El Exilio

Old door ~ Suchitoto, El Salvador

Dias para permanecer cabizbajo en la soledad de antiguas ruinas que surgen de la tierra viva y llena de hierbas de las ultimas lluvias.

Dias espinosos en que duele la alegria de los seres amados y la mirada reclama su pozo oscuro.

Dias en que no se soporta el espectaculo de la tempestad energica del mar que solto sus ligaduras de la profundidad que lo detiene.

Dias abiertos al angel de la conmiseracion para que alce vuelo el sollozo como una golondrina a quien nadie mirara.

Dias de color lento en que se desdibujan las facciones del amor.

Roque Dalton

We have grown literally afraid to be poor. We despise anyone who elects to be poor in order to simplify and save his inner life. If he does not join the general scramble and pant with the money-making street, we deem him spiritless and lacking in ambition. ~William James

BERLIN, Germany, 18 December 2008 – Belgian photographer Alice Smeets is the winner of the UNICEF Germany Photo of the Year. Her picture shows a girl in Cité Soleil, the largest slum in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, wearing a clean white dress and ribbons in her hair, despite being surrounded by squalor.
"The photo shows us the courage and energy of a little girl who is growing up in the face of adversity. The UNICEF Photo of the Year is a plea to heed and support these children."

La Palma, El Salvador.

Art from El Salvador, inspired by Fernando Llort

"This volcano-laden, dazzling land of El Salvador is an inexhaustible fountain of bright, warm and lively colors. A world not of faint colors, veiled by stained glass; not glazed transparencies, tormented by the midday sun, but rather the triumph of colors... a symbol of life!" Fernando Llort

"...it will be a work without equal in all the world..."
Michelangelo

"...all was enchantment."

1. doorintheather, 2. chandelier, 3. window&vine, 4. arbolesyventana, 5. dwelling, 6. panchimalco, 7. Marimba, 8. sculpture, 9. paredpintada

Our society must make it right and possible for old people not to fear the young or be deserted by them, for the test of a civilization is the way that it cares for its helpless members.
Pearl S. Buck

'Do not pervert justice; do not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the great, but judge your neighbor fairly. Leviticus 9:15

Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime. ~Mark Twain

To travel is to discover that everyone is wrong about other countries. ~Aldous Huxley

"Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest." Mathew 6:31

"We cannot be dependent on ourselves and dependent on God at the same time. When we consider the practice of rest unnecessary, we also will inevitably lose sight of the necessity of God." Ann Jackson

(taken with a compact digital camera at the house of my best friend's dad)

bamboo (bam'boo)
noun

a giant woody grass that grows chiefly in the tropics, where it is widely cultivated.

"Tis the gift to be simple, 'tis the gift to be free, 'tis the gift to come down where you ought to be, And when we find ourselves in the place just right, It will be in the valley of love and delight." [From the song "Simple Gifts" written by Shaker Elder Joseph Brackett, Jr.,1848.

Let every rock cry out, let every knee bow down. You opened up my heart to wonder....

In wonder~ Newsboys

Solitude

I have a house where I go
When there's too many people,
I have a house where I go
Where no one can be;
I have a house where I go,
Where nobody ever says "No";
Where no one says anything - so
There is no one but me.

A.A. Milne
(The Complete Tales and Poems of Winnie the Pooh)

(Old Window in German Church ~ USA)

"Making art is a journey" M. Craighead

"I am still learning" Michelangelo