As memories of an unforgettable winter trip through the sub-temperate island of Kyushu in December 2019 fade into this equally unforgettable time of isolation during COVID in 2020, we are given to ponder over the many blessings, both big and small, that has marked this awakening; an awareness of the bigger world we have lived in for granted, with the smaller world that we have ignored through the hurried cacophony of the daily grind that Wilder wrote about.
True enough, the challenges and aftermath of this worldwide human tragedy as it unfolds cannot simply be reduced to a personal story about the travails of the joys of travel or it’s lack-of thereafter.
But we lives safe in the attitude that perhaps we do matter, that live around us matters, even when the world do not see this small invisible self – our contributions towards life and its bigger meaning and purpose still count, and even when this brief episode in time, and all that we experienced deeply turns into dust, it would still have been a reality that cannot be erased, abolished or diminished.
So we savour the moments of landscape, seascape or winter roses in a time of abundance, and unbeknown, come rapidly to terms with the joys and awareness – of the inner beauties of the arachnids and the gentle slopes and junctions of nature, of the marches of pale petals and their rhythmic progression through the vines of live – at once so delicate, at once simply resilient – so full of vitality and beauty, that man’s Gaudy designs to replicate them pales.
Lumix G85, Lumix 12-60 mm; Nagasaki waterfront; roses at the Kurume Ishibashi culture park; Valley to the Amano Iwato-jinja shrine, December 2019
Lumix G85, M Zuiko 40-150 mm, Raynox Macro 2.5x, Mexican Coral Vine (Antigonon leptopus) or Honolulu creeper, Singapore August 2020