Escape-ism

Ever feel the need to hop on the next plane leaving town and just go? Doesn't matter where it's headed, you just need to be somewhere, anywhere else? Well, if you're like me, that option doesn't exist. But I've figured out a temporary loophole. It's Chinatown.

Here in Honolulu, Chinatown conjures up images of one of two worlds. The first being the new, hip, hopeful neighborhood, holding onto dreams of revitalization. Restaurants, bars, art galleries, the Hawaii Theatre. The other image is one of strange smells, exotic produce and every part of every animal you could imagine from pig heads to live frogs being sold out of tiny stalls. Lei stands, the shop with pots & pans and utensils, storefronts offering jade jewelry, waving kitties, and other good luck charms.

And that's not even talking about the people! So many faces. Old, young, selling, buying, store owners, homeless junkies, tourists and me.

It really is a feast for the senses. This is the Chinatown that takes me away to far off places. The unfriendly grocery cashiers, the crazy smells, and feeling like I don't really belong there are all a part of the illusion that I have traveled far away from where I hang my hat.

Sometimes that's all i need to get my quick travel fix, or to indulge in a few minutes of tuning out the pile of things relentlessly tugging at me. So that is my tip for the day. Take a trip, travel at least to your own back yard or maybe even venture into your own Chinatown. Breathe the air, even if it smells of frogs and raw meat and let yourself see things with new eyes and be taken away to someplace new.

Quote of the Day:
"How hard it is to escape from places. However carefully one goes, they hold you. You leave little bits of yourself fluttering on the fences - like rags and shreds of your

very life. " ~Kathlene Mansfield