behind.  Include people into my paths that I miss profoundly.  However, that path will have its own challenges, fears, and limitations.  The limitations are where my fears are the strongest.

The key to growth is acknowledging your fear of the unknown and jumping in anyway. ~~Jen Sincero

I have to remind myself though that the limitations that I am afraid of are really only limits in my own mind.  The past paths have led me to amazing places and introduced me to amazing people.  They will not disappear if I stay in one place.  As a matter of fact, I may find that by staying in one place I will be able to connect deeper to the people and places I am constantly leaving behind.

“You’ll never find peace of mind until you listen to your heart.” —George Michael

Sometimes my heart tells me to stay put and other times my heart says to keep moving.  But my heart of hearts tells me that being around the people that I love and that make me smile and smile with me and laugh at my silly jokes.. is where I need to be…

My personal goals are to be happy, healthy and to be surrounded by loved ones. ~~Kiana Tom

To laugh.. to laugh at.. to be laughed at.. to laugh with..

It was the way you laughed… I knew I wanted that in my life. ~~ R.M. Drake

Yeah.  I do want to slow down, reconnect, connect deeper.  I still have a few years.. but I think that my heart of hearts is giving me some good signs..  love these people and places and so many more…and I think I can combine some new paths, news adventures, new people, new laughs….. AND slowing it down.

 

We are all here for a spell. Get all the good laughs you can. — Will Rogers

The point is seeing that THIS — the immediate, everyday and present experience — is IT, the entire and ultimate point for the existence of a universe. I believe that if this state of consciousness could become more universal, the pretentious nonsense which passes for the serious business of the world would dissolve in laughter… — Alan Watts

Laughter connects you with people. It’s almost impossible to maintain any kind of distance or any sense of social hierarchy when you’re just howling with laughter. Laughter is a force for democracy. — John Cleese

Other Paths

 nowathome, Le Drake Noir, Shirley’s Heaven, Adventure Calls! , Une photo, un poème, WordsVisual, Leya,  Beyond the Brush, Living in Paradise…, base, africa, Night Owl , Waiting, Samliving, flashfiction, streetart, delicious, world is a book

 

Time is what prevents everything from happening at once. – John Archibald Wheeler.

Unfortunately, the clock is ticking, the hours are going by. The past increases, the future recedes. Possibilities decreasing, regrets mounting.  ~~Haruki Murakami

To be clear, this is not a quote that describes my life.  For the most part, I grab the possibilities as they fly by and I have very few regrets.  I accept what I cannot do, because I understand I cannot do everything and really try hard to do everything that I can do to the best of my ability.

It is hard to believe that I have been in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea for a month.  Time is moving very quickly.  I do love it when time goes fast, even when I am trying to slow down.  I have a feeling though that as fast as my time goes here, at times it will feel like time is passing very, very slowly. It’s a small island with not a lot of modern amenities.

However, that does not bother me and as a matter of fact, I believe that this will give me some great opportunities to do some of the things that I keep putting off.  Art, blogging, writing, cooking, and working on personal health goals always seem to take a back seat to other more important (less important) work taskings and life in general.  I am super, excited about the new possibilities that will no longer fly by but start drifting by slow enough for me to catch them.  To catch them, ponder them, work on them, and re-imagine them.

Round the world I go as my world goes round.. round.. round… still a little girl in a big, big world.. that seems to get just a little smaller each year.

Little tour round my neighborhood.  Hope you enjoy!

Inspired by:  ailsa’s blog wheresmybackpack

More fun posts to read… if you only had the time.  Thanks for stopping by.

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