Around the Bend

Around the Bend… (Notes on my journey) by Christine Wichman c. June 2016

He rolled down the window of his shiny new jag, “Don’t be afraid to give up the good and go for the great! Bending the rules is the only rule!” and then he sped off leaving me with that insight and eleven days in Wonderland.

“Thank you,” I whispered, but the driver was long gone.

A jovial butler from Lithuania swept up my bag and took me on a turny spin three flights up the spiral staircase. I was given many keys and run of the kingdom. No longer anyone’s Princess. I was suddenly the wise Queen on an adventure.

None of the footman allowed me to pass unnoticed. “Come here,” they said “You must never go the long way round. We need to see your beautiful smile, so come this way when you pass.”

I’d never gone noticed before, so this was all new to me. This strange land with such friendly and genuinely happy people. “Must be all the green,” I thought. “Green calms the soul, quells the anger. My land is so dry and red at the moment.”

Stress and anger wear on ones soul, even when you are merely associated by proximity.

The natural buzz of hummingbirds was the perfect way to start each new day in Wonderland. Walking down old roads in new ways led to many beautiful moments and random exchanges with swans, robins, coy fish and dogs…again all happy creatures moving through the elements of their own perceptions. I did not sense any collective propaganda deciding the day for them. None at all.

When I’d hit a wall, it was a beautiful wall. Stone with moss and tiny flowers growing from it. Each obstacle a path, each path a new lease on life. The moments began to fill me with joy and the act of just moving my body from new place to new place moved me deeply.

Tea cups that questioned authority. Yes they were here too. Asking me about those dreams I’d long put in the past. Even the sugar bowl had an attitude. And the bookshelves had eyes, watching from that long past, titles shouting out timely warnings and directions of which way to go next. Just around the bend. Old knowledge. New wisdom.

In the middle of nowhere, a sign. NO MIRACLES HERE. But isn’t that sign a miracle in and of itself? Challenging my beliefs. Shaking me up to something new that is old again? If you are confused…by words that make no sense. Then sit down and rearrange the words until they do make sense. Don’t just believe any word at face value.

The tin man was in a case, without his heart. That could have made me sad, but he was still smiling, so I walked on. I found more twisting paths along the river, the river led to lochs, the lochs to an eventual ocean.

We rode a small boat, called the Jacobite Queen, the captain was asleep at the wheel, texting actually…but the eccentric woman who ran the boat that day, she was like the Duchess in the story of Alice. She followed us round shouting commands, commands that scared us, but made no sense. I was trying to enjoy the Loch, to listen to it’s silence. She kept shouting, hurry up, hurry up you are getting off soon. She repeated herself from the start. It was a long ride, but somehow we were always getting off soon. Hmm, must we be rushed from the start? No time to enjoy the ride?

The vastness of land…high land, low land…any land really, is so awe inspiring. Land, earth, nature, just something left all alone to be itself. Awe inspiring! Man really knows how to mess up an original masterpiece. All land, even our land once was awe inspiring. We took away the green and turned it into pavement. We think that green is a blank canvas to create from. Well it isn’t. Mother Nature is a master artist. Man is a street artist, not that all street art is bad, but my eyes prefer a balance between rest and unrest.

Speaking of rest, the Queen is getting sleepy again. I did not sleep well on this adventure, I was too wound up, too excited, too happy. You know I have been accused, actually accused of being “TOO happy.” I did not know what to make of that. “Okay, should I be less happy…?”

I don’t think my driver would think so, he told me not to be afraid to give up the good for the great. The great, makes me happy, really happy…so so so happy!!

Potions and bottles of liquid joy abounded on this adventure. Whimsy and whims the nature of my travel style. One day, whisky with a Hatter, another day Tea with the tin man…all moments to question “What is going on?” “What IS going on?”

Do we know? Are we meant to know? Or is it just a quick ride, that’s all about to end?

None of us truly know what is around the bend…so do me a favor and please just stop. think. decide…what do you WISH was around the bend? Make that wish. I promise you have the power to make it come true.

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