Yummy Wakame Weblog
Archive: the pursuit of happiness
e você pra me lembrar…
No matter how far I may get in life, whatever exotic treasures I accumulate, however wide I might end up travelling, it doesn’t mean as much as the people I meet along the way. We all have this, even those of us who stay put, but so often we miss the point, counting destinations like notches on a bedpost. (more…)
Perfectly Imperfect
Much to my mother’s horror while I grew up and almost consistently chose gangly looking boys, I have always found the most beauty in imperfections. A flashing row of teeth with that one squiggle tooth or a big old cheeky gap. The softness and vulnerability of a strong man’s balding head. Hand mushed jewelry that isn’t perfectly balanced. The cat with the tear in its ear. The dog with one remaining, pleading eye. The woman with her life map scrawled on her face that no-one wants to acknowledge, standing outside Amtrak shivering with her wobbly cigarette. A fierce man who breaks down and cries into my lap not caring who sees. Three nipples. It has always indicated genetic specialness to me. The boy who can’t hold down a relationship but can memorise a complex datamap across his wall in 5 minutes and never ever forget it. The girl with big hands and pretty long fingers. The soft pokable belly replacing a once six-pack. The boy who trembled almost every time he kissed me and was always searching around my body to hold my hand every second he had a spare one. A cute chubby face on a skinny body. Butt dimples. The un-get-overable lover who can’t control his enraged constantly spilling, messy emotions. The dog eared book. A bed that’s never perfectly made, but so messily and cozily comfortable. A once prized but now ancient iPhone thats been dropped in toilets, a jungle lake and skidded across 3 pavements while running down streets, but still faithfully lives on. The grouchy old man with the visible chip on his shoulder looking tough. The programmer who has his PJ pants stuffed under his suit, bulging over the top. All these sweet people and creatures I have been blessed to know and love.
I could keep writing but instead I’m going to continue thinking about my favourite imperfections. You are perfectly imperfect, and if I knew you, I’d probably remember and love your imperfections the most of all your qualities. I prize imperfections in others and in me. They make you uniquely you.
Anywhere
This morning I woke up on a new couch to all new smells. Often I feel strange about the fact that I have no place to call home, to come back to, to feel my heart settled with that familiar belonging.
But then I remember that its because I have no home, that I can live anywhere. I make home wherever I go. I lived at a hostel on Ometepe Island for the past 3 months and covered the sides of my bunkbed with draped sheets and dresses, turning a simple bed into a room that looked and smelled of all my comfy familiarities with almost all the privacy I needed. About 4 years ago, on a solo trip without my husband at the time, I remembered thumping my bag down on the floor in my new room, and in that moment I heard in my mind, “home is wherever I put my bag down for the night.” I understood that home is where I am at any time, and my bag holds the comforts. But never has this idea been more tested than in the past 2 and a half years, of continuous, living out of a bag. I understand it so much better now. I understand the beauty of the idea, but also the inherent vulnerability.
Some day I will settle down, build my treehouse, and share it and everything in it with a beautiful travelling spirit and lover. Someone who not only understands but feels the need for both. Someone who has searched for home and finds comfort with me, there, and wherever we travel together.
Happy New Year!
Existence
You are not accidental. Existence needs you. Without you something will be missing in existence and nobody can replace it. That’s what gives you dignity, that the whole existence will miss you. The stars and sun and moon, the trees and birds and earth – everything in the universe will feel a small place is vacant which cannot be filled by anybody except you.
Wanting
“The minute you want something for your sake, you are restless until you get it. Once you get it, you are still not really happy because you don’t want to lose it. If you do not get it, you feel anger, hatred and enmity.
But if your want is not for your sake, you don’t worry about the results. Eliminate selfishness from your life. The minute you decide to lead a selfless life, eternal happiness is yours.”
~ Swami Satchidananda
Forward the (r)evolution
About a month ago I was really lucky to meet these guys. They shared a few meals with the family and I at Hospedaje Central, the hostel where I’ve been living the past month. Forward the (r)evolution is two couples who are living and traveling the world without money. It started as a fun idea to do for a few months and now they have gone past their end date and are now living a life of travel without money. They aren’t bums. They aren’t trust fund kids. They are respectfully dressed, clean, ordinary people like you and me who live with little to no impact on the earth, catching rides that were going somewhere anyway and eating good food that would have gone to waste anyway. All the while they are giving talks on how other regular people can do the same. How ultimately we could all live in a world without money and evolve to a new system.
I’m not quite ready for this drastic step and all that it implies, like letting go of my career which I love, and the vulnerability of a single woman traveling alone without money worries me. But a seed was planted. And I admire them so much. I have a feeling I would do this for a few months, and then never want it to end. Who knows…
If you’re curious, check out their amazing travel blog, and the links where they give full information on how they did it and how you can too.
SKATEISTAN
To live and skate in Kabul
I don’t think I’ll ever forget this… and I’m not sure why.
(Found by Mike Blodgett)
Wide Wings Fly Solo
This morning I woke up in Cristiano’s loft, packed my stuff again after a lovely week there, still stuffed from the handmade French crepe made by tres sexie “no, is not a pancake! Is a crepe.” Arturo last night, and joined my El Zopilote friends for a last game of cards while others peeled fresh roasted cacao.
I hugged them goodbye around 10:30am and headed down the winding path to the main road. Heavily slept, huge smile on my face, feeling absolutely deliciously contented I caught two buses to Moyogulpa. (more…)
Lace Fence
Oh oh oh this is such a lovely idea, I can hardly stand it!!!
It just makes me feel so wriggly again. It makes me want to knit a scarf for a gangly tree nobody cares for, or macrame a rainbow across a bridge. I want to make things like this everywhere just for the fun of it and to walk away and let it go, let complete strangers steal it or leave it there and enjoy it, and never know what happened to it. While its nice to live out of one backpack, it really sucks to not have any handicraft stuff at hand. Once I get my few boxes stored in TX I want to start traveling with my craft tote again. Its going to be so worth the extra schlep.
I really need to get my few boxes gathered here and there back together again. I miss my books. And jewellery. Pfft. What’s the point of keeping it all I don’t know. I keep wishing for my bookshelf. And the stowaway bench that stores all my crafts. And a sewing machine. And my bed up in a loft. And that tree. That tree.
All I want, only one sweet little miracle. I’m just about ready for it. Just about. And this time I won’t get lost in it. I’ve gone to far to ever come back to that.
Protect the Western Arctic Reserve From Big Oil
The Western Arctic Reserve, also known as the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, is the largest tract of unprotected, relatively pristine public land in the United States. The 23.5 million-acre reserve is home to imperiled polar bears, seabirds and one of the densest populations of nesting raptors in the world. Its shores and lagoons harbor beluga whales, seals, walruses and other marine mammals. The BLM is accepting comments on a planning document that sets the stage for oil and gas leasing in the western Arctic for decades to come. Help save this national treasure by telling the BLM to protect the Western Arctic Reserve from dirty fossil fuel development »
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