From what has been my longest hiatus away from blogging since I first began in May 2007, I come to you again, a newer version of Me. As is usually the case when starting a new life, in a new place, with new people, energies, climate, environment and adventures, many highs and many lows are sure to follow too. While the northern hempisphere starts to warm up, Kenya, in the south is just starting to cool down, put on her woolies and boots, and of course the sun lays his rays low for the coming months, resulting in less light, warmth and that happy vitamin D. With such changes, my system rebelled and therein set in my first low.
That, coupled with a slammin by a friend and critic of my words, my blog, me etc. etc. really took the wind out from under my wings.
In the days following that horrendous hurling of (what felt like) judgements, I realised that I really cant take criticism very well at all. Talk about a rude awakening.
Marco and Ale would always tell me to stop taking things so personally. I get what they always told me, but I am a person and its kinda hard not to take things personally when you are speaking to my person about something like a BLOG, which, as I'd like everyone to know, is entirely personal!
With that having been said, and with the wisdom that comes only with time, I'd like to say that criticism is finally something I can take with a pinch of salt. I figure, if someone cares enough to say anything at all about what I do, I must be doing something right.
Much has changed within and for me in the last 9 months. If 9 months is long enough to have a baby, then 9 months is definitely long enough to overhaul one's life. Call me flippant but change is just something I'm not averse to.
My experiences have been many of course and risks have been taken, they are after all meant to be made NOW or NEVER. I prefer now. If the universe doesnt have a sense of humour, then we're all done for, especially if you start taking things too seriously. Just after the personal breakdown of any confidence I may have once had in exposing my photography or written word to the world, and feeling pretty shady about myself, I was offered an assignment to do exactly the thing that I had been avoiding for what I thought would be a long time.
Of course I took it, and of course I enjoyed it, and of course it was the beginning of something that has sustained me, creatively and (kinda) financially. From that first reportage in May, I've written 8 more, edited my first film and also began shooting my first documentary. Everything since then has also been challenging, frustrating, rewarding, saddening and at worst, tedious. However, it just goes to show you that when someone knocks you down a few pegs, it happens because on some level, that soul knows you can handle it and that you not only can handle it, but will rise above it, like the phoenix and grow into something better, stronger, more experienced and less afraid.
So here I am, nine months on, and my fears are tenfold less and counting, my spirit stronger, my body better traveled, and my desires deeper. Oh, and I feel luckier by the day.
Before I turn this post into a mind bloggling (ha ha) memoir, here are some photos, dash of something here, dash there, of trips traveled and moments immortalized.
Galu Beach, Marco after a run. October '10
Galu again, admiring Marco working out enough for the both of us.
Lunch under a Baobab tree at Colubus Shade, Galu Beach
Ethiopian Coffee being made by an Ethiopian faerie! Ethiopian Night with Nardos...
...and Carolina. A necklace I made for her out of a sanddollar found on Galu Beach
Feeding Giraffes at the Giraffe Centre.
Marco with Milan, Carolina's baby girl.
Asali doing what she does best: give me dirty looks.
The long lost, but never forgotten Yoda
An unidentified snake who unfortunately met her end at the hands of my guard. The head was destroyed so we could not identify it. May its spirit live on.Faerie Out x
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