Somewhere, deep in my heart, the love remains

I just couldn't pass up the photocontest with the theme “Flowers”. Not even after my photography has basically come to a standstill due to circumstances. Somewhere, deep in my heart, the love remains, and the hope remains that I will soon be able to breathe new life into my passion. But for the time being there is still little inspiration and motivation. Circumstances have not changed, rather they have been made worse by the continued rising prices.

If you then know that my inspiration mainly arises when I could finally go away for a day after 8 years. Get into a different environment. I have been living for 8 years now in a situation where I go to the village at most once a week to do some shopping. I get nowhere else. We don't go out for a day, we don't go on holiday and just driving somewhere is not an option.

The finances just won't allow it. Not fun, but reality. And if you've seen the same thing every day for 8 years, with at most the change of the seasons, then the desire to photograph that environment has disappeared. It is what it is.

At the moment, with the rising prices, which means that 1 liter of petrol now costs around 2.50 euros here, it is even questionable whether we will even drive the car. I don't have to be secretive about it, 2.50 euros per liter is expensive! Rudely expensive! And it's not just the petrol that is so rudely expensive here, the gas and electricity prices are also soaring. In addition, you see prices rising in the stores.

Any increase anywhere is passed on indiscriminately to the customer here. So that the consumer is ultimately paying for all those price increases at the end of the chain. Suppliers have to buy their gas more expensively, so energy companies buy their gas for a more expensive price. And in the end, the consumer ultimately pays the price because the supplier wants to keep his profit stable, but the energy company wants the same. Let the consumer pay for it! Producers have to buy their raw materials more expensively, retailers have to buy their products more expensively. And of course both the producer and the retailer want to keep their profit stable, so here too, the consumer can pay the bill at the bottom. And that while salaries are not rising.

We barely managed to make ends meet

For us, we didn't already have the highest income, we just managed to make it, but with all these extreme increases as a result of the war in Ukraine, that balance threatens to tip the other way. That we can't make it anymore.

The government in the Netherlands is very busy throwing millions into aid to Ukraine, and believe me, it is necessary. And I understand! But what I don't understand is that they leave their own citizens out in the cold. And for many, that's literally out in the cold. I hear stories around me of people who could no longer pay their bills, and who are therefore cut off from gas and electricity. I hear people who don't dare to turn on their heating for fear of the bill, and I know that we are again concerned about whether we can drive any longer. And that after we were so happy to finally have climbed up enough to drive a car after 5 car-free years.

This war is causing a chain reaction

The reality is that the situation in Ukraine is very acute, but it is causing a chain reaction. The sanctions imposed on Russia are pushing the Netherlands back into a recession that we had only just climbed out of. Poverty in the Netherlands is rising much faster than people see.

The whole situation is causing problems worldwide, and for what? I will not venture into political statements. And I am against war for whatever reason. In a war no one can win, there are only losers in the end… even in areas where there is no fighting.

And that's why I have a picture of a red rose today. With drops that you can see as tears.

Love is the message

Red roses stand for love and respect. And today my tears fall for all the victims of this war in Ukraine, I give my love and respect for everyone who in any way has to deal with it and has to bear the consequences. For the people who fight for their country, for their freedom. For all people who have had to leave their whole lives behind, for people who are drawn into it when they want nothing to do with it, but also for all people in other countries who can no longer bear the financial consequences.

My tears fall for the loss of love and respect in general.