THE WORK OF HAPPINESS
by May Sarton
I thought of happiness, how it is woven
Out of the silence in the empty house each day
And how it is not sudden and it is not given
But is creation itself like the growth of a tree.
No one has seen it happen, but inside the bark
Another circle is growing in the expanding ring.
No one has heard the root go deeper in the dark,
But the tree is lifted by this inward work
And its plumes shine, and its leaves are glittering.
So happiness is woven out of the peace of hours
And strikes its roots deep in the house alone:
The old chest in the corner, cool waxed floors,
White curtains softly and continually blown
As the free air moves quietly about the room;
A shelf of books, a table, and the white-washed wall —
These are the dear familiar gods of home,
And here the work of faith can best be done,
The growing tree is green and musical.
For what is happiness but growth in peace,
The timeless sense of time when furniture
Has stood a life’s span in a single place,
And as the air moves, so the old dreams stir
The shining leaves of present happiness?
No one has heard thought or listened to a mind,
But where people have lived in inwardness
The air is charged with blessing and does bless;
Windows look out on mountains and the walls are kind.
Friday, June 30th
Location: Kordon, Izmir city
Me (on the phone): na I’m fine, not gonna even bother, I took the Dolmuş to Izmir.
Fabiana (infamous Italian accent): of course you are, the adventurer is always doing well, they move on no matter what, try other things. It may be cozy and safe in your comfort zone, but it’s too boring.
Saturday, July 1st
Location: train: Izmir – Denizli
I don’t want this to end! I whisper to myself gazing into the grimy window. It’s not the lure of new places/ adventures that I don’t want to stop although part of it, it’s the me that has unfolded, the self I have been living in/ with the past month and a half that I don’t want to part with. And the more I travel/ move/ experience/ endure the better this me seems to become, and the more intimate we get. It’s like I finally found my home/ peace and that home is inside of me. I don’t wanna lose that. Experiencing this is like the holy grail of life, the epitome of fulfillment and happiness. Who wants to let go of that?
How am I not bothered by the unbearable heat (dripping with sweat, sticky clothes), the crowdedness, the yappy adults, crying kids, and the slowest train I have ever met? … Anew thick skin I suppose … what would have driven me nuts two weeks ago seems … normal!
There is travel, and there is Travel. The journey outward, and the journey inward, the running from and the running to. One thing is for sure, none who roughs it up, endures all sorts of drudgery, and physical exhaustion, yet keeps moving is in it for “tourism”. When traveling is tougher than life, it ain’t travel, it’s TRAVEL. A journey inward to and towards thyself.
9 days (5 days of settling, 4 days en voyage) and 6 cities/ towns/villages
I had no plan, as in zero, only one goal, a highland in Armutlu/ Kemalpaşa/ Izmir. Endless mountain forests, where hikes can go forever, overlooking a quaint little village, you wake up and sleep to a view that takes your breath away. Not a house, not a hotel, and not a tent, but an old trailer. Whatever comes after, I’ll take it.
1- Armutlu
7:30 am, waiting for an Otobüs that could carry me to Datça Otogarı. I have booked an e-ticket to Izmir city, the main connection to Armutlu köyü/ Kemalpaşa. On day one of Bayram, public transportation is free. Now public transportation in Turkey is relatively cheap, but they do add up as you need so many connections to reach most destinations. For example, this Datça – Armutlu trip (3 bus exchanges) amounted to 525 tl. Yesterday as I write this I went on only one excursion where I took a train – bus – bus – bus and it added up to 65 tl. If you are on a shoestring, and you are moving a lot, this would constitute a not-insignificant slice of your expenses. However, no matter what budget – or none thereof – you are on, your biggest expense may well be the constant rip-offs.
I reach the garage a bit early, luckily the buffet is open, so I order some Turkish tea. The lady owner bemused by my: çok büyük fincan, and biraz süt lütfen (both of which she totally ignored) joined me at the table. She had Turkish coffee and a glass of a brown(ish) unsavory-looking liquid. After the usual questioning/ small talk every couple of minutes, she would show me a YouTube video of a wild animal grieving their infant; she would touch her heart and utter something about mothers. Why was she doing this? Why was she insisting on showing me those heart-breaking videos? a mystery never to unfold.
Nearing the take-off, I go to the bathroom – a long trip y’all – and the same lady comes rushing with a sense of grave urgency, alarmed I gesture with my hands, and she points to a poster, of course; the fee. 8 tl for a not-so-pleasant bathroom experience, I comply of course (the same incident will repeat itself over and over again).
I have picked my seat online in advance right behind the driver, I don’t know why I do this, but I always sit right behind the driver. The bus is semi-empty, “good” I say to myself, I can later choose any two seats and stretch my limbs. Of course, this did not happen, as I will find out that those buses not only pick anyone up as they go but will be stopping at every single city en route to Izmir to load
I don’t do well – body and soul - with sitting, I cannot do the feet angled and dangled under ya kinda thing for too long, and even when at home, it’s either on the floor or my legs up somehow, sometimes on the wall facing the ceiling – I am every bit weird - there is more, I eat standing up 90% of the time or sitting on a step/ floor. I actually don’t remember the last time I sat to watch a full movie/ series …etc the few times I did, I would take breaks, sometimes I cook and clean, sometimes I just do stuff around the house, and I rarely ever end up finishing the whole movie, I usually dissect it into 3 or 2 parts to be seen on separate days, sometimes not even consecutive. I can never just settle, although ask me to meditate/ read or sit alone in nature I would for 2 hours. I do cinemas though; in fact, I love the “experience” of a movie theatre, the big popcorn, huge screen, max sound, a feel of nostalgia I guess.
I struggle with where to place my legs, and this is where flexibility comes in handy. I tie my legs/ myself into knots. We did get two 15 min breaks during the 6-hour trip though; I kept fast pacing the same area back and forth to get the blood flowing. It surprised me that my fellow passengers, got off the bus only to sit again on benches, cigarettes in hands.
I’m glad I have packed some protein bars - just whey, nuts, and fruit - as those stations, just as the airports and it seems anywhere and everywhere in Turkey sell what I call junk disguised as food. True you can go for a Dürüm, Köfte or what have you every now and then but you cannot do it all the time. The thing is that people would assume those traditional dishes/ street food sold everywhere, are normal food albeit a bit greasy. Dudes, it’s junk food plain and simple, MacDonald, Turkish style. The Köfte you see everywhere (I’ve never met a Turkish Köfte that I didn’t like by the way) packs a humungous amount of God knows what ingredients, not to mention horrible trans oils, and I bet there is very little meat in there. This is why wherever I go I cook, so inconvenient and so time-consuming, but one can ruin one’s health/ gut living off restaurant food here.
A mini road-trip kinda bus ride, I get to see so many places, for in order to load, the bus had to go inside the center of each and every city. Marmaris, Muğla, Menteşe, Çine, Aydın, Tire, Torbalı, and every nook and cranny in between. And I made the decision right there and then to never visit Marmaris ever and to come back and visit Çine sometime in the near future.
Why Çine you ask (although I know no one will)
So we pass by a long stretch of cities/ towns and villages. The landscape is outstanding, nothing like I have seen before, with mountains made of huge rocks and boulders piled one over the other, something out of a kids’ cartoon movie. It’s so unusual, it strikes my curiosity, so I look it up and as I suspected, not technically mountains but stacked rock formations created by million of years, of wind and water eroding an entire mountain range.
Here are a few photos stolen – obviously watermarks – as I was so dazed by the landscape It did not even occur to me to take photos.
I reach Izmir’s HUGE Otogarı, and immediately I am taken aback by how dirty (bathrooms especially) and shabby it looks. So is this major big city garage a representative of Turkey and it’s the ones in Muğla that are the special case?
I look for a Dolmuş that says Bağyurdu, 15 minutes later, I hop in and make my way to the driver. The way it goes with all those small buses is you recite to the driver the exact spot you wanna get off, usually, it’s a landmark of sort, a market like A101 or a bus stop …etc he would then estimate the fare for ya, you pay him on spot, take a seat or stay stood depending on how crowded the bus is, which is usually the case. With those buses there will never be a point where the driver says it’s enough, people are about to burst out the door, he will just ask the people to squeeze more. No one seems to mind or show the slightest bit of discomfort, it’s just life as usual.
I text Murat, the RV owner who will meet me at a spot to take me to the trailer as no buses reach that spot. He suggests we meet at the local Şok, since I want to buy food and supplies. 10 minutes later I’m sitting on the sidewalk waiting for my host. Murat has 2 dogs that he promised to tag along, I loved those naughties and would later spend some extra special time with one of them. Tall, tattooed, and handsome Murat is a perfect host, with impeccable English. His dream is to move to Canada!
Murat: I love your lifestyle by the way
Me (thrilled) Thank you …
This was the first time someone says “lifestyle” and they don’t mean gym life, being healthy, reading ..etc but the “Travel life” …
This morning, before taking off to destination number 5
To be continued ….