Tag: exploration

Old Smelly Goat – 7th October 2022

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

The old smelly goat can always be found
In an honest conversation
The bush is eaten, not beaten around
Never requiring explanation
And so the room is full of his stink
At least in your imagination
The truth doesn’t care about what you think
Your position or situation

He who has endured most suffering, most privation, will awaken in the afterwards most keenly alive.

Lev Shestov

Today I’m feeling:
Happy and satisfied.
Today I’m grateful for:
Watching the sunset from the middle of the valley, across rice fields and the big wide sky. I felt at one with the world.
The best thing about today was:
Discovering a whole new part of the valley to explore when I have more time. I didn’t want to go out in the afternoon as I’m already sunburnt so I decided to go at 5pm and I raced down to the airport only having a rough idea of where I wanted to go and so I found lots of nice villages and rice fields and good riding tracks and with lots of wide open space with tracks going off everywhere. Not much jungle here in the valley.

I took this picture because this sums up my days recently since it stopped raining. I spend time in the hammock reading and looking at the home around me.

The Honey Pot – 6th September 2022

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 1 Comment

Good fortune can be a great deceiver
Life’s lottery may bring returns of gold
But the devil is in the details
Of the glittering lives being sold
Ants will gather at the honey pot
Desperate hands grabbing for a share
Fighting for a way to get out
Before realising it’s all still there

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.

George Bernard Shaw

Today I’m grateful for:
My little motorbike surviving the stupid journies I take it on. I rewarded it with a quick shower and wipe down ready to go again another time. Maybe I’ll wait until it’s a little drier though.
The best thing about today was:
Realising that I needed to get outside and see the sun, breath the air and dive deep into the jungle. My mood had totally altered by the time I returned home scratched up, aching muscles and covered in mud.

I took this picture because it will remind me of my bike ride today that got me out of my funk. I love the angles and depths though my phone can’t capture the magnificence as the human eye. I particularly like the clouds in just half the sky here.

The Week That Was – 25th November 1979

Stick In The Mud – 7th September 2021

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

I love the adventure more than you
Sidetracks make me curious
But not knowing where we’re going
So often make you furious

I love to find dead-end tracks
Just to see what’s there
It doesn’t matter we have to turn around
I don’t really care

When roads turn to tracks of dirt
My curiosity begins to rise
There may be nothing there but
I want to see with my own eyes

Yes, I got stuck that time
But adventure is what I had
Eventually, I got out of the mud
It wasn’t really so bad

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful for my stupidity and smarts. Yesterday I took a shortcut home in the car and got stuck in some mud, miles from anyone (stupid). I broke off some branches and leaves to get traction under the tyres (smart) and with some brute strength and will, managed to get out again after 15 minutes (strength).

Took the car to get washed inside and out today after my little adventure getting stuck in the mud when trying to take a shortcut home. I was quite pleased with myself at getting out of it though.

Amy would have been very pissed off if I had to leave the car there and call her Dad! Just thinking about the scenarios while writing this is making me chuckle a bit. Anyway, our car looks good now.

Two classes today – pretty easy time at the moment, lots of reading; A Thousand Splendid Suns. I’m really intrigued about Afghanistan, especially with it being in the news so much right now. I doubt I’lll ever go there so I’ll just be content with watching documentaries or reading more.

Curiouser – 10th August 2021

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

Are you curious about the world
Or is everything in its place?
Is every piece already set in stone
The winner chosen for every race?

Do you see what’s under your nose?
The dusty corners of darkened rooms
Comings and goings of all earthly creatures
The life and death that one presumes

When eyes open to let the light in
The world becomes majestic and grand
Life fills suddenly with meaning
And understanding begins to expand

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful for the folks who will service our car today. I hope they do a good job and are in good health and don’t catch Covid.

At Amy’s parents’ for lunch. It’s Mother’s Day this week, so it’s a family get-together. Amy said to teach up in the new room they built above the garage, and I thought, ‘why not?’, so I’m lying on their comfortable brand new sofa trying to stay awake before my class starts.

Today, George blanked me in the morning when I said hello and then again when I said goodbye at lunchtime. This annoyed me a little until I told myself to calm down and that I can’t control his actions, only my own. I let it go and feel much better.

I’m happy to have no more online classes after school and have that free time back again. It’s a great feeling, and I still wish I had all day, every day, free! Still, it’s not so bad. I’m really enjoying teaching at the moment, and it looks like it will be for the whole semester. The students and I are pretty locked in now.