Nepal: Shop Ladies

I love the people of Nepal because their happiness is authentic, effortless, and humble – a true statement of how living simply can provide you with an abundantly satisfying life. Wouldn’t it be refreshing to adopt this way of living? Here are two of my favorite portraits I took so far and a quick snippet I wrote about each woman.

Cloth
around you, above
you, below
you.
Antique charm,
ageless grace,
your breath illuminates me.
You are happiness:
the simple kind,
the kind that blooms
out of
patterned fabrics,
sewing machines,
pin-needles, and
colored thread.
Toothless smile,
wrinkled eyes -
the stars bathe in you.
Can I wrap your
presence
in this cloth, can I
sew
your spirit into my
dreams?
I come,
and you smile. I leave,
and you smile.
Happiness.

Crated coke bottles,
piled potatoes,
a gust of wind passes by.
You are love,
soft and effortless.
Silky like the sari
rolling down your shoulders,
steady like the
wall that supports
your back.
As if newly in love
or awake in a dream,
you are a
a beam of light.
Pure, effervescent,
strong.
I move forward and
carry you along -
winged butterfly,
petaled flower,
extending,
expanding,
enhancing,
existing in
each moment.

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