All things with which we
deal preach to us.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
I am constantly delighted and amazed by what attracts my attention on my solitary strolls in nature. On a lovely Sunday afternoon at the Fresh Pond reservation, my focus was drawn to the chain link fence that surrounds the pond.
A tiny vine had attached itself to the fence and a few of its leaves had "escaped" their confinement behind the enclosure. The fence was their support, their strength. Without it they couldn't climb to the life giving light but they reached out beyond the safety.
We all need support and structure in our life but we also need the ability to reach beyond it. This little "sermon" was preached to me that Sunday afternoon in the most prosaic of places. But as Emerson says, everything we come in contact with during the course of our day has something to tell us if we would just take the time to listen to it.
Emerson's thought, that all things preach to us, is the very basis of my practice of contemplative photography. I hear the preaching through the metaphors I find. A simple fence can speak volumes. You don't need spectacular or faraway landscapes...the messages are everywhere...even your own backyard.
Emerson's thought, that all things preach to us, is the very basis of my practice of contemplative photography. I hear the preaching through the metaphors I find. A simple fence can speak volumes. You don't need spectacular or faraway landscapes...the messages are everywhere...even your own backyard.
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