fantastical


fantastical ~  adjective – – US    /fænˈtæs.tɪ.kəl/ UK 
Strange and wonderful, like something out of a story:
Fantastical Buddhisttemples and medievalcastlescling to Bhutan’s mistyvalleys.
So strange or extreme that it does not seem to be true or reasonable:
Nobody knew what to make of the fantastical claims she had made to police.
“I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living.”
― Dr. Seuss
Every place I go is more interesting than the last. Every place I leave makes me long to just go back.  So many people, places, cultures.  It’s all so fantastical.  Never in my wildest, childest dreams could I have imagined my life as it is today.  Here I am and here I go.  Oh the wonderful places.  All of the wonderful places.  With so many more in front of me.
Every day presents to me a new and delightful surprise.
“Fantasy is escapist, and that is its glory. If a soldier is imprisioned by the enemy, don’t we consider it his duty to escape?. . .If we value the freedom of mind and soul, if we’re partisans of liberty, then it’s our plain duty to escape, and to take as many people with us as we can!”
― J.R.R. Tolkien
fantastical worlds:

vantage


van·tage  [ˈvan(t)ij]    NOUN
vantage point (noun)
a place or position affording a good view of something:
“from my vantage point I could see into the front yard” · 
synonyms:
point of view · viewpoint · standpoint · stance · stand · view · opinion · position · way of thinking · frame of mind · outlook · perspective · angle · slant
“The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well, on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be.”
― Douglas Adams

View from my hotel room.  Only thing changed was zoom, time of day, and angle. I was mesmerized by the view.  Simply said, a different vantage point completely changed my perspective of what I was looking at.

“There are no facts, only interpretations.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche

I had to change my room but they only moved me one floor down and same side of the building but over about 5 rooms.  Again, same view but slightly different view point.

“One person’s craziness is another person’s reality.”
― Tim Burton

A tiny movement of your body can show you things you never saw or hide things you want to ignore.  The same rationale should be used when looking at people.  And in my opinion it is how we should look at life in general.

“We’re so self-important. So arrogant. Everybody’s going to save something now. Save the trees, save the bees, save the whales, save the snails. And the supreme arrogance? Save the planet! Are these people kidding? Save the planet? We don’t even know how to take care of ourselves; we haven’t learned how to care for one another. We’re gonna save the fuckin’ planet? . . . And, by the way, there’s nothing wrong with the planet in the first place. The planet is fine. The people are fucked! Compared with the people, the planet is doin’ great. It’s been here over four billion years . . . The planet isn’t goin’ anywhere, folks. We are! We’re goin’ away. Pack your shit, we’re goin’ away. And we won’t leave much of a trace. Thank God for that. Nothing left. Maybe a little Styrofoam. The planet will be here, and we’ll be gone. Another failed mutation; another closed-end biological mistake.”
― George Carlin

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“Look again at that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every “superstar,” every “supreme leader,” every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there-on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot.

Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.

― Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space

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It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.”
― Carl Sagan

Perspectives and viewpoints:

From an Interesting Angle; Loose change, or: Nothing changes; Freezing torrents, or: Hope’s bud; Musings; All About Perspective; Fungi perspective; Road Trippin’ USA; Gaining Perspective;  work-life balance; ChangeLive Today!; Viewpoint; The best ideas come as jokes…; Silence; Burning Fall; Stance; Change on Change; RDP Thursday – Distorted Wide Angle Style;  An old writer’s day: angles and reflections;

Landlubber


land·lub·ber
[ˈlan(d)ˌləbər]  NOUN
informal ~~~ a person unfamiliar with the sea or sailing.

Extension (with land) of earlier lubber. Compare also landloper . ( nautical, derogatory) Someone unfamiliar with the sea or seamanship, especially a novice seaman .

We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea, whether it is to sail or to watch – we are going back from whence we came.  ~~John F. Kennedy

It’s what we call… people afraid of the sea or unfamiliar with the sea or those who are very easily seasick or someone who has never been in the open ocean.   People who do not respect the power, beauty, and awe of the ocean and even those who love looking at the ocean from the safety of the shore.

The fishermen know that the sea is dangerous and the storm terrible, but they have never found these dangers sufficient reason for remaining ashore. ~~Vincent Van Gogh

I accept and respect that it is not for everyone.  Even if I do not understand it I respect it.  It just means more ocean for me.  To truly enjoy being in the middle of the ocean, you need a vessel.  A ship.  A boat.  Whatever you want to call it.. you need something to float on.

If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea. ~~Antoine de Saint-Exupery

I mean you got to start somewhere right?  Ok, I didn’t buy it but was completely mesmerized with it.  Along with these other boats spotted on the water in Doha.

“We need the tonic of wildness…At the same time that we are earnest to explore and learn all things, we require that all things be mysterious and unexplorable, that land and sea be indefinitely wild, unsurveyed and unfathomed by us because unfathomable. We can never have enough of nature.”  ~~ Henry David Thoreau

The sea does not reward those who are too anxious, too greedy, or too impatient. One should lie empty, open, choiceless as a beach – waiting for a gift from the sea. ~~Anne Morrow Lindbergh

Other boats, floaters, ships, kayaks, and rafts, in other places.

“I must be a mermaid, Rango. I have no fear of depths and a great fear of shallow living.”
~~ Anais Nin

The sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever.  ~~Jacques Yves Cousteau

“I have been feeling very clearheaded lately and what I want to write about today is the sea. It contains so many colors. Silver at dawn, green at noon, dark blue in the evening. Sometimes it looks almost red. Or it will turn the color of old coins. Right now the shadows of clouds are dragging across it, and patches of sunlight are touching down everywhere. White strings of gulls drag over it like beads.

It is my favorite thing, I think, that I have ever seen. Sometimes I catch myself staring at it and forget my duties. It seems big enough to contain everything anyone could ever feel.”
~~ Anthony Doerr

Oceans, Landlubbers, Boats:

My Little Boat; Arr, Matey;  The ship; A Week in NorfolkAnd the landlubbers lie down below, below, below.  Oceans; Ocean Sunset; LANDLUBBERS; BOAT ON THE ROCKS; From Bimini to Space; Bula Bula from Savu Savu; Ahoy me Landlubbers; Ocean; Mid-Week Monochrome #95 – Boats; Sailor Speak of the Week – BlockAn Ocean Adventure ; The Story So Far – A Pirate’s TaleA Real Pirate?  Packet Boat on the Monongahela; A boat with a view

Hireath


Hireath (noun) Origin: Welsh | HEER-eyeth A homesickness for a home to which you cannot return, a home which maybe never was.

Home is wherever I hang my hat.  ~~Miriam Margolyes

It’s so funny to me.  I only lived there for three years out of the fifty-five I have under my belt.  It was my home for such a very short time.  It’s not that I cannot return to it, it is not that it never was my home.  It was.  I knew it was not really my forever home. It did feel sometimes that I had been there forever.

Those days and times, they were so vivid.  I sometimes dream of going back there and living forever.  I sometimes have dreams I am, in fact, there.  I wake up and feel a homesickness like that of when I am missing my native home.  The people.  The food.  The friends. The hikes. The smells, tastes, and sounds.

I have lived in many other places and have loved most of them.  However, this is the place I feel most tied to and one day … I am sure I will go back.

“Rhys absorbed that with chagrin. “No one has ever accused me of being a romantic,” he said ruefully.
“If you were, how would you propose?”
He thought for a moment. “I would begin by teaching you a Welsh word. Hiraeth There’s no equivalent in English.”
“Hiraeth,” she repeated, trying to pronounce it with a tapped R, as he had.
“Aye. It’s a longing for something that was lost, or never existed. You feel it for a person or a place, or a time in your life…it’s a sadness of the soul. Hiraeth calls to a Welshman even when he’s closest to happiness, reminding him that he’s incomplete.”
Her brow knit with concern. “Do you feel that way?”
“Since the day I was born.” He looked down into her small, lovely face. “But not when I’m with you. That’s why I want to marry you.”
― Lisa Kleypas, Marrying Winterborne

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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

“Do you know that high fever which invades us in our cold suffering, that aching for a land we do not know, that anguish of curiosity? There is a country which resembles you, where everything is beautiful, sumptuous, authentic, still, where fantasy has built and adorned a western China, where life is sweet to breathe, where happiness is wed to silence. That is where to live, that is where to die!”

– Invitation to a Voyage”
― Charles Baudelaire, Paris Spleen and Wine and Hashish

Hireath- defjawthepoet; treenewt; jaydixit; creativeworms; Taste; beleagured; word association; adamisler; late night thoughts; Place of the living; Hiraeth — It’s Not That Hard to Say; Home; coffeetalks; lifeinthewronglane; Homesick for an Old Friend

Wabbit


“I’m so good at sleeping that I can do it with my eyes closed.” — Anonymous

Wabbit. No, this isn’t referring to a wascally wabbit. It is a Scottish term for being exhausted. Next time you’re tired, try saying, “I’m pretty wabbit at the moment” and see just how many people look at you strange.

“I love sleep. My life has the tendency to fall apart when I’m awake, you know?”
― Ernest Hemingway

Perfect word for today!  It is true that I have always gone to bed early and I always wake up early.  Some stories my dad has told about me was that I was the easiest kid to take care of at bedtime.  Never fought going to bed.  This is a permanent part of my personality.

Last night I went to bed about 8:30 pm.  Yes, I usually go to bed this early.  I lay there for a bit and read or listen to some music.  However, I woke up at midnight and could not fall back asleep until about 3:30 am.  I got up and drank some sleepy-time tea, had a little snack, read a little.  Nothing worked.  I could not fall back asleep.  This is an anomaly for me.

I love a good night’s sleep because I wake up feeling so much better.  Everything from the day before has been washed away and I always feel like I have a fresh start to either continue with whatever I started or completely start over and just leave the messy day behind. So today, this was the best word inspiration I could have had. Enjoy!!

“Dear sleep, I’m sorry we broke up this morning. I want you back!” — Anonymous

“I already want to take a nap tomorrow.” — Anonymous

“I love to sleep. Do you? Isn’t it great? It really is the best of both worlds. You get to be alive and unconscious.” — Rita Rudner

“Each night, when I go to sleep, I die. And the next morning, when I wake up, I am reborn.”
― Mahatma Gandhi

“Your eyes water when you yawn because you miss your bed and it makes you sad.” — Anonymous

“Happiness is waking up, looking at the clock and finding that you still have two hours left to sleep.” — Charles M. Schulz

“People say, ‘I’m going to sleep now,’ as if it were nothing. But it’s really a bizarre activity. ‘For the next several hours, while the sun is gone, I’m going to become unconscious, temporarily losing command over everything I know and understand. When the sun returns, I will resume my life.’

If you didn’t know what sleep was, and you had only seen it in a science fiction movie, you would think it was weird and tell all your friends about the movie you’d seen.

They had these people, you know? And they would walk around all day and be OK? And then, once a day, usually after dark, they would lie down on these special platforms and become unconscious. They would stop functioning almost completely, except deep in their minds they would have adventures and experiences that were completely impossible in real life. As they lay there, completely vulnerable to their enemies, their only movements were to occasionally shift from one position to another; or, if one of the ‘mind adventures’ got too real, they would sit up and scream and be glad they weren’t unconscious anymore. Then they would drink a lot of coffee.’

So, next time you see someone sleeping, make believe you’re in a science fiction movie. And whisper, ‘The creature is regenerating itself.”
― George Carlin

Sweet dreams:  kait; gail; raung; elena; neihtn; pensitivity; aaysid; masgautsen; caramel; Jane