Eudaimonia

Eudaimonia (noun) Origin: Greek | U·de·‘mOn·E·a  The contented happy state you feel when you travel.

“It isn’t what you have or who you are or where you are or what you are doing that makes you happy or unhappy. It is what you think about it.”
― Dale Carnegie

When I travel, I am able to stop thinking about myself. I am able to remove myself from the daily grind.  All thoughts of work, stress, anxiety, irritations, etc. fly out the window.

I feel happy walking anonymously through cities and the countryside.  Watching people, talking to strangers, viewing normal folks doing normal things. 

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.” –Mark Twain

I love imagining what they are thinking and how they got to where they are.  I love even more the realization that no matter where I am, I am no different than the people I meet are in regards to the basics of life.  

My to-do list for today:
– Count my blessings
– Practice kindness
– Let go of what I can’t control
– Listen to my heart
– Be productive yet calm
– Just breathe

These things make me happy.  These things put everything in my world back into perspective and help me balance myself. I let go of my expectations on others, but even more importantly, I let go of the expectations I have put upon myself.  Traveling is how I learn to breathe again.

“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

contented travelers: tgeriatrix; salwa; aletta; sustainabilitea; sue; chris; rarasaur; nancy; woollymuses; david; coreen; cauldrons

Vemödalen

 (noun) Origin: Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows | The frustration of photographing something amazing when thousands of identical photos already exist.

“The frustration of photographing something amazing when thousands of identical photos already exist — the same sunset, the same waterfall — which can turn a unique subject into something hollow and pulpy and cheap.”

ETYMOLOGY: From the Swedish word vemod which means “tender sadness, pensive melancholy” and then combined with Vemdalen, the name of a Swedish town. Swedish place names are the source of IKEA’s product names — the original metaphor for this idea was that these clichéd photos are a kind of prefabricated furniture that you happen to have built yourself.

“Your first 10,000 photographs are your worst.” — Henri Cartier-Bresson

Kathmandu,NepalCape Town S.A from helicopter

Famous Places: Lookoom; Danee; Sidd; pedmar; marta; streets; sarah; crossings; littlemiss; PCOS; roberta; Salsa; Monkeystale

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

Yūgen

Yūgen (n.) – Origin: Japanese – Definition: An awareness of the universe that triggers emotional responses too deep and mysterious for words.

I try to honestly and emphatically embrace the mysteries that surround me.  I usually prefer  taking photos of people.  I love to look back on them and wonder what they were thinking.  If they were happy or sad or just sitting there empty minded in a way that I rarely find myself in.  However, sometimes I will catch an image of an object or place that will trigger in me an emotional response that is very difficult to put into words. When i look back on these photos, i can distinctly remember the silence, the heat, the cold, the dampness, and sometimes the awe of that moment.

I don’t know if these images created an awareness of the universe, but they definitely made me feel.

There are two ways to live: you can live as if nothing is a miracle; you can live as if everything is a miracle. The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt is awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed.

Albert Einstein

Yugen – Chowdhury; Annette; ametalk; nust: suparna; Homepaddock

Sonder

Sonder (v.) – Origin: French –Definition: The realization that each random passer-by is living a life as vivid and complex as your own.

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Politics, beautiful, COVID19, healing, calm, social distancing, riots, fabulous, discrimination, genious, handsome, hate, bias, family, war, right, wrong, disruptions, harmony, crimes, laughter, tears, jokes, clothing, hair, style, marriage, divorce, food, life, death, laws, belief.  So many words.  So many connotations.

There are two statements about human beings that are true: that all human beings are alike, and that all are different. On those two facts all human wisdom is founded. – Mark Van Doren

Sometimes in our haste and hurry or our excitement to see and share, we sometimes forget that everywhere we go and everything we see is full of similar souls who are seeing and sharing and hurrying around and who are exactly like we are.  Exactly.. like…we…are!

No two people see the world exactly alike, and different temperaments will often apply the same principle, recognized by both, differently. Even one and the same person won’t always maintain the same views and judgments: earlier convictions must give way to later ones.

– Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

More alike than different: Shannon; Sara; Richard; Karl; uncover; humanfamily; Isadora; respect