The Return of the Traveler King On the eastern shore, a silver-cloaked figure walked to the beat of chilled spray and squawks of puffins. The locals, creeping from their warm beds as dawn poked through autumn clouds, mistook him for a ghost dressed in grey, haunting the red sand shores. He seemed more mist than …
Doors and Stumbling Around in the Dark: A Narrative with Life
Of Doors and Stumbling Around in the Dark She had opened the door, expecting light, or at the very least, a light switch. She was here to find answers. Her sisters had said they’d found lanterns when they’d done this. Maybe hers would be in the form of a candle. She’d not seen much …
I Made a Galaxy: Unpacking the Phrase “I Need To”
How Many Galaxies Exist? Somewhere in the range of 100 or 200 billion but that’s not any more certain than the question: Will I die tomorrow? Who knows. There’s plenty of statistics, math equations and factors that could probably give an answer somewhere between an estimate and a definite answer. But do any of those …
Embracing Vulnerability: A Motivational Poem
Vulnerability One of the most debilitating emotions anyone can ever experience. It feels mortifying to walk into a room and because of looks, experience or lack thereof, dress, voice or anything else to do with your personal identity, you feel less than. You want to run, hide and never walk into that room again. But …
How to Turn to Childhood for Inspiration
Thoughts on the Future, Looking to the Past The value of childhood lies not in the experiences the child hastily wishes themselves out of but in the years later, as the child stands with eyes toward the future and a grateful heart cast to the past. Long ago, if we pull back the vine of …
Visit London: Learning London City With Lists and Food
Learning London City Day One Breakfast, tentative, tiptoing into a corner of the chatting room. I toasted bread, find peanut butter and quirk a first smile. I will spend the next two years oscillating between amusement and exasperation that the British understanding of peanut butter is full of sugar and very little of peanuts. But …
Hello, Friend, Farewell: A Poem for the Solace of Nature
Hello, friends! Unlike with the Doors of Moria, when the Fellowship in the The Lord of the Rings seek to enter the mines, there is no secret pass code for finding peace, happiness, love, any of those things. However, I find all those emotions exist at once, in your grasp, if you step out your …
Visit London: Transform Dreams into Lived Stories
Visit London: An Introduction I lived in London for two years and I have endless stories from the experience. I’m in the process of organising years of descriptive emails into a series of travel memoirs. Before all that gets settled, I’d like to let you all into some of my experiences as I continue my …
Visiting Mundanity: The Value of Travel for a More Fulfilled Life
Two years ago, I started my UK adventure in the small town of Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk. It’s the sort of middle of the field town where public transportation consists of trains one every hour to larger centres like Ipswich, and otherwise, you really need a car. I managed well enough though, still getting …
The Value of Visiting Museums
Museums… Make your jaw drop the first time. Give you sensory overload. Contain room after room, like the Never-ending Story. And sometimes they begin to look all the same. For example… The Enlightenment Room at the British Museum is an endless hall of collectors bits. I figured this out after a month and a half …