Ah, a fresh new baby year…may we meet it as such, with tenderness, love, and no small amount of wonder.
I wanted to share a few final reflections on our trip to Kenya and some of my favorite pictures as a way of tipping my hat to this adventure. Thank you for your love, support, and feedback. Here’s to an adventurous 2013, whether to parts far and wide, in our own backyard, or in the expansive world of our hearts and minds.
Beautiful
Photographed by Malcolm King-Fontana
This trip to Kenya was another life lesson in why I’m not interested in winning the booby prize. There are very strong forces, internal and external, pressing for a linear life. You figure things out, take only calculated risks, maintain control more or less, remain mostly comfortable and safe, and you arrive at the finish line not too dusted up, mainly on course, and generally looking pretty good. Your guidance system leads you around rather than through questions, mistakes (i.e. learning), and suffering. To my mind, that is the booby prize.
Hippo Love
Photographed by Malcolm King-Fontana
In my mid-forties I am beginning to meet a fresh option, experientially. This is not a linear path; you take risks and detours. You are aware that you are not in control, sometimes excruciatingly so. You experience discomfort and every other emotion and you not only experience them, you welcome them and you get to know them. You begin to get that there is space for everything. You make many mistakes, a.k.a. beginner’s mind. You get rather dusted up and at times, maybe often, things look to be quite a mess. You are not safe but you are something much richer, you are engaged with life.
The Inimitable Ingrid Munro
Photographed by Malcolm King-Fontana
l find myself increasingly willing to stake everything on trusting the still small voice within and the fierce and ever-present love that meets me in so many guises. I am dipping my toes into the experience of coming home to a deeply-seated ease and peace, even in the midst of different kinds of chaos. No booby prize, that.
Masaii Grandmother
Photographed by Malcolm King-Fontana
What that has to do with Kenya is simply this – I had an inner urging to explore something that may not have been a good idea in a traditional sense. It wasn’t safe; it took a lot of resources from my limited coffers and right at a time when conventional wisdom would strongly suggest I put every penny away for my son’s college education, retirement, hell – living expenses. I didn’t have any concrete, logical reasons to make this foray. And here’s the clincher – although we returned with just a few physical and emotional scratches, I still don’t know if it was a good idea, if it was worth it (whatever that means). I did not get the material I needed to begin the writing project I had gone in search of. Malcolm didn’t find the film project he was looking for, nor did he morph into a social activist. I didn’t meet a tall, dark and handsome stranger with whom I am now riding off into the sunset. It cost a lot of money, time and emotional currency.
Simba
Photographed by Malcolm King-Fontana
All of that and more considered, going to Kenya with my sixteen year-old son is a choice I am happy that I made. It was a grand-ish gesture, a Yes to the way I fully intend to live the rest of my life, however long that may be. I am going to trust myself, this sweet and at times sorrowful life, and the energy of love and opening that for now I call God.
The Mara
Photographed by Malcolm King-Fontana
Thank you Malcolm for your willingness to adventure in realms outside of the comfort/dead zone!
Photographed by Kris King
Shining Hope
Photographed by Malcolm King-Fontana
Thanks so so much for your words, your courage (plural!) your honesty and your creative risk taking – you are an inspiration to live life outside any box and I salute you for it and am so happy to have you as a friend! May 2013 bring you more of everything! Love Penny
Penny, just two words for you: You Rock!!
Kari – your lesson learned is the best one – there is not much movement in a comfortable life….glad you and Malcolm pushed the edge and found a thirst for more. sounds like success to me – and as they say – ‘it’s only money!’ cheers from Syria!
What a beautiful tribute and completion to a journey well-done (whatever THAT means!)
The photos are all exquisite – and so fun to see you and Malcom in that last shot. Something tells me the bond you forged on this adventure is more priceless than any project you might have claimed.
All I can say is that the biggest (documented) regrets of the dying are not about what they did, but what they didn’t do. . . and that whatever we think something is about is never what it is really about . . . and that there never are wrong choices. . . and that the journey IS the gift . . .
And now that I’ve dispensed with all that profundity – let’s get together for some salmon and/or scotch or such soon!
Joy ♥
http://www.JoyHosey.com 541/482-8540
Kari and Malcolm – you are an inspiration, in the deep breath of satisfaction sense 🙂 Love you my friends/kin! Thank you for the images and words that pierce the bubble.
Thank you dear soul sister Heidi! Hope the new job and school are curling around you and Nai’a like a warm blanket. xxx
Dear malcolm and kari, I am again impressed by your courage, your positive attitudes when blockades could prevent you from following a dream, your talents in writing and photography and your willingness to be open to follow your heart and faith to allow new doors to be open to new horizons. Love you….aunt Livvy
Thank you dear Livvy! May we all be vigilant in our awareness of those doors and horizons. xx
Kari,
What a moving and honest expression from a soulfull and heartfull human being walking and dancing and crawling through this exquisite mysterious gift we call life. I have dipped in here and there on your adventure to Kenya and am so glad I decided to dip this morning. Thank you for reminding me to take the risks that my still small voice invites me to take, no matter what the outcome, and thank you for inspiring others to do the same. From the moment we met at Jean’s event I sensed a kindred radiant spirit. How true.
Malcolm,
Your photographs are gorgeous. You clearly have a knack for capturing life as it is happening. And apparently you have a knack for living it that way as well. Carry on!
Sending you both love and big blessings for 2013,
Sarah
Dear Sarah, thank you for your beautifully expressed thoughts and sentiments. If I know you, you will indeed continue taking the risks that invite (and perhaps frighten) you. Cuz that’s the way you do! xxx
What a tribute to life and living! A spectacular completion/wrapping up of the African journey and an appropriate beginning and opening of the new year. A new year where the light is stronger, the shadows casting darker and longer shadows, and where facing the light and the high road calls for exactly the qualities you describe. A salute to Malcolm’s superb skills in photography; capturing the soul as well as the technical details. Sending you both love and joy, and I hope you will continue to share with us your journey in 2013.
Dear Peggy, wise words about the new year, the shadows and the light, the high road that beckons. From the time I met you I recognized that quality in you and I have continued to see more and more evidence of it. Thank you for who you are in the world. xx
Kari,
While you may still be working through how your journey has affected you, please know that you have enriched the hearts of many through your generous act of sharing your thoughts, feelings and photos. You have thrown down a velvet gauntlet for us to pick up and sally forth into the intriguing unknown ourselves. I thank you, Sandra
Thank you dear Sandra! Yes, let us all pick up that gauntlet and sally forth! Hooray!
Kari and Malcolm,
I can’t fully express how, in my opinion, you both accomplished huge goals with this trip to Kenya. Am not saying this as a beneficiary of your talent and skills but from my heart.
May be the collection of gem you both have for your writing project and Malcolm’s film is still in a subtle state, soon it could crystallize to it’s concrete form or into something totally different. Who are we to know it all?
Love you both,
Simon.
Simon, thank you so much for your heartfelt message. You are truly our soul brother in your deep embrace of what matters to you. Thank you for being such a good example of caring coupled with courage.
Kari and Malcolm, thank you for including me in your journey. Not knowing why you do something is part of the adventure and you both will be blessed for life with grand memories. Thanks again.
That is so true Pat. Who knew the “not knowing” would be the jewel!
Dear Ones, Thank you so much for taking us all along with you on your Grand Adventure. Your photos speak volumes and I thoroughly enjoyed every comment and post. May you be filled with joy and blessings in the New Year. You are intrepid, mighty folk. Love you! Diane Nichols
Diane, Thank you. You are such a juicy, bubbly slice of life. May your creativity and talent hit a stride this year that really fills your cup.
xx
Livvy and I certainly enjoyed the journey. Proud of you two. What’s next?
Thank you Larry. France, possibly Italy!I trust you and Livvy will have some splendid advice for us. xx
What a privilege to be the mom and grandma(gandi) from birth till now in both your lives and be such a part of your adventures!!!! You both are allowing the “nuture and nature” of dear kin, friends, God and all the gifts given to you both in such talent,(such as Malcolm’s photography that says more than just a photo) adventurous spirits, bright and ‘out of the box’ thinking minds and believing “to RISK is to WIN.”-this good bye blog is so amazingly written with such astonishing photography!Love mom +Gandi
Thank you Mommy for being such a wonderful teacher! xxx
Dear Sister and Nephew,
The feeling of awe and gratitude are felt in me somewhere in relation to your adventure. I don’t think right now that it really matters what it all means, but it matters that you did it. Even so, I am glad to see you wrestle with the deeper meaning of things and I am grateful that you share with me the privacy of your thoughts, insights and images. I would expect no less from a King (Queen or Prince). It seems like the really great things in life often really don’t make sense from a safe traditional point of view. More will continue to be revealed about this trip over the course of a lifetime. We are all blessed to know you as are our relatives in Africa, and vice versa. When you took this action waves were created like a stone being cast into still waters. We don’t know where those waves will end up but they have been created. Blessings to you, your children, grandchildren and those yet to come,
Love Uncle/Brother, Brian
Dear Brother Brian, what a beautifully expressed message! Speaking of potent writing…(: I so appreciate you and the journey we’ve been on though sometimes in very different places, I feel our paths running in kindred directions. I’m very proud of the man you have become. xxxxx
Amen!! Your writing is always an inspiration, always poetic. Thank you for taking our beautiful boy on this unusual adventure, of which I’m sure there will be others to follow. You are and always have been an amazing woman.
The photographs Malcolm took really are incredible. If I wore a hat I would take it off to you Kari. Be well.
Mark
P.S.
Love the shot Kris took of you and Malcs.
Mark, thank you so much. That mean a lot to me especially coming from you. Thank you for your support even when it isn’t necessarily something you would choose. xx
You are incredibly wonderful! Both of you. I see your book and photography project. Just being and sharing you is enough to inspire and provoke. Love you Mucho, xxTherese(Bobo)
Dearest Therese, thank you for your kind words. We just saw The Hobbit and of course thought of you throughout. I hope future travels take me to your New Zealand to see you and the beautiful Sophie. xxxx
Kari and Malcolm,
Thanks so much for bringing a piece of Africa into our hearts and minds, with honesty and respect. Isn’t it magnificent? Love, Martha
Thank you Martha and thank you for all that you shared prior to our departure that fed the well of inspiration.
Kari,
I am touched beyond words. You and your son do what many only dream of, or may never even dare dream. You dreamt and you leapt…not knowing if the net would appear….and you still don’t. How precious and difficult to listen to and follow your heart’s calling, especially in this reality so rooted in rationality. YOU DID!!! YOU ARE AN INSPIRATION!
I knew I loved you from the moment we became roomies is Kenya!
Your heartfelt honesty and literary talents and Malcolm’s ability to capture the present moment in all its glory or grief….tell me there is a lot more to come….who knows, it may even be this story, with a totally different twist than you ever thought.
And what else is possible??
I love you, Cathy