It was good to spend some time at Boudhanath today. I took the image with a wide angle lens (10mm) so it doesn't give the grand scale of the stupa but it does show some of the busy reconstruction after the earthquakes. I've had to be in the area several times in the last few months, it's been fascinating to see this important Buddhist site come back to life, a lot of that due to great effort by the community.
We were having a good meeting, enjoying the feeling of being there, when the news of today's suicide bombing in Baghdad came through. It wasn't congruent with our surroundings. I sit here writing while thinking about the madness we are bringing on ourselves, our treatment of each other and of wildlife, animals. The dishonesty, violence and manipulations leading to such divisive thinking in elections, in every day life. As a conservationist I pray for unity, it's the only answer, as a realist all I see is individuals looking out for themselves. I thank the good people in my life who know there is a better way. We have to keep fighting for that ideal... and places of peace, whether it be in the mountains, in the forest, or next to a stupa...
