The Melon I Found In The Borneo Highlands

I've had just enough time...   to find the melon in the highlands

A beautiful melon with intricate patterns I found in the Borneo Highlands Resort in Kuching

The melon I found on Borneo Highlands

I know not its name and

There is no one to enlighten

But it is all the same

One need not know to appreciate

One only need know to appreciate

Saving The Rain Trees of Taiping

I've had just enough time to...   see the rain trees saved

Taken of the Taiping Lake Garden, the most beautiful park in Malaysia

The rain trees lined the serene shore

Dipping its branches into the forbidden lake

Rippling the surface stirred by wayward winds

Sending a gentle cascade of dropping leaves

On wet grasses and empty benches

Providing solace to aching hearts and aching feet

Slowing down time to a slow crawl

Witnessed by the distant hills and century trees

Through the veils of morning mists and driving rain

A scene that soothes the heart with a gift of memory

That may not last as long as the trees

Only just as long as we live…

And they want to set up kiosks in this sacred land

To sell snacks and souvenirs!

How Do You Love Your Flowers?

I've had just enough time to...   love my flowers

Taken of the orchids in my garden...

How a flower looks

Depends very much on where it appears.

Will you go near a flower

Blooming on a cow dung’s heap?

Will you tame a jungle

To get near a wild bloom?

and the dancing ladies doing a wild dance in the wind...

Do you appreciate the common petals

Grown in your own garden?

Or do you covet that

Grown in your neighbor’s yard?

Do you value a flower

Because of its rich surrounding?

And not give a second glance

To that flowering in a junk yard?

while the prosperity flowers welcome the God of Prosperity, still waiting...

Do you love flowers for it beauty?

Or do you love flowers for its virtues?

Or do you love flowers because they are flowers?

Beauty In Ordinary Places.

I've had just enough time to...   look for Beauty in ordinary places.

Taken as I casually pass by a drain in the built-up city of Kunshan, China.

You can find Beauty in many places if you look for it. There is some Beauty that you cannot ignore, like the crimson glow of a setting sun or the moon’s radiance on a dark night. But there are other Beauties that you have to train your eyes for.

But first you must look. Not just at the steps in front of you or the ones you left behind. Or the destination you are hurrying to. Look around you casually, be aware of your surroundings, absorb the environment, feel the air, take in the atmosphere, listen to the sounds of life and as if by magic, things hidden gradually appear. At first tentatively, then bursting forth in their full glory.

Beauties reveal themselves to those for look for them. Like this wild flower by a ditch did in the fading light of the city of Kunshan which I just happened to pass by. To the hundreds of passer-bys, it reveals itself to me because I was looking for it. I may not know what I was looking for but I will recognize it when I see it.

The Sorrow of the Lonely Urn.

I've had just enough time to...   appreciate Beauty while it last.

Taken in the Gunung Lang resort, Perak, Malaysia.

In the shadow,

The urn tells a timeless tale

In soft whispers.

To the attentive grass and

The slow climbing vines.

“Beauty is Truth, Truth Beauty”

It sadly said,

“But Beauty fades and Life goes on”

"Nothing last forever,

The truth of beauty is -

When it exists."

_______

Ode on a Grecian Urn - John Keats

Thou still unravish'd bride of quietness!

Thou foster-child of silence and slow time

            Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard

Are sweeter; therefore, ye soft pipes, play on;

Not to the sensual ear, but, more endear'd,

Pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone

When old age shall this generation waste,

Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe

Than ours, a friend to man, to whom thou sayst,

"Beauty is truth, truth beauty," – that is all

Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.

Art Is Life.

I've had just enough time to...   appreciate Art.

Taken from a vantage point in a side street of Bali.

The greatest value of Art is to remind us of the beauty of Nature and Life that we may miss in our hurried existence. No matter how beautiful the portrayal, it is still but a copy of the real thing. Art enhances Life but it is Life that gives existence to Art. So Art, whether a faithful rendition or an imagined fantasy can never be more beautiful than Life itself.