WORDS: LJUBIŠA BORETOV
PHOTOGRAPHS: ANIMA MUNDI
There are friendships as strong as mountains; not even people, years or boundaries can affect them. Some friendships are fragile like November leaf, one word can make them disappear forever, like they have never existed. One thing we should remember is that they can’t be ruined by itself, people are braking them. Yet again, friends are those who decide is their friendship going to be like a mountain, are they going to cherish it, to grow and strengthen as the solid rock.
There are fears that everybody need to fight with. Some of them we can never cut loose. But the most important is to learn how not to be afraid, how to stand still through all ups and downs. The life is teaching us that the final punch is the most important one, the one who determents are we going to fight back or give up, are we going to be fearless or frightened. We don’t become week when we don’t fight back. We become cowards when we bow. Even when we aren’t strong enough to get out from the fight as winners, we shouldn’t be afraid to fight. The win isn’t when we defeat the rival, win is to stand up for ourselves.
There are loves which don’t last long, but they never end. Those are the ones you push aside not to think about them, but from time to time, they rise from the deepest corners of our memories and haunts us for a moment, until reality swoop back. There are loves that we are trying to get over so that they stop hurting. And then, when the wounds are heeled, they become sweet memory which we hold like the child is holding his blanket. When the day allows us to slip away for a moment, we enjoy embracing the memories.
There are years that bring peace, when we become nobody’s but ourselves. There are years when we become strong, independent, experienced, and powerful – years when life brings us a pleasure of fulfilment as a gift; and a power. The power to hold our life in our own hands and live by the rules that we have written. Only then the pleasure in all the things we have fought for, can be found without guilt, fear, or sense of responsibility, but only with inner peace and happiness.
Nevertheless, who knows exactly which years of life are the years of pleasure? Who can predict when they comes? Every person is coming to this life with the burden of constant quest for the peace and prosperity. Years, for some even decades, of hard practice are needed until we found it.
Gifts of life are all around us. What we need is to see and accept them, so that we can embrace ourselves as we are, and by doing so, help others to see who we really are, and love us.
