Photograph

"An unhurried sense of time is in itself a form of wealth."

                                                      - Bonnie Friedman

Creating a little more space

Not long ago, I wrote here about how thrilled I was to visit my friend Sonam’s apple orchard at Khasadrapchu to pluck apples there. Last Saturday, again, I visited this beautiful orchard along with my friends Pema and Sonam. This time, it’s not to pluck apples, but to nurture the orchard.

The entire noon, we weeded the orchard, and added manure and water to the plants. Like a group of peasants, we toiled in the orchard, digging and weeding. Our limbs were mud-stained; our faces profusely streaming with sweats.

Meanwhile, we whistled, in a rustic way, commanding the wind to bring us fresh air. As expected, a strong current of wind gusted around the valley. Magic works, ah, it really does! The apple plants started to bend and twist as if they were dancing to the song of the wind. As they danced, the flower petals of the plants were blown away in the air, over the valley. The bees, sucking nectars, were also brushed away. It all appeared to me so truly surreal.

Beneath a handsome tree, we lied down, talking and observing the loveliness of the countryside. We admired the lone farm road that climbs way up into a tiny settlement on mountaintop. We listened to the mysterious sound of the wind too; keenly observing its flow. We felt it deep inside, breathed it deeper. It’s very peaceful.   

We continued working. We continued talking. It’s all about our lives, our little aspirations, our ideologies, our beloved ones and families, and not so much about our works. After a while, we felt sublime, peaceful.  

However, the beauty is not that I could spend my weekend away from Thimphu, but it’s this small moment of working and sitting together with my friends in such a lovely place. I’m happy that I’m creating a little more space for them, my soul friends.

My little world, my writing

I feel very lucky to have found a love of writing. Here, on my blog. Quite surprisingly, this writing has become part of me, my daily life. As I spend a huge block of my time on writing here, almost everyday.

But I’m one person who often writes about my own little life - my world, activities, philosophies, hopes, and dreams. Because I feel that all other things are being written amply by pens far mightier than mine.

I absolutely love to write about these itsy-bitsy activities of my life. They are so little, tiny, mundane, small, and naïve. Yet, they are part of me. All this together make me, this very self.   

I live a simple life with a handful of friends. And what I’ve owned and done in my life is little. I know that no one else would ever write my story. So I write it myself, with thanks, as ever to e-blog.  

My stories, blog posts, are mostly about my home, my heart, my family and friends, my village, writing, good books I read, walks, photography, and nature. For, they are what I focus on the most in my life. For, they are my creative muse too.

And each post I write, there’s still more to write. That’s the indisposition of my little world, my writing. Insatiable. Never-ending. Writing here helps me to explore what life is all about, and I’m always delighted in the discovery and contentment.

So much wrong happen each day. But writing is transformative, peaceful. As I sit for a small moment thinking and writing, it’s like I put pause from the routine and busyness of my life. Sometimes, I put down my feelings and thoughts to get answer in my writing. 

  

Above all, I write to remember, and to be remembered. Through writing, I intend to relive each moment of my life on these pages, briefly, though it’s only about small things.

It’s through this blog that I hope to live on for a few generations after I die. When my friends, family members and readers go through this blog, I live on. When they read my stories of the memories I’ve made, I live on. When they remember my name, I live on.

I am not sure that I could ever write in the future. I don’t know. I don’t know what pages of my life would unfurl for me. I don’t know, at all. But I know this…that I am writing here! 

Pink Thimphu: Instagram pictures

I started loving Instagram so much, lately. It seems like this online photo-sharing and video-sharing social networking service has been designed especially for me. Seriously. For, photography is one of my favorite engagements in everyday life. So much so I love doing it that there isn’t a single day without my camera clicking pictures.  

What I like most about the Instagram is its photographic filters that we can apply to our images. And of course, it confines photos to a square shape. For a person like me who doesn’t use Photoshop, Instagram is simply comfortable and fun. Just capture a picture, choose a filter to transform its look and feel, use frames if you want to, and share it with my friends and family. It’s very simple, enjoyable, and beautiful.

So today, I offer you some of the pictures that I took on Instagram this spring. These pictures are all the pink peach blooms of Thimphu. Enjoy much!