Weekly Photo Challenge: Abundance

There is no happiness is sheer abundance, nor any fulfilment in having everything. Those things lie exclusively in having enough.

A few years ago I found myself saying an involuntary goodbye to someone I’d rather kept a friend. It was one of those things that kind of just happened. We’d grown apart, and rather than a halfhearted rescue attempt that would only cheapen and further dilute what we had shared, it was better to sever the ties honourably.

“I wish you enough”, were her words to me.

At first it stung me as an odd and unkind thing to say. Why not wish me “all the best” or wish me “well in all things” as people normally would. I wanted grand wishes. Big words. I wanted “all the best”. Instead, I got “enough”? She wished me “enough”????

Angry and hurt … and probably lost too in many ways … I browsed through old letters she’d sent me during the course of our friendship, looking for some of the warmth and love that had been between us. Subconsciously searching for a reason to justify my hurt feelings. Until I found one quoting a poem I know she loves:

I wish you enough sun to keep your attitude bright.
I wish you enough rain to appreciate the sun more.
I wish you enough happiness to keep your spirit alive.
I wish you enough pain so that the smallest joys in life appear much bigger.
I wish you enough gain to satisfy your wanting.
I wish you enough loss to appreciate all that you possess.
I wish you enough “Hello’s” to get you through the final “Goodbye.”

- written by Bob Perks

After that, it was hard not to see the grace in her words. It was harder still to remember that we were no longer friends.I realised then that given the choice between “abundance” and “enough”… I’d choose the latter any day.

The photo of a half-finished dinner is taken at a family dinner in my parents garden a few years ago. I remember how ripe and lush the garden was with blooming flowers bathed in the rich golden light of the setting sun and birds singing all around while we chatted and ate… and somehow I just felt compelled to capture it in some way.

The plate in the picture is my grandmother’s… she is the heart and soul of my family and the only person whom I have ever known to truly have an abundance of unconditional love, time, attention and support to give to others.

I guess there are more associations at play here that may make the connection between the photo, the story and the theme of the week somewhat oblique.

Sorry about that

Weekly Photo Challenge: Refuge

In the Epirus Mountains of mainland Greece there is a place like no other I have ever seen. Suspended halfway between the sky and the vast “bread basket og Greece” plateau, stretching for over 300 kms all the way to the sea it is the perfect look-out to the rest of the world far below.

This place is known as Meteora
- “the floating rocks”.

For millenia it has drawn us, and for centuries it has been a place sought for worship, reflection and solitude, and the air and feel of the entire place is ripe and sated with the sense of sacred solace that one cannot help but feel awestruck immediately.

Time and weather have conspired to carve out these sanctuaries, separating them from the rest of the world by leaving these peaks defiant freestanding pillars hundreds of feet tall, accessible only by endless and often precarious staircases or rope-and-pulley basket trams (for goods).

Countless years and lives of dedication and tenacity have seen primitive caves and ledges in the sheer walls rising above the plateau aspire ever higher and grander until six fortress like monestaries grew from the rocks, humbly crowning these peaks tucked in between snow capped mountains and soaring eagles. Like small city states halfway in the sky they offer an incredible floating oasis of peace and tranquility right inbetween heaven and earth.

Being there is a journey in and of itself. The courtyards are quiet and filled with flowering bushes and trees, sheltering benches and bringing life to the unpretentious stone walls. The paths and steps are worn and the whole place emanates the presence of thousands that have come before. And yet, it feels untouched and unmarred. Ready to receive you, as if you were the first to seek its embrace. It feels clean and very very welcoming.

I could not imagine a place more suitable or accommodating to spiritual soul searching and quiet reflection.

I suppose that is why I am reminded of it when I hear the word refuge – and yet, it somehow seems an inaccurate fit. It may off shelter from the world, and respite from things as they are down below “in the real world” but it also compels a sense of duty and willingness to find and embrace new perspectives.

Meteora may indeed with its removed and unique geological location offer respite to its visitors, but it certainly does not feel like a place where one might be able to hide away – from anything. And somehow,… it feels like that is exactly the point.

More photos from Meteora – see here
Want to know more about Meteora – see here