Journey to the past.

“Maybe the journey isn’t so much about becoming anything. Maybe it’s about unbecoming everything that isn’t you, so you can be who you were meant to be in the first place. – Unknown.

I actually thought about this yesterday and chatted to Surika about it, and then I saw this quote this morning. Surely this is a sign?

I took this photo on 23 June 2013. We were visiting my brother in Knysna for my birthday and were driving back to Pretoria. One thing you must know about me:

I LOVE THE KAROO! No place on earth makes me feel like the Karoo. I don’t know why. Maybe it’s the tranquility, the nothingness, the silence, the minimalism.

So, at that stage, I have never slept in the Karoo on a farm. I asked Surika to Google a farm where we can stay for the night. She found the Farm Skietkuil, Anel and Izak van Heerden’s place. It is halfway between Beaufort West and Richmond.

They were on holiday and a neighbor checked us in. Our own Karoo farm for the night.

We walked around as the sun was setting over the Karoo landscape. We braai some lamb chops that we bought at Piet Chops’ butchery in Beaufort West. We sat next to the fire on this cold evening and drank a bottle of Jerepico we bought at a farm stall near Drie Susters.

The dog in the photo’s name is Klara. She followed us everywhere, even slept with us the night. I emailed Anel this photo a few months later and thanked her. She said Klara just had 11 puppies and is enjoying being a mother.

The question is. What was I like 5 years ago when I took this photo, and what have I become? What did life and its problems, successes, highs, and lows add to me as a person?

I got an invitation to a Whatsapp group 3 days ago. It was my 1980 matric group. On there were names that I remember, and names that I forgot. Everyone is so excited to chat with each other after all these years. How did the last 40 years change all of them? Did a success at school equate to a success in life? And vice versa? What is “success’ actually?

Because that is what life does, it changes you, and not always for the better. Everything that happens to you builds something up, and chisels something away.

I thought back to what I was like years ago, and there certainly are a quite a few things I would like to change back to the way I was.

Maybe we must work towards the future, yet always remember where we come from and who and what we really are.

If you want to buy this photo as a print, have a look at our options and prices here .