Counting Heart-Throbs

By this time of the year I get very introspective and reflect on my life over the previous 12 months. Like Socrates allegedly said: "the unexamined life is not worth living". So I think about my accomplishments and my failures, about the things that I should keep on doing and the things that I should correct; about the lessons learnt and how to live by them; I think about those whom I have loved so that I can love them more, about those whom I have hurt so that I can ask for their forgiveness, about those who have hurt me so that I can forgive them...

I also think about the people whose lives I have touched with my photography, not only those who have worked or collaborated with me, but also those who have been in front of my camera posing for me. The satisfaction that they get when they see their image on the screen is worth more to me than all the money in the world and I have to say that these last 3 years I have been be able to make a lot of people happy. And that makes me happy.  And I know that to be able to say that one is happy despite all the events that took place in 2016 makes me a very lucky bastard.

Some time ago I read a fragment of a poem called “Festus” by Philip James Bailey:

"We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not breaths;
In feelings, not in figures on a dial.
We should count time by heart-throbs. He most lives
Who thinks most—feels the noblest—acts the best.
"

I like to think that I live my life by how much I make other people's hearts throb.

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