Pages from my Sketchbook.

It would be great if i were to spend the fasting month at this place in the foothills of Lintang, in Sik, Kedah where the Organic farm is located. How i miss the wild and the sound of the forest around me while i was there. But reality is i cannot afford to make the trip much less spend sometime there and so I am stuck here on the island  where the traffic and the madness around me is my practice for the moment.

I realize that one have to settle for whatever it is that is before you in any given moment and thrive or transcend before you can move on and further more I still have to hang around to keep my cousins and my son Karim company through this Fasting Month.. I know that the quietness and the pure air and water all me out there in the boonies will be almost perfect for my meditational practices coupled with the fasting and prayer trips. But I feel almost  like being selfish to leave  when my presence means a moral support for those around me here. 

Well perhaps it is just not the right time or it is just no meant to be at the moment and I have to accept it for what it is worth. I know that where I am here it is short of a torture to the state of mind from morning till the evening with all kinds of activities and non stop traffic but perhaps it is as it should be as it simply means that if I can survive this environment and maintain my fasting as well as i could, i am doing great, spiritually if not in discipline.

I did most of these sketches from the shots i took with the camera while i was there staying at the organic farm and it is done using a 8HB pencil. The guy in the picture came from Tumpat, located close to the border between Kelantan and Thailand in the north of the East Coast of the Peninsula.H e was part of the party that came to do some study in organic rice farming. 

It is a great feeling to be able to be so close to nature and especially growing something with your own hands, something that would end up feeding a whole lot of people, it gives one a sense of satisfaction. On the other hand it is still a messy business when you are sloshing along with your back bent over planting the seedlings one at a time into the muddy soil.

In this day and age one would be surprised to find out that not too many people know what a padi  seedling  even looks like, much less the whole process of getting it into the ground. Not too many would even have nay idea what rice actually looks like before it came to their dinner table.

What is aesthetic about wading around in the muddy field is the whole spectrum of smell and tactile feel to the soft mud and cold water, as the hot sun keeps the body warm and sweaty.  This is what being present in the moment is all about and to capture this moment  and have it entered into this blog is the art itself.

The universe has much to offer if you are willing to allow it to happen and all it takes is making the first move to be where it is happening, you got to make the effort to find it and it will find you. As time goes by being in nature is precious; it is like finding your way home to yourself.