The Līgo Haibun Challenge is hosted by Ye Pirate and Ese.
This week we can choose one of two photo prompts, and I have chosen the one below:
Copyright – Agnieszka Wojtecka
Please do go and check out the other entries by visiting the co-hosts’ blogs and finding the InLinkz linky thing! There are some very talented writers out there… I will visit each and every one as soon as I can!
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– Evolve –
What drives us, I wonder, to carve our path through each day? Why do we step out, placing one foot in front of the other, when faced with such obstacles?
From time to time, we each feel that life has dealt us the toughest of hands with which to play. We feel this way, even if it is a lie that we choose to believe. In our world filled with modern technology, we allow our frustration to boil over when things fail to work in the way that we have come to expect.
These things aren’t important, not really. What is important is the health of our loved ones, collective happiness, protection against the elements, food in our bellies. What price warmth against the ice of winter? What price clean water? What price love?
I have learned some valuable lessons this year. I have grown up. I am grateful that life has presented me with this opportunity. We are all connected. We are part of the collective whole. My actions affect everyone on this planet.
small world gently held
cradles us in love and peace
one planet only
cradles us in love and peace
one planet only
Freya Writes... 
Wonderful, so true.
Thank you, Brenda.
Very warm words – I understand your experiences over the year shaped your haibun, but your words have resonance to others. I hope there is some therapy involved in writing your haibun here, but there is certainly real philosophy behind what you say.
Thank you. Strange to write that I have grown up, when up until this summer, I thought I was already quite an adult person already (in my early forties!). But that is what I feel, as if the scales have fallen away. I am aware that this isn’t all about me, hence what I wrote, because all of us go through horrible times – what we portray on the outside is not necessarily reflective of what is going on underneath. We all have an impact on each other, we are all connected.
As for therapy, yes. It’s no accident that I have written more since my dad died, and published more on my blog. Everything that I write is some form of catharsis, whether it appears so or not. That, I think, is true for many of us.
PS – your haiku really gave it in a clear, fragile nutshell.
Thank you.
Absolutely!Loved the questions you raised Freya and the answers are equally evocative!The Haiku gave a beautiful touch-so relevant to the photo given as well as the body of the Haibun 🙂
Thank you – I am so pleased it reached you in this way.
🙂
Such poignant loveliness. We are all a part of the whole, and must strive to protect and care for each other, even in the most minute manner.
One person at a time – eventually, one day…
Deeply powerful and resonant words that echo my own personal journey. The Haiku is a call to our ancient and future selves. I am humbled.
Thank you so much, Paul. I think many of us walk very similar paths, but don’t realise it. How much easier it would be if we could understand that…
The more I travel and the more I work with community the more truth I find in your statement. The good news is that more and more people ARE becoming aware of and understanding this.
In Peace
P x
That’s very good to read 🙂
Valuable lessons and a very enjoyable haiku which I lingered over.
Thank you, Eric.
your reflection that we are all connected and our world truly is smaller than we realize – so true. thank you for this pause moment. a reminder for me again, to check for the little things in life to be grateful for. ♥
You’re very welcome. Sometimes, I have to write things like that to make these philosophies ‘stick’.