Hello dear community,
As we all already know, BEAUTY is everywhere, so here am I sharing a few pictures from ~ 10 years ago, when along my travels in the country sides of Romania in order to find the next place with huge potential for a psychedelic festival, as that was the industry I was active in, organizing the healing area called "Transcendence - Healing & Education", in which I was gathering together healers, artists and shamans from more than 50 countries... Oh this small detail was mentioned as to cover up the reason of my travels, yet not the topic of this post, so I promise I will come back to the Transcendence project and share with you photos which I took back then in another occasion.
Now back to the subject, along my travels I have always stopped in "odd places" or "strange villages" in which one is advised not to, as they were famous for a high record of crimes along with "strange" behaviors of it`s inhabitants, yet being said that curiosity and a strong passion for discovering new places and their people fueled my paths in life, I have never listened to those warnings, therefore I have always stopped in those "bad places". It was not as a demonstration of bravery nor other things, simply I believe that everywhere we are or go, we meet nothing but our own perception of the things, our own fears and our own beauty. Being driven & guided by this truth, today I can share from my experiences that I have never been surrounded by bad people nor traveled in bad places :), even if there were possible dangers or a gray zone, the light and beauty of the heart always find its way to guide and protect even further, I don't believe in luck, I believe only that reality unfolds according with ones intention.
I used to be often called strange & people around me were convinced that sooner or later: "Life will teach me" and therefore I will have a tragic event in my travels as my curiosity is not "correct". I always smiled to those voices and carried on doing my thing.
Here are a very few pictures from a very "bad village" and with it's "cruel inhabitants". These kids I crossed paths with purely filled my heart with Beauty, Joy & a Happiness beyond what words could describe. I have meet their parents as well, they were living in such poor conditions, facing life's difficulties due their ethnicity as no one will offer them an opportunity to have a job, their father had shared a few stories with me, such as, that sometimes God made it possible that during summers some people in other villages would offer him few small agricultural jobs which would last for about a week, and the payment was not anything substantial, yet with that little money he was able to buy a bit of food and something sweet from the store, those kids always dreamed of a chocolate egg known as Kinder Surprise.
Their house was extremely tiny having only one room and one kitchen, the kids were sharing 2 single beds which together was barley making the size of a double bed and their parents were having also a very small bed, they had few chickens in their garden, a well looked after vegetable patch and a goat for milk. The mother said that from the little money that the kids were receiving from the government social funds, they were able to buy long term supplies such as flour, rice, corn, sugar, and sometimes pasta. I have to mention that back then, and even when I was a kid, the money which was allocated as child support per month was equivalent with the price of a pack of cigarettes in some countries such as the UK. So no matter how one is able to stretch it out, it is extremely hard to make a living... even today those helps are not aligned with the EU even if Romania is in the EU.... this is another sensitive topic on which I don't want to elaborate more.
Back to the beauty of my subjects, as you can see they were very happy and at ease with their life, perhaps not even knowing what poverty exactly means, they were full of life and very well fed as you can see, despite their dirty clothes I don't think anyone can argue about anything...yet not even the dirty clothes, as we were all covered in dirt when we were playing all day outdoor in our childhood.
There is a saying in Romanina: "Fa rai cu ce ai!" which is translated in English as: "Make/Build Heaven with what you got", and that "bad family" from the "dangerous and bad village" are nothing but the pure living example of that statement!
Those kids were playing with a deflated bicycle tire and for them that piece of rubber meant the world and the best toy out there. That was the scene I "caught" them doing and enjoying, as I approached them, they invited me into their universe introducing me to the magic of a deflated rubber. :)
Beauty is everywhere!
Happiness we all are, if we really want to embody it!
I really hope i have not bored you with this long text:).
I am sure you can see the Beauty!
Also...btw the woman with the purple scarf over her head, is me. :)
Yes, that's me in front of the camera... yet I am the same one behind the camera! :)
With Love,
Iulia Qiparosa