Jane Wilson-Howarth Quotes & Sayings

When the press and problems of humanity become too much, I love to escape into books, where people are served up in digestible portions and can be pushed to one side when one is satiated. — Jane Wilson-Howarth

Travel experiences are emotionally loaded. Often there is excitement and stimulation. The tingle-factor though comes partly from the fact that we're stressed, just a little. — Jane Wilson-Howarth

Blood-coloured bottlebrush trees and scarlet hibiscus looked too bright for this devastated world. — Jane Wilson-Howarth

I wished I could paint this ineffable beauty but I had never been artistic. I hadn't even packed a camera, and my phone was out of charge. It didn't matter. I just breathed in the feeling, savouring it. Suddenly I knew that I'd enjoy many more moving moments and visions of beauty, and that they'd sustain me for the rest of my life. — Jane Wilson-Howarth

Major Chhetri's pronouncement when we'd first arrived in Nepal came echoing back: Things that start in the rain end well. — Jane Wilson-Howarth

No-one would want to go through a traumatic experience but when you've survived something life-shattering and risen above it, you achieve a kind of serenity. — Jane Wilson-Howarth

How could Britain operate in India for 300 years and take so little back from it in terms of understanding? — Jane Wilson-Howarth

A dementia sufferer effuses delight and notices very different things when taken out in her wheelchair. Such people can teach us to see again the little things that make a big difference. They can show us how to enjoy familiar environments with fresh new eyes. — Jane Wilson-Howarth

We found a smooth inviting boulder under a vast banyan tree, and sat in companionable silence. There unexpectedly, on that rock, I saw the secret of contentment. True happiness is only ever possible if you have been unhappy. And there, at that moment, I couldn't remember the last time I had felt so peaceful. It wouldn't have been possible for me to take in any more happiness.
Moti turned to me and smiled as if she knew. I realised then that this moment and this wonderful feeling would sustain me for a long, long time. — Jane Wilson-Howarth

We'd incorporated Asia into our bones - its colours and laughter, its smells, its rhythms, its tolerance and patience, its compassion, its lack of ageism. — Jane Wilson-Howarth

I was wrenched awake at the tail-end of a stifled scream. I fought my way up from a deep dark dream. The scream had been mine. — Jane Wilson-Howarth

GPs are almost the only doctors these days who understand all problems, can see the whole person ... spend time with the dying ... see things through to the end. — Jane Wilson-Howarth

I like the way Nepalis point by pouting their lips; they reckon pointing with a finger is rude. — Jane Wilson-Howarth

The Chinese say that there is no scenery in your home town. They're right. Being in another place heightens the senses, allows you to see more, enjoy more, take delight in small things; it makes life richer. You feel more alive, less cocooned. — Jane Wilson-Howarth

A Glimpse of Eternal Snows celebrates Nepali wildlife: a smooth grey boulder lifts its head to become a rhinoceros; a langur look-out hysterically grunts the alarm from the treetop as a tiger merges into the dappled scrub; and a menacing mantis makes her home in the makeshift bathroom and refuses to become a pet. — Jane Wilson-Howarth

A small, light object landed on my head. I looked around. Another small something hit me. I looked up. After a third thing hit me, I untangled a couple of deer droppings from my hair. It was spotted deer poop. I must be one of the only kids on the planet to recognise the sultana-like pellets of hares and deer and the boulders left by elephant and rhino. I heard a cackle behind me and turned to receive a handful of deer pellets full in the face. — Jane Wilson-Howarth

Wherever there was a scrap of soil amongst the ravaged crags, emaciated trees struggled to cling on: a poignant metaphor for the way so many Nepalis eke out an existence, defiantly surviving on less than nothing. — Jane Wilson-Howarth

Getting angry and harbouring bitterness doesn't help anybody, least of all the angry bitter person. — Jane Wilson-Howarth

Morning mists skulked over the river. — Jane Wilson-Howarth

I reckon that blaming people fixes nothing. You're the only person who is going to sort you out. No-one else really can - or really cares, enough. That's what Nepalis know - better than anyone. That's our Western disease. Don't take responsibility. Take on a lawyer! — Jane Wilson-Howarth

Buddhist mantras are deliberately deep yet superficially meaningless - to take your mind off things — Jane Wilson-Howarth

Living in the edge - that's what I feel like when I don't know what my bowels are going to do next. — Jane Wilson-Howarth

Three mongooses, playing chase, burst out of the undergrowth and came galumphing across the track. The leader stopped and the other two bounced on him. There was a crazy bundle of squealing fur, ears, noses and tails. The mongooses broke apart. All three stood up on hind legs to look at us. — Jane Wilson-Howarth

To some, having children may seem as conducive to travelling as having your feet set in concrete. — Jane Wilson-Howarth

In Nepal, the quality of conversation is much more important than accuracy of the content. Maybe we get overexcited about information in England? — Jane Wilson-Howarth

A smile costs less than electricity, but gives more light than it! — Jane Wilson-Howarth

[the doctor] clicked by mistake on the notes of a patient she'd got to know well - too well. The unfortunate Mrs. Swayne had become unhealthily doctor-dependent. But had she grasped the nettle? Had she actually finally and against all predictions left the country? — Jane Wilson-Howarth

Sunlight streamed through grumbling storm clouds that played like tiger kittens around the mountain ridges. — Jane Wilson-Howarth

A Nepali outlook, pace and philosophy had prevented us being swamped by our problems. In Nepal it was easier to take life day by day. — Jane Wilson-Howarth

The few certainties in our existences are pain, death and bereavement. — Jane Wilson-Howarth

The river is such a tranquil place, a place to sit and think of romance and the beauty of nature, to enjoy the elegance of swans and the chance of a glimpse of a kingfisher. — Jane Wilson-Howarth

the Lord Ratnasambhava keeps all his treasure inside mongooses. When the god needs his gems and jewels, he squeezes one mongoose and makes it vomit them up! — Jane Wilson-Howarth

I think of the irony that in our language [Nepali] the word for love can also mean deceit. — Jane Wilson-Howarth

Travel is a joy, full of surprises and astonishing new experiences. Perhaps some of the most enjoyable times are those where one comes close to disaster; the risks add spice. — Jane Wilson-Howarth

... everything was fresh, green and particularly beautiful. Afternoon light, filtering between remnants of monsoon clouds, picked out gullies and spot-lit patches of forest and scrub on the convoluted ridges of the rim of the Kathmandu Valley. Or, after a rainstorm, wisps of clouds clung to the trees as if scared to let go. Behind, himals peeked out shyly between the clouds. — Jane Wilson-Howarth

The mountains were so wild and so stark and so very beautiful that I wanted to cry. I breathed in another wonderful moment to keep safe in my heart. — Jane Wilson-Howarth

Travel is a joy, full of surprises. Perhaps some of the most enjoyable times are those where one comes close to disaster: the risks add spice, and make for great stories when you are safely back home again. — Jane Wilson-Howarth