Just write...

Just write...

That's what I tell myself when I feel out of touch with writing, writing my blog, writing in general, journaling, any writing at all... I feel so out of touch with so many of the things that nurture me, and define me. What used to define me doesn't seem to define me anymore. Heh. I'm not the same me anymore. But I feel so undiscovered, even to myself.

I was reflecting the other day about when I stopped writing, in earnest I mean. And think it may have had something to do with being in a situation I could not change -- or chose not to change, wouldn't have dreamed of it -- but writing has always been how I worked things out.

Flaneuring

flâ·neur

My new word: flaneur
fläˈnər,-ˈnœr/

The term flaneur was popularized by the poet Baudelaire in the 19th century, meaning someone who is wandering the streets, not with the intent of getting somewhere, but as an observer and philosopher. The novelist Diane Johnson, in her book Le Divorce, offers an alternative definition of "mess[ing] around with no guilty sense of being unoccupied." (source: Flaneur-ing in one easy lesson)

This is the article where I found the term 'flaneuring' used, and caught my interest (which also happens to be very good!): Seven Reasons to Visit Mexico City

It's a term I wasn't familiar with, but instantly identified with.

This is what I do when I travel.

The breathtaking Matisse ceiling in the Opera Garnier

If I wasn't flaneuring, I wouldn't have found the cat sanctuary in Rome...

If I wasn't flaneuring, I wouldn't have found that bar on the canal in Venice...

If I wasn't flaneuring, I wouldn't have discovered the Opera Garnier in Paris...

If I wasn't flaneuring, I wouldn't have discovered a couple of amazing little bars in Greece (and met some very handsome Greeks)...

I have loosely used 'slow travel' to try to describe why I stay so long in one place, a month if I can, otherwise 2 weeks... a week anywhere really isn't enough for me! I am well beyond slow travel... I am flaneuring!

I can not wait until I flaneur again in a new destination...