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Puzzle

Somewhere, on an island, the wet sand is pink…

the waves tickle the feet of three little birds…

that run away, only to turn around and run back again.

Isn’t that what we humans do too?

We test and we try, ponder hard if we dare dip our toes into the next new thing…

We can never know all the outcomes of the all the possible what if’s.

All of those little decisions that led to the big ones – how different everything would be if we had crossed the street five minutes earlier or never met that one significant person in our lives. If we had been born a month later, we would be someone else. If we didn’t have the childhood we did, we wouldn’t have chosen the career path we chose. We build our own fates, brick by brick, almost imperceptibly.

58 replies on “Puzzle”

Lovely photos and blog post. I often ponder too, how it’s indeed mind-blowing how all those small decisions and things lead to the big things.. And how where we’re born determines most of our life path. It’s a bit unfair but that’s how it is! I often wonder where I’d end up if I was born in one of the remote mountain villages of Nepal.. Food for thought hehe. Hope you had a great weekend, Snow! 🙂

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Thanks Pooja, I did have a fun weekend, hope you did too? 🙂 (Shopping, mostly, and that’s not something I usually do!)
Yes, I agree with you, it’s baffling! Also how all of our previous experiences influence our decisions and options, even if we don’t notice it all the time. Most of it is so random. And then in a way it’s not random, because it accumulates. Anyway, maybe not the best topic to think of right before going to sleep, I’ll be up all night! 🧐

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It started off like a Bob Marley song. 🙂 The proverbial three little birds are indeed perpetually hopping upon the pink wet sand while we are testing this water and that, this wind and maybe that other, tasting the cake and trying to keep it too. As for catching one train or the next, once I wished to be born in the 60’s but nowadays I tend to think that for me any other train would be worse.

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I’m happy you noticed – I was a big Bob Marley fan in my teens!!! 😀 I was wondering if I was quoting too directly… but there are actually three birds there! Hahah! Thanks for paying attention – I’m not surprised you did! 🙂
Ooh, why did you wish to be born in the 60’s? I’ve never thought anything similar, I’m quite happy with this time frame 😉 I do wonder what the future will look like though!

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I’m such a hippie at heart. 😉 But also a rebel and a contrarian. I want to protest!! And I’ve always been drawn to the 60’s rock the most. I feel like I’ve caught the good times by the tail. What will the future look like? As it has started to look already: artificial.

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Artificial. Hmm… yes, I see that.
”I want to protest!!” hahah, just for the sake of doing so? I’ve never been a protestor but I can understand being a critic. I always question everything, ponder things from every perspective before making up my mind whether I like it or not, and I drive people crazy with my questions about the backgrounds and working of things (they never know the answers and don’t like to admit it!)

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Lovely post TSMS. For every seemingly insignificant choice we make there’s another path that could be taken. I often wonder if we actually have any choice at all, but just the appearance of choice, and that we’re all just being done.
Alison

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Thanks, Alison! 🙂 Maybe the choices were coded into our dna and everything was always going to go how it went. We would always answer yes here and no there. Or… maybe our choices depend on the random things that have come our way in the past. Who knows!

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Thank you, Amor! 🙂 The photos are from Aruba, so you were quite close with your guess! Eagle Beach, to be exact – it was so lovely there! (Way back in 2012!) And the Bahamas, have you been there? I haven’t but it looks incredible in the images I’ve seen!

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There’s probably an algorithm for this. ‘What ifs’ are such a binary thing. I said no, what if I’d said yes? I went out, what if I stayed in? My what ifs have taken me from where I started to where I am now, but if I’d made different choices, could I have been running a Fortune 500 company? Living in seclusion in a monastery in Tibet? Running an explosives-laden truck into a crowded market? Life could have turned out differently. I think one of the hardest things in life is owning those what ifs. It’s such a temptation to think that if I’d done that other thing, my life would be great. But if I had done that, maybe I’d just end up wanting what I have right now.

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That’s such a good point, Graham (as yours usually are! I have a feeling I keep replying the same way to all your comments! What can I say – you make a lot of good points!! 😁) …If I had done something else, I would quite probably want what I have now.
I’m quite happy with where I am now and don’t feel like I’m lacking anything. That’s happiness, right? Still, it’s interesting to ponder these things. If my family had never moved to Finland when I was a kid, I would be an Aussie girl and a completely different person with different experiences. There is so much potential for all of us to become so many things, as you said, life could have gone in so many other directions.

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Thanks Marina! Aruba had the best sunsets! Though it does have an unfair advantage with its spectacular beaches as viewing venues 😝
Yes, the views that make one a poet… I was looking at that first photo and these lines just came out, hahah! Probably not quite poetry but at least a small step away from my writer’s block. How’s the apartment sales business? 😉

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Ahh, now I know where is that secret place… 🙂 Sometimes sceneries do more work than all the read poems :))
Why, do you have a writer’s block now?
Uff, the sales business goes, we work, uffing and puffing :)) Soon we run the visits – and the more you work, the more things to fix you discover, my oh my :))

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Beautiful photos, and contemplations. I will often wonder why I have the awesome life I have, hard times and all. It could be so much harder, it could be so much easer. Instead I try to refocus on where I am and the amazingness of it all.

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It sure is an interesting thing to ponder about. What if…. Did you ever see that movie, with Gwyneth Paltrow, called Sliding Doors? Your post made me think of those BIG turning points in your life that determined a complete change of course.

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I’ve never seen that movie but I’ve heard that it’s about this, and would love to see it. Sadly it’s so old that our local library doesn’t have it and I’ve been unable to find it online! And yes, those big turning points… so interesting to think of! There’s also a concept about parallel universes (if space is endless then there are an endless amount of things out there… also parallel planets where we chose differently!) – I don’t really believe that, but it’s fun to think about!

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Such a shame that you can’t get that movie. But in talking about old movies and parallel universes there was one made in the seventies, I think with Charlton Heston. It was about an astronaut that went of course and ended up on a parrellel earth. The storyline was a bit crazy but did make me think about space and its possibilities. That movie is probably also unavailable. It might have been called, Journey to the other side of the Sun’ perhaps?

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Hi, Snow!😀
Is that the Baltic Sea in your photos?
But I must say, that your post is beautiful!
Looking forward to more such posts!

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Thank you Aditya! I wish that was the Baltic Sea, but sadly we have no palm trees here and no sandy, warm beaches to stroll at sunset. Our shores are rocky, windy and usually too cold to swim, the trees are pine trees and the water is a greyish blue, reflecting the sky. The photos are from the Caribbean, the island of Aruba! 🤗 Thank for the kind words and if you’re interested, I’ve posted plenty of photos like this during the first two years I blogged, you can find them by browsing the menus on my front page! Enjoy your day! 😊

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Love the pink hues and that luscious-looking water. I got to spend time on some beaches recently; I had almost forgotten how incredibly calming they are and how they provoke philosophical thoughts on life!

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Beautiful perspective on life. I’ve been on a year long quest to understand how I’ve arrived at who I am. The “turn left here’s” and all the decisions I’ve made at various parts of my life, even when downright difficult, have led to bountiful joys. Thank you for the reminder. ❤️

Love the pink and the feet. The human-ness of those added toes makes me want to drive 8 hours and immerse Little Bit’s and mine in ocean-sand. ❤️

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‘We build our own fates, brick by brick, almost imperceptibly.’ Beautiful line. I often wonder about the chances and decisions we take…the ones I have taken and how it could have been so vastly different in just a heartbeat. Here’s to the fate we have built so far 🙂

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Lovely beach photos! They make me want to return to the seashore. It is interesting when you contemplate the moments in life and how a minute or two or a different choice could have changed the entire trajectory of your life.

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