to althea, from prison

Stone walls do not a prison make,
Nor iron bars a cage;
Minds innocent and quiet take
That for an hermitage;
If I have freedom in my love,
And in my soul am free,
Angels alone that soar above
Enjoy such liberty.

— “To Althea, From Prison”, Richard Lovelace

back from the alps

I’m back! It was a much less soul-searching trip for I was plunged into official duties the first week I was there, which left me with little quiet time.  The first few days were stressful for another reason — I was ill-prepared and had but a fuzzy idea of where in the country to spend those post-work days.

For better or worse, I didn’t write (angst) much while on this trip.   Since my trip to Japan last year, I’d wanted to start a blog, separate from this, which documents the things I wrote while travelling.  It is not travel writing for it does not attempt to systemically log the places I’ve visited.  It’s less of the “see” and “hear”, and more of the “sense”.  Like this page, it’s really more mundane.  It’s a diary that happens to be written while I’m traveling more than your typical travel-diary.  Pictures, if they should appear at all, will be sparse.

I expect more on that to be posted soon.  My jetlagged sleeping hours are helping.

to love

I got this from another blog:

“There is no safe investment. To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket – safe, dark, motionless, airless – it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredemable. The alternative to tragedy, or at least to the risk of tragedy, is damnation. The only place outside Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love is Hell.” — C.S. Lewis “The Four Loves”

I’m no Christian, and I haven’t read the book, but I loved the way C.S. Lewis summed up some part of what has been bothering me all this while, and what I’d wanted to put across to some friends of mine.   Here’s another addition to my to-read list!