Skip to main content

A Secret Gate

"Still round the corner there may wait
A new road or a secret gate
And though I oft have passed them by
A day will come at last when I
Shall take the hidden paths that run
West of the Moon, East of the Sun."
J.R.R. Tolkien

I came across this quote by Tolkien when I was trying to think of a caption for this photo I took of a gate at my local park. I like taking photos. I have an Instagram account that is my creative outlet. Photos are quick and simple, which fits well into my not so simple life. I usually try to think up some whimsical nonsense to caption my photos, but this particular instance, I decided to search for a quote by someone else. And I came across Tolkien. Sometimes we stumble across things when we most need them. I do feel like a new road or gate is just around the corner, but perhaps unknowingly I'm wandering past such gates and roads everyday. Not realising that they may lead me to new adventures, maybe magic and just maybe finding some happiness and peace from an ever challenging life. I was very sad when I wrote my last post. I'm not here writing my life to edit it. On the contrary, I think self editing and becoming everything for everyone else but myself, has been my downfall. Will it all get miraculously better? Unlikely. At any rate, I take comfort in the hope that life will get better, at least just in moments. Perhaps hope is a desperate delusion. Nevertheless, it makes me feel a little better. I aspire to have hopes and dreams in finding adventures "West of the Moon, East of the Sun". Maybe we should all take Tolkien's advice and explore the hidden paths we keep passing by. But what would I know of what Tolkien was trying to convey. I'm sure there is an essay somewhere, that has distilled all his words down to poetic forms and devices. Anyway. Go find more magic and less sadness. 
.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Deconstructing Memories

I reflect a lot on where I have come from, past experiences, friends, relationships, family, the time I accidentally threw out the most epic story I wrote in year 3. I was convinced it was going to be a best seller, it was about this off the wall family that moves house and you get to follow along on all the ensuing hilarity. I thought it was awesome. I once sent a story I wrote about toothpaste that makes this kid invisible to a children's book publisher. I got a knock back. I was 11 years old and a bit devastated. I loved writing stories as a kid, my teachers thought I was quite a good writer and most encouraged my creative writing. So a dream to become an author was seeded inside a young girls mind. I would live in an apartment and get a cat, and write fantasy, adventure and a tad bit humorous novels. Kind of like Kathleen Turner's character Joan Wilder in the movie Romancing the Stone (one of my most favourite films by the way), except I wouldn't write romance novels. ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Remember Who You Are

Hello my name is Léyanie and 5 weeks ago I was suicidal. Worse than that even, I was panicking and suicidal. And I completely felt unhinged from reality. I wasn't technically psychotic. I had insight into my behaviour and my thinking being terribly wrong and frightening, and uncharacteristic of myself, but I was terrified that I could have easily tipped over to the psychotic and done something dreadful to myself. I required immediate assistance and intervention, I was resigned to the fact that I was probably going to be hospitalized, but I am lucky to have a great doctor and she prescribed medication that helped and I spent a week with my Dad. My family dropped their lives to support me as best they could. My sister was key in that intervention, bundling me up and taking me to my doctor and then dropping me off at Dad's. She checked in everyday with me, as did my great friends, and I am so very thankful for that. What you may not know about this story is that prior to my breakd...
1 comment
Read more

Just Keep Swimming

Life has been propelling me forward and I have found myself in a quiet, simmering reflection about the past six months of my life. Simultaneously feeling lost, yet found. Unbearable, lonely grief for the loss of my parents, yet cautiously hopeful for the future without them. Navigating a world without them is incomprehensible. Navigating a world without the 24 year partnership that had been my stability and security in life, is daunting. The loss of my relationship has further compounded my experience of grief. I've lost more than I ever thought possible, all at once. I still think a part of me is numb, a survival mechanism of sorts. Nothing is more finite than death. There is no arguing with death when it arrives. There is a before and there is an after. Getting caught in the inbetween, the what ifs and the if onlys, is futile. So I try to exist in the after, all the while feeling tremendously lost. I had a moment this past week where I was thinking about the prospect of finding l...
Post a Comment
Read more