September 16, 2022

Natural Surprise

I watched the waves coming in gently, slowly rolling up onto the beach and back out again. Each wave had the ability to bring something up from the water or sweep something down into the water. For all I knew, a bit of both happened as each wave lapped up and pulled back out again.

I remember standing at a different shoreline, a sandy beach under my feet, marvelling at how elegantly the moonlight danced on the edges of the waves. I had been younger and more foolish. I voiced my thoughts to Beloved, and he smiled, calling it a gentle beach.

His beaches weren’t soft sand but rather hard, sharp rocks. Somehow, mind-boggling, people treated these types of beaches the same as the soft sand ones I knew so well.

And it was that type of beach, all dark, jutting rocks that I was watching the waves roll up onto now. Beloved’s type of beach, as I now thought of them. It never ceased to amaze me that such a stony beach would have such gentle, almost delicate waves. Then, there are always these little pockets of water trapped by the stones. In those little pockets, you find all sorts of life you’d never expect in such a harsh place. But nature will always surprise you.

July 10, 2022

A Good Camper

You should try camping, they said. Getting out in nature is good for your mind, body, and soul, they said. They should not be trusted, people who think that sleeping on the hard ground is good.

Do you know what happens when you try to sleep on the ground? Ants. Ants happen. Or rather ants come to visit you because why wouldn’t they. So there you are, getting in touch with nature, trying to have a nice sleep, and an ant crawls up your nose. No thanks!

Never mind the work involved in setting up a tent, getting sleeping bags sorted out, and all the rest of the tasks involved in getting your camp set up. There is, of course, all that work which happens after you work your way to the ideal camp area.

And let us not forget about the bathroom situation either. Sure, historically, people just did what they needed to do naturally, in nature. But now we have things like indoor plumbing and flushing toilets. We don’t need to take care of our business in such a basic and natural way.

Plus, I’m a fan of running water and soap, hot showers, and comfortable furniture. In other words, going camping is not something I am going to do for pleasure or relaxation. If you see me camping, you know things have gotten worse, or it’s the end of the world. Or there was an ant in the house.

September 3, 2021

Artistic Images

There is a picture of Beloved that I adore. He’s not alone in it. He has his head thrown back laughing, caution tossed to the wind. There is a glitter body of water behind him. Pia, a former flame, is also laughing with light gleaming off her red hair, streaming in the breeze.

It’s as if this one moment has caught all the happiness and glee in the world for these two and held it always in the picture. It’s a way of bottling it up and saving it forever.

At first, he kept this picture stored away in an album. Then, I came across it one day while helping him pack things up for me to move in. I told him that it was one of the most beautiful pictures I’ve ever seen. You can almost touch the sunlight, feel the breeze on your body, and feel the utter joy these two beings are experiencing.

There are no pictures like this of me. Not just because I wasn’t at sea, but because I’ve never liked how I’ve looked. The list of things wrong with my appearance could probably wrap around the earth and then some. Yet, I am envious of this confidence and comfort with self that both of them have in this picture. I hope that the joy and utter abandonment that he shows in this picture still feels now.

May 21, 2019

Vacation, Travel And Lupus

Someone asked me how I manage to travel around the world so much with lupus. It really isn’t all that much different from traveling while healthy. Healthy people pack items to keep them comfortable, enjoy their trip and take health precautions.

Lupus patients pack items to keep them comfortable, enjoy their trip and take precautions to be healthy. It just happens that as a lupus patient, I take more things to keep me comfortable and to enjoy the trip. And the health precautions are just longer, a lot longer.

You see when you have lupus, you need to be on top of health issues in the areas you are going to. Vaccinations and other things need to be looked into closely. Oh and let’s not forget insects and sun. We need to watch that too. Oh and food items, sometimes you need to watch that as well. And drinks. Yep let’s not forget that.

And then you have to look at e environment and such, yep. That needs to be taken into consideration. Such as wearing ten layers of sun protection and then some. Knowing where hospitals and specialists are.

But really it isn’t that all that different from when I was healthy. My approach may have been different. I may not have required medical notes to take my medication with me. Of course back then I didn’t need medication. So I guess you could say I packed lighter and didn’t think throuh my exposures as much as I do now. But all in all, it’s pretty much the same.

July 9, 2017

Retreating From A Getaway

It all started innocently enough just a fleeting idea of places that would offer us a chance to retreat from daily life. There were cabins in the mountains to consider, a treehouse in near-rainforest locations not to mention a chance to rent an old farmhouse. We have done the whole cabin the mountains thing a few times and tried the rainforest treehouse twice (it has limited contact with things like the internet so we struggled) and we just couldn’t find ourselves knowing what to do in an old farmhouse on endless tracts of farmland. The truth is neither of us have the slightest notion of how to enough the stillness of farmland and we’d both be seeing animals to turn into pets.

While bouncing ideas around Beloved mentioned lighthouses. We had talked about these before. Beloved is currently rather taken with the idea of paying to do lighthouse work in a working lighthouse. (I am not nearly as taken with the idea of paying to have a working vacation.) I think he has selectively forgotten the small little fact that lighthouses have oodles of stairs. Usually narrow and spiralling. Up and down, down and up one must travel for various duties. Duties he’d be paying to partake in.

He has tried his hand at a lighthouse before. He enjoys the solitude of the area, loves how it’s just him and the water provided the weather isn’t too bad. So it seemed like an ideal place, until I mentioned that tiny little fact he forgot, stairs. And so the lighthouse gleam in his eyes dimmed a little and he cast about looking for another place to get away from things.

Currently he is considering the merits of arid heat (he won’t seriously do it for there is not enough ice to keep him from melting, the boy who played in the North Sea). The other strong contender is a houseboat (playing in the North Sea is not the same as, well, having to navigate the boat etc.).

I’m all for getting away from it all and some of the mad crush of humanity that surrounds us. But I also know that getting away doesn’t mean going into complete isolation. Not unless we plan on bringing a lot of foodstuff with us and hope we have no need for medical help. Besides neither of us can survive if it comes to trapping or gathering our own food or finding fresh water. And let’s face it the ability to light a fireplace or fire pit is not exactly the same as making fire with flint or rubbing two sticks together.

I have a feeling I will need a getaway from the casting about of ideas for our getaway at this rate!

July 2, 2017

Elementally Big And Small

Somewhere out in the vast deep ocean, Beloved was a mere blob of humanity. He wanted to try scuba diving and the opportunity presented itself. We were certainly in the right area for it and there were a number of places to pick from.

He chose to get some lessons from a well-known school and then go out with one of their instinct ours after he had learned the basics and felt comfortable. I had decided that land was more my thing, a comfortable hammock to be exact. Time spent with a book, a nice drink and a cooling breeze. If Beloved wanted to be a mere blob of humanity in the vast ocean along with his instructor that was his choice.

He told me later, after he had slowed down from the whole experience, that he had never felt so small as he did when he was in the water. He said it wasn’t just the size of some of the Rays and such swimming with them that made him feel small. It was the complete waterscape, just water everywhere. He felt, he said, as if he were a mere speck bobbing along in the current. Of course he also said at one point he felt as if he were shark bait so there is that to keep in mind.

I didn’t feel small in the hammock reading my book. I felt content and peaceful, but not small. I suppose though if I wandered away from the house into the tangle of vines and trees I too would have felt small. Nature, after all, has a way of putting things into perspective for us. We are small, we are only one being. We do however have the ability to make a small or large impact as simply one being. Of enough single beings make the same choices to lead to the same impacts they can go from being small to an incredibly huge scale. No matter how big or small I feel, I’d just as soon not be shark bait, or human sushi for some wild cat.

November 9, 2015

Trips And Travels

“You’ll never guess where, specifically, I’m calling from right at is very minute!” A rather excited and slightly out of breath Beloved greeted me as I answered the phone. It’s a pet peeve of mine, when people say “you’ll never guess..” And then expect you to guess. I you already know I will never guess, why expect me to still try? Seems unfair to me. (And yes for the record, I too have said “you’ll never guess”!)

Given that Beloved is currently in France, Paris to be exact, and he was calling from something that had left him slightly breathless I decided it had to be the Eiffel tower. Evidently that was a correct guess and it took the wind out his sails for a moment. But not a moment, because after he was in Paris and I was not.

To be honest Paris isn’t my favourite city. I don’t even find it all that romantic, but I love the history of the place and cannot get enough of the gargoyles. There is something mystical and magical about gargoyles. Something whimsical and yes practical, but also wise can be found when you gaze upon these creatures. Amazing works of art really.

But any chance to be somewhere else always catches my fancy. It’s the whole grass being greener on the other side thing. Well that and a huge dose of incurable wanderlust. At least that’s my theory and until proven otherwise, it works as good as any other!

So the fact Beloved was in France and I wasn’t, well yes I was a bit green with envy. Especially as I knew he’d be heading off to Provence soon and I have fond memories of there, with Beloved of course. Of course the trip was well-earned and I didn’t really begrudge him his time either. He needed a break. A break from every day life and frankly from me. 😉

besides while I may not be in France, or any place with greener grass at the moment, but a few fends are coming over for what we call “U.N. Meals”. These are nothing more than a group of friends bringing comfort food from their various cultural backgrounds. It is a gathering of good friends, a,axing food and great times. And sometimes that’s all you need to travel to another land, just capture the flavour and style of the food!

August 7, 2015

Natural State

When people talk about going on a vacation to see a country or experience nature as it is, I always wonder what people are really looking for. In order to really see a country, to experience the cultural of the place, you need to get out of the cities and out into the rural areas. This is where folklore a and tradition seem to hold strong.

When people talk about going on a trip to experience nature they fail to mention that it includes weapons to protect themselves and items for their comfort. If you really want to experience nature why bother with the tent? What’s wrong with the cold, the wind and the rain? Aren’t they part of nature?

a family friend recently announced she was going on a trip that included getting in the water with sharks. To “see them as they are”. So of course this requires special gear, but she said there will be no cage for protection. Instead it will be a bait box on the ocean floor where they can watch people feed the Sharks and see them swarm around. Because people feeding sharks is natural. Well I guess in a way it is, if a shark mistakes a person as another food source and decides to consume said person.

the thing is, most people would rather not experience a country or a culture in all its strengths. We want it tamed s bit, have a few familiar and comfortable items such as food. It’s the same as when people want to experience nature, we want to see it and touch it, but on our terms. We Human’s are funny that way aren’t we?

We will manicure grass, hedges, trees and what have you and then state that we enjoy being out in nature. We love animals, we want them to be themselves, but we need to train them least they show their more natural state. And let’s face it, we aren’t in our natural state either…you know as natural! 😳 Not that I’m complaining on that front, not at all!

May 2, 2015

Dying For A Trip

I’ve always been a little fascinated by the River Styx and Charon the ferryman. When I first encountered these stories I was captivated by the whole idea of our souls taking journeys. I wasn’t so thrilled with Charon leaving you high and dry if you couldn’t pay him the fee though.

I thought it would be interested to walk among the shades, maybe hear their stories or at least learn how to lurk and hide like they do.

I wonder what stories Charon could tell, if he spoke. Surely he has chauffeured interesting people, heard some interesting things never mind what he has witnessed. And people gave him money, well the dead had coins in their mouths etc. what on earth would Charon need money for?

And a river that must be crossed, once you have died is most intriguing. Why? Because rivers tend to be filled with water, something that we consider essential for life. What if you just refused to cross the water? What if you decided to swim instead?

the truth is, what fascinates me with these stories, and others like them, is that we assume the soul or shade has basically the same issues and needs as the living. The dead haven’t really come back with a list of how things are the same or different. They also haven’t told us what we need to pack for the journey.

Beloved has decided he wants to take it all with him. All of it. Just in case the after life is much like this life. Me? I couldn’t be bothered to pack so I will take my chances I guess. Besides surely a person can sweet talk Charon if she doesn’t have the fee! Right? 😳

November 6, 2014

This is Heavy Stuff

What is it about travelling that makes your suitcase feel as though it is full of stones? Not small stones either, boulders. Boulders that get heavier by the second. Not that I have ever packed stones or boulders in my suitcase. I have packed a few seashells from time to time, but no stones, no rocks and certainly no boulders!

I’m pretty sure there is some sort of magical force at work with the suitcases. The longer you have to haul the suitcase around, the more times you have to carry the darn thing, the heavier the stones in the suitcase will be. The trick is that when you go to open the case, there isn’t anything you haven’t packed, not even a small stone. Nope it is exactly as you packed it and even more strange is that the case suddenly drops back to its normal weight!

You warn others as they carry your case, you want them to know that it will suddenly get heavy and drag on the body. You know that soon enough the case will do its mysterious thing and then no one will want to help you carry it any more because of the weirdness

Of course there is that wee hung of me cramming as much as I can into the case is perhaps it rebels from being overstuffed.

Surely im not alone with this tricky suitcase!