WISH YOU WERE WHERE?

I wish I were ...

As everyday duties and responsibilities, current trials and troubles,  life's burdens, and even joys and celebrations begin to weary us, we may find ourselves whispering in the hidden part of our souls ...or shouting out loud...I wish I were...

Where do you want to be?

Where is that I wish I were... for you?

For me it is anywhere the sun beats down unmercifully, relieved only by gentle sea breezes

Anywhere I can walk on the beach, squishing sand under my toes.

Anywhere I can sit on a balcony in the morning, praying, reading, and enjoying a purple-pink sunrise over the turquoise water.

Anywhere I can eat goat meat, turtle soup and bronzini, conch and curry.

Anywhere the mojitos and caipirinhas flow authentically-- no sour mix included.

I wish I were...

I recently read Wish You Were Where? by Kay Giebenhain in the Seminary Ridge Review (Spring, 2013, Poetry + Theology, 102)

In this article Giebenhain describes a unique art installation by Deborah Goldsmith and Hilary Jack in which they had hung pieces luggage- suitcases, trunks, tote bags-on the wall.  Visitors were asked to write their I wish I were on a luggage tag and attach it to one of the luggage handles.  The installation was layered with the tags, weighted down with the multitude of I  Wish I Were statements.

The writer of the article jotted down responses from the tags creating a found poem.  Here are only a few from her list:

The Pyramids, Egypt...
Hogwarts
Somewhere to Eat...
South America. I will get there...
Where my head is my home...
Africa..
Out there
To the Moon..

To read the entire article Wish You Were Where? by Katy Giebenhain in Seminary Ridge Review (Spring 2013, 102) see page 54 of this pdf document.

 To view the installation by Goldsmith and Jack click here.

 I wish I were...

People don't send postcards much anymore.   Before emails and texting- in the era of letters and more formal communications--post cards were the vacation textings of my youth.
We sent them back to our friends from where we were... Wish you were here!

Most tourist gift shops still sell them.  I have even bought a couple a recent trips--to have a picture of something my own camera failed to capture--not to send to anyone back home. We can even buy collections of these vintage post cards.




A quick check on Amazon or Google for post cards also returns a variety of books of novelty and collectible postcards--Fairy Tale Post Cards, The Art of Pixar, Post Cards from the New Yorker, 30 Post Cards from Norman Rockwell, The Art of Comics Postcards, Tiffany Stained Glass Windows in Postcards and whatever you can imagine could be saved and savored on a postcard.  We collect them. We remember them. But we are not sending them to each other... Wish you were here!



What message would you like to receive on a post card?
What message would you send from your I wish I were place?
Who would you write to....Wish you were here?

Holly Hobbie's famous world traveling pig still sends postcards.  Toot travels to a far-off  Borneo--and  we get to read all the postcards in  Wish You Were Here (Toot & Puddle). Check out other books the Toot and Puddle series to follow Toot on more travels and to peek at his correspondence.



Where to you want to be?
Where do you wish you were?

Today's Deeper Writing Possibilities

Close your eyes and think about the place you most wish to be.

Where is your I wish I were place?

Write a post card from this place that you wish were there with you.

Write an essay about this place and why it attracts you.

Write a poem capturing the essence of you I wish I were place.