The greatest learning~

It often happens to me like it did today when I come back from teaching photography to children feeling like they actually did all the teaching. I learned so much from how free thinking they are, how imaginative, refreshingly creative and flexible in the mind they can be. I may have showed them technique but what they gifted me with was freedom and unhindered possibility that comes form a future that is yet to take form.

Thank you Barbara Sarbin and the children of ‘something good in the world’ for the great opportunity of doing this photography workshop today in this magical ecology.

Day 25 of 365

Somewhere magical in Westchester, New York

The box mentality~

For the largest part of our recent history, we humans find ourselves living in a box of our own making. We have lived in caves, tents, huts, houses, and the majority of the human race lives currently in complex buildings inside large cities that resemble beehives and are just as noisy.

Then one day, we, the city dwellers find ourselves in a forest and we begin the process of expansion. It happens slowly and gradually that for a while we carry our virtual box with us wherever we go, even to remote places and we are simply unable to let go.

I just marvel at the idea of being able to shed all the confining webs we weave around ourselves and to simply be…

Day 4 of 365

To Long For Belonging

She longs for the place~ Germany

She longs for Germany

a walk in the forest~ Germany

A walk in the forest with cousins

Land has this mysterious way of pulling at your soul, of beckoning you home, and for our young daughter, this land is Germany.

The longer we expatriate in China, the mightier that tug. She dreams of the family, the colors, the fresh air, the sounds and smells of a land she feels a strong belonging to despite the fact that she only lived there the first 2 years of her life. But our planet is strange that way, isn’t it?

Her dream will come true, at least for a few weeks starting tomorrow as we head west and our lungs rejoice!

Day 4~ May 4th~ Cambodia

the faces in the jungle

No matter how prepared you are when visiting Cambodia and despite all the photos you may have seen, meeting the stone buddha heads and faces in the jungles of Siem Reap can be an astounding experience. There is a great serenity in those faces, a wonderful calm even with the sense of eeriness, and they raise hundreds of questions in the mind of any visitor.

Even when the temples are in a state of ruin and natural erosion and deterioration, Siem Reap is visited by thousands of monks who continue to pay homage in this historical place. Something religious is very alive and well in Cambodia and it is quite difficult to miss.