Okay. It's Official.
It only took me a couple days to decide, but I'm starting a secondary blog for the India trip. Today was the "launch" if you will of the India blog. I danced around with name and formatting for awhile and finally got an intro post up for you! Feel free to saunter over to Lyndia's India for a full explanation.
Oh and do share this link with anyone who might be interested in living vicariously through this little experience of mine.
p.s. the actual url for Lyndia's India is www.LyndiaIndia.blogspot.com I didn't do the "s" because I think it looks funny...
Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
Friday, January 7
Wednesday, January 5
introduction to JOALT
JOALT - I could back-ronym that for you but it's actually a bit of a jolt in a way so I will call it that for short. The Journey of A LifeTime (or JOALT) is my next phase. It's a 3 month trip to India and is so highly anticipated by me that I can't even describe it. The simultaneous thrilling delight and mild-terror of the unknown is quite amazing. No matter what way I slice it... this is very blog-worthy! In the last few weeks with holidays and "real life" and travel plans but I got so excited and involved in the preparations I've not thought about it much further.
A dear friend of mine, just recently, reminded me of this blog component. She made the most convincing argument in only seven words. In response to her almost-rhetorical question she said "you should call it Lyndia In India." Oh Man!! Did I ever dig that idea! But I'm not so sure if a solo blog for that would negate my ability to post anything here (given time constraints etc.)
So I will consider a little while longer. But the more I contemplate that stellar title the more I can't resist! Perhaps the wonder-bits & poems can also be copied to Tourist Candy too...
I'm open to feedback though!
A dear friend of mine, just recently, reminded me of this blog component. She made the most convincing argument in only seven words. In response to her almost-rhetorical question she said "you should call it Lyndia In India." Oh Man!! Did I ever dig that idea! But I'm not so sure if a solo blog for that would negate my ability to post anything here (given time constraints etc.)
So I will consider a little while longer. But the more I contemplate that stellar title the more I can't resist! Perhaps the wonder-bits & poems can also be copied to Tourist Candy too...
I'm open to feedback though!
Tuesday, January 4
Past Pictures for Poems
As I prepare for my journey of a lifetime I am not only preparing for the future but looking back into the past. Right now I happened to be at all the pictures I've taken while on trips, travel and vacation (all of which I consider slightly different). I realized most I haven't really done anything with or even shown to anyone! This shocked me and made me wonder. So, since I wondered... I thought it could be a blog post since that is just what this blog project is supposed to be about.
My wonder quickly led me to picking a few pictures to poem-ize and try to capture the image in less than the stereotypical number of words it's worth (1000 right?) but then also to let both try to take that past place with me in the future. Here goes...
My wonder quickly led me to picking a few pictures to poem-ize and try to capture the image in less than the stereotypical number of words it's worth (1000 right?) but then also to let both try to take that past place with me in the future. Here goes...
 | ||||||||||
| White. Flower. Sky |
White. Flower. Sky
Remember if you made me cry?
Didn't. Should have.
Astounded I.
Wanderlust led down evening's alleys
Dreamlike scenes drown in white wash galleries
Arrival night
then blooms light.
Surprises hourly
charmed and flowery.
Never locked-in
as tears unshed
but free through
infinity blue
that sky over-head.
poem and picture by LyndiaP January 4, 2011 and October 2010 respectively
Wednesday, December 22
to Travel or not to Travel...
reverb10.com Prompt: Travel.
How did you travel in 2010? How and/or where would you like to travel next year?
Ah travel... something I am quite fond of and generally "a regular" so to speak. With 2009 having been the year of the airplane I made sure 2010 was a bit more environmentally friendly. I did a lot more bus travel, a great train trip and on the more-fossil-fuel side of things - some driving. I stayed in my own region of Canada (except for the one flight across the continent) and even explored my own province a bit with a "writing road trip" where I made a 2 hour trip into a 7.5 hour exercise in curiosity.
For 2011, I feel the return of the jet plane. I should probably buy some carbon credits or something since it's not the most direct of journeys... but I will be off to India for a good chunk of winter from February to mid-April (so January's blog is likely to have a lot of travel preparations!) and then a pit stop in Germany for 10 days. For many people that might be enough travel for awhile... but no, I hope to get at least three more trips in! Another big one: Ireland. And via Ireland Scotland, England/Wales, and if I can hack it - some year-end holiday in Portugal or Spain.... but that one's still in the "dreaming" phase.
I'm all vaccinated up and await my first visa of 2011 - away I go!!!
How did you travel in 2010? How and/or where would you like to travel next year?
Ah travel... something I am quite fond of and generally "a regular" so to speak. With 2009 having been the year of the airplane I made sure 2010 was a bit more environmentally friendly. I did a lot more bus travel, a great train trip and on the more-fossil-fuel side of things - some driving. I stayed in my own region of Canada (except for the one flight across the continent) and even explored my own province a bit with a "writing road trip" where I made a 2 hour trip into a 7.5 hour exercise in curiosity.
For 2011, I feel the return of the jet plane. I should probably buy some carbon credits or something since it's not the most direct of journeys... but I will be off to India for a good chunk of winter from February to mid-April (so January's blog is likely to have a lot of travel preparations!) and then a pit stop in Germany for 10 days. For many people that might be enough travel for awhile... but no, I hope to get at least three more trips in! Another big one: Ireland. And via Ireland Scotland, England/Wales, and if I can hack it - some year-end holiday in Portugal or Spain.... but that one's still in the "dreaming" phase.
I'm all vaccinated up and await my first visa of 2011 - away I go!!!
Friday, December 17
Aaand action! (December 13)
One more #reverb10 prompt today (I said I'd catch up!!) This one is from the 13th.
"When it comes to aspirations, it's not about ideas. It's about making ideas happen. What's your next step?"
Just one?? How about five?
Well, I've had the idea of getting a Masters degree since I was 12 years old so having put in all my applications to my top three program choices this month feels like a solid step!
Steps two through four? Finally heading on my journey of a lifetime. Another "since I was very young" dream. When I realized my name, Lyndia, rhymed with India I was interested. After some travel experience, undergrad courses and personal research... sub-continent here I come! I've got the ticket and the visa and the vaccinations so I feel that was no less than three steps.
Step 5? Quit my "good job in a bad economy" to make sure I could get all I could of it so THREE MONTHS in India... here I come.
Is that enough? In the next three days I'll be officially dumping my beloved... downtown apartment. Journey of a lifetime...aaaaand Action!
"When it comes to aspirations, it's not about ideas. It's about making ideas happen. What's your next step?"
Just one?? How about five?
Well, I've had the idea of getting a Masters degree since I was 12 years old so having put in all my applications to my top three program choices this month feels like a solid step!
Steps two through four? Finally heading on my journey of a lifetime. Another "since I was very young" dream. When I realized my name, Lyndia, rhymed with India I was interested. After some travel experience, undergrad courses and personal research... sub-continent here I come! I've got the ticket and the visa and the vaccinations so I feel that was no less than three steps.
Step 5? Quit my "good job in a bad economy" to make sure I could get all I could of it so THREE MONTHS in India... here I come.
Is that enough? In the next three days I'll be officially dumping my beloved... downtown apartment. Journey of a lifetime...aaaaand Action!
Saturday, October 23
100 Wonders
There are all kinds of lists of things "you should" do or read or go or eat or listen to or learn about etc, etc, etc. I've always wanted to have a whole list of one hundred accomplished in my life but it only just occurred to me that quite likely I already DO have my own!
So should anyone out there want to live as I have (at least 100 experiences worth) here is my "already accomplished" list:
1) build a stereo cabinet
2) bake yeast bread
3) walk on the Great Wall of China
4) join a floor hockey team
5) learn how to install a toilet
6) make a mosaic table top
7) bike over 60km in one day to surprise parents
8) write a poem a day
9) eat duck's tongue
10) go up the Eiffel Tower to catch a daylight view, sunset and night scape of Paris
11) take a Spanish class for fun
12) get an asymmetrical amount of ear piercings
13) take a solo road trip to visit a grandparent
14) eat Cuban food in Panama City with three strangers from another country
15) read a French (translated to English) novel on a train in central China
16) make 14 varieties of homemade chocolates in one day
17) compare bagels in Montreal
18) eat gelato in Italy seven times in six days
19) learn how to weld
20) develop photographs in a dark room
21) sleep in a cave hostel in Cappadocia, Turkey
22) perform the national anthem at the beginning of an event
23) pitch your softball team into the finals
24) run a 5km race for charity (in a festive costume)
25) learn how to manage a website (at a basic level)
26) read your own poetry in public
27) teach senior citizens how to build and paint a birdhouse
28) go tobogganing in the Canadian prairies
29) crochet multiple afghans
30) donate baking to a political cause
31) write letters to your elected officials over educational, foreign and environmental affairs
32) eat without seeing (all dark restaurant)
33) perform at your high school graduation
34) steal tea from a hotel in London England
35) tour the Lourve, House of Terror and Umbrella Cover & new Acropolis museums
36) volunteer at a hospital, elementary school and an outdoor music festival
37) read 32 books in 365 days
38) be a radio DJ
39) see a performance of The Phantom of the Opera
40) do yoga on Vancouver Island, in a library, at a park and in a theatre under renovations
41) go on a photo safari
42) eat dessert for breakfast in Greece
43) take a kid to see their first play
44) go scuba diving in the Caribbean Ocean without lessons
45) sing in a choir festival in British Columbia
46) go jogging in New York City
47) take a train through the Canadian Rockies
48) honour history and the lives lost in the Holocaust by visiting a concentration camp
49) marvel at the Rhine, Vlalta, Danube and Yangtze rivers
50) drink red wine while gazing into the Trevi Fountain
51) go to Strasbourg (as a friend put it "it's always open")
52) go bridge jumping (but don't say I told you)
53) see the Grand Canyon
54) eat Goulash in Hungary
55) take a self portrait on the border of Europe/Asia, Saskatchewan/Manitoba & the Netherlands/Belgium
56) glimpse a giant gator, buzzard and manatee in Florida
57) get a slurpee or fast food in a prom dress
58) DJ a wedding
59) be interviewed by local news media at a jazz festival in Panama
60) take a painting class then go home and paint without rules, abandon or purpose
61) replace the end of your extension cord
62) go 'speed dating' in a foreign language
63) take a cooking class in another country
64) appreciate the 'public art' in airports (Chicago O'Hare, Houston International, etc)
65) sing karaoke on a Chinese tour bus
66) submit a short story and/or photographs to a contest
67) cross the Charles, Brooklyn and Bosphorus bridges
68) have an indoor picnic in an unseasonal snow storm
69) go on a spontaneous road trip with only the clothes on your back (& your wallet)
70) be amazed at all the action on the Las Vegas strip
71) ride the roller coaster at a town fair in Alberta
72) eat fresh lobster in Maine
73) witness the natural wonder of Old Faithful
74) visit Writing-On-Stone park and climb in the hoodoos
75) watch street performers in Munich, Edmonton and Prague
76) tell folktales of the world to classes of preschool to seventh grade students
77) take an online writing course
78) prepare butter chicken from scratch
79) decorate you cubicle/office/workplace for an obscure holiday
80) be a part of a human pyramid
81) participate in inter-generational bowling
82) make your own cosmetics, jam and shower cleaner
83) host a BBQ for 150 people
84) sew a piece of clothing
85) don't purchase any clothing for 8 months
86) make masquerade masks and go to a masquerade party on New Year's Eve
87) go on a four-block holiday and tour your own neighbourhood
88) help conduct your country's census
89) take a hula hoop lesson
90) learn to prepare the traditional cuisine of your ethnic/cultural/religious background
91) kick a field goal
92) go to a Turkish bath
93) sleep under dinosaur fossils in a museum
94) read in a hammock near the equator
95) host a costume/Halloween party
96) get a tattoo
97) burn a bra (for art's sake of course)
98) paddle in a dragonboat team
99) take percussion lessons
100) plant an urban garden in your flower beds
101) make your own darn list of 100 wonderful things you've done & celebrate your life
Feel free to share some here too!
So should anyone out there want to live as I have (at least 100 experiences worth) here is my "already accomplished" list:
1) build a stereo cabinet
2) bake yeast bread
3) walk on the Great Wall of China
4) join a floor hockey team
5) learn how to install a toilet
6) make a mosaic table top
7) bike over 60km in one day to surprise parents
8) write a poem a day
9) eat duck's tongue
10) go up the Eiffel Tower to catch a daylight view, sunset and night scape of Paris
11) take a Spanish class for fun
12) get an asymmetrical amount of ear piercings
13) take a solo road trip to visit a grandparent
14) eat Cuban food in Panama City with three strangers from another country
15) read a French (translated to English) novel on a train in central China
16) make 14 varieties of homemade chocolates in one day
17) compare bagels in Montreal
18) eat gelato in Italy seven times in six days
19) learn how to weld
20) develop photographs in a dark room
21) sleep in a cave hostel in Cappadocia, Turkey
22) perform the national anthem at the beginning of an event
23) pitch your softball team into the finals
24) run a 5km race for charity (in a festive costume)
25) learn how to manage a website (at a basic level)
26) read your own poetry in public
27) teach senior citizens how to build and paint a birdhouse
28) go tobogganing in the Canadian prairies
29) crochet multiple afghans
30) donate baking to a political cause
31) write letters to your elected officials over educational, foreign and environmental affairs
32) eat without seeing (all dark restaurant)
33) perform at your high school graduation
34) steal tea from a hotel in London England
35) tour the Lourve, House of Terror and Umbrella Cover & new Acropolis museums
36) volunteer at a hospital, elementary school and an outdoor music festival
37) read 32 books in 365 days
38) be a radio DJ
39) see a performance of The Phantom of the Opera
40) do yoga on Vancouver Island, in a library, at a park and in a theatre under renovations
41) go on a photo safari
42) eat dessert for breakfast in Greece
43) take a kid to see their first play
44) go scuba diving in the Caribbean Ocean without lessons
45) sing in a choir festival in British Columbia
46) go jogging in New York City
47) take a train through the Canadian Rockies
48) honour history and the lives lost in the Holocaust by visiting a concentration camp
49) marvel at the Rhine, Vlalta, Danube and Yangtze rivers
50) drink red wine while gazing into the Trevi Fountain
51) go to Strasbourg (as a friend put it "it's always open")
52) go bridge jumping (but don't say I told you)
53) see the Grand Canyon
54) eat Goulash in Hungary
55) take a self portrait on the border of Europe/Asia, Saskatchewan/Manitoba & the Netherlands/Belgium
56) glimpse a giant gator, buzzard and manatee in Florida
57) get a slurpee or fast food in a prom dress
58) DJ a wedding
59) be interviewed by local news media at a jazz festival in Panama
60) take a painting class then go home and paint without rules, abandon or purpose
61) replace the end of your extension cord
62) go 'speed dating' in a foreign language
63) take a cooking class in another country
64) appreciate the 'public art' in airports (Chicago O'Hare, Houston International, etc)
65) sing karaoke on a Chinese tour bus
66) submit a short story and/or photographs to a contest
67) cross the Charles, Brooklyn and Bosphorus bridges
68) have an indoor picnic in an unseasonal snow storm
69) go on a spontaneous road trip with only the clothes on your back (& your wallet)
70) be amazed at all the action on the Las Vegas strip
71) ride the roller coaster at a town fair in Alberta
72) eat fresh lobster in Maine
73) witness the natural wonder of Old Faithful
74) visit Writing-On-Stone park and climb in the hoodoos
75) watch street performers in Munich, Edmonton and Prague
76) tell folktales of the world to classes of preschool to seventh grade students
77) take an online writing course
78) prepare butter chicken from scratch
79) decorate you cubicle/office/workplace for an obscure holiday
80) be a part of a human pyramid
81) participate in inter-generational bowling
82) make your own cosmetics, jam and shower cleaner
83) host a BBQ for 150 people
84) sew a piece of clothing
85) don't purchase any clothing for 8 months
86) make masquerade masks and go to a masquerade party on New Year's Eve
87) go on a four-block holiday and tour your own neighbourhood
88) help conduct your country's census
89) take a hula hoop lesson
90) learn to prepare the traditional cuisine of your ethnic/cultural/religious background
91) kick a field goal
92) go to a Turkish bath
93) sleep under dinosaur fossils in a museum
94) read in a hammock near the equator
95) host a costume/Halloween party
96) get a tattoo
97) burn a bra (for art's sake of course)
98) paddle in a dragonboat team
99) take percussion lessons
100) plant an urban garden in your flower beds
101) make your own darn list of 100 wonderful things you've done & celebrate your life
Feel free to share some here too!
Wednesday, October 13
Words + Worlds = Wor(l)ds
Again more reading excitement, thrills and chills (minus the chills and maybe even the thrills, but I have always wanted to make reference to the "thrills and chills" of something).
I am excited to share more of my favourite books on Flashlight Worthy! If you're looking for something to celebrate Persons Day on October 18** (another Canadian Holiday, but this time observed not statutory) that celebrates Alberta's Famous Five (women who brought about significant legal change for the rights of women in Canada including making the case for women's suffrage).. try this list of great books by women authors who help take the stressful moving, reserving and planning out of travel!
Anyone else with favourite books they want to share? I always love a good suggestion and I love a great suggestion even more!
**on another note... should you be in Alberta on October 18th it's also the day to vote in municipal elections. Check out your town or city for candidates and polling stations. If I have to pull out my soapbox it's gonna be to get people to do their democratic duty - be an informed citizen! (and then read some great books)
I am excited to share more of my favourite books on Flashlight Worthy! If you're looking for something to celebrate Persons Day on October 18** (another Canadian Holiday, but this time observed not statutory) that celebrates Alberta's Famous Five (women who brought about significant legal change for the rights of women in Canada including making the case for women's suffrage).. try this list of great books by women authors who help take the stressful moving, reserving and planning out of travel!
Anyone else with favourite books they want to share? I always love a good suggestion and I love a great suggestion even more!
**on another note... should you be in Alberta on October 18th it's also the day to vote in municipal elections. Check out your town or city for candidates and polling stations. If I have to pull out my soapbox it's gonna be to get people to do their democratic duty - be an informed citizen! (and then read some great books)
Friday, September 24
Autumn Valley & the Peppermint Lady
Welcoming autumn with a bit of dismay these past two weeks or so, I was nearly overjoyed at the prospect of a warm, sunny, Friday, off-of-work afternoon. I didn't even mind the inconsiderate car that tried to run me and two colleagues off the road or the futile, frustratingly poorly timed traffic lights or the second-hand smoke wafting into my lungs and slowly killing me (ok, so I minded the smoke part). However it was The. Most. Glorious! walk home EVER (in September).
Normally uninspired by such things as being overdressed in the blazing sun I was euphoric (and already mildly sweaty) thus concluded I'd go for a last-of-the-season jog. I changed my clothes and laced up the sneakers (after digging them out from under all the sensible fall boots I'd already moved to the front row of my closet).
Since it was not a national holiday and still before 2pm I had the trail virtually to myself. To avoid the preemptive rush-hour assault I veered down a side street and into the river valley.
I had already determined that this jog was not a last ditch effort for summer weight loss (plus I had just read an article that concluded exercise, unless it's over 250 minutes per week of the most intense variety, doesn't actually contribute much to pound-shedding type goals...apparently the tried and true method of 'skipping dessert' is much more effective - who knew?!) rather this jog was to be an experience of the Great Outdoors (Urban Edition).
And Great it was. I may (or may not) be the sentimental type, but I nearly shed a tear when I descended into the river valley. (Sentimental fool!) There before me was an effortless and untarnishable beauty that made silly things like diamonds & Mona Lisas look like a disorganized cutlery drawer.
I am not one for waxing poetic (but am in fact the poetic type) but this was a thing to gush about! Innocent blue skies brushed with good-natured clouds to set a backdrop of beauty, both striking and humble, for the jovial colours dotted throughout the still-green tree tops like some kind of practical joke in artistry.
Obviously I considered taking a photograph, but I have learned through many a soul-crushing trial, that often times the most touchingly beautiful things cannot be captured justly on 'film' (aka. in megapixels).
I think one of my fondest travel memories from when I was in China was an instant in Beijing where we emerged from an underground mall via escalator into a sparsely populated square (by local standards) festively lit and just settling into its dusk colored dress. It was so magical that I surely had to capture the moment...and alas my camera batteries had other plans. So by the time I'd swapped in the new double AAs, the place was behind us an out of my potential photo portfolio forever.
I lamented that missed opportunity a lot after I returned home and reflected on everything. Every time I remembered the trip I wished I could show people this magical beauty that I experienced...until one day I realized that the picture I was holding in my mind was far more beautiful than that square ever really was - and I would probably be heartily disappointed if I (ever) were to return even at the exact moment and in the exact conditions.
It was then that I realized that there was an integral difference between pictorial and memory form - my memory never contradicted the increasingly grandiose beauty I bestowed upon that little Chinese plaza.
It made me glad to have forgotten my camera, really! So now I hope to start building my memory files instead of just my JPGs... and I hope others have some similar memories too!
But wait, crap! I was so enthralled in the beauty if autumn and the memories of foreign places I forgot to mention The Peppermint Lady.
Next time. Next time.
Normally uninspired by such things as being overdressed in the blazing sun I was euphoric (and already mildly sweaty) thus concluded I'd go for a last-of-the-season jog. I changed my clothes and laced up the sneakers (after digging them out from under all the sensible fall boots I'd already moved to the front row of my closet).
Since it was not a national holiday and still before 2pm I had the trail virtually to myself. To avoid the preemptive rush-hour assault I veered down a side street and into the river valley.
I had already determined that this jog was not a last ditch effort for summer weight loss (plus I had just read an article that concluded exercise, unless it's over 250 minutes per week of the most intense variety, doesn't actually contribute much to pound-shedding type goals...apparently the tried and true method of 'skipping dessert' is much more effective - who knew?!) rather this jog was to be an experience of the Great Outdoors (Urban Edition).
And Great it was. I may (or may not) be the sentimental type, but I nearly shed a tear when I descended into the river valley. (Sentimental fool!) There before me was an effortless and untarnishable beauty that made silly things like diamonds & Mona Lisas look like a disorganized cutlery drawer.
I am not one for waxing poetic (but am in fact the poetic type) but this was a thing to gush about! Innocent blue skies brushed with good-natured clouds to set a backdrop of beauty, both striking and humble, for the jovial colours dotted throughout the still-green tree tops like some kind of practical joke in artistry.
Obviously I considered taking a photograph, but I have learned through many a soul-crushing trial, that often times the most touchingly beautiful things cannot be captured justly on 'film' (aka. in megapixels).
I think one of my fondest travel memories from when I was in China was an instant in Beijing where we emerged from an underground mall via escalator into a sparsely populated square (by local standards) festively lit and just settling into its dusk colored dress. It was so magical that I surely had to capture the moment...and alas my camera batteries had other plans. So by the time I'd swapped in the new double AAs, the place was behind us an out of my potential photo portfolio forever.
I lamented that missed opportunity a lot after I returned home and reflected on everything. Every time I remembered the trip I wished I could show people this magical beauty that I experienced...until one day I realized that the picture I was holding in my mind was far more beautiful than that square ever really was - and I would probably be heartily disappointed if I (ever) were to return even at the exact moment and in the exact conditions.
It was then that I realized that there was an integral difference between pictorial and memory form - my memory never contradicted the increasingly grandiose beauty I bestowed upon that little Chinese plaza.
It made me glad to have forgotten my camera, really! So now I hope to start building my memory files instead of just my JPGs... and I hope others have some similar memories too!
But wait, crap! I was so enthralled in the beauty if autumn and the memories of foreign places I forgot to mention The Peppermint Lady.
Next time. Next time.
Wednesday, July 7
Urban Hiking
Okay it’s official! No one knows the difference between walking and hiking. I attended a workshop yesterday from two long-experienced hikers from a local mounteering club and it became clear that there was no distinctive, solid delineation between hiking and walking.
Don’t even bother looking on the Internet or in a Dictionary (you know, the big book that doesn’t have phone numbers it in). If you find something that looks authoritative, you’re wrong. If you have a gut feeling you know the difference… you don’t. Don’t worry, I can already tell. At BEST you are going to give your subjective personal interpretation and likely try and pull in something scientific like physical exertion rates or the gradients of the trail or path. You might think that walking is less strenuous but I have learned otherwise. Consider, this sage-like wisdom: you are only as fast as the slowest hiker. Of course, this is based on a essential arguments that you a) want to have a slowest hiker in your group and b) you want to wait for them and keep them in your group. I think the only answer to this is that, yes, OF COURSE you want a ‘slowest hiker’ in your party! It’s the only way the famished wild cat or black bear will spare you on account of YOU not being the slowest hiker of the bunch. But I digress.
Back to your feeble attempts to figure out the difference between hiking and walking. At best, all of your authoritative references are really only attempts. Yes, even for those of you with a great the up-the-side-of-a-mountain anecdote or trails with the word “hiking” in it examples. I am about to blow that all out of the water with two words: urban hiking. This is most certainly a taste of wonderful. Definitely. The premises here is that you can have all the joy and escapism of hiking with none of the costs or hassle. We all live somewhere and have to go somewhere else: so try Urban Hiking to get there. No it’s not the same as that low-culture, un-glamourous walking! I would never suggest that. This is Urban Hiking. You can discover and experience and marvel… at things you THOUGHT you saw everyday but have never really observed.
It bends your mind just a little bit and pushes you on into realms of wonderful when you move at a human pace and do so with the goal of noticing. It seems to me that if I negate everything I said up until this sentence about the non-existent definitions of walking and hiking that there is significant difference in the essence of the two activities. It is precisely our frame of mind while we are participating or anticipating them. Both walking and hiking let you move at this wonderful human-pace but only hiking instantly initiates (to the point of demanding) a heightened sense of observation and opportunities for marvelling.
Consider the last time you went on a “hike” and didn’t notice anything about the bends in the trail, how the tree roots intersected the path and whether or not there was a patch of mud or a creek blocking the path? Now try to remember the way the sidewalk looks or if there are benches or flowers between your home, say, and the grocery store. I’m not saying you can’t but there is most definitely a lack of detail or excitement, is there not? And if it’s not your walk from the market then maybe it’s some other trail. Think of all the stupid boring walks that could become treks on an average weekday! Don’t feel that you have to live in a metropolis to try Urban Hiking. You could also do Rural Hiking, Suburban Hiking or even Foreign Hiking like I alluded to earlier (for example the photo of Hikers below was taken while I was on Foreign Hike in Budapest, Hungary).
If there were rules about Urban Hiking I think there would be only two and it would be essential to follow both: 1) Observe your moments of awe and 2) No treadmills allowed. And a suggestion (but not a rule) on the pragmatic end of things (in light having both a chiropractor and massage therapist): consider your footwear options before and a light stretching routine after your Urban Hiking adventure.
Beyond that, it’s all fair game. Urban Hiking wouldn’t even need to be outdoors but I highly recommend it. Hike in your office from the board to staff meeting. Try or places in your neighbourhood, school or (dare I say it) shopping mall but do it with the same open and expectant mind that you would if you had just discovered a beautiful forest clearing in which to pitch your tent or have flown yourself to one of the Wonders of the World at great expense as if that currency was buying you wonder.
Don’t even bother looking on the Internet or in a Dictionary (you know, the big book that doesn’t have phone numbers it in). If you find something that looks authoritative, you’re wrong. If you have a gut feeling you know the difference… you don’t. Don’t worry, I can already tell. At BEST you are going to give your subjective personal interpretation and likely try and pull in something scientific like physical exertion rates or the gradients of the trail or path. You might think that walking is less strenuous but I have learned otherwise. Consider, this sage-like wisdom: you are only as fast as the slowest hiker. Of course, this is based on a essential arguments that you a) want to have a slowest hiker in your group and b) you want to wait for them and keep them in your group. I think the only answer to this is that, yes, OF COURSE you want a ‘slowest hiker’ in your party! It’s the only way the famished wild cat or black bear will spare you on account of YOU not being the slowest hiker of the bunch. But I digress.
Back to your feeble attempts to figure out the difference between hiking and walking. At best, all of your authoritative references are really only attempts. Yes, even for those of you with a great the up-the-side-of-a-mountain anecdote or trails with the word “hiking” in it examples. I am about to blow that all out of the water with two words: urban hiking. This is most certainly a taste of wonderful. Definitely. The premises here is that you can have all the joy and escapism of hiking with none of the costs or hassle. We all live somewhere and have to go somewhere else: so try Urban Hiking to get there. No it’s not the same as that low-culture, un-glamourous walking! I would never suggest that. This is Urban Hiking. You can discover and experience and marvel… at things you THOUGHT you saw everyday but have never really observed.
unofficial Urban Hiking mecca: NYC
Consider the last time you went on a “hike” and didn’t notice anything about the bends in the trail, how the tree roots intersected the path and whether or not there was a patch of mud or a creek blocking the path? Now try to remember the way the sidewalk looks or if there are benches or flowers between your home, say, and the grocery store. I’m not saying you can’t but there is most definitely a lack of detail or excitement, is there not? And if it’s not your walk from the market then maybe it’s some other trail. Think of all the stupid boring walks that could become treks on an average weekday! Don’t feel that you have to live in a metropolis to try Urban Hiking. You could also do Rural Hiking, Suburban Hiking or even Foreign Hiking like I alluded to earlier (for example the photo of Hikers below was taken while I was on Foreign Hike in Budapest, Hungary).
If there were rules about Urban Hiking I think there would be only two and it would be essential to follow both: 1) Observe your moments of awe and 2) No treadmills allowed. And a suggestion (but not a rule) on the pragmatic end of things (in light having both a chiropractor and massage therapist): consider your footwear options before and a light stretching routine after your Urban Hiking adventure.
Beyond that, it’s all fair game. Urban Hiking wouldn’t even need to be outdoors but I highly recommend it. Hike in your office from the board to staff meeting. Try or places in your neighbourhood, school or (dare I say it) shopping mall but do it with the same open and expectant mind that you would if you had just discovered a beautiful forest clearing in which to pitch your tent or have flown yourself to one of the Wonders of the World at great expense as if that currency was buying you wonder.
Sunday, July 4
Writing Safari
I am starting this blog with a recent wonder-seeker invention of mine. I hope it will give insight into the purpose of recording and reflecting on my exploration of wonderful. At first I was calling it a Writing Road Trip, which is accurate but I didn't think it was broad enough. The notion of a Safari is going to be the over arching term that I'll break up into specific categories including the Writing Road Trip and others I haven't figured out yet.
Here was how the plan was born: I realized that often times I make this same highway drive at maximum speed (which is, OF COURSE, the posted speed limit... or something like that...) and thereby make the trip at maximum efficiency and perhaps minimum wonder. Recently, I found myself thinking about the concept of 'exploration' (for interesting reasons I will not get into here, but delved into something that began to sound like post-colonial discourse) and how there is no longer "uncharted territory." It seems that if everything is already discovered that there is no longer a sense of wonder to it all. I just couldn't believe it. Even though the ground has all been 'found' there must be someway to pluck out a healthy dose of wonder, through observation and allotment of time, from what is already growing there. Frankly, it was just that: wonder-in-bloom!
In this unexpected adventure I got some really great ideas. The biggest was the possibility of a simple act of opening my mind to this previously-mundane trip being an exploration of wonderful. Opting to take some side roads and make notes about the unique local signs, streets, parks and buildings opened up the potential in everything and it was hard to see anything that was not some how wonderful. I stopped four times as the maps and signs directed me along the secondary highway. In each community I tried to get a feeling for some part of its essence so made sure to pick a one-of-a-kind place that didn't have a corporate headquarters or nation-wide advertising. I let go of expectations and deadlines and all things to do with efficiency and felt a wonderful sense of freedom. Two of my stops were indoors and food related and the other two were outside. For anyone considering recreating this experience I didn't limit my writing to the things at the location but rather from my whole experience in the community. Through walking, eating, watching and talking I managed to write over 10 pages, drive over 140km and open up a whole new world.
The more I thought about this Writing Road Trip the more ideas for Safaris came to me. You wouldn't have drive, write or even leave your neighbourhood. I suppose you could even try it in your house or apartment, but I like the idea of moving around a bit more than that. I think it would also work perfectly well to do this on a bus or train trip inverting the use of road-time and the stop-time. You could write about one thing from location 1 to location 2 and then change to the second project for location 2 to location 3 etc. I am also convinced that you wouldn't even need to write on a Writing Safari. I know, it ruins the name, but it's really the sense of observation and then the capturing of the story of wonder somehow. You could just tell it, photograph it, videotape it, sketch it or invent a melody.
So now in the aftermath of this Writing Road Trip I am finding myself excited to start observing all the other wonders that are close to home. And I am even more excited to tell the next person who asks me "how long does it take to drive from there?" that my two hour drive turned into a seven hour vacation with a journal full of wonder as my prize for being excited instead of efficient.
Here was how the plan was born: I realized that often times I make this same highway drive at maximum speed (which is, OF COURSE, the posted speed limit... or something like that...) and thereby make the trip at maximum efficiency and perhaps minimum wonder. Recently, I found myself thinking about the concept of 'exploration' (for interesting reasons I will not get into here, but delved into something that began to sound like post-colonial discourse) and how there is no longer "uncharted territory." It seems that if everything is already discovered that there is no longer a sense of wonder to it all. I just couldn't believe it. Even though the ground has all been 'found' there must be someway to pluck out a healthy dose of wonder, through observation and allotment of time, from what is already growing there. Frankly, it was just that: wonder-in-bloom!
In this unexpected adventure I got some really great ideas. The biggest was the possibility of a simple act of opening my mind to this previously-mundane trip being an exploration of wonderful. Opting to take some side roads and make notes about the unique local signs, streets, parks and buildings opened up the potential in everything and it was hard to see anything that was not some how wonderful. I stopped four times as the maps and signs directed me along the secondary highway. In each community I tried to get a feeling for some part of its essence so made sure to pick a one-of-a-kind place that didn't have a corporate headquarters or nation-wide advertising. I let go of expectations and deadlines and all things to do with efficiency and felt a wonderful sense of freedom. Two of my stops were indoors and food related and the other two were outside. For anyone considering recreating this experience I didn't limit my writing to the things at the location but rather from my whole experience in the community. Through walking, eating, watching and talking I managed to write over 10 pages, drive over 140km and open up a whole new world.
The more I thought about this Writing Road Trip the more ideas for Safaris came to me. You wouldn't have drive, write or even leave your neighbourhood. I suppose you could even try it in your house or apartment, but I like the idea of moving around a bit more than that. I think it would also work perfectly well to do this on a bus or train trip inverting the use of road-time and the stop-time. You could write about one thing from location 1 to location 2 and then change to the second project for location 2 to location 3 etc. I am also convinced that you wouldn't even need to write on a Writing Safari. I know, it ruins the name, but it's really the sense of observation and then the capturing of the story of wonder somehow. You could just tell it, photograph it, videotape it, sketch it or invent a melody.
So now in the aftermath of this Writing Road Trip I am finding myself excited to start observing all the other wonders that are close to home. And I am even more excited to tell the next person who asks me "how long does it take to drive from there?" that my two hour drive turned into a seven hour vacation with a journal full of wonder as my prize for being excited instead of efficient.
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