At times the facade of our existence feels wafer-thin as if somehow designed to contribute to the overwhelming reality of not being enough.

We search tirelessly, attempting to find the answers, any answers, seemingly blind to the beauty of the simple truth.

To love. 

To be loved needs to be simple.

Like an unconscious thought or action.

Love needs not to be earned.

Lately, I have noticed that the pressure we put on ourselves to achieve was becoming a regular visitor. I have to admit; this is an easy trap to fall prey to, as constant reminders encompass our every day that everybody is achieving all they have ever desired.

I also have to admit that there are times when this pressure to compete to achieve almost feels oppressive. As if in just a few short years, the concept of happiness, joy, and hope has evolved into not only something everyone can easily attain but also should achieve. Rendering any compromise in its pursuit as a failure of your conception.

Let's be honest for just a moment, as it is the easiest way to say what's on my mind.

This beautiful girl, sitting in her doorway, is a picture of youth. She is eating her breakfast, watching the world pass by, seemingly without a care in the world.

Yet beyond her doorway lies an unseen truth, or should I say an ignored reality. You see her home; the beautiful Kalimantan rain forest is under siege. A siege that appears to have no end in sight.

At the top of every crest is a view.

At the base of every valley is the beginning.

There really is no start, just as there really is no end. 

Your opinion is just that. A simple conclusion you have come to, based on your own experiences, be they good or bad. Your opinion is valuable, it is worthy, and it is genuine for you! It's an experience you have had, one of many that has left its fingerprints on your past; and just perhaps your future. 

But in the end, your opinion is just your experience of a moment in time that will differ from others.

This man of experience sits alone, surrounded by nature and creates. His textured hands gracefully move across the page, leaving the marks that life left on his soul. The very same experience that will create a vision that only he understands.

He may be famous, maybe anonymous, maybe just himself, but today he is investing his time in what is important to him—a simple expression of self, the meditative process of creation.

I have to admit that I don't know Leang Kiew particularly well. We don't share a language, so sitting, talking, and experiencing life through each other's eyes does not happen easily. 

Yet despite these factors, I feel strongly connected to this beautiful soul, like we have met before, have shared experiences, known each other's pain, each other's joy.

Can I sit beside you and rest my head, as the pain I feel is becoming too much to bare. The world I love now looks like a shambled mess filtered through tears.

I have wiped them away many times. But as my heart breaks, the dull glaze returns. So just for a moment, can I rest on your shoulder, feel your warm embrace and sit here numb to it all.

Do we observe the world we live in through a clean gaze, unaffected by past events? Do we hear the conversations we have without feeling the clouds of our troubled history?

Can we sit alone, on the edge of any given reality and appreciate it for its pure beauty, its anger, its trust, its love, its mistakes, for its misfortune?

In this wondrous world we have constructed for ourselves, we have fallen into a working habit. 

To gain relevance, to be so-called heard, to be seen for who we project we are, we seem to have arrived at the polarising belief that we need to be at the centre of everything.

I BELIEVE, I FEEL, I THINK!

Look at me please, I am hollow.

Just a projection of what I think you want to see, what I think will make you like me.

Not everyone moves at the same pace in this world. This observation applies to physical, mental, and spiritual progressions.

So although you may be in a hurry to get somewhere and although you may just be frightened to take that journey alone, it is the only way it can be done. 

Why would you choose to chase power or empowerment, granted to you as a gift through another’s tainted gaze?

When your true unstoppable power lies deep within yourself.