The Eye and the Heart of the Beholder

 

Beauty

 

 

 

This first photograph below is accompanied by the photographer's haiku, both of which I love! The picture speaks to me of the splendor of so many of our winter days, illuminated by that magical light cast by the southern arc of the sun.. Some of our most brilliant sunrises and fieriest sunsets occur in the wintertime. In late afternoon, the exposed white skin of the sycamore trees and cottonwoods glows against the backdrop of a sapphire sky.  On clear nights, the stars are worth the show for those willing to brave the cold night air to gaze upon them.  I find the composition and colors of this photo quite striking.

 

 

                       

photo and haiku by Glenn Gunnels 2015

Evening Haiku



                                                      Will you walk with me

                                                      if I speak in whispered breaths

                                                      as warm as summer? 

                                                                                                       

 

The next photo is one that I took several days ago. It's a color shot, but looks almost black and white.  That's good, because I wanted to capture how color seems to drain away at  sunset in the winter when the entire sky is thick with clouds.  

 

 

 

                    

photo and poem by Bonnie Hamilton Beuning 2015 

 

The February trees are bare, offering no resistance to the chill wind.

No winter flowers grace this portion of the gardeners' "zone 6."
I'd hoped for the consolation of a starry, black sky tonight,
but no, all is grim and gray and cold.
I'm sure a television meteorologist is apologizing on the air, 
pretending to have created the weather without God. BB

 

 

I recognize the contrast between Glenn's engaging and lovely photo, and then mine, which at first glance (and maybe 2nd and 3rd as well!) seems to be more about the absence of beauty. But, I'm beginning to believe beauty dwells within every natural thing, sometimes all but hidden, yet still present in its design or movement, light, or shadow.

 

Undeniably, there are special places that stir us, comfort us, fill us with peace, and cause us to call them sacred. I wonder if the tangled and dark woods to which we're not drawn, could sometimes offer a holy refuge that our broken selves would connect with, possibly heal in...a wilderness overlooked due to our love of stars and grandeur.                                                     

 

Terry Hershey had this quote in his "Sabbath Moments" this week, and I liked it: 

        

 "Each of us possesses five fundamental, enthralling maps to the natural world:  sight, touch, taste, hearing, smell.  As we unravel the threads that bind us to nature, as denizens of data and artifice, amid crowds and clutter, we become miserly with these loyal and exquisite guides, we numb our sensory intelligence.  This failure of attention will make orphans of us all."     -- Ellen Meloy



 

[Thanks to Glenn Gunnels for permission to use his photo...I knew I wanted to post it, but had no idea what the blog would be about when I asked]