Anyway, I've always believed that its the journey, and not the destination that matters ultimately (think Ithaca). Well what if you're just bumming at the house, and not exactly journeying? Patay na. I'm in limbo. Stagnation.

So I just pray that the journey is long (become a centenarian?), full of (mis)adventure, full of discovery (research?). I do want to meet the Lestrygonians and the Cyclops and the angry Poseidon. Although I do not carry them into my soul, I'm bloody curious about them. And yes, I'll buy sensual perfumes as I can, as I'm dabbling in aromatheraphy. But as for mother of pearls, coral, and ebony I'll pass. I've no use of them. Those are clutter at the house.

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Ithaca
by Konstantinos Kavafis (1911)

As you set out for Ithaca
hope your road is a long one,
full of adventure, full of discovery.
Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
angry Poseidon - don't be afraid of them:
you' ll never find things like that on your way
as long as you keep your thoughts raised high,
as long as a rare excitement
stirs your spirit and your body.
Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
wild Poseidon - you won't encounter them
unless you bring them along inside your soul,
unless your soul sets them up in front of you.

Hope your road is a long one.
May there be many summer mornings when,
with what pleasure, what joy,
you enter harbours you're seeing for the first time;
may you stop at Phoenician trading stations
to buy fine things,
mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
sensual perfume of every kind -
as many sensual perfumes as you can;
and may you visit many Egyptian cities
to learn and go on learning from their scholars.

Keep Ithaca always in your mind.
Arriving there is what you're destined for.
But don't hurry the journey at all.
Better if it lasts for years,
so you're old by the time you reach the island,
wealthy with all you've gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaca to make you rich.

Ithaca gave you the marvelous journey.
Without her you wouldn't have set out.
She has nothing left to give you now.
And if you find her poor, Ithaca won't have fooled you.
Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,
you'll have understood by then what these Ithakas mean.

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Problem is, I have not left my Ithaca. The waiting game continues...