Spunkygirl Monologues

I love, love, love great travel quotes.  They give me inspiration and get my creative juices flowing! In the spirit of my 2010 motto- “Everyday is a travel day”,  here are my Top 10…

“A journey is like marriage. The certain way to be wrong is to think you control it.” – John Steinbeck

“For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move.” – Robert Louis Stevenson (This is SO true!)

″A traveler without observation is a bird without wings.” – Moslih Eddin Saadi

“Tourists don’t know where they’ve been, travelers don’t know where they’re going.” – Paul Theroux

“To my mind, the greatest reward and luxury of travel is to be able to experience everyday things as if for the first time, to be in a position in which almost nothing is so familiar it is taken for granted.” – Bill Bryson

“I have found out that there ain’t no surer way to find out whether you like people or hate them than to travel with them.”  – Mark Twain

“To travel is to discover that everyone is wrong about other countries.”  – Aldous Huxley

“You may wonder, ‘How can I leave it all behind if I am just coming back to it? How can I make a new beginning if I simply return to the old?’ The answer lies in the return. You will not come back to the ‘same old thing.’ What you return to has changed because you have changed. Your perceptions will be altered. You will not incorporate into the same body, status, or world you left behind. The river has been flowing while you were gone. Now it does not look like the same river.”- Steven Foster

“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.” – Marcel Proust

“I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train. ” – Oscar Wilde

“I am the master of my fate:

I am the captain of my soul”.

Invictus.  After a day of trying to refocus myself, I decided to go see a movie- alone.  My choice? Invictus.  If you haven’t heard of this movie, you should.  If you haven’t seen it, you should.  It was utterly fantastic. For years now I have admired Nelson Mandela.  I’ve admired his perseverance and his desire for peace.  I tried reading his autobiography, but I couldn’t seem to connect the way I had hoped.  Now, I’ve connected.  Morgan Freeman was amazing as Nelson Mandela.  I left the theatre inspired and repeating the above quote to myself.  It was exactly what I needed.

I googled the poem Invictus when I came home tonight.  Here is how it goes…

Invictus

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

by William Ernest Henley – 1875

The last month has been a whirlwind of activity and not the good kind.  My energy levels seem rather low, and my creative side is suffering as well.  How do I escape the funk?  How do I turn this around so I can enjoy things more fully and feel more like myself.  My usual escape is travel or photography, however that is not possible right now.  Not in a long term sense at least.  I’m afraid to go too far away in case my Grandmother takes a turn for the worst.  How would I feel if I weren’t there?  Would I always regret not being there?  At the same time, she’s told me to live my life.  It’s an interesting position to be in.

All I know is that I don’t want to be here.  My heart and soul feels so free and natural when I’m away, traveling and practicing my photography.  I feel content and happy.  I no longer worry or stress about things.  I’m free.  Oh, how I long for my freedom.  I long to feel light and carefree.  I long to be creative and free.