The empty house

Why do we linger?

My steps in the empty corridor echo through time. Small, slow steps that travel many years back. Empty walls, empty cabinets. Lost fragments of a past.

The emptyness

When were the days and nights when this house was full of life? Forgotten in the course of time, it has also started the trip to oblivion. Like my own memories. I can't help myself but remember all those moments, scattered in a room of toys and birthday parties. Of a house that was conquered by our innocence.

of those who left,

As I step inside, the emptiness of its rooms has a heavy burden on me. It is squeaky and old, it is small.

of those who stayed,

It is fascinating how your childhood memories remain intact. And as you grow old and you revisit those special places, then you too are astonished by how big the world looked in your eyes. I enter this room, the room I used to sleep and our mother used to nurture us, and I see half of it. I see it has shrunk through time. Maybe it also got tired through leaps in time. Maybe it has also seen too much and now has the need to retire. But I know now it is full of life again. It has revived. Or at least it tries to, till solitude covers its corridors for one more time.

is bigger than our own lives.

Photos taken with I-phone 4, November 2013, Kozani, Greece.
Model: My mother. 
Vicky Griva Photography ©

The long walk

The leaves are dancing through our feet. 

And the sunset gives its place to solitude.

As the sun falls down,

While I walk the long path in the forest behind our house, I cannot stop thinking of the way we see the world and ourselves. Do we realize our position in this world? And if we do, what are we doing about it? Thoughts of the past run through my head, while I gaze at the long, dark blue horizon. Do we cry for our loneliness? Do we weep for our absence?

and the trees salute the light,

As the world runs with immense speed, we cannot catch it with our pace. And truthfully, we won't. This world exceeds its limits, it disappears under the burden of ourselves and our lives. But wait for a moment. What do you see? What would the world be without this view? What would our lives be without these moments?

bowing at its glory,

Stop for a bit and stare. Look around you, feel the hidden beauty. Let yourself be intoxicated by the secrecy of each precious moment. Stop chasing something that will always run ahead of you. Instead listen. Listen to the crispy sounds of the dried leaves, the silky water flowing next to you, all those creatures crawling around you to a circle of life you were taught to ignore. Observe the lost rays of light behind the trees, the glimpses of stars that emerge at the spring sky and you will realize that all those lost answers in your life, will at once be revealed at you.

then all the mystic rivers,

If only you would stop and stare the silence that exists in Nature, then you could see the world how it really is, not how you see it through some screens. So take a step back and go out, take a long walk beyond the streets and buildings. Go behind the veil they gave you and soon you will find yourself taking some steps forward, deep inside you, deep in some woods, deep into the essence of Life.  

will reveal the magic of Life.

Photos taken with I-phone 4, March 2014, Leeuwarden, The Netherlands.
Vicky Griva Photography ©