Musing on Memories...

   I must admit that this winter has me feeling a bit like Julian of Norwich, the medieval English mystic that was walled up in a tiny cell with only her cat for company and three windows to gaze out of.  But self-enclosure has its benefits.

   I came across a bag of my old marbles one day when I was rummaging through a drawer looking for something else, my "cat's eyes".   (I know, funny isn't it.  We usually say someone has "lost his marbles"!)  I loved to play marbles in the school yard during recess when I was young.  It was more about the beautiful colors and patterns in the marbles then anything else.  I loved rolling them in my hand and watching the light dance through the glass.  Even way back then it was a visual thing for me.

   Now, contemplation is all about being present in the "here and now" so what role does memory play in the contemplative equation?  This winters forced indwelling has allowed me time to puzzle over the question.

   On one level, you might think of all photographs as testimony to memory regardless of what motivated you to make the image in the first place.  We photograph so we can remember.  The luminous light on the snow that morning, the way the sun illuminated a squirrels fur creating a delicate halo,  the almost comical icicle that formed one day...they are all small memories from this winter I thought worth gathering in through my photographs and sharing with you.  The "here and now" is so fleeting.  It quickly becomes the "there and then".  All we have left are the memories...at the end of the day that is truly all we can hang onto.

   Susan Fox, who writes the wonderful blog Finding My Bliss, sent me a link to a wonderful French film about a girl and her camera.  I pass it on to you...

Memoires