Monday, July 29, 2013

Home and Adventure

kid's artwork suggests a nice,
colourful and happy home


  Back in Jan 2006 – I wrote this article below to practise my poetic writing skills (which went nowhere). I never did finish this write-up, and I can’t even remember what I was trying to achieve or say but I thought it’s worth sharing. Ha ha!


As I re-read it now, it seems that my key message was something like – “life” or “happiness” or perhaps the ‘beauty of life” is near and around us although as natural wanderers, we often tend to look outwards and go farther to find ‘something’. While travelling to distant horizon, and/or doing all sorts of adventure do give us fulfilment – in the end, life is about having a ‘home’ where you bring back and share your adventure and experiences.

Think about great explorers and conquerors who all have travelled far and wide but never to return back, either lost in their endless journey, or better at least – settled in their new-found homes. Alexander the Great for example – a great conqueror. It would have been nice if he came back to his family and countrymen and shared his conquest and triumph! Maybe he did plan to, but his never-ending pursuit of something cut him off from his home reality. (My opinion only anyway). This may also apply to over-ambitious and busy achievers who all constantly yearn for success (like a ‘virtual distance’) while forgetting the little important things around them, like their friends and families perhaps?

Marco Polo ventured to the unknown world and went back home to share spectacular experiences of ‘another world out there’ to his countrymen and the whole of Europe. I guess in the end, he was able to balanced things.

Humans will always have that yearning to explore and wander, to experiment on new things. I guess the key thing is – to always remember your way back home.

Here’s that original article.



*****

The call of adventure has taken me to the remote abodes of the gods, to the world’s hidden treasure, and to the magical places unknown to most. Against odds, I've continually pushed on and chartered new territories, it took me to greater heights, and has given me unquestioned strength and a speck of immortality.

Yet with all the might of these great adventures, I would still draw back in my solitary world like the abyss, the pitch dark well of a lonely soul.

The missing piece drives me to go higher, to go deeper, or go wilder. But the pursuit brings me back to where I’ve started, it’s a wheel spinning with no end, a road stretching farther with no known finish giving a desperate sense of hopelessness, but at the same time drives me further and away, beyond my known expanding world.

To find gold we dig deeper, to find a bounty we search farther, but the true treasure that actually gives real fulfilment and meaning in our lives are those things near and around us, those things we don’t explore too often, or ignore most of the time. Small little things in life give meaning and deeper character to us… romance, love, passion - are of a few things that pulls us back to a life-full of world. We may journey across distant galaxies, but the true part of us is left in our real home, our secret abode where love exists. And not any of the great adventures can equal, it enhances the feeling, it gives undefined fulfilment - but it will distance us to normal things in life, we should learn to co-exist, to take adventure to the grandest level, but at the same time return back on the ground we call home.



And here we make ourselves complete, not just a superman character flying away to his immortal destiny, but a humble soul living a life with friends, and families, and loved ones. Of living a life surrounded by life - that echo from a distant valley, that chirping sound from a close-by tree, gushing water of a gentle stream, that familiar sound of wildlife in the forest, the rustling of leaves, the beauty of colourful flowers and butterflies, and the happy giggles of little kids. Yes, we're more alive with all of these, mortal yet immortal, expanded yet contained, unknowing yet omniscient, and exploring and being lost yet at home…

2 comments:

Zelmarq said...

Im happy I found your blog.

Romi Garduce said...

thanks for visiting ;)