A different perspective

Back to Sydney, back to normality. Normality being a temporary home whilst away from the UK, I was walking along the same bridge after work yesterday and noticed that the sun was in a position that the moon was in when I last walked over this bridge. The shot I’m speaking of is uploaded here in The waves of motivation and the reason I can blog daily.

Although the moon provides light at night, it is just the sun working overtime. We need additional lights to help us find the way home. Night time hasn’t always been a blessing to humanity, it has often been the opposite. A period of blindness, plummeting temperatures, shadows and silence. We are lucky that we can keep the lights on in the dark hours today, and if anything it gives me a little bit more security to appreciate the beauty that can be taken from it.

And how different it looks during daylight hours. I cannot help to feel more warmth both in temperature and in happiness. I feel the blindfold has been taken away and that the universe is coming out from the angry stage it was in just a few hours ago. I can understand why stone age humans would feel the universe had emotions as we humans do. When a violent thunderstorm or tornado comes at you with the most incomprehensible intensity, it could almost seem like a personal attack. If we hadn’t developed techniques to predict storms or come to understand the conditions that lead up to these extremes, maybe we would be more superstitious than we are today.

But back to the shot, I like the difference in the shots despite being in the exact same location. The sun and moon in somewhat similar locations, even a person walking away from me directly below the guiding light. Maybe they are the same person? I will never know. They are both beautiful in their own way, I am sure some appreciate the stars and silence and some the blue skies and bird sounds.

Which do you prefer?

TBT: Staring into infinity

I think that my Thursday posts for the foreseeable future will be throwbacks to posts I have previously published. This is for a couple of reasons. One reason being I have currently 1,077 posts on my blog, with many of my early posts gathering between 2-5 views. I would love to return to these posts as many are still relevant and it would be great to introduce to the wider audience I very gratefully have today. Another reason is that blogging daily is difficult with full time work, and posting an entry that I have previously published gives me that little bit of extra time to look at my blog, respond to comments and think of new material. 

It would be tragic if a band did not play their older stuff at a gig, I kind of feel the same way about my blog. 

This one is a fairly recent one, dating back to June 9th, 2017. It was when I was starting to tell people about my move to Australia, I was having a catch up with friends in a bar that I knew I wouldn’t see for a while. I miss this kind of European architecture, however I have seen a lot more of the blue sky here than I probably ever did in Newcastle, England.

Enjoy!

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That’s all there is to say of this view. A view that is astounding, normalised due to it being the only view we have ever had.

I love the term ‘space’, it’s like the most modest definition of a possibly infinite universe/multiverse. It would be like calling the ocean ‘big puddle’.

No ceiling, no boundaries. If I had the ability to launch into the clouds above, I could go on forever. Why don’t I consider this more often? How does everyday life take my attention away from unbe-fucking-lievable aspects of our reality?

Beyond the blue, pure mystery. Like looking into the depths of the ocean, all we can do is stare and wonder. This amazes me, it also saddens me. The planets I will never visit and the landscapes I will never walk, the possibility of extra terrestrial life and technology they could possess. We are that desperate to cling onto old traditions we lack so much desire to discover. If our priorities are discussing same sex marriage and women keeping their hair covered, should I be surprised we have hardly explored our own solar system?

It takes a space shuttle 150 seconds to leave our atmosphere. A very short time but still difficult for us to carry out regularly. We are spiders trying to leave a bathtub, the slippery surface made of closed mindedness and hurt feelings. There are many of us that would love to leave the bathtub but cannot as we are too busy trying to fight for equal rights and evade beheadings. You know, the silly things that should be history, still taking place in a world that has the capability for so much more.

And that, ladies and gentleman, is the reason I drink alcohol occasionally. To forget that some people are offended by it.

Let me know what you think, as I am sure there are plenty of opinions on this.

First publshed June 9th, 2017

Reblogged Jan 18th, 2018

When we lose our heroes

I woke up this morning with my thoughts on the sad news from yesterday. I have been thinking a lot about those we consider heroes, whether it be a parent or partner, pet, philosopher or performer. What is hard to deal with is when these seemingly immortal and incredible people leave us much earlier than expected. How!?

It wasn’t too long ago that I typed up a quick post with lyrics to In The End by Linkin Park.

Time is a valuable thing, watch it fly by as the pendulum swings. Watch it count down to the end of the day the clock ticks life away…

Whenever I think of the word time, or utter it in conversation, my mind heads down the path of this song. In a way it is a healthy reminder that time is not something we can put on hold. We can let it slip by or we can ride that wave as best we can and be as active as possible whilst riding it. One day our feet will lose grip of that surfboard, we all fall into the sea but some travel a big distance before doing so.

When we idolise someone, they seem invincible. Perfect. They can also be taken for granted, as if they have always been around and always will be. When their time runs out and they are no longer around, we see them as human again. Not someone that is perfect but someone with flaws that strived for perfection with incredible effort. To me, a hero dying is like a Spider-Man removing his mask. The human is revealed and instantly relatable. The flaws and imperfections, the illnesses and fears all become visible. I don’t mind my inspirations being human. If anything it motivates me to strive for similar success.

The problem with a high profile death is that we only get a glimpse of their life, the success and the wealth. The suffering isn’t always in silence but out of view. For some, a suicide can be a selfish act. If their Wikipedia page states they are currently touring the world and earn this much from record sales, they must be happy, right? Can we claim to know the lives and the apparent state of mind of a person we have never met? Of course not. To assume would be incredibly arrogant. 

My family has been affected on more than one occasion by depression and suicide. Maybe this is why cries of selfishness are so offensive to me. I know the daily struggle that can last years and the instant opinions from complete strangers that form conclusions with 100% conviction. It is much more respectable to admit we cannot know the mind of another person than to be so wrong whilst believing we are so right.

The comforting aspect for me is that no one ever dissapears. They are always here, the cells are no longer assembled in the way they were to create such art, but they flow by us everyday. That I find truly mind blowing.