Six images Orphan enjoyed in 2012.
Two monks at a wat and The Tree of Life, Luang Prabang, Laos.
On the street - boys and wedding Siem Reap, Cambodia.
Music man plays for an audience of 1, Trabzon, Turkey. Red balloons.
Language of unknowing is big.
What we don't know is bigger than time. Bigger than the time we are given to understand it.
People are more affected by how they feel than what they understand.
Longer than tomorrow, time is invisible, anxious.
Time weeps. Time laughs.
Time offers rice to a Buddhist monk.
Time disappears into lost wind whispering in pines along the Black Sea.
Time paints a picture of a Lao lover leaving for distant shores where time washes stones.
Desperation called 18 times during the course of the day asking why, what changed your attitude toward me?
How did you arrive at this heartbreaking conclusion to release me, to reduce my sense of responsibility and neglect burning ashes of regret?
Calm thought considered desperation's plight.
Release. Let go of passion, desire and expectations. Serenity, clear focus, unconditional love. Everything dies. Dance behind your tears, your questions with heart-mind.
Be still. Sit with sensation and perception. Breathe deep. In-out. in-out. Be your breath.
how does it work in laos, said elf.
a frenchman told me this, said orphan. he's lived here 6 years. he has a young son and daughter. he had, past tense, a marriage with a local woman. they met. they married. he invested time and money to develop a guesthouse. they had 5 properties. they had problems. her extended family smelled a huge profit. she threw him out. she wants all the land.
i saw her one day when she brought their daughter to school. fat and unhappy. both.
so how does it work in laos, asked elf. you didn't answer the big question from a small person.
men make the rules, said orphan. women take care of the home. it's all unspoken subtleties. they do their thing. women worship in the temples. they do their meditation. men sit around getting drunk, discussing new night girls, ethics, morality and behavior.
what happened to the french man and the kids, asked elf.
he plotted a way to get them out of the country. let her keep the land and buildings, he said.
many people here never leave their village. why. everything i have is here. a village maintains the other world.
yes, said orphan, let's fly away.
elf agreed, after a month playing with spontaneous five-year young experts.
where shall we go?
it's a small planet.
how about cambodia, we know it well.
ok. 9 months in laos learning, laughing, loving, sharing was a joy.
on fool's day they arrived in siem reap. a hustler showed up. i am poor. i need money for my family.
i remember this story, said elf.
it's an old one, said orphan.
let's go see friends.
they walked into a gritty world, surrounded by empty glass and brass hotels.
children scavaged trash.
they passed a one legged man on crutches. what happened to him, asked elf.
he stepped on a land mine while planting rice.
Share Article