Nothing Left to Lose

“Nothing left to lose” is a sad statement … it is not a position to be envied – because surely each life must have at least one thing, one relationship, one love, one memory, one hope … one rasgulla even, just something to look forward to that keeps one alive and excited. This statement will probably not appeal to me until I am actually dead.

But “being prepared to lose everything” is a statement of self-preparedness. It is a statement of I’ll take what comes and find my way. It is an assertion of the confidence there is to rebuild. And this statement has great appeal!

The ability to rebuild, or to move easily into a new plan and a new project. A new home. A new mindset. And this comes from upheavals. From travels to vastly different cultural biomes. From living within vastly different social mindsets. Flitting from one to another and re-calibrating again and again and again. Absorbing it all. Giving oneself wholly to it all and yet being able to move on. And on.

Many worlds co-exist in one mind’s journey into disconnected islands of experience. 🙂

Maybe it is the ‘figuring-out’ that keeps the journey fascinating. Maybe it is the unfamiliarity and the challenge of the unknowns that makes it all attractive and free from ennui.

For some, ‘settling down’ is a statement that offers comfort. For me, the opposite is true.

And so the next new places are calling out to me – to Tanimbar, to Toraja, to Kantuk, to Cirebon… to explore their cultures. When will these come my way? No idea… but the seeds of the travel ideas have been planted by arts from these places.

And it is a matter of time before a new village, a new lifestyle and a new culture sweeps me off my feet again!

Here are some of the artworks that have planted the new seeds in my head:

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A whole world waiting to be explored … world of culture and world of art born of that culture!

And even the seven births will not be enough to cover it all!

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jaina mishra

wovensouls.com