Tag Archives: adventure
A newer world
…Come, my friends, ‘Tis not too late to seek a newer world. — Alfred, Lord Tennyson Our new year is nearly two months gone, and many who made resolutions may have already abandoned them or altered them to fit reality. Still, it is never too late to keep reaching upward to higher aspirations for ourselves, our …
Only an adventure
“An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered.” ― G.K. Chesterton I must admit, it’s a bit of a stretch for me to consider most of what we call inconveniences as adventures. Being stuck in traffic? Waiting two hours for a doctors appointment? Having a flight cancelled …
That’s when you start
“…when you realize that the story of your life could be told a thousand different ways, that you could tell it over and over as a tragedy, but you choose to call it an epic, that’s when you start to learn what celebration is.” — Shauna Niequist Let me guess: your life is fantastic, a …
Not actually alone
“There are only two things I like to do alone: reading and traveling, and for the same reason. When you travel, and when you read, you are not actually alone, but rather surrounded by other worlds entirely, the footsteps and phrases of whole other lives keeping you company as you go.” — Shauna Niequist There’s …
Wherever I went
“I had always believed that I left a bit of me wherever I went. I also believed that I took a bit of every place with me…And the only possible explanation I could find for that feeling was that a spirit existed in many of the places I visited, and a spirit existed in me …
To look ahead
“A story has no beginning or end: arbitrarily one chooses that moment of experience from which to look back or from which to look ahead.”― Graham Greene “Be willing to be a beginner every single morning.” ― Meister Eckhart Today is my 700th daily post, and that number rather amazes me. Nearly two years ago, …
Tickled silly
“Optimist: someone who isn’t sure whether life is a tragedy or a comedy but is tickled silly just to be in the play.” — Robert Brault One year ago I wrote about my precious Aunt Peggy, who has survived things that might have left less optimistic people feeling bitter. Peggy is one of those people …
Out there, waiting
“They say no land remains to be discovered, no continent is left unexplored. But the whole world is out there, waiting, just waiting for me…” ― Lisa Ann Sandell There’s a popular saying about never being able to step into the same river twice, presumably because the river is ever-changing. If so, we can never …
Beautiful and terrible
“Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don’t be afraid.” ― Frederick Buechner That’s it in a nutshell, isn’t it? It might seem contradictory to affirm that terrible things will happen, yet advise against fear. But I think there is a difference between feeling fear occasionally (or even often) versus being afraid. …
You do not need to know
“You do not need to know precisely what is happening, or exactly where it is all going. What you need is to recognize the possibilities and challenges offered by the present moment, and to embrace them with courage, faith and hope.” ― Thomas Merton When a frightening situation arises, my first impulse is to try …
Open arms
“A library should be like a pair of open arms.” ― Roger Rosenblatt “So why on earth would you take an eight-month-old baby to a library?” my mother asked me, when I told her how Matt and I had spent the previous day with Grady. As a retired librarian who specialized in youth services, I …
A new kind of action
“The defense force inside of us wants us to be cautious, to stay away from anything as intense as a new kind of action. Its job is to protect us, and it categorically avoids anything resembling danger. But it is often wrong.” – Barbara Sher I don’t know about you, but just looking at the …
Courage is about doing
“Courage is about doing what you’re afraid to do. There can be no courage unless you’re scared.” — Eddie Rickenbacker “Rickenbacker had learned to manage fear. It was one of the main reasons for his success…Eddie had acclimated himself to that great numbing terror of flying into a fray where it was nearly certain someone …
Rivers are roads
“Rivers are roads that move.” — Blaise Pascal I’ve always been fascinated by maps; I could literally sit and study them for hours. One of the first things I noticed as a child, when I would look at maps, is how the cities of America seemed to cluster along rivers and coasts. There’s a logical …
Ultimately worthwhile
“Anything I’ve ever done that ultimately was worthwhile…initially scared me to death.” — Betty Bender In most ways I’m a cautious person, riddled with anxieties about all sorts of things, but some people get a false impression that I am bold or daring. I think this is because certain traits that run strongly in me …
The true traveler
“The true traveler is he who goes on foot, and even then, he sits down a lot of the time.” — Colette Of all the reasons I love walking, travel may be the most lasting. I have done a good bit of traveling since I was a girl, and as far back as I can …
A palace untouched
“A palace untouched by human hand, with its gardens of rock and water where living creatures play the part of flowers…” — Philippe Diole Reading descriptions of the form and function of the sea anemone brings to mind horror movies or frightful science fiction. “Venom-filled tentacles…harpoon-like filament…paralyzing neurotoxin…helpless prey.” Really? But look how beautiful they are. …
The familiar exotic
“Make the familiar exotic; the exotic familiar.” — Bharati Mukherjee I’m pretty good at making the exotic familiar, or at least trying. When Jeff and I travel, we tend to avoid the tourist routes and go to places where the locals are: public transportation, grocery stores, municipal libraries. The more intriguing a city is, the more I am determined …
As often as not
“We are torn between nostalgia for the familiar and an urge for the foreign and strange. As often as not, we are homesick most for the places we have never known.” ― Carson McCullers The older I get, the harder travel seems to become. I don’t know if that’s due to changes in the industry …
All serious daring
“A sheltered life can be a daring life as well. For all serious daring starts from within.” — Eudora Welty By most standards, I have lived a very sheltered life. I don’t regret it. I’ve had a lot of interesting experiences, traveled widely and read extensively, but I also have had the luxury of being …
See from a bike
“It is curious that with the advent of the automobile and the airplane, the bicycle is still with us. Perhaps people like the world they can see from a bike…without leaving behind clouds of choking exhaust, without leaving behind so much as a footstep.” — Gurdon S. Leete While I was in Oxford, I found …
A newer world
…Come, my friends, ‘Tis not too late to seek a newer world. — Alfred, Lord Tennyson Our new year is nearly two months gone, and many who made resolutions may have already abandoned them or altered them to fit reality. Still, it is never too late to keep reaching upward to higher aspirations for ourselves, our …
Only an adventure
“An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered.” ― G.K. Chesterton I must admit, it’s a bit of a stretch for me to consider most of what we call inconveniences as adventures. Being stuck in traffic? Waiting two hours for a doctors appointment? Having a flight cancelled …
That’s when you start
“…when you realize that the story of your life could be told a thousand different ways, that you could tell it over and over as a tragedy, but you choose to call it an epic, that’s when you start to learn what celebration is.” — Shauna Niequist Let me guess: your life is fantastic, a …
Not actually alone
“There are only two things I like to do alone: reading and traveling, and for the same reason. When you travel, and when you read, you are not actually alone, but rather surrounded by other worlds entirely, the footsteps and phrases of whole other lives keeping you company as you go.” — Shauna Niequist There’s …
Defeat Despair 