Two Of My Favorite Things In Life

Best Friend + Nature = Happiness

My best friend and I decided to go for a little hike on the cape the other day. He was always the ‘butch’ one of the two of us, but it was hilarious watching him ‘in the wild’ – he had shades on, an expensive polo shirt, a white pants which he was afraid to get dirty and was holding an umbrella for no apparent reason. If those weren’t enough, he was constantly grumbling and had to stop at every step he took fearing something might perhaps jump out from behind trees and ambush us.

It felt so easy to do a half hour hike after conquering a five hour when I was backpacking last week. But nonetheless, it reminded me of how at home I feel when I’m with nature and the place was just breathtaking. The both of us enjoyed ourselves.
We were the only ones there so it was great to have the beach all to ourselves and just catch up on each others lives.

Have a great weekend,
Ralph.

Back From Soul Searching..

It’s amazing how much 6 days can change the way your perceive life. That’s how long I’ve been gone for and I’ve learned so much more than I could ever imagine. I’m glad to say that setting off on my own for six days have been one of the best decisions I’ve made in my life.

The one thing that I’ve been doing most on this trip was hiking in the rainforest. It was, I felt, the only way I could be closest to nature. Just the feeling of being in the forest and being apart of it was the most peaceful feeling I’ve ever felt.
One of the many things that made this getaway so special was the incredible people I’ve met along the way. In the process of getting to know them, they have taught me to understand so much about myself and the people around me. I’m so grateful that there are always people like this in my life that keeps me going and inspires me to become better.
One of the highlights of this trip was hiking (in flip flops) with a friend whom I’ve just met that particular morning. In that four to five hours hike, we had the extremely rare opportunity of crossing paths with a pair of Hornbills. It may not sound like very much here, but the very presence of the two amazing creatures so close to us was absolutely mind blowing.

I wish I had more pictures to show you, but my memory card ran out of space halfway.. I had to transfer most of my photos to one of my dorm mate’s laptop and ask him to upload them for me when he can. In the meantime, I’m cutting little nature videos I’ve made on the trip to be submitted to Love The Earth Film which I’m very excited about (I urge you to be a part of this as well if you have any nature footage).

There’s something very metaphorical about having all your belongings on your back and just going wherever you want with it. One of the things I’ve learnt while backpacking is if you know that you really want to do something, don’t put too much thought into it. Just follow your heart and everything else will start to unfold.
Even though it may look like you’re heading to a place alone, there’s always going to be someone where you’re heading who is escaping from reality as well.
Those six days have been the best days of my life. It ended with much waterworks as I was so reluctant to come back into reality, but I do know that this is just the beginning of everything.
I definitely want more of these moments in my life.

Gone Backpackin’

(This may sound awfully lot like a movie, but) When everything in life seems to be beyond your control, you know it is time for you to hit the road – or at least according to my philosophy it is..

I’m posting on a Thursday because tomorrow, me, ‘little owl’ (my camera), and my backpack are gonna go on a “go where your heart (or bus) takes you” trip.  I hope to

1. Find inspiration for my choreography
2. Be very close to nature
3. Work on a little video project (which I will tell you about)
4. Jump-start my lifelong ambition of becoming a backpacker

Basically, I’m just so tired of the many things in life that happen at once and the feeling of not being able to control where your life is heading. Although I know that reality is gonna kick me in the butt again when I get back, this is something that I feel like I need to do.

I promise to post pictures and videos (if and when I figure out how to on WordPress) when I get back.
I hope you readers have the weekend that you need as well..

Backpacking Plans and Birdlike Plants

Haven’t been able to do much writing lately because I’m in the middle of a (pre)test week. The real one isn’t even here yet and I’m already feeling the senioritis.
Anyway, after this whole thing is done, I’m planning on backpacking with a friend for a few days while working on a project which I’m extremely excited about – and which I will post when/if it’s done. Hopefully it all works out!

A nice lady gave these plants to me about a year ago, but I haven’t the slightest idea of what they’re called. I find them wonderful though, for they look like little pink birds, don’t they?This one especially looks like a couple of love birds ; )

Thanks for stopping by. Have an enjoyable weekend..

Take Your Bite For Life Is Juicy

It’s Friday again! Hope you had a lovely week..

Take your bite (or in this case the birds will; )

Of Labeling and Discovering

This is my third blog post and I’m loving every bit of blogging so far; I find myself awaiting anxiously for Friday to arrive just so I could post pictures and a piece of my mind on here.

The main reason I started blogging was to discover more about myself and learn about other people, so in a way blogging is my way of discovering.
But sometimes, the more I discover about myself, the more confused I am.

I am completely certain that what I want to do in life is creating dance pieces. But as I go further down the road, I find that I’m also in love with photography, writing and making pretty stuff that are and aren’t wearable as well.

So which am I now, a dancer/choreographer, photographer, writer or an accessory designer? Or am I all of that?
That moment, I felt like as if I was being unfaithful to my primary passion – which is choreographing.

But the more I think about it, the more I realize how all forms of art are closely linked together; and by classifying them, we are in a way mentally separating them, boxing them up, dark taping them and attaching a label onto them.
In that case, I refuse to be labeled.

The world itself is a magical wonder and words are formed to help us understand it better. But the magic is lost if we perceive the world only by its given label – which is merely a word.
I think, if we start seeing things beyond it’s label, we might actually find the childlike fascination we once had when we first started discovering things for the first time.

I might have spent more than I should have on these beautiful strings, but I can’t wait to see what I can do with them!

I was told to take a picture in the golden evening light – the background was originally white.

I have no idea what these are, I found them on the beach attached to one another. They couldn’t possibly be a shell; maybe they’re fins of a flying fish.

I couldn’t get the same light as the second picture today, so I used a table lamp instead =)

I do apologize if you think that the pictures have nothing to do with what I wrote on top, I actually wasn’t planning on writing anything at all today but I got inspired.
Thank you for reading, will update again next Friday.

Everytime It Rains…

Hello dear readers, welcome to blog post number 2 (smiles). Been looking forward to this all week.

It started to rain lightly when I was doing a little dance improvisation in my backyard – light rain pelted on my skin; wetting the grass beneath my bare feet (which made holes in the ground as I turned on my toes). It was magical.

The world comes alive when it rains. You can feel the air as it changes, hear the rainfall everywhere, watch the water drips from wet leaves; making ripples on puddles.

Sometimes, I’d like to think that rain washes all negativity away.

When it starts to rain as you’re walking and everybody else starts to break into a run, take a deep breath and feel it on your skin. It’s the little things that matter in life.

‘Every time it rains, I listen to the sky I wonder what’s so great about sunshine.’
-Charlotte Martin- Every time it rains.

PS – What do you do when it rains? Would love to hear from you.

The Beginning/Introduction

I’ve dreamt of having a blog for almost about a year now. The idea came to me when I first saw Hannah’s blog Honey and Jam while looking up cook books for my best friend and completely fell in love with her style of writing and photography.
My wish came true a while ago when I bought home a DSLR (which I affectionately named ‘Little Owl’ =). The shots above were the first pictures I’ve taken with Little Owl.

At first, I had doubts on starting my own blog; the questions in my head that bothered me were ‘What if I run out of things to post?’ ‘What if no one reads my blog?’  I do this mainly for myself, at the same time I would love people to read what I write as well.
I may not post as often, I may not have a lot to write on sometimes, but do know that this blog means a lot to me and I’ll always be thinking about it. Starting this blog was a huge step for me!
I’ve wanted to write a blog because I love the idea of different people around the world finding Vacant Bench and allowing me to share with (you) whatever I feel is worth sharing and hopefully touching some of your lives in any way possible like how the blogs I’ve followed touched mine. I hope you are willing to join me on this journey; I’ll post on every Friday =)
Thank you for reading,

Ralph Lam.

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