It’s a funny thing, time. I remember as a child not minding time at all; being and living in the moment; existing in a plane where time had no say in my business. Then slowly things begin to change. Time would no longer allow itself to be ignored. It wants to assert its managerial role in the affairs of my human existence. Freedom is replaced by deadlines, strict appointments and duties to be fulfilled on ‘time’. But little does time know that I remember what it was like to be free, and that I can escape to that place where I kept my childhood alive and well. Don’t tell time…
Have you ever frozen time, captured perfection, wrapped it in a bubble and discovered your Eutopia? To do that even once, is to come closer to who we were meant to be…
We live in a universe where nothing is ever still. All is moving at different speeds from the slow to the mind boggling, inconceivably fast. Even in sleep, parts of us travel, they dream, they journey into worlds unknown. In the minutest of worlds, protons and neutrons are pulsing and living.
To travel in mental faculties, in heart, in soul and in art…
The thing about the future is that is seems to happen on time and not wait for us to be ready to receive it. And always things appear to be later than we think, don’t they?
Today I was with a friend on a photo walk in an old Shanghai neighborhood condemned to demolition and we saw that from week to week homes were being demolished leaving in the rubble, shoes, clothing, old furniture, toys… It would seem that people had very little time to pack up and leave their homes before they were destroyed and we wondered at the levels of stress this must have caused a family that lived there possibly all their lives. Change is often associated with pain, even if it was a change were seeking all along.
a rare and special moment with snow, nature and birds
It really is rare these days to be with and to feel peace. We find ourselves living in a world where we are bombarded with impressions in such an extreme and aggressive way that we mostly live, work, sleep and wake up in a state of exhaustion. If we want to contact someone, we think, I will email, call, tweet, facebook, whatsapp, bbm, skype or ‘something’ them, right? I loved watching on the TV series “the office” yesterday Ryan demonstrating his new social media invention “woof”. It was so comical that it made me stop and think. How addicted are we all becoming to these inventions?
With the extensive and rapidly growing world of social media, digital information, news, everything running so fast, when do we get to stop and catch our breath?
And our children are growing inside of this madness. How do we slow things down enough to remember and to help them see what life is really about?
Peace is becoming such a luxury…
We were snowed in on our holiday in Germany when I took this photograph. I was so delighted and beaming like a child to finally be able to feel a moment of connection to nature in a real and most potent sense. It felt so natural, so meant to be, so peaceful.
I miss the days when we only had phones and the occasional email. We used to be brave enough to close our phones sometimes and just be…
I envy a few friends who every so often disconnect all communications and escape somewhere to refuel themselves.
I love life so much, I don’t want to miss it. Only in moments of real connection do I feel that I am not missing it and that time is more mysterious than I am able to perceive and that life is so full of richness and so full of glory.
Sunrise at the Great Wall of China Sunrise at the great pyramids, Giza, Egypt.Sunrise at the top of a cliff, Gozo, Malta
Yes, I will lose sleep for you, the perfect moment. The moment when all is still, before most things wake up, before the noise gets too loud, before my camera gets too shy, before the sun claims his territory, before the moon gets too far out of reach, before faces get a chance to harden, before the mystery is dispelled with the weight of daily obligations…
Each moment that I spent doing photography at sunrise was unforgettable. Looking forward to many more.
The columns of the temple of Jupiter, Baalbeck, Lebanon
The simple fact of us humans living on a sphere that spins around and around repetitively marking our days and nights, forces us to register the concept of “time” passing. And “time” haunts us all and controls every aspect of our lives, doesn’t it?
Even in childhood; my little 6 year old daughter must know exactly and at all times how many minutes are left on a long flight that we are on (and we travel a lot!)
In youth; the impatience we have to see a loved one again, that time seems to torture us and pass slower than ever when we are apart, and then ironically at the speed of light when we are together.
And then as we age, it becomes our mortal enemy if we let it. We rush to hide the traces of its passing on our faces and our bodies and we succumb to the greatest fear of all: that of being no more.
How much easier would life be if we could accept the inevitable and embrace the laws of nature and the passing of time?
I remember clearly being a 5 year old and after contemplating the night sky for a long time, I asked my grandmother what was at the end of all this black space? Were we enclosed in something and if we were, then what is outside this enclosure? Did this space go on forever and ever? Why can’t my brain grasp this concept? and on and on…
I remember my grandmother turning to me and saying that if I keep questioning God, then he is sure to strike me down! Well that did not scare me one bit. I have been questioning ever since and loving every second of dwelling on these mysteries.
Places like Baalbeck ( temple of Jupiter, photo above), stir these questions in me again and again. And no I am not looking for definite answers of what it was like living there and then? What would they think if they saw the performances that we are having in these sacred temples now? What was the purpose of them building such exquisite and magnificent structures? Did they serve their purpose? Are we humans on the right track? Are we lost and worried about all the wrong things?…
I love the process of questioning and the mystery in it. As for the answers, I am in no rush.
Someone extremely wise once said : “Stand still, for truth cannot be fetched. It comes when you make demand of it.” R. Armin
Boris Eifman Ballet performance in Baalbeck, July, 2010
