Author: Rebecca Raspberry // The Rebecca Project

Thoughts on Travel

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This article was first published in the summer edition of ‘At The End Of The Day’, my organization’s in-house magazine. *** In the late 18th Century, a Frenchman by the name of Xavier de Maistre pioneered what became known as ‘room travel’. Instead of packing up sixteen trunks, commandeering two stewards and journeying on trains and sailing vessels to new worlds, de Maistre donned his blue and pink pajamas and set about exploring his room. In ‘Journey Around My Bedroom’, he participated in grand old adventures, starting with his couch. What we glean from his writings is that while we all can’t be brave explorers like Cook and Magellan, we can all look at our own surroundings with a different eye, taking the time to notice what we have already seen. It’s less about where in the world we are heading as the mindset with which we travel. It’s an interesting way to look at travel, particularly as many of us take a vacation this time of year. There is no one-solution-fits-all when it comes …

A Heartfelt Congratulations is in Order

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This week, I heard some most fabulous news: Craig and Jas are getting married! HURRAH! I am so unbelievably happy for them, and really appreciated the fact that Craig took the extra five minutes to share the happy news with me personally. That was really special. There’s only been eight weeks of my life when he wasn’t in it, the height difference has evened out (I think now he even wins by a few centimetres), and he’s someone I miss heaps living so far away.  It was just a wonderful piece of news, and certainly more inspiring than murders, arraignments and burning bodies that I spent the rest of the day dealing with. I have not yet heard all the impressive details of the question-popping, but I can tell you it involved my favourite country on earth, New Zealand, and jumping from great heights. So to Craig: I have so many great memories of growing up with you, and it’s times like these I want to be there with you to give you a big …

A new camera

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Over the past fortnight, my family came to visit us in our little box in the sky. In that time, I only took one photo of them, and it was taken on my iPhone. But it’s just not the same as having a camera. So the time has come for me to purchase my first digital SLR. And I’m pretty excited but it’s a big commitment for a girl who is rather clumsy. Looking back on it, it’s disappointing I didn’t arrive at this conclusion earlier, in time to capture some of the fun we had in San Francisco. But what can you do? For me, I feel that rather than missing out on seeing the beauty or the wonder of a space because I’m too busy taking photos, I actually seem to appreciate things more when I have a camera in my hand. I see all the little bits and pieces that I would have otherwise overlooked, the little moments in time. And these photo trigger memories, smells, and feelings for me when I …

I want to believe.

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I’ve been reading a lot lately (lots of Alain de Botton and Her Holiness Sri Mata Amritanandamayi Devi) and thinking more comprehensively, discerning more comprehensively, yet I don’t feel any closer in finding what it is I seek. “We can conclude …that we are drawn to call something beautiful whenever we detect that it contains in a concentrated form those qualities in which we personally, or our societies more generally, are deficient. We respect a style which can move us away from what we fear and towards what we crave: a style which carries the correct dosage of our missing virtues.” — Alain de Botton, The Architecture of Happiness I’m at an interesting point of my life. I desire simplicity, freedom, adventure, beauty, awareness, zest for life and an open heart. These are all qualities I feel I am lacking, and as de Botton says, these are things I am drawn to other aspects of my life such as art, artefacts and architecture. The reality is that I just don’t believe… in anything. I used …