A View on a Walk Before Bed
After a day of writing, skiing, and grocery shopping, the sun set at 20:00 ish and though the solar power had held out through the whole day I was ready for fresh air and then to be done for the day, not to run late with generator power.
So out I stepped, took just ten paces west to take in the whole western sky after the sun had slipped from sight.
I looked at the photo thinking that the camera had somehow changed the clouds to be edgy.
Not at all, to my surprise. The clouds were identical in the sky as on the display.
But some of the view simply was not in the photo, so
I set the camera to panorama and turned it to portrait to capture more of the view.
And the results are a file ten times larger, and a photo without the intensity of the first, but with the whole view.
Satisfying to be able to capture the whole great view, but then lacking in the focus and intensity of the experience that is captured more with the first simpler photo.
A small adjustment to the exposure brings the photo closer to the actual view.
Which do you like better?
And which do you prefer for questions of life,
To see the larger view, a bit distant and aloof, an observer detached and able to forge a path towards a goal,
Or
To engage in each moment fully focused on the intensity of it, letting it slip out of its context and allow oneself to move from moment to moment without a compass, a context, a tradition, an ethic that would guide and inform you of what you see?
Or
Do you want both and cannot keep them both in view
OR
Do you have it all in view and cannot sort out the big issues from the intense events
OR
Can you see everything, live each moment to its fullest, and know the greatest peace assured that the big picture is both in view and not your own direct responsibility, only that you see the world
Through eyes of Grace, with Forgiveness your primary mode (for yourself and for others) of responding to great beauty and destructive ugly evil from where/whom-ever, just so that you can still experience the beauty of grace dancing on the light sparkles and shadows of the mundane spectacular!?
Forge a path, it is not foreordained where or how you will step next.
Choose wonder, grace, beauty, truth, and always faith, hope and love.
They say you can’t go wrong …
But you can and you will … so learn to forgive yourself and others freely, so that your next step is graceful.