2012

If 2012 could be distilled to an essence, the extract would involve a large concentration of 'distance'. This year, I have been on 17 planes which have brought me around 20+ cities, 8 different countries, few of which I've duplicated (two, three, six times in one year).

I've seen distance through an eye view where miles stretch out through car rides, bus rides and boat rides. I've looked straight through the marrows of limestone rock formations and stared across both ends of the Pacific. I've seen the world shrink in simulated distance where landmarks are borrowed to create an artificial version of reality. In Las Vegas, Rome is just down the street of pyramids and a visit to the Eiffel Tower can be met with a visit to the Statue of Liberty all in the same day. In Cambodia, I've seen distance through the reality of a world that is hard to comprehend, one that is still and poor and built upon wooden stilts, and one that I paid to see as a tourist.

I've seen distance through a sky view where the altitude changes my imagination. The earth's land look like quilted patches that older generations have hand crafted for all the people that will come after them. I've also flown over lands that look like they have been trekked upon by giant dinosaurs whose footprints have made indents wide enough to form valleys and mountains.

I've felt distance through feelings of guilt, sorrow, regret and heartbreak that wasn't able to be remedied by a phone call or a plane ride. I've felt distance when I couldn't be there for my Grandpa while he was dying of lung cancer and felt the distance expand when I wasn't able to attend his funeral. I've felt distance through a relationship that misses the day-to-day creations of physical and tangible memories. I've felt distance by battling time zones - a continuous finger count to add three hours, sixteen hours, minus ten.

However arduous the measurement of distance gets, it gives me a sense of gratitude as my love fits into deep pockets all around the world. I can close the gap by clicking through thumbnails of photos and when I close my eyes, I am able to return to the moments I wish to relive.

Happy New Year to all my loved ones who live in these deep pockets.

A few photo recaps:

In dedication to my late Grandpa who is not so distant if I close my eyes.

Pam  xx