When taking photos (especially of children): Sometimes you have these photo moments which are hard to choose from. All are equally significant in capturing life in all its precious beauty! Life rushes at you suddenly without notice in a stream or a flood, so you snap away hoping you have the right focus, right exposure, speed, timing (or like me, sometimes the right A-Depth scene file on…). You throw out any notions you may have that you’re an artist or hobby photographer (great or shitty one…). You realize there’s something greater holding your hand, making “this” moment happen for you. The tools and training that you think you’re skilled with, may help you to bend to the moment but unless that moment is “gifted” to you, you will miss it.
(village child workers on their walk home)
(Bhaktapur kite boys)
Which brings me to…The Poetry of Solo: Yes, you can actually hear it and it has a specific sound. Most artists and poets are familiar with this “gift of listening” as a way to inspire their creations and those who have experienced this poetry know there is a revelatory and transformational magic within it.
Poetry comes through ALL volumes, but has tendencies to speak itself personally to you. It whispers softly into your ear only when you’re set on DO NOT DISTURB and its often found in those quiet moments where silence and solitude magnifies and deepens your impressions.
Nepal is the first developing country that I’m traveling solo in!! There’s a sense of freedom mixed with fear and vulnerability and this makes my travels both, exhilarating and exhausting. What I LOVE best about traveling in this fashion- the personal quality of my experiences. It’s fun to lose yourself in the cultural geography of a place and then to discover yourself through your interactions with the people, the land and its culture. This way of ‘naked experiencing’ a new culture is far more intimate and deeply revelatory. Also, traveling alone affords you the ability to indulge in & follow those “seemingly random” callings which invite you down those alleyways that lead to hidden gems both inside and outside of yourself. Unexpected destinations can surprise you with its perfection of people, experiences, scares and … it gives you invaluable moments which gifts you something back of yourself in recognizable courage and strength. Most of the time, as a solo traveler, you surprise yourself by realizing the simplest empowering words …” I CAN”.
Children inspire the most refreshing view of life and all its meaning just by acting upon the simplest and purest truths. They are great teachers and angels, especially to adults who have gotten into the habit of becoming “too-grown up.”
In Nepal, I’ve had strong, deeply impressionable and lovely experiences with the children crossing my path. (A lot of children, really…) What I discovered with the children- they adopt YOU! Despite your race, age, country or status. Whether they’re brown, fair, barefoot & mischievous, runny-nosed or shy… they choose you with all the love and innocence of their being and they remind you that life doesn’t need to be as difficult as you’ve made it.
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