Maybe the Nuts and Bolts of Love

I've been photographing my father's garden this summer. He's been gone a year, but his energies can still be felt in the work he did here. I never intended to do this project, but here I am doing what is in front of me to do.

I've been working on other things. One of the last conversations I had with Dad. He told me that one of his friends who was dying told him love was all there really was.

I've been thinking a lot about the nature of the human being. I know that as a human we tend towards things that leads us to death. I am well aware of my own tendencies. I fear that once we as a culture lose the idea that we are all created in the image and likeness, or are children of God, we might tend towards enslaving others at a break-neck speed. Once we forget that the one next to us is like a mini visitation of the divine in our lives, we tend to treat him as our slave, and we as the king. This is just not logical. We are of the same stuff, you and I. We are all brothers and sister to each other, no matter what our genetic backgrounds. The truth is there is but one race, the human race. The fact of the matter is that we should treat our neighbor as the king, divine person, and we as the slave or servant. I think this might just keep us honest, and away from those things which leads to death. This might just be the nuts and bolts of what it means to love.

Nature and Things

I've been thinking about this image all day. It's a sensual image. I just think it's beautiful. I have always thought how interesting it is when we can see our human selves in other forms of nature or the other way around. Curious how we are all connected to the same creation, and how we reflect it in different ways. We, in our natural state, are so much a part of the cycle of this creation. I think often we kick against it and desire to be what we are not, or who we are not and in this way damage those around us.

Love

We are here to love the one we are with at all times. That is all. We are here to love the one who is given to us as a gift in the moment. I am not talking about anything sexual. I am talking about what it means to be fully human. We are here to love. Love means taking care of those who can't take care of themselves. It means cleaning up a mess with someone when you had nothing to do with the mess. Love means when someone we know needs us at 3 in the morning we don't ignore the phone call, we go to them, and comfort them. Love means setting the table for one or two more on a day which has been set aside for family. It means opening your home to a child in need. It means visiting someone who no one wants to see. In a nutshell, love means giving the other what they need in the moment they need it especially when we just don't want to. We do it because they need something, and we can give it. Love is the most powerful thing we can do at any one moment. Love can save a life and change the world in a moment. We are created to love. We are created to do big things. Love of other and all is the most powerful thing we all can do right now.

I love this tree. It looks like it is dancing. It looks like it has played with the sun and has grown accordingly. This tree has grown naturally and in great beauty as it was created to grow and that is why I love this tree. I love trees because of the individual growth patterns of each tree. They are not symmetrical in any sense in that is the power of their beauty. I think we are like trees in that when we grow according to how we were created to grow and when we grow naturally, and in truth, we are the most beautiful and perfect.

Transition, birthing. How does one bring a new "thing" into reality? Dose the effort exerted have anything to do with that which is becoming? Do we remember the things more and clearer that took great effort or pain? I think the thing that takes effort or sometimes just pain, lives on in our being long after the event. These things take on significance in our lives. I am not saying that these things are arbitrary or random. Mostly, I think we create and or draw things into our lives. I personally find it hard to imagine my life without these significant events, any of them. I can sometimes feel the changing tide of change that can happen in an instant, but leaves long lasting effects, and often tragic effects, effects that can not be put back to the before event. I think of the image a school child drew of The Towers Falling in NY, and he's looking up at the towers, a plane is flying and the boy is saying, "Stop!". It can't stop. Some events can't stop, and the after effects are lasting change. Now, sometimes these changes are sweet and beautiful. The birth of your own child is like this so much. In the transition from pregnant into birth is often filled with all kinds of events that are not pleasant, but once you hold the new person in your arms it is all worth it, and a new life has entered into your own. In the garden, my father, and grandmother both taught me that sometimes it is better for the plant to not flower because of the energy given in the process can be too much for the plant, and so it is better to remove the bud to allow the plant to grow until it can fully take on that kind of effort to produce a flower, and then maybe a fruit. Maybe sometimes transitions do not happen until we are ready to take on the new life that is to come after the event. Maybe sometimes we can allow them to happen when we are ready, but not always. Last night I was musing on how we have lost our fear, or concern over child birth. Not so long ago, childbirth was a chancy thing. You did not always come out alive. I know I would not be writing this if it were not for modern medicine. I think a lot of us do not even consider these small births that happen all the time in our lives, and I think we have lost the wonder and gift of the other side. New life happens around us everyday. Celebrate the creative power of the changes, the life altering changes that lead to newness of life. The road is not easy that we follow, but often it is interesting.

I don't always start with a photo, but this time I have. I love this photo and the use of light and dark. It is an image of hope to me that in the darkness, there is light.

Last week, I went out with a photographer friend of mine, the same man who did my very beautiful professional shots of my work. We went to the same places and took dramatically different shots. As humans, we go to the same places, go through same events and come out with completely different experiences. I find this fascinating. We are all the same, as we are all human. We are all of the same stuff, but different persons, visions and words. Somehow we can connect to each other. Maybe we do this through our humanity. The mystery of humanity. What makes us a human, and what makes our different views connect with others? All I know is that we are of the same stuff. There is only one race, and that is the human race, but each of us holds a gift to share with others and give light in this darkened world.

Feeling Fine.

For the first time since the last time I blogged, I feel almost perfectly fine. I have been battling a terrible virus, and now think things are back to were I can work like I like to work. Energy is back and my mind feels focused again. I hate being sick. I know that probably I should accept it and take it as a time to reflect and create in other ways, but I always find that I fight against the illness. I hate the weakness that comes with it because I want to do what I want to do when I want to do it. Anyway, I have taken more time to reflect than I normally would. I have stopped because I had to. I wonder what I have learned from this, maybe only time will tell....