Photo Journal/Travel Theme: Couples

It still is a long ways away from Valentine’s Day, but I thought that Ailsa’s Travel Theme this week speaks deeply about our need for belonging and the universal desire to love and be loved: Couples! Here are a few of my favorite couple shots during some of my travels.

Couple in Kuala Lumpur

2614_1111922831170_4802045_n — This couple were our family’s hosts when we stayed in Kuala Lumpur sometime in 2009: Pauline and Olivier who now live in Dubai.

“One’s not half of two; two are halves of one.”
― E.E. Cummings

Couple in Sydney, Australia

36818_1492775552250_3781678_n — This lovely couple (Kay and Pedro) were my hosts while I stayed in Sydney, Australia for two weeks in 2010. These two were my former students in the University and it warms my heart to see their love grow.

“Freedom is not the absence of commitments, but the ability to choose – and commit myself to – what is best for me.”
― Paulo Coelho, The Zahir

Girlfriends: Couple of Goof-offs and Women Warriors

karen — With my soulsister, Karen, in one of her annual visits here in Singapore to visit me. My bestest girl since first grade, that’s longevity!

“It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson, Emerson in His Journals

My Twin Soul

“Baby,” I’ll tell her “remember your mama is a worrier but your papa is a warrior and you are the girl with small hands and big eyes who never stops asking for more.”

Remember that good things come in threes and so do bad things and always apologize when you’ve done something wrong but don’t you ever apologize for the way your eyes refuse to stop shining.

Your voice is small but don’t ever stop singing and when they finally hand you heartbreak, slip hatred and war under your doorstep and hand you hand-outs on street corners of cynicism and defeat, you tell them that they really ought to meet your mother.

– Point B by Sarah Kay