“When my photography is at it’s best, it takes me to a place of reverence. To that sense of eternity, to the place where the lines between me and the rest of the world, are not so rigid, where old boundaries and definitions begin to dissolve. That’s where I want to live, – both with my cameras and without them. To be there as the watcher, the appreciator, the celebrator, and eventually just the lover of the incredible beauty that I see on this earth. (iPhone photo) “Celebrate What’s Right with the World!“ ~Dewitt Jones, Photojournalist
Dear Richard,
I start with this quote from Dewitt Jones and his almost ethereal picture taken on Molokai, HI. This is the time of year when I stop to be more than my usual everyday grateful and take on a reflective look at life.
There is something about the shorter daylight that invites me to slow down and notice Now. Taking time to appreciate, watch and celebrate what is around me every single moment possible enriches my life, breath, relationships and results in a willingness to let go of preconceived notions and simply be, like Dewitt says, the lover.
I find the holidays challenging at times to just be this lover. Although meant to
be celebratory this is naturally the time of entering a cycle of “hibernation” when our bodies innate rhythms actually want to slow us down, rest deeply, read by the fire, and go on an inward journey. We are instead called out to shop, eat, drink and be merry.
As we enter the turning of the seasons this coming week on Winter Solstice I am asking the question – what truly has meaning in the small moments that make up the whole of our lives? The answers gestate in the darkness and in an instant of time can emerge into consciousness as if they have always been there.
Instead of wondering how to attain or attract certain things in our life that mind says we must have to be happy, what if we stated – If I am whole, peaceful, and happy now then I will attract__________ .
It is from that place of wholeness as the observer and appreciator of life that everything arises from, not the other way around. If I am in the guilt of the past or the fear of the future, then I am not present to celebrate this moment.
To notice the spider web sparkling in the sun, the smile of the man on the street holding his sign when I engage with him, the beauty of a tree blazing with color in December, the voice of my granddaughter on the phone, the feel of moving freely on the dance floor with others celebrating body and breath, laughing so hard that tears stream down my face…the opportunity to love another and to be the beloved.
Expanding further what if, like David Wilcox says in the video Occupy Yourself, the entire galaxy itself is an intelligent being. Could our mind be simply a cell within the mind of the galaxy?
If this is so, then every thought we have has the potential to change and shift the entire Universe. The ultimate dissolving of boundaries and boxed in definitions of what life is all about.
Occupying the pause between the next inhale and exhale has the potential for brilliant awakening. Will the pause be long enough to simply BE the lover of the moment?
This holiday season I am choosing to occupy myself just as I am so that others can be free to do the same. Reverence for the life I have been given. How about you?
With Love – Wishing All A Blessed Solstice and Holiday Season,
Gaye
WEBSITE: www.ResonanceWithLife.com
OTHER BLOGS BY GAYE ABBOTT:
