Unification

When we retreat what is it that we do exactly? I think for many people it is different, a unique experience that is as individual as the person. A retreat could be anything from just closing your doors and turning off your phone, to traveling to a far away place and practising meditation, a healthy diet and having time for self-reflection. For me, this time in retreat is a time to become unified with the natural world around me, to feel breath and become uplifted, to feel that I can connect my own self conscious with that of the universe. Like a full glass, we perceive the space inside and outside the glass to be different, in a time of retreat is it possible to break the glass and the two spaces to become one?
Photography for me is also something that connects me to the world around me, opening my eyes to a new level of vision, a deeper vision so to speak, like a special awareness. It gives me the tools required to inquire into the nature of what is around me, what I belong to and also into ones own nature.
How wonderful a thing!

Mataian, Taiwan.

A Retreat.

Here in the midst of Taroko Gorge was our retreat, away from the coaches and the crowds that flock even in winter. This our little home for a few days, a place of privacy, safety, a refuge. A beat of a drum as the sun rises and then quiet, solitude and silence. We withdrew from society here, nourished ourselves in the peace and beauty of nature, thrived with the simplicity of our dwelling. The echoes of the Atayal people whirled around the gorge, their hunting tracks remain and maybe their ghosts with facial tattoos. Enjoying sitting and just being, with a cup of tea and nothing more, nothing less, just there. A home, a retreat.

Taroko Gorge, Taiwan.

Portrait of a Nation 2

Portrait of a Nation

An aquarium of gold fish
swimming for good luck
The family Dog dressed in tartan coat,
named Come Fortune.
Drinking tea for hours make the pot hot, pour with ancient ritual.
picking at sunflower seeds from an ornate wooden table.
Listening to the heavy sounds of a game of Mahjong
reach for the white flower oil to ease a stiffening back.
Steaming pots bubbling smoke rising past the tiles on the roof.
Smell the incense floating to the Gods
all the family under one roof
Grandmother and Grandfather shuffle to the sister-in-laws stove
rice pot full.
climbing stairs to a shrine
pay respects to family past.
This is Taiwan.

Wishing everyone a joyous and healthy new year full of dreams of beauty and wonder in a world we will cherish.
I wonder what the Tiger will bring?