Thoughts about Balance

Over the years, facebook and social media have been quite useful to share nicely staged pictures of the perfect moments in one person´s life, and make it seem that it is his or her constant reality. How adventurous, how breathtaking and amazing my life must seem for those who mistake my pictures for real life. Well, its not. From the outside, it may look like my travels are nothing more but insane landscapes, friendly animals, easy life and rare natural phenomenons… but that is only a short glimpse, a momentum frozen in time as brittle as a tender diamond…BUT : there are two sides to every coin! Because one always conditionally affects the other : Where there is light, there is going to be darkness. Where there is courage, there is also fear. Where there is joy, there is pain. And let me tell you: The other side of my coin isn´t as glorious or enviable. We all have something we run from. We all have something we are not ready to face, so we simply change direction and walk the other way.

Travelling although means more often than not to be confronted with your biggest fears: whether you want it or not. To somehow face those blank spaces. It has been whilst travelling, that I felt most alone and abandoned by the world. It has been whilst travelling that I have cried more times than I can count, misplaced trust, misplaced love and misplaced hope. Even in the most beautiful of all places, there were days when I felt lost and indescribably desperate. When it seemed nearly impossible to find the strength to get back up and keep going. To not lose faith, and face the world and whatever is waiting for you once more. So please, if you marvel at my pictures: keep in mind, that it is only one side of the coin.

I have always been a big fan of authenticity. Everything in life should be in balance. If facebook represents real life, then I want to try and help keeping this balance. So I decided that from now on, every few «good» picture I post will be followed by one from the darker side. Ying and Yang. Black and White. Light and Dark. If you don´t want to be afflicted by this: Don´t look. Don´t read. That is fine. Nobody is forcing you to. Change direction and walk the other way. But I won´t. It took me a whole lot of guts to post this, but I think, it may help some to find their inner peace in whatever it is that social media makes us believe in what real life looks like. And if not, it may also just show you that I am simply human. That my life consists of good and bad memories too. I fail, I cry, I get hurt, I lose faith… And then I get back up and fight. Understand that each picture I am sharing with you are some moments out of thousands. Every life is built up on millions of single captured shots, all combined and formed into one in the end. Life is in the little things. Every moment is precious, the bad and the good ones, because it makes us become who we are. It formes our character and permits us to realize what life really offers to us. That it is not a straight line of happyness and eternal felicity. It is rather a very bumpy ride, and sometimes we want to get out. But it is also that what makes us feel alive. Remember the coin: It may flip every now and then, and the world will get a little bit darker, even in heaven. But it will always flip back. If nothing in the world is certain, then this is the one and only certainty we have. And if you still feel displeased about it, remind yourself that you are not alone with this. We are all just human. Sometimes we all just want to turn around and walk away. But if we face the truth, it is in fact what ties us all together: We fail, we cry, we get hurt, we lose faith… And then we get back up and fight.