The urge to reach your full potential

"The will to win,
the desire to succeed,
the urge to reach your full potential...
These are the keys that will unlock the door to personal excellence."

Confucio

Prove

"Tutte le volte che mi mostrai pronta ad accettarle,
le prove si cambiarono in bellezza."

Etty Hillesum

Sapersi

"Lui conobbe lei e se stesso,
perché in verità non s'era mai saputo.
E lei conobbe lui e se stessa,
perché pur essendosi saputa sempre,
mai s'era potuta riconoscere così."

Italo Calvino

Il successo

"Ridere spesso e di gusto;
ottenere il rispetto di persone intelligenti e l'affetto dei bambini;
prestare l'orecchio alle lodi di critici sinceri
e sopportare i tradimenti di falsi amici;
apprezzare la bellezza;
scorgere negli altri gli aspetti positivi;
lasciare il mondo un pochino migliore,
si tratti di un bambino guarito, di un'aiuola,
o del riscatto da una condizione sociale;
sapere che anche una sola esistenza è stata più lieta per il fatto che tu sei esistito.
Ecco, questo è avere successo."

Crescere

"Anche al fior della vite e forma e color son negati,
ma il suo maturo frutto uomini esalta e dei."
(W. Goethe)

A tree

You asked me
- What's your favourite place 'round here?
I told you
- Come with me.
and took you under a beautiful tree.

You asked me
- What's your favourite day of the year?
I held your hand saying
- All the ones with you and me under this beautiful tree.

You then asked me
- Which is your worst fear?
I answered whispering
- That you'd go away leaving me under a lonely tree.

Foto di Niccolò Patelli

Per la mia libertà

Sono libera di scegliere:

se scegliere liberamente;

o se liberarmi di questa scelta,

continuando a scegliere di non scegliere,

per la mia libertà.

Laura Zalenga Photography http://laurazalenga.de/en

All the lonely people, where do they all come from?

Where am I? Is this a particular place the one I am in or could it be anywhere in the world?

What hurts the most is knowing that this is just a tiny spot in a big planet where I have no one.
No one to think at when I won't be here, as if I'd never been here, as if I'd never walked this grass, as if I'd made no changes here.

Does anyone notice me? Does anyone notice my absence?

What is a place if you have no one there? Is it a picture you're gonna show to your children many years later, thinking how cool it was being there? Is it a postcard you send to a real place where someone can truly recognise you? Is it a road? May it be a laughter or the look in someone else's eyes?

We just need someone that can describe us, perhaps with a name, perhaps with a poetry in a foreign language, perhaps with a flower, sometimes with a hug.

"All the lonely people, where do they all come from?"
I think they don't come from anywhere, since they don't live in nobody's memory.
A place is only a way to make memory real.

Laura Zalenga Photography http://laurazalenga.de/en/

[Some Sara's sad night thoughts, 29/07/14]