To Not Celebrate the Death of One

It is amazing how many conflicts are going on in the world today, how many countries are fighting for new governments, while others are celebrating topples of old ones.  Earthquakes are destroying countries and towns, but people never fail to rise up and help.  It's beautiful.  Crazy things are always happening around the globe- earthquakes, tsumanis, and wars have always occurred.  It is pretty naive to think otherwise.  But, this is a time of beauty.  A time to strive for peace.

People are donating so much time and money to help others around the world.  There are so many generous, giving, caring people out there, and it is increasingly obvious that the world view has changed drastically when it comes to how to deal with international issues.  Even here in the USA, where we are stereotypically incredibly ethnocentric, people are starting to realize more compassion.

One event that seems to show this inevitably, is the death of Osama Bin Ladin.  Yes, there was a lot of celebrating here in the US.  A lot. I live in New York City- people were crying and going crazy.  I get it.  

BUT, even on the day of the event, people were posting on Facebook, carrying signs in the street, and talking about how it was wrong to celebrate death.  That fake Martin Luther King Jr. quote was circulating like wildfire, and even though the quote was fake, it was an excellent message- "I will not celebrate the death of one".  Within a few days, more people whom I talked to about the issue stated that celebrating his death was morally corrupt, even though he had caused so much pain and suffering.  Very few believed that they were justified in celebrating his death, in any way.  Even a few people who ran into the street in jubilation the day of the killing have tweeted, Facebooked, or talked to me about how they now see that they were wrong to do what they did.  This viewpoint seems to have quickly become the prevailing attitude- that celebrating the death of someone, no matter how heinous their crimes, even if they killed someone you knew, even if they were your sworn enemy, is wrong.

Wow...I'm impressed.  Frankly, I've never felt more optimistic about the human race in my life.  If there was ever a sign that humanity continues its move forward, in the correct direction, this is it.  Maybe I'm wrongly optimistic, but I see, historically, that we are in one of the most peaceful times ever.  And, as we spread awareness and want for compassion, we will only continue forward, and prove that love and understanding will win in the end.   That humanity can rise above violence, and put a desire for revenge aside.

An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind.

Cheers, all.  Enjoy some photographs of the Gandhi statue, in Union Square, surrounded by pink blossoms.  He'd be proud of your vigilance towards human life.


Seriously.  Cheers.

Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA

A New Day

Due to the fact that I am now once again employed (yay!),

I'd like to announce that after today, I will now just be updating this blog on

TUESDAYS, THURSDAYS and SATURDAYS.

I will try to consistently post on each day.

Finding quality photographs and article content, as well as making what I had compiled interesting to the point where I was proud of it, had become increasingly difficult for me.  I was putting out material very irregularly, and feeling like a lot of it was just totally rushed, and slapped together, instead of nicely done. I wish I had the luxury to spend an hour each day editing photographs and writing an article, but sadly, I do not.  So, there will be, in theory, "fewer" posts, but they will be consistent.

Look  for the next post Tuesday morning at 9am est.

(Look at that sun shining through the clouds!  It is such a sign of optimism and a new start!  And... yeah.  It's pretty.)

(Also, take a look at this adorable couple snuggling with a parasol under a pink, flowering tree in Central Park.  Can you get a better omen than this?  Obviously, I am making a thoroughly good decision here.)

Thank you so much everyone for all of your support and feedback.  I always appreciate it!

~Emily

Brooklyn and Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA

Springy Spring Springing

I'm confirming the news: spring has arrived in New York City!!  I couldn't be happier about this.  Flowers are blooming, trees are becoming green, and the squirrels are chasing one another around in their nutty, spastic mating rituals.  Seriously, those little guys are just dashing up and down trees after one another like they are never going to run out of energy.  It's amazing.  Birds start singing their adorable songs outside of my window at about 7am.  People are wearing skirts and shorts, boots are becoming rarer.  I'm such a delighted kid right now.  Oh... and Cadbury Cream Eggs are for sale in stores.  That really means it is spring!

I know I have more photographs of frolicking squirrels somewhere... deep in the depths of my hard drive.  I'll find them and share them in the next few days.  Since they are one of the only animal species I see on a regular basis, I've grown rather fond of the furry guys.

Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA

El Béisbol con un Plátano (The Baseball and the Banana)

Miami had excellent murals.  You saw one in a previous post, Sunny Skies and Marvelous Murals, and now I want to share some other ones!  This one, with a detail shown above, was one of my favourites.  It was on the outer wall of a preschool, and showed a bunch of children with fruit for bodies playing baseball.  This great scene overlooked their little parking lot, complete with a tiny outdoor playset.  Adorable!  I wish I had taken a photograph of the entire scene so that I could share it with you, I was very enchanted.

On the street side of the building were more murals, showing a butterfly and trees. This serene little scene was paired with their sign advertising Judo classes!  I looked at something later, and it turns out that this place also ran a day care for older children, and part of the daycare was that they have to take a Judo class.  How awesome is that?  Hey kids, you have to go here after school because mummy and daddy are still at work, but it's okay because, you know what?  You get to fight stuff.  

But my favourite was the mural painted on the glass door- of a little girl with mended faerie wings.

The whole thing was just so darn cute and full of childish imagination.  I wish I could remember the name of the place, but I don't.  In any case, it made me happy, and I hope that these photographs make you happy too.

Miami, Florida, USA

The Crowd

 

When we first arrived at Sea World, we were shocked by how few people were in the park.  Granted, it was a thursday, not a weekend, and many of the schools in the area had just started, but it was a lovely day outside, and well, we just expected it to be really crowded.  Oh, and we had initially planned to show up around ten when it opened, but didn't end up making it there til more like eleven thirty, because I was a little bit slow getting ready and then, we missed our exit.  Anywho, it looked like there was pretty much no one there.  One of the first things we did was go and get some lunch in one of the restaurants.  As we were digging into our massive and totally delicious taco salad bowl (one of those ones with the shell and everything) a huge group of people started coming our way.  What I mean by huge, is the size of the town where I grew up.  Turns out that everyone had been in the Shamu show since we had arrived at  the park.  Here they are!

San Antonio, Texas, USA

Pastel Playground

As I said in the last post, I went to Sea World on my birthday with Danny.  Everything was so happy, the people, the decorations, the playful sea lions (more to come on that).  The main atraction was obviously the aquatic life, but the overall decoration of the place was rather lovely.  Since it's in San Antonio, a lot of the plants are more desert standards.  Being from the Northeastern United States, that looks pretty foreign.  Add onto that Florida pastel buildings and statues... and the whole place looks  kitchy and fun.  This playground is a pretty decent indication of the feel of the place.

San Antonio, Texas, USA

A note for everyone... you may notice that I changed the format of the page again, just a little bit this time.  The header is smaller, I'm listing fewer blogs on the sidebar, and I have links to other places where you can check out my work.  Please, let me know what you think!  I know that a lot of people look at this blog, but I don't hear from many of you that often.  Great ways to let me know your opinions are by checking the boxes at the bottom of each post (the ones that say beautiful, cool, interesting, etc.) or by leaving a comment.  Anyone can leave a comment- you don't have to be a google member.  Where it says Google ID, just scroll down and choose Name/  URL.  The URL doesn't have to be a real one either :P

If you really like what you see, why not follow me?  Click on the box that says "Follow" in the sidebar.  Or, just click on this link right here.

Thank you!!

Blossom

 

No, not the Powerpuff girl, but a flowering tree.  These are such a perfect indication that spring has sprung, and this tree in Paris proved no exception.  The pink was such a delicate shade, and the ground below was covered in petals.  Ah, delight.

Paris, France

Like this?  Take a look at some Dutch cherry blossoms in Spring.

New England

Having lived in actual England, I can now understand why New England, in the United States, bears its name.  The architecture attempts to copy England, and it generally fails, but still looks rather lovely.  There is also an air of aristocracy about much of New England- like the class divisions present in English society exist in a similar structured manner here in the USA.  These divisions definitely do exist, but in New England, there seems to be a drive to show that they are old money, as it were.  Now, I don't mean that this is a bad thing at all.  As a matter of fact, I kind of like it.  I'm not a rich person at all, but seeing places filled with those who have lots of money and class is rather pleasant.  New Canaan seems to epitomize this rather well.

New Canaan, Connecticut, USA

Like this?  Try looking at In Bruges, I used a similar trick there...

Charming

I was searching back through some of my photographs, and remembered an entire album that I had taken in Hampstead Heath, back in London.  I've only posted a few photographs from that day, but I took over five hundred.  Unfortunately, the photo quality on these is a little bit blurry due to the broken-ish state of my camera the day these were taken.  I like them enough to want to share them with you despite this fact, and I hope that they are enjoyable regardless. 

Here is someone's lovely front yard full of pale, pink tulips. 

Hampstead, London, England, UK

Like this?  Take a look at Two Lips.

Pastels

This delightful floral tree is outside of some kind of office building in Bay Ridge.  The mix of white and purple flowers on one tree floored me. I was walking with Danny to the house of a friend of ours, and I actually made him stop in the middle of the sidewalk so that I could take this photograph.  Now, I do this all of the time, so he is pretty used to it.  He's basically a saint.  Not only does he put up with it, he thinks it's cute!  However, this time, we were running late.  Like we were already fifteen minutes late and had another ten minutes to walk.  It worked out though.  Our friend went to buy ingredients to make us omelettes, so we actually beat him to his house.  

Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA

Volcanic Sunset: Part 1

Eyjafjallajökul sure was annoying, wasn't it?  Travel plans were spoiled, people were stranded for weeks in countries where they didn't speak the language, or have enough money to buy a hotel room, or even food.  Air traffic basically halted.  It was a total disaster.  However.... the sunsets in Europe, while it was erupting?  

They. Were. GORGEOUS.

Stunningly pretty.

So, I tried to capture a few of them on film.

Enjoy!

The Tuileries Gardens

Paris, France

Like this?  Then check out Landscape.

Shower of Gold

A very attractive tree in Regent's Park.

I sat underneath this and ate a pasty, if I do recall correctly.

I miss living in London.  I love New York with a fiery, fiesty passion, but England was just such a lovely country.

London, England, UK

Love this?  Enjoy a Fairy Tale.

Shelter

A Farm

Aubonne, Switzerland

Like this?  Then you will most likely be in love with Grazing and Three's Company.

Adore this?  Get your hands on it here.

Tattered Beauty

Yellow Flowering Tree in the Botanical Garden

Oxford, England, United Kingdom

Like this?  Then you'll probably enjoy Spring.

Fairy Tale

St. James Park

London, England, UK

Like this?  Then you'll probably enjoy Enchantment.

Spring

A Flowering Tree

Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Like this?  Then you'll probably enjoy Fairy Tale.

Tranquility

Koi in the River in the Yard of The Alamo

San Antonio, Texas, USA

Like this?  Check out Spring and Better Than Candles.

Really like this?  Buy this print here.

I added a cool quiz to the side of the page!  Vote for your favourite country (out of those choices) or the one you would most like to visit.  They are all ones that I have been to, or am going to visit in the near future.  However, they are not all of the countries that I have seen.  I just find it interesting to know what you're thinking, and maybe you do too.
ALSO I just added this thing called bloglovin.  You can now follow this blog through blogspot, blogger, google, or bloglovin.  So now you will always know when this blog is updating.  Yay!  Here's the link: Follow my blog with bloglovin.
ONE MORE THING- I created a facebook group for Travel and Toile.  To join, or for more updates, go to The Travel and Toile Facebook Group .
Thanks everyone!

Enchantment

A house on the shore of Lake Geneva

Saint Prex, Switzerland

Like this?  Then you'll probably enjoy The Actor.