Lamentation

"Could I walk out to sea,

way beyond these breakers

We have no place among

the movers and the shakers

Yours is the only throne

I'll ever get down on my knees before

You have the whole of me..."

- Tree 63

A million lights

Look beyond

Not all days are beautiful, but there is something beautiful in every day.

Take time to see it!

And if you don't see it, look beyond.

Maybe, look Up.

And kneel.

The Echo of a Soul

"Let me be a free man.

Free to travel,

Free to stop.

Free to work,

Free to trade where I choose.

Free to choose my own teachers,

Free to follow the religion of my fathers,

Free to talk, think and act for myself,

And I will obey every law or submit to the penalty."

- Chief Joseph

Those mad intensities

"It's not all bad.  Heightened self-consciousness, apartness, an inability to join in, physical shame and self loathing - they are not all bad.  Those devils have been my angels.  Without them I would never have disappeared into language, literature, the mind, laughter and all the mad intensities that made and unmade me."

- Stephen Fry

Moab Is My Washpot

In the end

"The pupil dilates in darkness and in the end finds light, just as the soul dilates in misfortune and in the end finds God."

- Victor Hugo

Les Miserables

Unspoken

"That was one of the saddest things about people - their most important thoughts and feelings often went unspoken and barely understood."

-Alexandra Adornetto

Halo

Being the Beloved

"Over the years, I have come to realize that the greatest trap in our life is not success, popularity, or power, but self-rejection.  Success, popularity, and power can indeed present a great temptation, but their seductive quality often comes from the way they are part of the much larger temptation to self-rejection.  When we have come to believe in the voices that call us worthless and unlovable, then success, popularity and power are easily perceived as attractive solutions.  The real trap, however, is self-rejection.  As soon as someone accuses me or criticizes me, as soon as I am rejected, left alone, or abandoned, I find myself thinking, "Well, that proves once again that I am a nobody."... My dark side says "I am no good...  I deserve to be pushed aside, forgotten, rejected and abandoned".  Self-rejection is the greatest enemy of the spiritual life because it contradicts the sacred voice that calls us the "Beloved."  Being the Beloved constitutes the core truth of our existence."

- Henri J.M. Nouwen

Loneliness

"Sometimes loneliness makes the loudest noise."

- Aaron Ben-e'ev

Don't miss them...

There's a sunrise and a sunset every single day, and they're absolutely free. 

 Don't miss so many of them.

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

Quiet

"Have you ever heard the wonderful silence just before the dawn?  Or the quiet and calm just as a storm ends?  Or perhaps you know the silence when you haven't the answer to a question you've been asked, or the hush of a country road at night, or the expectant pause of a room full of people when someone is just about to speak, or, most beautiful of all, the moment after the door closes and you're alone in the whole house?  Each one is different, you know, and all very beautiful if you listen carefully."

- Norton Juster

The Phantom Tollbooth 

Clouds

"Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm,

but to add colour to my sunset sky."

 - Rabindranath Tagore

Stray Birds

Close

"Stay close to anything

that makes you glad 

you are alive."

-Hafiz

The 1905 Jetty

This is the structure that in history brought life and commerce to Swakopmund.  Over the years, it has suffered many revamps and closures, but today, it's a proud structure looming over the town.  And she is a photogenic beauty!

Sunsets

I delight in sunsets.  Always have.  For a few moments each day, the sky turns the most magnificent hues and colours, painted by a Master's Hand...

My life partner moved to Namibia six months before I moved.  We've been together for 11 years and we thoroughly enjoy spending time together, whether idle or busy.  He is my best friend, best lover, best carer and best provider - he is my everything and much of what I do revolves around him.  He is my North.  Naturally, being apart for such a long time was very hard for both of us.  Although working hard during the day, evenings were long and lonely.  

Some colleagues became aware that we were apart and started inviting him for sundowners after work.  But every night, when dusk came, this sweet man of mine would turn his back deliberately to the sunset, close his eyes and refuse to watch.  Every night for six months.  No amount of coaxing or teasing would entice him to turn around and look at the sun setting.  Why?  

Because he wanted to share his first sunset in this beautiful country with me.  Because he knows how special they are to me.  To him, it was a way of telling me he missed me and wished I was with him.

It was love.

On 04 December 2014, we shared our first Namibian sunset together.  And have been trying to catch them together ever since.

May we never spend another sunset apart.

I love you my Desert Wolf.   

So much unsaid...

I just love this photograph.  So many things are left unsaid, but the image is striking.

Perhaps because the individuals in the photograph is known to me?  

Or perhaps it is that I've caught them in a moment.  

A moment of laughter and joy.

A moment of forgetting the world.

A moment of demonstrated unconditional love from a father to his daughter.

This is love in it's purest form.