Tag: life

A Labyrinthian Interest – Summer Journal Series Part 1

With the beginning of summer and a little more free time on my hands, I decided to attempt a sort of Summer Journal Series for my blog. (Incidentally, if you have any ideas for blog musings for the fall, please leave a comment! I am happily open to suggestions! :))

Anyway, many of my readers seemed to like the virtual travels I did last year, so I decided to kick the series off with virtually travelling to three extreme mazes around the world!

Labirinto della Masone

In the fascinating world of Labyrinths and mazes, the Labyrinth della Masone stands out as the world’s largest Labyrinth, and is made from bamboo! The website (https://www.labirintodifrancomariaricci.it/en/labirinto-masone/home-en/) includes history of the maze and its buildings as well as beautiful pictures of the buildings at the maze.

From an arial view, the maze looks like a giant star with a square shape imbedded in the centre. From a ground view, the pathways of the maze are lined with bamboo, leaning inwards in places as if to create a sort of archway. The effect of the bamboo closing in looks magical!

(Photos from: https://www.labirintodifrancomariaricci.it/en/labirinto-masone/labyrinth/#section4)

The Pineapple Garden Maze

Not only does one get to wander their way around inside a giant pineapple with this next maze, but there are also eight “secret stations” that lead visitors to the botanical garden at the centre of this maze! I absolutely love this maze, simply because, as the name implies, it is shaped like a Pineapple.

This maze is also the largest maze in the world! (Not to be confused with the largest labyrinth in the world – Labyrinth della Masone.) At this point, you may – as I was – be questioning what the different between a maze and a labyrinth is. I was surprised to discover that a labyrinth is simply a path that you follow. It can be windy, but does not leave the possibility open to becoming lost. Whereas while in a maze, one can find themselves lost in all the pathways and dead ends.

Detouring just a little sidestep, as I was researching what the difference is between a labyrinth and a maze, I came across some other interesting little facts about mazes and labyrinths. Below are a couple of fun maze definitions I came across!

“Bottleneck – A passage connecting one area of a maze to another, and that must be traversed in order to solve the maze. Every solution to the maze must go through the bottleneck.”

“Vortex – Three or more passageways that spiral into each other, to a central junction, where one must then choose a passageway leading back out. Vortices are disorienting because it is difficult to predict in what direction a passageway leading out will ultimately lead. Multiple vortices linked together can be particularly confusing to navigate.”

(Quotes from aMAZEing Art, http://amazeingart.com/maze-faqs/maze-terms.html)

Labyrinth of Villa Pisani

(Photo from https://www.dreamstime.com/photos-images/villa-pisani-labyrinth.html)

I then found myself exploring the Villa Pisani National Museum and its maze within its garden. The large garden includes part of Brenta river and is decorated with beautiful statues.

The labyrinth itself is formed from beautiful lush green hedges and looks as if it were straight out of a fairy tale. Its square shape is inhabited by a circular shape in the centre, in which lies a single tower structure at the heart of the maze, with a spiral staircase leading to the top of the tower.

Every maze and labyrinth has a fascinated story associated/behind it, but an interesting little legend about the Labyrinth of Villa Pisani is that supposedly Hitler and Mussolini would not even attempt to complete the difficult labyrinth; and Napoleon tried to finish it, but could not find his way through. (Information courtesy of https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/villa-pisani-labirinto)

I hope that someday we will all get to visit these fascinating mazes and labyrinths in person; but for the time being, it was a pleasure to share my virtual exploration of these amazing places with you.

Ready for more adventures!

Until next time! <3

PS Find the secret word hidden in this blog post! There will be a new word for each Summer Journal Series.

Hint: First letter. 1, 2, 5, 7, 12, 14

Comment if you figure out the word! 🙂

What Makes People Happy?

It makes my day when someone does something kind for me. So many times I think we tend to rush around and just go through the motions of our day, sometimes nearly ignoring those closest to us. It is the moments when we stop to pour a little love into someone else’s life that tend to yank us out of what can otherwise sometimes be a mundane and selfish existence.

I feel happiest when I am with people who make me feel loved and cared about. Being in that sort of environment has made me want to create that environment for those around me. There have been times in my life that I did not feel the wonderful amount of support and love that I now feel, so now that I have this kind of close community, not only do I want to hold onto and treasure it, but I want to share this wonderful gift of community with others.

I think that if people were to love and care about others more intentionally, that the world would be a far happier place. Can you imagine if every single person lived each day searching out ways to make other people happy? Instead of living in our own little bubbles, trying to figure out what makes ourselves happy, what if we tried to figure out what makes other people happy? Imagine how satisfying it would feel to know that you make someone else’s day EVERY day! I simply love it when a friend tells me that something I did made them happy, or that I made their day! I definitely want to make that kind of difference on a regular basis.

As a Christian, but also just as a person, I very much want to pursue living selflessly, because I genuinely believe that society and I will both benefit from it. I truly see the wisdom of the words from the Bible (Philippians 2:3-4), which say: “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.” The world would truly be an entirely different place if everyone lived like this!

During the five weeks when I was travelling virtually around the world, I had “travelling challenges”. This week I want to do another sort of challenge – a challenge to make someone else’s day every day. Try to figure out what makes the people in your life feel happy, loved, and special; and then do it!

I would love to know your ideas for how one can make a person’s day! Comment your ideas below – I cannot wait to hear from you! <3

Traveling the World (COVID Edition…)

If you are anything like me, you love a good adventure. Traveling is an adventure that I have dreamed about for a long time, but with all the “COVID craziness” going on, travel dreams have been put on hold… or have they???

I am about to embark on a journey around the world – virtually. It is my hope that this will be a fun time of learning and adventure for not only me, but also for you! That’s right – I want you to come with me!! I am laying out my virtual travel plan so that anyone who wants to can “travel along” and complete my “travel challenges” along with me.

Week 1: “Travel” to Paris, France and London, England.

Challenges:

  • Virtually visit one tourist attraction/interesting spot each day!
  • Virtually find the perfect coffee shop or cafe to hang out at! <3

Week 2: “Travel” to Petra, Jordan and the Great Barrier Reef, Australia.

Challenges:

  • Find out one really unique fact about Petra.
  • Pick out your favourite watery creature that you saw while “diving” at the Great Barrier Reef.

Week 3: “Travel” to Egypt and Morocco

Challenges:

  • Virtually visit a one tourist attraction/interesting spot each day!
  • Pick out the top three most interesting things you saw on your “travels”.

Week 4: “Travel” to Ireland and Russia

Challenges:

  • Virtually visit one tourist attraction/interesting spot each day!
  • Virtually find the perfect spot to have a picnic in Ireland!
  • Virtually find the most interesting-looking building in Russia!

Week 5: “Travel” to Peru and Brazil

Challenges:

  • Virtually visit one tourist attraction/interesting spot each day!
  • Choose what you think is the most beautiful spot in both Peru and Brazil.

I am so very excited to begin my travels with you in the upcoming weeks! I will be writing a blog post at the end of each week, to share what I saw and how I completed the challenges I laid out above. I hope that you will join me on what should be a very interesting five-week adventure.

Look out for mid-week travel updates on my Instagram: em_music0

Share your adventures on instagram using the hashtag: #rovingaroundtheworld

Sinking in – My Adventure in a Fen.

When I agreed to go with my brother and cousin to explore a bog – more specifically a fen – a fen is a type of wetland, similar to a swamp or a bog – I did not fully comprehend the kind of adventure that I was about to embark on. After eating some Kraft Dinner for lunch, we loaded up our inflatable boats in my cousin’s car, and headed off to explore!

When we arrived, we had to walk down a short pathway, from which a lightly worn trail ran down a steep slope, and straight towards the fen. When we reached the bottom, there was a little opening from which we could launch our boats. We then pumped up our inflatable boats, and set out on our adventure.

Trouble hit immediately. I took a couple steps into the swampy water to launch my boat, but quickly sunk into the slimy filth halfway to my knee. Great – I thought – wet and muddy from the start. Thankfully, I got into my boat with relative ease, but unfortunately, that is when things got worse for me and my ill-fated boat. In the fen, there were many fallen sticks, branches, and trees. To navigate, I quickly found out that I had to precariously make my way over them while trying not to puncture my little boat. Sadly, this was easier said than done. When I had only gone several yards out, I heard a tearing sound as I was passing over one of the fallen branches, and felt the air quickly escape from the bottom of my boat! Thankfully, the boats we use have two sections of air. After a few moments, I determined that it was only the small bottom section of my boat that was punctured, so for now, I was still afloat.

We paddled on for a while, until we came near some land. I was excited to explore this section of land, as it was full of giant reeds, and all kinds of plants. When I came near enough, I climbed out of my boat onto a small tree stump. I looked around while I waited for the others to join me. There were many interesting things to see, my favourite of which was some bright green moss growing near the tree stump that I had climbed up on. When the others had climbed up onto the land, we left our boats to go explore the little area of land that we had found. We trekked through the swampy land, finding all sorts of amazing mosses, mushrooms, and bushes. We even found some edible leaves, called Labrador tea, which we tasted. The leaves were fuzzy and very strange looking – the top being green, and the bottom a whitish brown. While I enjoyed the adventure of trying the leaf, I did not like the taste – it was bitter, and the leaves were tough.

When we finally returned to our boats, we made our way towards a little dam past which was a larger body of water that we wanted to explore. Exploring this area brought more difficulties. At first, we tried to break apart the dam, as it was uninhabited and very small, but this proved ineffective, and we decided to portage across instead.

On the other side of the dam, there was so much to discover! We made our way through reeds and over logs, until we came to a narrow channel through which we paddled. When we reached the end of the channel, we found ourselves in a beautiful lake surrounded by trees. As we paddled towards the center of the lake, I happened to look back, and saw something hiding behind the reeds. Curious, I began to paddle towards it. It looked like a boat, but I did not think that it was likely that there would be an abandoned boat just sitting there. As I got closer, however, I realized that it was, in fact, a partially sunken boat. I was very excited, and called out my discovery to the others! I paddled closer to get a better look at it, but just as I was nearing the boat, I noticed a flash of bright colour to my left. I paddled towards the colour peeping up from a tuft of earth and grass in the water. To my amazement and excitement, I found myself looking down at some brightly coloured pitcher plants. (Pitcher plants are carnivorous plants that have a trap containing liquid to digest insects that get trapped in their “pitcher”.) Part of the fun of exploring fens, bogs, swamps, and the like are the amazing plants that can be found in them. I am often amazed at the types of plants that are indigenous to Canada. One can find carnivorous plants such as pitcher plants and sundew plants in Canada, as well as many other fascinating plants!

After we looked over those exciting finds, it was time to head home. We slowly made our way back towards the place where we had first launched our boats. By the time we had hiked up the steep slope on which we had first descended, we were very wet and dirty, but happy! We drove back home, discussing aspirations and plans for future adventuring.