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contemplations Germany human rights inspiration morning coffee talk Photography street photography war

Daily Coffee Talk~ 85/365

The world around us is always changing, every second could bring a new outcome, could cause a new future to onset. What are we in control of? Only our choices, in the now.

Europe feels so turbulent at this time and that unsettlement, I feel echoed in me. I feel the shockwaves of the despair and fear inside of those facing the unfortunate aggression going on in the Ukraine, and the human in me has a very hard time separating from the pain of other humans at this time.

So I keep pressing on with art, with trying to stay creative and feeling the immense value of having a space where peace can still exist. Every new day feels like a new opportunity and the only way I can help is by remembering human purpose in defiance of those who oppress and who take away from the innocent.

Let’s pray again and again for peace so that life and art can have a chance in shaping our future.

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contemplations Germany inspiration morning coffee talk Photography

Morning Coffee Talk~22/365

Good Morning,

This morning feels like a strong sense of new possibilities is here, something that never happened before wants to happen, and the invitation is there to be with it and help it exist.

I think that being human on the planet is the best and worst of all. I say that because every single moment we are given the gift of choice. Only us humans can create, can choose to be good or bad, to create or destroy, to fulfil our destiny or to abdicate all responsibilities and hide behind our screens.

At every split second we can decide what parcel of the future laid out behind us we want to open and set free. Do we step right or left? do we help someone or let them suffer? Do we act in the best of all our society, or just act for own self interest? Do we think of the planet, or only of our personal life on it? The list goes on.

Are we alone deciders or lost drifters on an ocean of forgetfulness? So I am taking time consciously today to choose…

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art life Photography

The power of choice~

The next step we take, the next word we say, the next thought we harbor, the next bite we eat, these are the small choices we make but how small are they really? It is all connected, every road we take leads to the highway of our destiny, or not. In this maze we call life, what is it that guides our choices? That should be what concerns us not the choice itself, because in the end, what is our main motivator?

Day 59 of 365~

Image taken in Jumeira, shanghai

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congo life Photography story street

Day 20~ April 20th~ Congo

in the game

One of the most precious gifts we humans receive upon our birth is the gift of choice and free will…

We have the faculties that allow us to think, evaluate, compare, investigate, evaluate and then based upon our findings make an informed decision. It is a the first and most important principle for our freedom.

But when this gift is stolen, taken away, then we are forced to live in oppression and to become the involuntary players in the games of others.

This boy was destined to become a player in a game of war, not by choice, he is far too young and far too vulnerable to make his way towards his freedom. He is a prisoner in one ugly scheme and it has drawn the old man out of the little boy.

And the game is till being played…

“May the odds be in his favor”… the quote that still haunts me from the recent movie “the hunger games”

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Photography

Day One Hundred Seventeen, May 19, 2011

Where to set our standards?

I write and I muse a lot about the question and fact of choice. Today, was no exception. I was looking at things from the angle of standards. We are given almost complete freedom as humans to choose how we align ourselves and what standards we set for our lives. Where do we draw that line? What in life falls below our standards? How firm are we about the line of separation of what we allow into our lives and what we deem unfitting to enter into the inner sanctum of our personal temples. In this defining line I find a safety, a protection and a promise to myself that I do respect my life that I was given. And in our ‘modern’ world today, nothing is more difficult than keeping high standards

photo: barbed wire, Dongchang lu, Shanghai

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Photography

Day Twenty Nine, February 20, 2011

at every moment we have a choice

Today, a very contemplative day, I return to a recurring thought…

At every moment in our lives we are faced with a choice. We choose mostly out of habit, out of obligation, out of love,

out of fear, out of conformity, out of comfortability…

And with each choice our destiny shifts and is rewritten again and again. Imagine a life where our choices are dictated by a higher purpose!!

What a glorious life that would be!

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children CHINA inspiration parenting Photography

Choose carefully…

 

Cobwebs in a field at sunrise, Kent, England

I was walking in a busy street in Shanghai looking at the thousands of people around me when a thought invaded my mind and grew into a dwelling on the subject of choice.

Life is an infinite web of possible roads we can take and at any moment we are confronted with a choice: do we cross the road, do we go into a shop, do we stay at home, do we travel, do we walk faster, do we marry a person, do we take a job or leave it, do we live in country or another, do we speak or keep a secret,… and it goes on and on. And with every choice we make, we decide the next segment of our destiny here on earth. Choice is one of the greatest gifts that we humans have and one of our heaviest responsibilities. What if we make the wrong choice that leads us to a life of difficulty? What if we are ignorant and not able to make an informed choice? What if we allow ourselves to be like sheep driven by other’s choices and we just move along with the going current?

Don’t choices and freedom go hand in hand? How free are we really? How much of our lives are dictated by obligations and conformities to society, politics, religion, family, ignorance?

What about our children? Those who cannot yet choose for themselves. Do we make the right choices on their behalf?