What remains when time passes

I sit before a blank page and surrender to the silence in which a conversation with myself begins to unfold. My feelings give rise to words, which I gradually shape into thoughts and writing. When I become absorbed in writing, I leave the noise of everyday life behind and surrender to the current flowing through me, carrying me to a place where I can listen freely to myself and simply be. Alone with myself!

For me, solitude is not a withdrawal from people or the world, but a state of freedom in which I can breathe easily at my own pace and listen to my inner knowing. In this silence, I can more readily hear the quiet echo of what speaks to me through everyday things that seem ordinary and self evident, yet hold far more than meets the eye. Now, as the days grow shorter, nature takes on warm hues, the light softens and the air turns cooler, I too surrender to its quieter, more peaceful rhythm. When I am not writing, I immerse myself in reading or capture ideas and images on paper that may one day grow into new works of art. Sometimes a new thought emerges from a small sketch; at other times, an idea comes to me through something I have read or in a fleeting moment of silence.

I also spend part of my day in nature, beside my tree or by the river, where I feel a special closeness to myself. Being near the water deeply calms me and heightens my senses. As I observe the playful shades of nature and admire the beauty of creation, I allow myself simply to be, to surrender to the moment and quietly receive all that reveals itself to me. I am especially drawn to the light dancing across the surface of the river, its ever changing play in which transience and beauty meet for a brief moment. Most of all, I surrender to the light spreading across the water just after sunrise, when the city is only beginning to awaken and, in solitude, I find myself beating in rhythm with it. In those moments, I am filled with indescribable joy, a quiet sense of connection with the life unfolding all around me and within me.

I observe, I feel, and I simply am!

The purpose I express through my artistic practice is not separate from everyday life; it grows out of it. It grows from everything I experience, observe and love. It intertwines with my inner world and continually changes and develops through different forms of expression. Writing has become one of the ways in which I reveal these many layers of my existence and experience. Through poetry and stories, I give voice to feelings, thoughts and insights. In my poems, I capture something fleeting, something barely perceptible that might otherwise be lost amid the countless moments of everyday life. Writing stories, in turn, opens up a space in which I can follow images and questions that are still searching for answers within me.

Some of my writings are meant only for me, as I feel no need for everything I write to see the light of day. Some words need only a space in which to be written and the freedom to remain my own. I write primarily out of an inner need to understand my own experience, rather than to arrive at definitive answers. I feel much closer to the process of contemplation itself, in which I can leave my thoughts and feelings open and allow them to lead me into the unknown.

Although I have shared some of my writing with others, most of my poetry and stories remain unpublished for now. I write primarily for myself, driven by an inner need to understand who I am. Some pieces are too personal, while others are still maturing, waiting for the day when I can see them through different eyes and discover new meanings within them. Until then, I allow them to remain where they first came into being, within me.

Through writing, I give words to my thoughts and feelings, while through line and colour I seek to express what words cannot fully contain. In words and images, fragments of experience, insights and inner transformations are preserved, things that might otherwise gradually fade into oblivion. Over time, our view of the past changes, too. What once meant one thing to us may later reveal a different meaning, while something that seemed fleeting can leave a profound mark within us. For me, then, it is not simply about preserving the image of a moment, but about capturing something invisible that it awakened within me, something that remains with me long after the moment itself has passed.

And what, in truth, remains when time passes?

Perhaps it is not so much the image of a moment as it once was, but everything it stirred, opened or quietly changed within us. Something survives in words, something in images, something in the memory of light, a scent or a feeling that we can no longer fully recall, yet still carry within us. What remains most deeply is that which quietly weaves itself into our inner world and, over time, becomes part of who we are.

Time carries images away and blurs the outlines of the past, yet it cannot erase everything that has touched our essence. Life leaves traces within us that we may not always fully understand, yet they quietly accompany us, shape us and guide us as we move forward.

Perhaps it is in these invisible traces that we find what truly remains when time passes.

With Love, Ines