Aaid is 72, a Rohingya refugee. His wife and grandson were shot during the perilous journey from Myanmar to Bangladesh. During his get-away from men with knives, he saw a little boy crying along the street while there was a house burning nearby; the boy was calling for his mom and dad who were nowhere ...
A wise Buddhist said something along these lines: when you add a spoon full of salt in a glass of water, the water becomes unbearably salty. But, when you put that same amount of salt into a lake, it makes no difference. It is a lesson for when we feel drowned in our own sorrow ...
Her name is Raahila*. She is twelve years old. I could imagine her being at school right now, making the big step to go to secondary school. But she’s not. And when she looks straight at me, I can almost feel the pain in her eyes. She’s a refugee whom just weeks ago escaped the ...
On our daily sunset game drive, already circling around for quite some time. Suddenly the radio cackles, apparently there is a coalition of young lions on its way. We take up the hunt. It is pitch dark, we feel we are alone with nothing but the sounds of the African bush. Suddenly our tracker switches ...
The old downtown of Yangon is the place to soak up the authentic atmosphere of the city with its long, narrow and perpendicular streets losing yourself in the constant buzz, deliberate chaos, various smells, a multitude of colours, strange noises and a mixture of architecture. I strolled through these streets numerous times for long hours. ...
Is your horizon too wide? Is it tiresome to always see the whole picture? Tunnelize your vision NOW! Introducing the revolutionary Tunnel-Izr! Guaranteed tunnel vision from the second you put on your new patented Tunnel-Izr! After 3 months of regular use, your peripheral vision will permanently diminish and in just one year it will be ...
We either didn’t know where Ella was born nor exactly when. It was said that she probably was a Podenco mix from Spain. We’ve found her in an animal shelter where she was waiting for a family to give her a home. She was found tied in front of a supermarket where somebody abandoned her. ...
My Dear (or should I say my Dearest, but I guess that would not be adequate anymore, although terms of endearment have nothing to do with emotions or lack thereof, in my opinion), you’re asking me what brought me to my nuclear decision (your words, not mine), terminating our relationship. Well, here we go… you ...
But then what if you are not? Almost 20 years ago, Igor N. (texting in the photograph), now 42, left his native town an hour’s train ride from Moscow, because he thought he could be the one who would make it. After generations of failed artists of various arts in the family, it looked like ...
We are black and white. We are the sky and the earth. We are a man and a woman. All together. Different, but same. We are the love and the hatred, glued together. Nothing will ever separate us. That’s the way it’s supposed to be, so stop fighting, stop crying, stop resisting. It’s time to ...
Rare are the moments of true beauty and our sleepy heads miss the glorious sunrises almost every morning. The perfect lighting for which photographers would pay for, and the calmness and peace surrounding eternity. By the sea, only seagulls would share this moment of reflection with the awoken human eyes. The pastel colors appear like ...
What would life be without memories? How could we survive in the present without the experiences we learned from the past? It seems so obvious for us that we don’t give much thought to it. Memories are part of us, it is up to us to decide how we interpret them, what kind of value ...
a croissant with strawberry jam (not home made, but very decent), a glass of freshly pressed orange juice and a cappuccino. your preferred breakfast (late, at half past ten) in a café just off town centre, served by your usual, yet not very friendly, waiter. no tip, of course. and the entire day ahead. what’s ...
If you really feel you are Mick Jagger, does it matter that you are actually not? This is a weekend challenge story.
There’s no time too long to stand, do nothing but stare in front of you. To contemplate things and expect no outcome. Note your conjectures down. See them proven wrong. Hear unfamiliar voices and try to make sense of them. And fail spectacularly yet again.
Barman at Café Belga. The slow hours, just after lunch-time. I ordered a cappuccino and the barman said « Wait and watch how I make it! » So I did. Waited and watched. He showed me how to put the palm-tree design in the milk foam on the top. Then, when he saw my appreciation, ...
In 2016, Belgium celebrated the 150 years of friendship with Japan by building a beautiful Japanese design from flowers. More than 100 volunteers assembled this famous tourist attraction in four hours. Every two years Brussels’ Grand Place gets covered by a flower carpet consisting of nearly one million begonias.
It’s a good position. I’ll win this game. And then I’ll be depressed. It’s a bad position. I’ll lose. But then I will know precisely who is to blame. Not me, for sure. I usually remember if play with white or black. If that Tuesday afternoon on the 17th of June 1986 I move queen ...
for one moment it almost looked like as if the day might have turned out not altogether too bad.
“Good morning,” they wished to each other. “What a lovely day, don’t you think?” continued the blue one while stretching her little wings. “I thought of visiting the red rose in Ms Potter’s garden, she looks so gorgeous and delicious in sunny days like these. Would you care to join me?” replied the spotted one ...
Depths forever, there in the middle of the sea, The moon is high, and the stars are above. What is this place? What is this world? What do we see, or what do we know? The moon is up, it’s time to go to bed, But what are you up to, can I come? The …
“Can I ask you a riddle?” “Go ahead.” “Do you like riddles?” “Is that a riddle?” “No. That’s a question.” “I like riddles. The good ones. Is yours good?” “It’s very good. Okay, here’s my riddle: I’m invariably complementary, dog-eared, I sit on a periscope and order vanilla ice-cream with hazelnut topping straight from the …
When that infant two rows behind you keeps screaming its lungs out throughout the flight, across seventeen hundred miles. A brief pause every now and then, when exhaustion takes over. But you know it’ll soon start again. And you think: All that effort. For what? You can no longer recall where you boarded the plane …
We have had this thing for over twenty years. we have had it for a long time. it is our car. it stops when we come to a stop. it is our finger on the wheel. it is the only thing in the world we own, it is our way of saying we want to …
She just sat there, without a dress, her thighs graciously open, surrounded by the tendrils of her nasturtium. She should have crossed her legs like an old woman, like the old ladies, tilted her head towards the fjord and had a worried look. But she did not look at the sea. She was looking to …
A recent study conducted by the Social Awareness and Statistical Error faculty at Bristol Claire College (BCC) found that more people, aged 24 to 56, have half shoe sizes than full ones. On a subset of over 1,200 respondents the research showed that people with half shoe sizes are generally more satisfied with their current …
It may or may not have been a true story. Based on the clues available at the time there really was no telling. And, as much as options had to be kept open, there was a preferred outcome. Doubt was not welcome, fear was omnipresent but actively fought on all possible fronts. Kindness could have …
“Let’s play ‘never.’” “How do you play ‘never’?” “I say how long from now and you think about it. You think long and hard.” “Think long and hard about what?” “Time. You think as far ahead as you can.” “Okay.” “And when you’re done imagining into the future, I’ll show you how you were mistaken.” …
The beauty and the wonderful can exist anywhere. You can find them in the beauty of water. You can find them in the beauty of snow. I know it’s hard to find the beauty of someone you like. I have to remind myself of that every day. I will always.
Questions still linger The jury is out Looks likes that’s their place of preference. Two is a crowd But three’s needed for a conversation Even if one’s never heard.
Jump of the bench. Rise and fly. Return to place. Go back to bench. Jump up to find third nail, jump again, return to bench. Shuffle away. Go back and sit down. Everything is full of wonders.
He stands beside you, and you smell his breath. You smell the compost of the wormy tree roots and the sweat of his hands. You realize that the tree trunk is also moving, gently loping forward as the days grow longer and longer. The tree moves because it knows time is coming.
Dream on a beach was never about getting a massage or feeling younger or beautiful. They were about getting a dream. It was either going on a meditation retreat in Greece for two weeks or meditating in an old van in the wilderness for a week. She’d dreamed of both.
My neighbour’s son is holding an old and visibly very damaged ring frisbee in his mouth, crawling with it, on all fours, across the huge lawn at the back of their house, the size some people would grow crops on. He is all by himself. He’s eleven, if I’m not mistaken. I have a perfect …
He’d never seen one, although he’d imagined them. The image of the angel clinging to the walls of the stable with burning wings, screaming at the darkness—it still made him shudder, despite the knowledge that the thing wasn’t real.
Humans love dreaming. Most mammals love dreaming. Birds seem to have nightmares. All animals use dreams. If you think you’re going to sleep when you’re awake, you’re probably dreaming. You’re probably dreaming.
Is this genuine? __ Words memorised. Someone else’s words. Long sentences, but then — beautiful ones. __ Makeup they put on me. Too many bulbs around the mirror, but we all had to do it, so it was okay. __ Cues. I need to remember my cues, so I can speak when I’m supposed to. …
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