lunch box

Put food here and the earth
will cook it for you.
Photo: A geothermal steamer, Rotorua, New Zealand

red veil

This red veil covered a bride.
Before that, she covered the sofa.
Photo: J's veil, California

be-cause

An effect can not occur before its cause.
Photo: A stream in Rotorua, New Zealand
Text: A quote from a team of physicists, Hong Kong 

belong

When we are really honest
with ourselves, we must admit
that our lives are all
that really belong to us.
Photo: Cave in Xinjiang
Text: Cesar Chavez

no fear

Let our first act this morning

be this resolve: I shall not fear

anyone on earth...

I shall not bear ill-will towards anyone.

I shall not submit to injustice

from anyone.

Photo: Classroom, Laos

Text: Mahatmi Gandhi

quiet bond

I trust in you.
I trust in myself.
Photo: Torrey Pines, California
Text: From Patti Smith's 'Just Kids'

who I am

Tell me what you love
and I'll tell you who you are.
Text: Proverb in Haiti
Photo: Xinjiang

teach your children well, teach your parents well

A cat I know is turning 90 (in human years). Many friends have fed this cat over the years, and we have been reminiscing her childhood and our 'parenthood'.
I am reminded of my two cows, who parent each other. One is the biological mother, just one year older than her son. And I fed them this hay.
Photo: Carterton, New Zealand

rings

Josef Brodsky: Human beings are
put on this earth to create civilization.
Photo: Lamp, California

Owhiro Bay

Once I lived ten minutes from here, where
people and mountains and sea meet.
And one bird.
Photo: Ten minutes from H's house
Owhiro Bay, New Zealand

see, seen, unmatching

Eyes, braids, the openings in the young mouth, the readiness to see and to be seen.
That is what I see now.
And the unmatching rubber bands.
Photo: School picture, Year 4

to reach

A friend of mine begins a holiday.
I wish her, and I wish all of us,
the time and space to reach.
Photo: L in the van she drives, New Zealand

be there again

'You are fed up by words, and I don't blame you. I am nauseated by them sometimes. I am also, to tell the truth, nauseated by ideals and with causes. This sounds like heresy, but I think you will understand what I mean. It is so easy to get engrossed with ideas and slogans and myths, that in the end one is left holding the bag, empty, with no trace of meaning left in it. And then the temptation is to yell louder than ever in order to make meaning be there again by magic...'
Photo: Birch tree, Maine
Text: Thomas Merton

cotton wind

This is where I sleep. Cotton wind
comes through fifteen windows.
Photo: My Tai Hang home, Hong Kong