What Seems Trivial?

The weather has turned quite chilly and I have washed my jeans then placed then into the dryer to shrink them back to perfect fitting size. I’m spending some time with my mum this afternoon before going to work a little later tonight.
Aside form all this, university is on my mind and decisions for my own life are looming before me. I can’t quite see the top, only the small stairs that begin here at the bottom to get me up there. I’m a little distressed at this whole situation and I would like to have better vision of what exactly is ahead of me. One thing is for sure, I have a great life and opportunities are coming my way and it’s all too easy for me to get caught up in it all and forget the things that are happening all over the world that are not necessarily affecting me but I should probably let them.
Over the past week I have been thinking about the fact that I do not really watch the news. In the house that I live in right now I haven’t bothered to set up an aerial in my room and so I never catch anything of what is going on. So I challenged myself to make an effort. All of the best news publications are all online and there is actually no excuse for my ignorance.
A few days ago I realized how much exactly I am missing out on by keeping myself in the dark. It can sometimes be so difficult for us as individuals to deal with the things that are happening in the world because we think that there is nothing that we can do about it. I admit that I struggle with this. Being so young and having virtually no money, in the middle of studying. It does not seem like there is much that I can do for the people in Uganda who are getting turned away from AIDS clinics because they do not have the capacity to treat anymore patients, and I do not have the opportunity to provide comfort for those Chinese families who have lost their children in violent attacks in schools there.
These tragedies are confronting for us in our comfortable lives and sometimes is it true that there is not a great deal physically that we can do. Sometimes we just think that having a great deal of money would solve all these things, but that may not be the case.
In 2003, a small group of guys from Southern California ventured to Africa in attempt to document stories and to close the gap on their ignorance. Now, almost seven years later their film has been seen by millions and they are a part of our generation, and have created invisiblechildren.com. They tell stories and seek justice for those who have been forgotten by the Western world. They help us to see that each and every one of those Ugandan children who have been stolen from their homes, have just as much value and worth as our own children. They have been able to do this just through their passion of story telling, even though these are hard stories to share. 
So there is more solutions than just throwing money at situations. There are stories to find and share, and each individual on this planet has their own story, that is unique and of just as much value as your own. I, personally have to actively pursue this, to care for individuals around me and choose to look beyond my own life, my own decision making and to remember those who are in so much need. 

Earth Scabs.

 

this is a picture of the trail i was just just about to walk, its all volcanic rock which felt like and sounded like glass to walk over, you may not be able to see but there are sulphur clouds coming up out of the ground far far into the picture, the mount on the left is the lava spout which erupted in 1969. anyways i was pretty impressed with nature that day, and i highly considered becoming a geologist.

Get to know beauty, it wants to tell you something.

Fairbanks, Alaska.

Trying to creatively write this last two weeks has been like trying to force a bird to swim…. Nothing natural about it.
I thought I would be overflowing with ideas and observations, when in actuality my mind has been….. empty.
Whether it is the jet lag or the transition into a new season, I have not caught a thought thats expanded this heart and caused my fingers to run furiously over this key board.
Not without trying though.

I’m in a place made famous for its beauty, surrounded by at least 11 different cultures everyday and my brother just got a smiley face tattoo on his big toe. I have observed plenty and processed much, but never been compelled to express. Its unlike me. I usually type my thoughts out, but I lay here now pen in hand with paper catching thoughts hoping that the return to the good old way of writing will help.

But as I consider my frustration, I am led to believe that the reason my creative writing well had been dry is that lately I have been refreshing myself from the well of knowledge. I’m currently in school and this is the first week of the quarter. I believe I have read more and learnt more this week than I have in the last 2 months. I’m hungry to learn and my favourite topics are at hand: humanity and science.

One of my favourite writers C.S Lewis comments that “the tasks of the modern educator is not to cut down trees but to irrigate deserts”. Yehp. I feel like everything I have ever produced before now has been grown in the desert, but with this current “irrigation” of knowledge replenishing my world, I feel my next fruits will be far sweeter, rich and filling.

It's as though I’ve been able admire a butterfly for its beauty and grace but attained knowledge has led me to understand that this certain butterfly travels over thousands of miles to hibernate for 4 months in the frost only to awake, start to fly back from where it came, reproduce somewhere on the way back, and actually never make it home cause it dies. But yet the next generation repeats the .This knowledge has given beauty layers, depth and dimension.

Same again seeing the poverty striken parts of Africa on the tv. Although not sightly beautiful...the beauty of empathy and emotion reveal the injustice in to my heart and I am bummed right!?  However the knowledge gives insight that 20% of western societies consume 86% of the worlds good. (Now im just ticked off !). Knowledge has revealed to me just how unnecessary their suffering is, how $1 a day $30 a month really is nothing compared to what I have around me. its given my empathy and emotion validity and more understanding of what it is I am actually recognizing as unjust.

How much more deliberate is love when you have knowledge and understanding?

How much more easier it is to appreciate the world around us with knowledge and understanding?

I believe the deliberate pursuit of knowledge, wisdom, and understanding is like adding lenses to your sight. You'll be able to experience a more expressive, rich, and full life; not missing depth, detail, or purpose.

There is always more to know and it's more often than not worth finding out.

See life as a incomprehensible mastepiece and its desperate to show you more.

His favour.

Taken on an iphone in Kaiua bay Kona, Hawaii.