The mind's volatile anxieties leave a turbulent froth at the receding tide of her self-awareness as she rolls into the same bed she had restlessly occupied 15 hours earlier. Sleep both haunts and evades her. Stark, flushed cheeks bearing a shocking resemblance to overripe papaya nestle beneath a neglected mane whose strands have born the day's events not without valor. She arranges and re-arranges her thoughts, as one would a bouquet of half-awake, half-bloomed wildflowers, yet to reach full maturation and brilliance of character. Finally unable to finish a cup of strong coffee for her distractedness, she is resigned to top off the various rings of stagnant residue with scalding water in a (vain) effort to preserve her brooding temperament and consciousness.

Complaint

"My body and mind were to prove temperamental accomplices in the mission of appreciating my destination. The body found it hard to sleep and complained of heat, flies and difficulties digesting hotel meals. The mind meanwhile revealed a commitment to anxiety, boredom, free-floating sadness and financial alarm."

Sublime Places

"If the world seems unfair or beyond our understanding, sublime places suggest that it is not surprising that things should be thus. We are the playthings of the forces that laid out the oceans and chiselled the mountains. Sublime places gently move us to acknowledge limitations that we might otherwise encounter with anxiety or anger in the ordinary flow of events. It is not just nature that defies us. Human life is as overwhelming. But it is the vast spaces of nature that perhaps provide us with the finest, the most respectful reminder of all that exceeds us. If we spend time in them, they may help us to accept more graciously the great, unfathomable events that molest our lives and will inevitably return us to dust." [The Art of Travel]