Smultroställe

Smultroställe (n.) – Origin: Swedish – Definition: A special place discovered, treasured, returned to for solace and relaxation; a personal idyll free from stress and sadness.

In every conceivable manner, the family is link to our past, bridge to our future.  ~Alex Haley

When I first read the word – Smultroställe – I thought to myself, “This word means family.”  OK that’s a lie.

When I first read the word – Smultroställe – I thought to myself, “What the heck is a smult-tro-sally”.  So i looked it up and thought to myself, “To me, this word actually means happy place”  The second thing I thought to myself was, “How in the heck do you pronounce this word?”

In complete transparency, I still do not know how to pronounce it, but I can unequivocally state that my smultroställe is not just my family but it is my every person in my world who has existed in my happy place.  Every person who has taken the time to reduce the daily drama and make me laugh.  It is every person who has laughed with me and not at me. (Even when they ARE sometimes laughing at me.)  It is every person who has chosen to spend time with me to create the millions of happy memories that I currently own.  The memories that I will have and cherish until the day I die. The happy memories that I will have and carry with me until I go beyond death.  Maybe to infinity and beyond.  My smultroställe is YOU.

I found my happy place the minute I saw you.  ~Sherrilyn Kenyon

To my million smultroställes.  Come on, you know who you are!

The most beautiful things are not associated with money; they are memories and moments. If you don’t celebrate those, they can pass you by. ~Alek Wek

I am a collection of thoughts and memories and likes and dislikes. I am the things that have happened to me and the sum of everything I’ve ever done. I am the clothes I wear on my back. I am every place and every person and every object I have ever come across. I am a bag of bones stuck to a very large rock spinning a thousand miles an hour.  ~Macaulay Culkin

When you finally discover your happy place, your soul will be more easily protected from all the darkness around.  ~Christine E. Szymanski

I collect memories. I look for opportunities to try new things, go to new places, and meet new people all the time.   ~Marcel Wanders

Happy places and memories:  Inspired; Suzy; Keyne; candice; Roth; kk; trent; Anita; carol; Rebecca;  ~MM; Kait; Pete; Shweta; Smelly; Rad; Paean

Ecophobia

Ecophobia (noun) Origin: English/Ancient Greek | A fear or dislike of one’s home.

— and so you leave, to find where home is for you. *wink*

This word is based from Ancient Greek in whick ‘eco’ is derived from oîkos or “house”, and then of course ‘phobia’ from phóbos or “fear”.

I do not fear or dislike my home.  I have loved every home I have ever lived in.  My fear is that I may not ever find just one home I prefer over another.

“We travel, some of us forever, to seek other places, other lives, other souls.” – Anais Nin

My dislike is related to not being content to reside in just one place.  One place forever scares me.

“The gladdest moment in human life, methinks, is a departure into unknown lands.” – Sir Richard Burton

Every time I look out my window I see possibilities.  Every time I walk down new streets, I feel reborn.  Even when I am homesick and I go back to my home town, I end up missing .. the feeling of missing my home.

“Travel isn’t always pretty. It isn’t always comfortable. Sometimes it hurts, it even breaks your heart. But that’s okay. The journey changes you; it should change you. It leaves marks on your memory, on your consciousness, on your heart, and on your body. You take something with you. Hopefully, you leave something good behind.” – Anthony Bourdain

“I am not the same, having seen the moon shine on the other side of the world.” – Mary Anne Radmacher

The world: Salwa; Debbie; Ben; Isaac; Jackson; Peopletrip; bereaved; tgeriatrix; woollymuses; Amy; Tina; restlessJo; Kritika

Sprachgefühl

Sprachgefühl (noun) Origin: German | A person who has the feel for a language.

This literally translates as ‘language feeling’ from compound nouns combining Sprache (language) and Gefühl (feeling). Basically, this does not only refer to a person who has a good understanding of foreign languages but also to a person who has intuitiveness for what is linguistically appropriate.

The truth is, I have no real understanding of foreign languages.  I do have a good understanding and am very intuitive to what people are saying, meaning, or wanting though. I’m perceptive to the needs of others.  Not always accommodating but very perceptive to what they want or need.

I have taken both Spanish and Nepali courses for work.  Nepali was easier for me because it was completely not logical and did not even use the U.S. alphabet but an easier form of Hindi.  I was also able to learn the Korean alphabet when I was in Korea. However, the Spanish language was and continues to be a struggle for me.  There is something about learning a very hard language that makes the teachers a little more forgiving and makes the learning more memorable.  

As you can see, I was a very diligent student.  However, few of the measures I took helped me learn the language.  I just do not have a mind for this type of thing.  I enjoyed the role playing, the music, the movies and I could always get the gist.  But the memorizing of nonsensical words in nonsensical sentences didn’t help me at all.  It was exhausting.

After 7 months of Spanish, a few weeks in Ecuador in a language program, and many folks doing their best to help me out, I was still confusing past, present, future, imperative, gender, words in general.  I think because Spanish is everywhere and you can make out so many of the words, i felt it would be so much easier.

For me it was not.  I cannot tell you how many times I would be telling someone a story about my childhood in Spanish, and the person would look at me and say, “Wait, me?  Wait, you?  Wait, who are you talking about?”  My feelings were that if you did not understand me completely, you should at least understand if you or I had done something.. work it out man.  When i tell you a story about being attacked by a seal…. do you really have to ask “who” was attacked by a seal? I mean, unless you were actually attacked by a seal then yes, that is a great question.  Anyways.  

Once I completed my language classes, I completely enjoyed every country I visited.  I loved being able to even partially communicate in any of the languages of the countries I visited.  It completely changed the travel experience. 

Also, even though I did not quite know all the words, I was able to tell jokes, laugh at jokes, sing along, and carry on broken conversations with just about anyone. I think that having a “feel” for a language is sometimes more important than to be able to speak it perfectly.  Sadly my bosses do not always agree with my philosophy .. and sure they are at least partly right.  I do know that I had fun and I do know that people had fun with me and sometimes at my expense for my communication errors.  In my world, that means total success.

I have been to many countries at this point and in many of the countries I never spoke the language at all.  I think if you looked at all of the pictures below, you would not be able to know which countries I understood and spoke the languages and which ones I did not.  For me, the understanding came with the smiles.  It came with laughing over common states of being.  It came from eating and drinking the same food and realizing that we all had some of the same joys and some of the same sadnesses. 

I am definitely classifiable as a Sprachgefühl … if that is even a classifiable state of being.  See, not even sure if this is a real word, but you feel me, right?

Nepal

Korea

India

Ghana

Someone isn’t happy – Caracas

Cambodia

Nepal

Nigeria

Venezuela

Nigeria

Nepal

Nepal

beautiful happy children in Cambodia

Korea

Nepal

Cambodia

Egypt

Cambodia

Themed happy hour with Adopted son – Caracas

Venezuela

Korea

Egypt

Nepal

Egypt

Korea

what does the dog say?   Rochelle; Ibonoco; varnika; Rosie; Troy; Debasis; Jim; Rebecca; helen; annette; libertatemamo; albigensia; Cherie; suzanne

Peripatetic

Peripatetic (noun) Origin: Greek | peri·pa·tet·ic A person who spends his time wandering.

If there is a word that most describes me, it would be this word.  I AM a peripatetic.  I started my life as one and I believe that is how it will end.

I have mentioned this several times, but from the time I was a very small child. I read books on travel and adventure.  From the wild west to space exploration.  I loved the idea of being anywhere and everywhere.  I loved all things related to magic, space, the future, the past, immortality, and any form of travel, survival, and escape.

My first attempts at travel (meandering and wandering throughout the world), were simple road trips close to home.  I’m not sure why my mom and dad allowed me to drive from Spokane to Shelby at 16, by myself, through a mountainous, and over a sometimes dangerous highway.  But they did, so I did. Meh, it was the 80s.  I’m still alive.

My best friend in high school was also game for wandering here and there. I think we started in what appears to be the 1800s?

We wandered by car, dance, skiing, and apparently a bit of cannibalism.  At 17, both of our parents allowed us to drive from Spokane to Seattle and off into Canada. Again, it was the 80s and meh.. we are both still alive..

I have wandered with friends, cousins, kids, and whoever else was game.  I have wandered by train, plane, moto bike, bicycle, boat, balloon, parachute, hashing, hiking, tram, subway, slide, skeleton, camel, elephant, my daughter’s back, and car (just to name a few modes of maneuver).

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My favorite wanderings were by car, followed super closely by train.  I love seeing new things ahead of me but also love seeing what I’m leaving behind in my rearview mirror.

There is something magical about wandering across the U.S. and other countries by car that is difficult to replicate.  One of the beautiful things is when you are in a car is that everything is directly in front of you.  Sometimes it is annoying (heavy traffic) and other times, it simply takes your breath away.

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You are going slow enough to really see things.  If you see something you like, you can stop and take a photo, interact with the actors in this flick that you have just created.  You can experience your surroundings in any way you choose.  Admittedly, sometimes it can be terrifying and sometimes you feel like you have been taken hostage, or you have taken your passengers hostage!! I’m delighted to say that both of my daughters have developed a love of wandering as well.  I personally feel that the many wanderings we have made, have drawn us closer than nearly anything else we have done in our lives.  We have this expansion that has happened in our heads that can never be reduced or taken away.

The same goes for walking.  When you hike or walk, you are in the thick of it. You can be invisible and interact or you can simply pass through.  I think so many people miss the purpose of travel because they are constantly flying from here to there, simply to get there.  Dude!!! For me it’s the journey.

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“I am not the same, having seen the moon shine on the other side of the world.” – Mary Anne Radmacher

Wanderings: mousumi; fanny; srikanth; islandtraveler; dave; janny; sonofasailor; alec; ab; artsyfartsy; karen; Gary; laura; geekyhooker; Ruth

Doorways

New Delhi, India

 

Cappadocia Turkey

Seoul, Korea

Other Doors

• Paths Unwritten
• Tvor Travels
• Eclipse of the moon
• Naomi
• Mama Cormier
• Anewlifewandering
• Le Drake Noir