‘A Map Of The Luminescent World’
A lit up map of the times and places, tracks and journeys, that are past ,when the now is asphalt and concrete, hard and bleak. I will hope to revisit my special places once again and to explore new sparkling corners.
‘A Long Corridor’
…you may walk its narrow confines for the longest time, but you will get to the end…
‘Leaving Port’
…time to hit the high seas…
‘Waiting For The Bus’
…it’s gonna come, and take you where you want to go, young man…
‘Dark Paths’
…we may travel dark paths, but there is always a light beyond…
‘Thoughts On Embarking’
In a post from yesterday, Embarking, I shared a wonderful quote from Alan Alda about the need to fully commit to journeys into new and strange things.
The man on the gang plank has his bag loaded as he heads for the boat.
He’s committed to the trip.
Alda is right – you can’t leave yourself safely on the shore when the unknown beckons.
Be bold! Have the nerve, Alda exhorts.
To give an example:
I don’t actually ever discuss the craft of blogging itself on Ebb Then Flood (plenty of people more expert than me do so) but embarking on this blogging journey just under two years ago is the sort of challenge that takes you with it once you actually have the gumption to start.
You can’t hold back, and you have to park that sense of self-doubt I suspect we all have, if you want to blog.
It’s certainly taken me to some strange places as I have, erm, pushed the boat out…
Similarly, I wish you boldness and new creative adventures.
– Andy L.
‘Embarking’
“Be bold. When you embark for strange places, don’t leave any of yourself safely on shore. Have the nerve to journey into unexplored territory”.
– Alan Alda
‘Down At The Dockside Again’
More mindless ship watching (see Down At The Dockside At Dawn for more).
Got me out of the office at least.
This time a Bahaman behemoth lies at the wharf – the intriguingly named “Firmament Ace”.
Freight rolls on and off, the shutter clicks and it’s back to work, wondering where she is headed next.
Not an office I’ll wager…
‘Unknown Destination’
The path to whatever is next in our lives stretches ahead.
The end of the track cannot be seen and there is no certainty as to what lies ahead.
We can be in trepidation of the unknown, but we can also be encouraged in our journey.
For we have already undertaken that hardest part of it.
Fear of leaving the known is usually greater than fear of the unknown.
And we do not arrive at “whatever next” without first stepping the track.
The pathway itself will provide the things we need, the tools, to reach the destination.
The journey, then, becomes as important as wherever we are moving to.
We cannot mistake the track for the journey.
A track, like the one pictured, can be arid and stony, hard and winding.
When winter comes, it will become soft and muddy, difficult and at times seemingly impassable.
Varied conditions for sure but whatever they look and feel like, tracks are purely functional.
They take you where you need to go.
We obsess about tracks –Â upward and downward trajectories, paths to success, shortcuts – while missing the point that the journey is everything, and that having reached whatever lies on the horizon we see now, another, different, horizon presents itself to us.
Whatever track we are on is just the necessary means by which the journey of ourselves unfolds.
Barcelona Estacio de Franco   October 2019
Numbered platforms, nameless people.
Coming and going as they please, or as they must.
For every departure, an arrival.
Many journeys.
From a short distance I observe those on the platforms coming and going.
I am a stranger here, but am a fellow journey maker, so there is a momentary affinity of sorts.
Even the sweeping ironwork of the grand station roof speaks of the lines and curves of travel.
There is wonderment in such a place, but always anticipation of the next destination.
For we must keep moving…
Boat shed on the Tamaki in late afternoon sunlight.
Just a box on stilts?
Or, a place to launch watery journeys and dreams from?
Spectacular curving, criss-crossed ceiling at London’s King’s Cross Railway Station.
So elegant with its purplish backlighting, and just vast as a piece of design
Even I hadn’t been hanging around for the train north to Edinburgh, this would have dragged me in to admire it.
Lines crossing over and over again, like the passengers scurrying to their trains, heading to different destinations.
Indeed, the kinetic and life energy in the place is amazing – all those journeys, with their beginnings and endings ; those unknown (to each other) plans and dreams – in the one place at the same time, intersecting for the briefest moment and then arching out and beyond, perhaps never to cross over again.
And when you board the train, it’s a little simpler – you’re away again on your own trajectory and at least the tracks run parallel !
And so, to the ever-shifting seas, the endless skies, we shall return, at journey’s end.
Ebb Then Flood 