or: When Life is Like a Disney Fairytale Yet Isn’t at the Same Time

Staying in touch with family and friends while I travel / live overseas has been through a variety of different methods, including this blog.

There is one long-standing group chat that I am a member of with three close friends. We all met while living in Hong Kong and now one is back in her home country, another lives in another country altogether, one is still in Hong Kong and I’m on the road again.

These are friends that dip in and out of Facebook and I’m not sure any regularly read this either. This means that WhatsApp is our primary means of communication. There is also the occasional Skype call. Our chats cover a variety of topics, sometimes silly, sometimes serious.

Early this week, one of the members messaged from what appeared to be a traffic jam yet it was really the usual amount of traffic for that particular day to leave Bangkok (where he’s now located) on the way to another tropical island paradise. This started a chain of responses about what we were all doing at that particular moment. I was sitting on the couch reading the messages before going diving.

I was asked how things were going to which I replied “I am living a Disney fairytale except I can’t talk to the animals.” To which one friend wrote “Phrases I’d never thought I’d see!”. Apparently it was the whole reference rather than the talking to the animals bit.

This started me thinking… about a number of things which I’m not going to go into here except for one. What really is a Disney fairytale? I was thinking this as I started to mentally list all the other exceptions I could come up with:

– no fairy godmother

– no evil stepmother

– no castle

– no long, flowing blond locks or short, neatly bobbed dark hair

– no enchanted forest

– no glass slippers, floaty-type frock or anything with puffy sleeves

– definitely no taking food from strangers or starting to eat a house made of gingerbread

– I can’t sing. In fact, it’s best for everyone’s ears that I don’t attempt this and also good for the dolphins that I’m not hurting their ears either or shattering any glass or mirrors

– no seven dwarves, henchmen, or any other man in a protective type role requiring tools of some sort

I’m sure there were others too yet this was enough to have me thinking that this was a list of all the things that were’t like a Disney fairytale when it’s better to focus on the things that are:

– I’m happy, and right now, there’s no place I’d rather be (which could have been the other title for this post)

– the birds are chirping, the sun is shining and there is a distinct feeling that all is right in the world. Yes, I know this isn’t quite accurate yet that is the feeling I have right now in spite of all the palava that is going on everywhere. It is a state not quite of blissful ignorance. More of a blissful snapshot and all the negative things has been conveniently compartmentalised to be referred to at a later time. Not now. I’m enjoying this moment.

– the fish and turtles are swimming though I can’t understand a word they say

– there were even some dolphins when we were returning from our dive this morning including a baby

– did I mention there was a turtle too?

– I’m surrounded by some fantastic people who do a great job of making sure I’m having a good time and am well looked after even though I don’t speak the language that I mostly hear here

It’s all about perspective.

 

 

* Thanks to The Blackeyed Susans for the title to this post.