Category Archives: inspiration & encouragement

(get over the) hump day inspiration: Mary Oliver edition

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Mary Oliver quote

Mary Oliver’s poem is particularly meaningful to me since I visited Cebu, where Magellan died, while myself far from home, and way outside my comfort zone both personally and professionally.

I went to the Philippines for work almost exactly one year ago. During some free time in Cebu city before heading to the remote outer reaches of the island for a shoot, we hired a tour guide to show us the sights.

I learned that Magellan landed on Cebu in the 1500s, planted a huge cross, converted some important people to Christianity, and proceeded to be killed three weeks later while attempting to forcefully convert some others. (Which is why I wish Mary Oliver had chosen someone less objectionable to illustrate her message. But I digress.)

We visited the cross, which is considered the most important relic in the Philippines. Not being Catholic, I was interested in its historic rather than religious value, and I was disappointed that it is completely encased in a protective covering, so you can’t actually see the 500 year-old timber. Magellan's Cross

Anyway… point is, the tiny villages I spent time in while in the Philippines were the furthest I’ve ever wandered from home, geographically or experience-wise, and Mary Oliver’s metaphor is actually quite on-the-nose and literal in my case. Especially because there were several instances in which I believed (delusionally) that I was going to die in the Philippines.

Thankfully that did not come to pass, the trip was an amazing exercise in stretching myself, and I am now free to find another far-off island to die in.

[Top photo is from Iloilo, two islands west of Cebu.]

best-dressed at the UNGA

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At the United Nations General Assembly this week, it was all Western business dress as far as the eye could see: dark suits, dark shoes, dark bags. White shirts. Ties. And then there was this guy:

H.E. Embegdorj TSAKHIA President

An image of powder blue transcendence among the leaders who spoke before and after him.

In a world that’s becoming homogenized faster than American milk, I am so thankful for those who embrace their (benign) cultural heritage. Even if it’s only for the GA. It seems he mostly wears a suit and tie like the rest of them.

Mongolian president, Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj, I salute you and your traditional national dress, which I find simultaneously dignified, badass, and delightful. 

[Top photo: UN Photo/Loey Felipe, Creative Commons license.]

[Middle Photo: UN Photo/Cia Pak, Creative Commons license.]

Meet Plan Go

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Last night I stumbled upon MeetPlanGo and within five minutes I was signed up for all four of their e-newsletters, had downloaded their travel planning checklist for “career breakers,” and was registered for a New York meetup designed to help people like me go boldly in the direction of their long-term getaway dreams.

The “gap year” between high school and college is a well-known and fairly well-respected concept, but I hadn’t ever heard of a “career break” before. It has such a legit ring to it. I was worried about being an aberrant 30-something who still feels the need to check out of real life every 4-6 years, but Meet Plan Go makes it seem like there are lots and lots of responsible adults who do this.

For lack of a better way to put it, I had been calling what I want to do a language sabbatical. That phrase is misleading because my intentions go well beyond language – I want to start out in Dakar to do French immersion, and then travel from country to country wherever my heart leads me, practicing French, learning Spanish, soaking up culture while living like a local, filming for love and also hopefully money, until my money runs out. Rather than think guiltily of myself as Jeff Spicoli, I am now going to imagine myself as the high-minded, long-range-thinking, experience-seeking woman Meet Plan Go believes me to be. (Even though I could actually stand to be a lot more Spicoli-like.)

(Photo: Jasleen Kaur, Creative Commons license.)

(get over the) hump day inspiration: Siddhartha edition

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“What could I say to you that would be of value, except that perhaps you seek too much, that as a result of your seeking you cannot find.” -Hermann Hesse (Siddhartha)

Note to self.

(get over the) hump day inspiration: The Wind in the Willows edition

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“The open road,

the dusty highway, the heath, the common,

the hedgerows, the rolling downs!

Camps, villages, towns, cities!

Here to-day, up and off to somewhere else to-morrow!

Travel, change, interest, excitement!

The whole world before you,

and a horizon that’s always changing!” –The Wind in the Willows

I just finished the childhood classic, “The Wind in the Willows,” and though its thematic focus is on the comforts of home, of course the quote that called out to me is all about the pleasures of taking off.

Tipsy musings

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After a long day of work, wanting nothing more than to sit at a dimly lit bar and daydream, I wound up at a cozy spot in Soho. I started off the night staring blissfully into space, sipping my wine, feeling full of that intangible connection to the humongous universe that sometimes, unbidden but much appreciated, settles over and calms my angst. Then the bartender started talking to me.

She was from Siberia but had grown up in Poland. She had two master’s degrees, one in applied linguistics and one in international relations. And she had come to the US to work at the UN, first as a translator but then, after deciding she’d rather be a diplomat, for the European Union. She hated it and abdicated to the corporate world, where she was so bored that she researched and developed a skin care line, which is about to be exclusively distributed in the Middle East by some sheik or other. In the meantime, she’s been tending bar at two places – the one in Soho where I met her, and the other on the Upper East Side where she’s come into contact with a bevy of men who want to marry her. At one point she was juggling two fiancés (one twice the age of the other) because, as she put it, “I’m a yes woman.”

She was spinning the most fantastical stories, and nothing added up, but whether it was true or not was of absolutely no consequence because I was transported, exactly as I had wanted to be, to a land of being wooed by barons, and failing psychological tests to teach English to children in Beijing, and flinging Am Ex Black cards into soon-to-be-ex-husbands’ faces, and having every man you’ve  ever slept with beg to impregnate you for your excellent DNA. In short: a land of hyper-emotion, excess, exaggeration, and extremes that I could never live in, but that I could visit with great delight.

She was the kind of bartender who tops you off without your asking, and then, when you say you can’t finish because you have to work In the morning, and joke that she should finish it instead, shrugs and says, “Somewhere in the world there is a sober Russian child, I’ll drink it for him,” and laughs maniacally. I’m sure after I left she did just that.

I almost walked into a pole on the way to the subway. It was just what I needed.

Moral of the story: it’s possible to travel to foreign lands while right at home. You just need to pick the right bar.

[Photo: Bloom, Philip Bloom!, Richard Cawood, Creative Commons license.]

(get over the) hump day inspiration: Thich Nhat Hanh edition

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“For things to reveal themselves to us, we need to be ready to abandon our views about them.” – Thich Nhat Hanh

I’m not at liberty to say how this quote applies to me but suffice it to say that it does, and that I love it, and that it has helped me immensely over the past couple of months. Paying it forward…

Happy hump day, people.

(get over the) hump day inspiration: Rumi

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“Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment.” – Rumi

I made a decision this week that felt like a huge risk, moving me from a place of relative safety with no future, to a transitional (and incredible) next step without any security or commitment. Even though I feel 100% certain that I did the right thing, I’m still hugely anxious about opening the door to a world of unknowns.

It was in this context that, walking home last night, I stopped short at the sight of two humongous lines of text painted on a brownstone’s living room wall, which I spied through the curtain-less bay window (almost as though it were staged as a message for passersby). In bright white lettering against a dark blue background were the words:

Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment.

It spoke to me in a visceral way – I was not exactly sure what it meant to me but my body responded immediately. I let out a noise halfway between a sob and an exclamation. I may have cocked my head to one side and nodded vehemently to no one in particular. I guess I just needed that affirmation that it’s okay to choose the less clear option when it nevertheless feels right. It’s empowering to think you can be confused and correct at the same time.

When I got home I looked up the line and found that the whole quote is even more apropos to my current situation:

Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment. Cleverness is mere opinion, bewilderment is intuition.

I love everything about that. It may just become my mantra for the next few months.

(get over the) hump day inspiration: questionable attribution edition

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“Go as far as you can see; when you get there, you’ll be able to see further.” – JP Morgan

I feel bad about crediting this quote to JP Morgan when it may in fact have been Thomas Carlyle or someone else entirely who said it. The Internet is undecided on that score, which is ironic considering that the nature of the quote is about seeing clearly.

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(get over the) hump day inspiration: Benjamin Button

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“For what it’s worth: it’s never too late or, in my case, too early to be whoever you want to be. There’s no time limit, stop whenever you want. You can change or stay the same, there are no rules to this thing. We can make the best or the worst of it. I hope you make the best of it. And I hope you see things that startle you. I hope you feel things you never felt before. I hope you meet people with a different point of view. I hope you live a life you’re proud of. If you find that you’re not, I hope you have the strength to start all over again.” – Eric Roth, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

I’m sort of cheating since it’s 12:06 on Thursday morning, but let’s just pretend it’s not daylight savings time yet and it’s still hump day for another 54 minutes… Because it’s never too late to be the inspirational quote-poster I want to be.