Opening up the Conversation...

   Images have the power to open up a conversation with your soul.  They trigger thoughts, memories, and tickle the hidden parts of ourselves in sometimes unexpected ways.

   I had my first SoulCollage® workshop recently and I was so moved by how people responded to the cards they made.  The cards revealed things that were lying just underneath their conscious minds...things that needed to see the light of day.  The image made that possible.

   Having conversations with my images is a crucial part of my practice of contemplative photography.  Welcoming the landscape into the dialogue, letting it actually start the conversation that my camera will follow up on, is also essential for me.

   Meditating on a simple image of rain drops and delicate vines is a soothing way to settle into this kind of deep reflection that follows the image gathering.  I am always amazed, like the people at the SoulCollage® workshop, at where these conversations lead.  Sometimes they take on a life of their own!  Whatever needs to be said out loud will be said if we allow the image to speak to us rather than impose our ego on the image.  Visual listening can take place in the landscape or within the image itself.

You can read the third installment of my Threshold Pilgrimage on A Sacred Journey here. ( And you can see one of the SoulCollage® cards I brought along on the trip!)