““Remember what Bilbo used to say: It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to.”” - J.R.R. Tolkien Lord of the Rings
As I head out the door on an adventure, here is a quote from my one of my favourite book(s) when I was a kid, Lord of the Rings
“So many people walk around with a meaningless life. They seem half-asleep, even when they’re busy doing things they think are important. This is because they’re chasing the wrong things. The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning.” – Morrie Schwartz, Tuesdays with Morrie
I have been re-reading Tuesdays with Morrie recently and always find it such an inspiration. I think this is partly because I have a strong attachment to the situation I was in when I picked it up. I had just been robbed of all of my possessions, (including my cameras and 3 months worth of my work) in a crazy-ass knife-point robbery/mugging/kidnapping in Managua. Needless to say, I needed something to lift my spirits. The next day, after buying my bus ticket to Guatemala, I went to the one English bookstore in Managua and waded through a bunch of terrible English titles and finally landed on Tuesdays with Morrie. While reading on the 13-hour trip to Guatemala, I went through and underlined a lot of the inspiring parts in the book and although I had already been thinking a lot about some of the themes the book touches on, it was amazing to have it crystallized in such a simple and touching story.
Through reading it, I appreciated my family, friends, and the world around me so much more and managed to put the loss of my cameras and photos behind me.
An epic fall sunset as the rain sprinkles down on Vancouver. Hey Vancouverites, we are incredibly lucky to live in a city like this!
July 14, 2009 – Gambella, Kenya. – All the little dudes laughing it up while one of them sports my nerd glasses in the village we were working with.
I’ve finally waded through a big pile of work and am editing through some photos from Kenya and Ethiopia. This photo stuck with me, great memories of listening to Paul Simon’s Under African Skies while cruising past Kilimanjaro on my way to Zanzibar. I have a habit of photographing from the window seat while on flights and these clouds just seemed so beautifully African.
The whole object of travel is not to set foot on foreign land; it is at last to set foot on one’s own country as a foreign land.
~G.K. Chesterton
Footage: 5d Mark II/35mm 1.4 Music: Bombay Bicycle Club – Always Like This
As I drink my third delicious cup of coffee and outside fall rears its ugly head, I can only watch this and smile… What a way to cap off the best summer of my life.
“Why think about that when all the golden land’s ahead of you and all kinds of unforeseen events wait lurking to surprise you and make you glad you’re alive to see?”
- Jack Kerouac, On the Road
Lauren and I became friends when we lived together in Kigali, Rwanda last year. While I was there teaching photography to kids, Lauren was busy stringing for Reuters, developing a project on sexual violence in Congo, and later doing work on human rights in the region. Yeah, she is a pretty kick-ass chick. When she knew she was going to be out in Vancouver for a friend’s wedding, we started plotting an adventure in B.C. I had a rough idea of where to go and what to see. (That’s what I told her at least, in reality I was totally winging it and was hoping my 35-year-old motorcycle was up to the task of a 4-day 2000km trip.)
We rolled out of Vancouver on Monday morning and got home Thursday night with stops in Kamloops, Salmon Arm, Barriere, Vernon, Nakusp, Nelson, Castlegar, Osoyoos, Princeton, and Hope. We saw my good friend Brandon in Kamloops, and my good buddy Mikael, his wife Sarah and little girl Emelia in Barriere. It really was one of the best trips of my life so far, no doubt in my mind. It was my first big trip on my bike (which performed flawlessly), I had an amazing companion, the best weather you could hope for, got to see some dear old friends, and explored the indescribable beauty of BC on a classic motorcycle. Tough to beat that.
Got back to Vancouver last night from a 4-day 1,800km trip around Southern British Columbia with my good friend Lauren on my 1975 Honda CB750 SuperSport. Words, photos and video cannot do justice to the overwhelming beauty we have in our province. But, I’ll try my best. Full post with all the photos and a video coming soon.
Me & Dad on Tuesday- The Chief Peak 1
Paraphrasing my dad’s retirement speech this year:
“I’d like to thank everyone for being here, and, you know, a lot of people have been asking me what I am going to do in my retirement.”
“Let me tell you”
“I think I am going to get a motorcycle and ride it as much as I can. I’ll probably do a bit of work here and there, but not too much. I think I’ll do some travel to far-off countries. ”
“And then I realized, no…..that’s my son’s life….”
He got some big laughs, but hey, I am totally cool with that…. Thanks Dad for all your continued support, and what better way to spend your first time in thirty-odd years where you don’t have to go back to the classroom than to hike up on top of a big hunk of granite with a view like that?
Woke up at sunrise in Matemwe, Zanzibar to catch the light… and made a new friend. What a day.