It’s a pretty simple theory: anything that whittles the world down into a smaller, more intimate and manageable size does the soul good. We regain our balance from anything that forces us to slow down and focus our awareness on the little things in life. These are my little things: my photos from my 2-year Peace Corps experience. Each week I’ll choose a small sample of photos and share them with you. Themes? Nah, I’ll just choose the gems and you take what you can from them.
This week I bring you a few images from my moments in Thailand along with some inspirational quotes that have made the days a little easier, full of hope.
**CLICK ANY IMAGE TO VIEW AN ENLARGED VIEW**
Hand-painting an ASEAN Banner with the Pre-School Students
“A brilliant life is not about being untouched by sorrow but has more to do with relaxing and allowing the world to touch you. It’s way braver to open yourself to the world than to wall yourself off from it. — I had never heard such a definition of courage before.” -Susan Piver
A Large, Elaborate Chinese Wat in Chonburi, Thailand. Look Closely For the People in the Photo to Get an Idea of How Large It Is.
“We can’t begin being empathetic when another person arrives. We have to already have made a space in our lives where empathy can thrive. And that means being open – truly open – to feeling emotions we may not want to feel. It means allowing another’s experience to gut us. It means ceding control. […] Empathy begins with vulnerability.” – Sara Wachter-Boettcher
A Young Boy Feeds the Fish on a Village Pier in Singburi, Thailand during Songkran.
“Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue. Do not seek the answers, which cannot be given to you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then you will gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day to the answer.” -Rainer Maria Rilke
Barnacles Cling to the Ocean Pier in Chonburi, Thailand as the Tide Recedes.
“Your heart breaks only to become more full. But to get to that point, you have to go through the pain, all of it. Let yourself mend. Then, purified, deepened by the strange alchemy of loss, begin again. And again.
True victory is to love others more madly than ever, not to shut down. On the path toward loving, you live and you learn. Bear in mind, too, you can never lose something that doesn’t belong to you. You’ll be given the relationships you’re meant for. Some are short-lived but help you grow; others are enduring and help you grow. Either way, in the most profound sense, you receive what you need. Have faith in that, even though it will not always be easy.” -Judith Orloff
Pissa Stares Out Into the Lake While Her Mother Prepares Lunch. I could stare at the wonderment captured in her face for hours. Beautiful. (Best Viewed Enlarged. Just Click the Image)
“A child has no trouble believing the unbelievable, nor does the genius or the madman. It’s only you and I, with our big brains and our tiny hearts, who doubt and overthink and hesitate.” -Steven Pressfield
A Different Perspective of Pissa Staring Out Into the Lake with One Half of Darkness Contrasted by the Profile of Her Face.
“When you love someone, be it lover, family or friend (though especially lover because it’s hardest to remember) remember the law of impermanence. Nothing lasts or lives forever, nothing can stay the same. So every single moment that you have with someone, truly treat it as it’s your last because it is a truth that one day it will cease to exist. Enjoy their smile, the smell of their hair, their laughter and tears, and their mere presence as if when the moment ends it will all be gone.” -Myself
Because I couldn’t narrow down my list of most referenced quotes, here are a few more that I keep close:
“Anyone can give up; it’s the easiest thing in the world to do. But to hold it together when everyone else would understand if you fell apart, that’s true strength.” -Unknown
“Knowing that we can live without someone does not mean we have to live without that person, but it may free us to love and live in ways that work.” -Melanie Beattie
“It isn’t necessary that you leave home. Sit at your desk and listen. Don’t even listen, just wait. Don’t wait, be still and alone. The world will offer itself to you.” -Frank Kafka
“Your family and those you choose to make your family are your roots, and as immovable as they may seem, they will go everywhere with you in your heart.” -Myself
Check Out My Other Weekly Wednesdays and Photography Here:
Light Enough to Travel 