{"id":4969,"date":"2018-07-18T14:04:00","date_gmt":"2018-07-18T14:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/?p=4969"},"modified":"2026-01-15T18:19:23","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T18:19:23","slug":"lies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/?p=4969","title":{"rendered":"Lies…"},"content":{"rendered":"

I am working on a blog challenge with a friend. It’s a great way to fight the doldrums that happen in summer, in politics, in aging bodies etc… It’s also a wonderful way of not only improving your writing, but also your outlook. We are giving each other random words and writing a blog post using those words. The word today was “lies.” Here is my post:<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

What lies there? You know somewhere in the back of the mind….. or at the back of a drawer, a corner of the bookshelf…stowed a little out of reach, so we are not reminded of it everyday, but nonetheless it is there, always there.<\/p>\n

Often we find it, when we lest expect it. Rummaging for a scarf or pair of gloves we touch it…. dusting a book shelf we see it quietly in the corner, then again maybe it just comes to mind with the scent of cumin or a flash of red silk.<\/p>\n

\n<\/a><\/div>\n

It asks the question, “What might have been..?” What might have happened had I chosen that path over this or……..<\/p>\n

In the back of my drawer is my old passport. My first passport. I was twenty-two at the time and you were allowed to smile. It makes all the difference. I applied for it, in my second year of teaching and subsequently went to England the following year to teach and travel.<\/p>\n

What I didn’t do with my passport, however, was join CUSO<\/a> (Canadian University Services Overseas). I did want to go somewhere adventurous, Africa, South America, Asia. I had heard stories of friends, friends of friends and colleagues who had gone to Peru, Tanzania, Malaysia. Instead I went to England. I moved just marginally beyond my comfort zone – I left home.<\/p>\n

\n<\/a><\/div>\n

Yes, I did travel extensively in Europe, hitchhiking most of the time. However, I always came back after a few months to Maidely Rd., where I paid for a room in a flat with four other girls. I did not, for example, hitchhike across North Africa, as the two Australian girls, I met in Italy, had done. Nor did I head to Nepal with an old schoolmate, whom I had accidentally met on a ferry to Crete.<\/p>\n

So it is, that I often think of the missed opportunities. “What might have happened…” There are still opportunities, of course, to go…somewhere… That little book on the shelf is a handbook for Executive Services Overseas – a grown up version of CUSO and the thoughts…..They happen often. In fact just yesterday I was reminded that there are websites for house sitters and I had promised myself that I would look into these.<\/p>\n

Maybe what keeps us from the greater adventures of our lives are the little lies we tell ourselves about the evils of the unknown – snakes, disease, strangers. These fears keep us from experiencing what I will call that flash of red silk – the richness beyond the fear!<\/p>\n

\n<\/a><\/div>\n

Writing this post now, I can see, that I relate my missed opportunities to travel. Others may relate the events that didn’t happen in their lives to careers, relationships, circumstances. However, what there still is – is opportunity<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I had an Art teacher once who said that, if you think you can’t do something, you have to find a way to make it happen. He gave the example of tap dancing. He said – if you can’t tap dance, you might build a box and put a recorder under it with the sound of tap dancing and then you could stand on the box and pretend to be dancing.<\/p>\n

Did I ever tell you that I wanted to be an entertainer? I am working on making that happen \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

The pictures – random travel pictures – go figure!!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am working on a blog challenge with a friend. It’s a great way to fight the doldrums that happen in summer, in politics, in aging bodies etc… It’s also a wonderful way of not only improving your writing, but also your outlook. We are giving each other random words and writing a blog post […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3976,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,13,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel","category-unicorns","category-words"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4969"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4969\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4972,"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4969\/revisions\/4972"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}