Brazil... home or not home?

These past couple of weeks have been interesting.... to say the least. Brazil is a wonderful country, with lots of sunshine, miles upon miles of beautiful sandy beaches and millions of tropical fruits that cost horrors elsewhere, but here you can literally raise your hand and pick them right off the trees, in the middle of the streets. NO joke!

This is where I’m from… or at least, where I was born. But to quote a friend of mine, I felt like a tomato in a fruit salad. Sure, tomatoes are a fruit… but they have no business being in a fruit salad.

I have few friends left here. I’ve been gone for over 10 years, so the ones that remain are true friends, and there’s only a handful. So every time I come here, I call them up and we have a happy reunion, we spend hours talking about our lives, where we are, what we’re doing, and it’s wonderful to see that time and distance have done nothing to harm our friendship… but I feel like I’m so alien to life here. I feel like if I were to come back to stay, there would be no place for me here… and that’s not a very good feeling.

I guess this is a result of change. I have changed enormously in the last 10 years (for better or for worse), and when I get here, even though I’m sure everything has changed as well, everything feels the same as it was 10 years ago. It feels like I’m going back in time, it feels like I’m regressing instead of progressing… I’m not talking about the country… I’m talking about me... don't really know how to explain it...

All that aside, this trip has been wonderful! Sunshine everyday, in temperatures nearing 40 degrees Celsius (which is like 100 F), amazing food and fruits and juices and everything a tropical paradise should have, friends and family, beach and pool outings, and generally a great time! I will soon be uploading some pictures to Facebook, so you can all go check it out, though I must admit I didn’t take nearly as many pictures as I should have… it’s home! It’s weird to take pictures when you’re at home…

Maybe I should just stop philosophizing and accept that things change and we have no control over them. That sometimes things change for the better, and sometimes for the worse… and our job is not to control the world, but to make ourselves better people, to react in better ways when things change.

Small world, lonely heart

I have travelled many places... and to be honest, I haven't made many friends. I am a very friendly person, but I have mostly made acquaintances, people I met, hang out with for a time, but that didn't get close enough to become true Friends. I say didn't get close enough, but the truth is, I probably didn't let them. I seem to have a bad habit of keeping people at bay, in order to protect myself from the pain that letting them in and losing them would cause.

The result is, I have very few really close friends... and they happen to be scattered around this big globe we call Earth. The world seems so small when I think of my good friends in Australia, Pacific Islands, Brazil, US, Argentina, Costa Rica, Holland, France... but it seems soooo big when I realize that none of them are here, close to me, and that I just can't pick up the phone and invite them to come over to hang out, talk, share our hearts.

I'm feeling lonely... not of people in general... but of my good, heart friends... so this is a message to all of you out there: I love you! Yes, you! You know who you are...

Cornwall, England

CORNWALL. Has anyone ever heard of that place? The people who live there call themselves Cornish. They have their own language, and they're quite proud of using their name, so you end up seeing "Cornish Ice Cream", and "Cornish Fudge", and "Original Cornish Paintings" and things like that all over the place.

It's the land of King Arthur: that's where his castle was, where legend says he was born.

It's beautiful. Breathtaking. Wild. Calm.




It helped that we had great weather... Beautiful sunshine from morning to evening... amazing sunsets... (and yes, it was England!!!)

But once again, I thought I should look for the beauty in people. There's the one who's always helping, ready to give a hand with whatever is needed... There are the others who can make you laugh, no matter what. There are some who always have a camera at the ready, to record the moment, make it last forever. And there's the innocent beauty of a child, playing at sea with her mommy running after her.

Beauty is everywhere. You just have to know how to look...



It's amazing what you see when you take the time to open your eyes and really see...

Inspiration

That's it. I'm inspired. Just finished looking at some pictures from a friend who went to Colombia (and she's probably reading this... :) )and realized something: Traveling highlights the best parts of anywhere... including ourselves. You know that phrase that goes "Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder" that was eventually paraphrased into "Beauty is in the eyes of the beer-holder"? I'm going to paraphrase it again and say that "Beauty is in the eyes of the camera-holder."

As Christians, or actually, as normal people, members of the human race, shouldn't we aspire to see the best in people? Shouldn't we aspire to innocence and trust? Maybe I'm being naïve, and as a frequent traveler, I know we have to keep our eyes open and our purses close at hand, but how many people have I met on the road that actually had bad intentions? Not very many!! And how many TONS of people have I met who were helpful and gentle, smiling and trying to help the best they could?

Why is it that we only put the bad stuff on the news, and make it look like it's the rule, when actually, the large majority of the world is honest and caring?

Pictures have the ability to bring the best out of a scene, a country, an event. I want to travel and take pictures of people, to bring out the best in them. To open my eyes and see the beauty, not only of the world, but of the people in the world.



In the jungle, in northern Thailand... this lady was mute, but not deaf, and she was ALWAYS trying to help us weird silly foreigners who invaded her home... I was fascinated by her...

Welcome to my blog!

Hi everyone!

So I've finally decided to create a "travel blog" of sorts. I'm not really traveling a whole lot right now, since I'm just starting my Master's degree and all, but I'm hoping to do a lot of traveling next year, and I can use this blog to talk about my plans, my life, my thoughts, and the little trips that I'm sure to take, even though it's the middle of the school year... (like Brazil in October! :) )

I hope you'll enjoy hearing about my adventures, and comment back, so we can share stories and life experiences... after all, that's what traveling is all about: Sharing! :)

Patty