The ball rolled
Updated: Aug 8, 2021
Υπάρχει και Ελληνική έκδοση του κειμένου,
αλλάζοντας τη γλώσσα στα Ελληνικά (κουμπί στο τέλος της σελίδας)
It feels like it has been a long road. A road that was narrow at points, sharp, with twists and turns, with fallen signs and having the instinct as the only navigator.
And I am a person that gets lost with GPS, so you can understand - It took a while. But it got me where I want to be, so everything was and is worth it.
I am completely new at blogging.
The thing that made me start this project is to somehow tell a story and connect with people with similar questions.
Doing something new is always a challenge on so many levels. Shakes down many “core values” and that happens if you are lucky enough. It has not been long that I stepped back a bit from social media. That obviously created free time and for me that means, more time to think.
The last year was about introspection. I had a lot brewing inside but the drop that overflowed the glass was, guess what, a breakup. How original. I will not bore you with the details of my heart, I decided that it was time to invest my energy in the now and the future.
Something that helped a LOT was to imagine that everyday i wake up with 100 points of energy. It is a matter where i will invest this energy. Will I think of past happy memories? Investing in that takes up some good points of energy, therefore be careful, if you invest too much and then something good happens in the now, you might not have enough energy points to accept it.
This is how you might lose a chance in life.
This nice concept was mentioned by Dr. Caroline Myss, in Exploring the anatomy of the spirit, nice video worth watching.
So, the now.
The now is new and challenging.
The now is a new way of living, honouring the simplicity of nature. It feels like I woke up from a dream and everything around me seem weird.
I am a city girl, all my life I lived in the convenience of cities. Big and small.
I can get out of my house and buy milk any time of the day.
Wow.
If I am cold, i will push a button and get warm, hot water and peoples company. Everything though feels to have been built on fake foundations.
I will not bore you with this as well, we all know how unsustainable they are.
Therefore, i decided to stop participating in that and seek living in nature.
By doing so, i seek a happiness that seemed to elude me all the time.
A happiness that is not connected with a person or a thing.
A happiness of freedom.
A happiness of you rip what you sow.
A happiness that comes from natural abundance and interconnectedness.
A happiness of the spirit.
I will do the best I can, I will be the hummingbird as in the story told by Wangari Maathai.
So basically, I invite you all to be witnesses of that journey, the pilgrimage or my personal version of Ulysses journey.
My Ithaca is freedom.
And since I am feeling emotional I want to share some gooooooood pieces of poems that are inspiring.
Inspiring to travel and closing circles gracefully.
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Ithaka
C.P. CAVAFY
TRANSLATED BY EDMUND KEELEY
As you set out for Ithaka
hope your road is a long one,
full of adventure, full of discovery.
Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
angry Poseidon—don’t be afraid of them:
you’ll never find things like that on your way
as long as you keep your thoughts raised high,
as long as a rare excitement
stirs your spirit and your body.
Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
wild Poseidon—you won’t encounter them
unless you bring them along inside your soul,
unless your soul sets them up in front of you.
Hope your road is a long one.
May there be many summer mornings when,
with what pleasure, what joy,
you enter harbors you’re seeing for the first time;
may you stop at Phoenician trading stations
to buy fine things,
mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
sensual perfume of every kind—
as many sensual perfumes as you can;
and may you visit many Egyptian cities
to learn and go on learning from their scholars.
Keep Ithaka always in your mind.
Arriving there is what you’re destined for.
But don’t hurry the journey at all.
Better if it lasts for years,
so you’re old by the time you reach the island,
wealthy with all you’ve gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaka to make you rich.
Ithaka gave you the marvelous journey.
Without her you wouldn't have set out.
She has nothing left to give you now.
And if you find her poor, Ithaka won’t have fooled you.
Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,
you’ll have understood by then what these Ithakas mean.
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/51296/ithaka-56d22eef917ec
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The Gods Abandon Antony
C.P. CAVAFY
TRANSLATED BY EDMUND KEELEY
The god forsakes Antony
When suddenly, at midnight, you hear
an invisible procession going by
with exquisite music, voices,
don't mourn your luck that's failing now,
work gone wrong, your plans
all proving deceptive - don't mourn them uselessly.
As one long prepared, and graced with courage,
say goodbye to her, the Alexandria that is leaving.
Above all, don't fool yourself, don't say
it was a dream, your ears deceived you:
don't degrade yourself with empty hopes like these.
As one long prepared, and graced with courage,
as is right for you who were given this kind of city,
go firmly to the window
and listen with deep emotion, but not
with the whining, the pleas of a coward;
listen your final delectation to the voices,
to the exquisite music of that strange procession,
and say goodbye to her, to the Alexandria you are losing.
- Constantine P. Cavafy (1911)
Translated by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard
https://www.leonardcohenfiles.com/cavafy.html