Unraveled

"Sometimes, when one is moving silently through such an utterly desolate landscape, an overwhelming hallucination can make one feel that oneself, as an individual human being, is slowly being unraveled.  The surrounding space is so vast that it becomes increasingly difficult to keep a balanced grip on one's own being.  The mind swells out to fill the entire landscape, becoming so diffuse in the process that one loses the ability to keep it fastened to the physical self."

Haruki Murakami 

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

 

Abandoned

"I left... Crossing the street I was hit head-on by a brutal loneliness.  I felt dark and hollow. Abandoned, unnoticed, forgotten, I stood on the sidewalk, a nothing, a gatherer of dust.  People hurried past me and everyone who walked by was happier than I.  I felt the old envy.  I would've given anything to be one of them."

- Nicole Krauss

The History of Love

So let me be

"She had been defeated by herself alone, and the sadness of it left a dark shadow in her heart.  It further sapped her confidence and left her ever more withdrawn, ever more capable of suppressing her feelings.  Like her roughened hands, her sensitivity was slowly being hardened, and she drew relief from numbness creeping through her."

- Yo Yo

Ghost Tide

Freedom

"In the desert I had found a freedom unattainable in civilization;

a life unhampered by possessions,

since everything that was not a necessity was an encumbrance.

I had found too, a comradeship inherent in the circumstances,

and the belief that tranquility was to be found there."

-Wilfred Thesiger

Holding on

"And life is what we make of it.

Always has been, always will be."

- Grandma Moses

It's incredibly easy to become despondent when things do not go our way or work out as we planned. It's easy to give in to our own negative thoughts and to affirm that, yes, there is very little good left in this world.  It's hard to hold onto hope when we see and hear so little of what's good in this world.  

But this is the essence of character building.  It's an uncomfortable process, but hopefully, in me, as I go through this unsettling process, it will draw in me courage, hope and perspective.  In this world, we will perhaps never have it easy, but comfort comes from knowing that the One I serve have overcome this world and by His grace, I will too... 

Pursuit of Happiness

"Happiness in this world, when it comes, comes incidentally.  

Make it the object of pursuit, and it leads us on a wild-goose chase, and it is never attained.  

Follow some other object, and very possibly we may find that we have caught happiness without dreaming of it."

- Nathaniel Hawthorne

American Notebooks

The Moon landscape, outside Swakopmund is a impressive dreamy landscape that no photograph can ever truly reflect the beauty and splendour of.  It's a scene that takes your breath away...

Rain

Last night it rained in the desert.  A very unusual phenomena.  The rain that fell last night were for us, a blessing.  We had just stepped outside the restaurant and were greeted by this delightful fresh soft shower of rain walking back to our car and we just soaked it in.  The smell of fallen rain is a most unforgettable smell and awakens senses.  We haven't experienced rain for such a long time and it was a reminder of home's rainy days.  It brought back many happy memories and we were feeling quite nostalgic.  It's so true - you don't know what you have until it's taken from you.  May we never take what we have for granted...

The photo is a side view of Rossing Mountain.  Most of the rain that fell last night were in this region.  Can't wait for the greenery to shoot up!