Lucky Ones

“Nothing gives easy. Easy gives nothing.”

On September 23rd she released Little Machines, her third studio album, not including the acoustic records she has put out following each.

LIGHTS…CAMERA…ACTION!

Last week I wrote about three inspiring women, at least for me and my life,

Here.

And Lights is one of them. When I first heard her newest single, Up We Go, I immediately felt the energy I had been lacking. It was at the beginning of September, school was starting again for many, and summer was unofficially over.

Up We Go was an up-tempo little song that caught my attention and wouldn’t let go, but letting go of the past seems to be the point of the song.

I waited weeks for the official music video to be released, and in it she is apparently in a hotel elevator. The only signs of this for me are the soft music and the ding of the elevator door, but that elevator music that is so easy to distinguish is such a beautiful contrast to the fast-paced forward movement of the song itself.

Lights has been one of my favourite Canadian performers, for the last five years, since I saw her play live. Many of her songs, and indeed her herself, often seem other-worldly, with an alien element somewhere in there. The first song on this album, Portal, is the perfect example of this feeling you must hear her to fully understand.

Her style is all her own. Each one of her songs infectious and her brand of fast-moving electro-pop is a mood booster for me every damn time.

Her lyrics are a lot more abstract and philosophical than other music I have recently been listening to, but this allows for much room for one’s own interpretation.

***

Lucky Ones, Lyrics.

Who knows. Doesn’t matter anyway.

Let’s go. You and I will be okay.

Cause after all this time, still don’t know where we’re going. but look how far we’ve come.

And as long as you’re just as lost as I am

I’ll hold you in the mornings, like we’re the lucky ones.

***

I recommend checking this album out. I find these lyrics and the entire thing wonderfully upbeat and uplifting. I can’t tell you how comforting the above lines were to me, from this bonus track, the moment I heard her sing them.

I have been listening to a lot of music lately, to help me through times of transition and of uncertainty.

Little Machines and Lights have been just the thing to keep me moving forward and motivated, in those moments where I am in most need of the assistance with both.

***

As a proud Canadian woman I want to highlight the talents of those Canadian female artists who are making a name for themselves in the big wide world of music.
Tegan and Sara are another example, along with Lights, of this amazing female Canadian artistry. If you enjoy one you will probably enjoy the other.

I Was A Fool

Goodbye Goodbye

To Any Loyal Readers: Goodbye Summer

I can’t say I saw that there would be a time when I would not post on a weekly or more than a weekly basis here.

Okay, maybe I could and did worry I would eventually run out of things to say and therefore would stop posting. A few months down the line or maybe years. Well, I made it past the six month mark and I am proud to say I have not yet run out of things to write about. On the contrary actually. If anything, I have too much to say and find it overwhelming at times. It isn’t always so easy to get all the ideas constantly swirling around inside my head down on this blog.

It is the end of summer, unofficially, with the long weekend and Labour Day just ahead. I can’t say I am sorry to see this particular summer go, but may find I am left to eat my words when another lengthy frigid winter like last years) settles in.

I am posting just once this week, smack-dab in the middle and only to let you all know I am still here and that I truly appreciate the more than eighty followers to this blog I have accumulated. I am taking a vacation, a week’s break. I wanted to take a few days to ponder the question of moving forward and adding to the wonderful thing I’ve got going here already.

I am trying to decide if it is always important to take a chance and make what you want your reality or if sometimes the point is to decide when to make a move and when it is the right time for a change and when to just wait. I am not always the most patient of people.

In this case, I have been blogging for months now and I needed this time to hone in on what I really wanted to write about, what I was most passionate about. I do enjoy writing about all sorts of things, from fiction and memoir to reviews and interviews, but I have a dream of having my own travel blog.

I came up with the name The Insightful Wanderer (thanks to a helpful suggestion from a friend), only after my first thought which was The Sightless Wanderer. I agree my friend’s suggestion is better. I just wanted to come up with something that could subtly hint at my particular viewpoint and from what angle I would approach travel writing from, but without being super obvious about it.

Step One: come up with a name. Check.

Step Two: Start a site and claim the name. (This is the one I am stuck on.

Should I rush into this when I haven’t even figured out the third and final step in my three-step process?

Step Three: Travel so I actually have something to put on my site.

Now, I have traveled enough in the past that I think I have plenty of past stories in me, enough to post for a good while. I would write about travel, whether it was local (in Ontario) or far off. I have been reaching out to several travel writers/bloggers in recent weeks and am determined to learn about what other people’s experiences have been with exploring this planet. I want to know how they do it and what they have seen of the world. Travel changes many people’s lives and perspectives.

I simply did not want to start posting a lot of these particular interviews on my current blog, even with my Travel Tuesday feature. I thought maybe now was the time to move forward and perhaps I could make it happen.

In the world of online and on the Internet it is hard to make a name for yourself and to find your voice. I want to make my mark in this world by seeing it up-close. I don’t want to just hear about it and read about it. Pictures do me no good and I feel like travel may be my only way to make the most of life while I can.

I do realize that if I do not include a photographic element to my travel blog that I will be behind almost everyone else, and I am still working that out.

Also, I admire the women who travel solo and I wish I could be one of them, because at the moment I don’t exactly have a lot of options. However, being a woman who just happens to be visually impaired also makes it all the more tricky to see my dream come to fruition. These are the sorts of things I haven’t yet worked out and of which make me nervous to jump off the cliff, so-to-speak.

On the other hand, how do you know when things like these aren’t just excuses not to make what you want happen?

I don’t want to take on more than I can handle and I am glad I have you all and this blog. The idea of having to build back up an audience and an online presence is daunting to me, seeing as this one I’ve got here wasn’t a walk in the park and super easy for me. I had help and I go on habit and routine. I do not have a master web designer on hand and at my beckon call. Money is not plentiful and this makes paying for help on a site and for the actual cost of travel rather tricky, but I will scrip and save where I can and save up if I know I will travel again one of these days.

I just want to be able to print off some business cards with the name Insightful Wanderer on them and to make a real and honest go at this dream of mine.

🙂

Only time will tell and probably not in one week will I find my answers to all these questions.

One step at a time. Follow my new travel blog (on Facebook only, for now)

Here,

and I am open to any or all suggestions or feedback on this matter.

What advice do you have on making your dreams a reality or on travel? Where have you travelled and what might you write about if you had a reason to, such as a travel blog?

Thanks for listening and stay tuned for more excellent posts here in the weeks to come.

Note: I’ve got some wonderful interviews with interesting people ahead, a couple reviews of some movies and shows to share, and a new weekly feature, every Monday for the foreseeable future, which will start on September 1st.

Hope everyone enjoys the last long weekend of the summer and thanks for reading.