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children contemplations inspiration morning coffee talk Photography story

Daily Coffee Talk~ 81/365

Do you ever have flying dreams?

I had them so often as a child and every once in a while as I got older. The feeling was so intense during my childhood that I completely believed that I could fly. I used to close my eyes and kick off with my feet and just hang there in midair doing swimming like motions to float up towards the ceiling.

This felt so intensely real that I know on some level, at some stage of our lives and in a certain state of reality, we can.

It always felt like a secret I had to keep but then the older I got the more stories I heard of others having experienced this.

A bit more from the mystery box of life…

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Germany morning coffee talk Photography street photography

Daily Coffee Talk~ 78/365

Rhein Promenade~ Duesseldorf

As Europe starts to gradually ease covid restrictions, I keep hearing talk of going back to our old normal, as if that is even possible!

Having lived through this pandemic and all the changes that we have witnessed, how can we use the words ‘going back’?

From here on, we can only move forward and discover a new normal, certainly not the same one we had.

Will they erase all these isolation circles that we got so used to standing inside of ? What about the way we wash our hands for 20 seconds? And the masks? Would the masks stay as they did in Asia after the SARS epidemic?

Let’s see what the future holds and how ‘normal’ is to be redefined.

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children contemplations Germany inspiration morning coffee talk Photography UAE

Daily Coffee Talk~ 55/365

free at last~

Hi my friends,

Lea’s quarantine ended today! We have a negative covid test and the birds are singing again in our neighbourhood. You don’t realise the importance of human contact till you go 10 days without it.

We have been smiling a lot today, hugging and being silly. I am grateful for her recovery and wish for this global pandemic to disappear and allow for a new kind of normalcy to return.

Stay healthy and well. Happy and gratefully signing off from Germany.

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Istanbul Photography street street photography

The Birds of Istanbul~

The Birds of Istanbul~

Upon first arriving in Istanbul, you are overwhelmed with the sheer amount of visual stimuli and with the unusual that makes the city what it is. Magnificent architecture, unique sounds and smells of its exotic cuisine and spices, the water ways surrounding it, and mostly the birds.

The seagulls and pigeons are everywhere, flying, fishing, communicating loudly and making themselves the stars of the show.

The birds complete the final touches on the spectacular canvas that is the city of Istanbul.

 

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art CHINA Fine art inspiration Photography

Time to be Still~

In a time when all the planet is in upheaval, when all that we know is changing, when tensions are running high and panic and fear are the order of the day, being still might be what saves us. Let’s all take a moment, to pause in time and reflect on our lives here on this planet and all the good that remains in us and around us waiting to be noticed. Let’s be still because all is well, at least on the levels that matter most.
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art Paris Photography

Of men and birds~

This man sat quietly smoking on the edge on the bustling Champs-Élysées as people walked all around and birds flew by. He was still there on my way back an hour later.

Day 95 of 365~

Paris

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art contemplations New York Photography

Remembering is subjective~

There was a winter tree above me on the Brooklyn bridge where a black bird flew overhead crying loudly, or was there?

Day 80 of 365~

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contemplations inspiration Photography portrait

On Possession~

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Possessions: What do we really, truly possess? We think of possessions as things we plan and hope on keeping permanently, and the more we have the more we want to collect. But in the end, does it really matter? Maybe we can call them temporary belongings, because that is all they are. When we leave this place, the only possessions we are allowed to cary are the immaterial ones. How much love did we invest, how much care did we give and get, and how much goodness lived in us? Maybe these are the fuels that will be needed in our onwards journey into the next destination if there is one.

Day 65 of 365~ 

image is a composite of a bird I watched this week and an old portrait of my daughter. 

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contemplations Germany Photography

Where do we go in sleep?~

Its a natural law, everyone must sleep. But where do we go when we sleep? We surrender completely to a process we know very little about and lay in a still state recharging as part of us travels to who knows where! And then don’t get me started on dreams!

Day 49 of 365~

Image taken of a bird flying over the river Lahn

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Photography

A Stark Reminder~ India

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There is a place on the bank of the Ganges River in the holy city of Varanasi, where more than 300 bodies get cremated daily and the ashes thrown into the river with the belief that the soul of the dead will be allowed a chance at a new life through reincarnation. Hindus from all over India and Asia carry their dead to award them that honor. I sat for a long time on a boat watching the burnings and the surreal picture they painted while this regal bird circled around the ghat reminding me of the certain mortality of the physical body. It was eerie in a good way, because life begs us to question death and death urges us to value life.

Image taken last April in Varanasi, India

Day 17 of 365