Monday, February 21, 2011

Better Later Than Never

It was a friend's comment on Face-
book that had me open to the photograph to begin with.

"Wow! GREAT shot!" she had written under the very spectacular scene, and I completely agreed. But I didn't know why she was complimenting me, and I felt a bit envious of the fortunate person who did get to take the shot. Given the image was so magical, bordering on the improbable, I half wondered if it had been Photoshopped, collaged from several images. Alongside of all that, I was puzzling over how her comment had reached me. I just couldn't figure it out...and then I saw it.

"So amazing," I wrote back to her. "I didn't recognize it at first ... I saw a "fairy land," as if I were looking into another dimension. It was an odd feeling of disconnect ("She's commenting on a picture of mine, but it's not mine, whose is it...?" etc. etc. ). But then I remembered the place and the moment and it cleared... [T]hanks to you I saw something I've never seen in this photo--something truly extraordinary..."

The photo was indeed mine. It was I who'd stood on this very spot near Connor Pass on the Dingle Peninsula of Ireland two springs ago and took this shot while bracing against a bitter wind. Back in Dublin, on May 6, I posted it as part of a sampling of the hundreds of photos I'd brought back from the trip. On February 6, almost 2 years later, a Facebook comment led me back to it--and gifted me in the process.

Not recognizing the shot as my own--convinced in fact that it wasn't my own--I could see it newly. Then with recognition came realization that it was I who was the fortunate one in that magnificent place. I had been given the gift of a second chance to enter fully all the magic and potential of that original moment. And I took it.

Monday, February 14, 2011

No Ordinary Moments

When I updated the slideshow on this site recently, I found myself taken in by the images. I paused to watch the show for awhile. Before long, something remarkable happened, something that surprised me.

I know all these images intimately. Some have been with me for years now. And, generally speaking, it's usually the newest image or images that are my "darlings." Many of the darlings during their reign as darlings spent some time as my computer desktop background until another darling came along and bumped it. I don't exactly "love 'em and leave 'em." But I do enjoy the refreshment of a new image when it takes that place--proof positive that I've been right all along to avoid a tattoo. There's just no single image that I've wanted to look at for the rest of my life.

Still, as the slideshow images appeared and dissolved before me, I found myself entranced. Life itself opened up before me, a frame at a time. Each pulsed, burst with the light of its subject, and recalled to me what fell beyond it, before and after it. However nondescript one originating moment or another might have been at the time,
they gleamed now. In the light of all that gleaming, I recognized something I had not quite recognized before: photography exalts. By eliminating the Everything, it features--lifts up, showcases--the Something--the subject in the photographer's frame.

Everything was illuminated, not unlike the sacred texts of old. The images had become larger than life, and so did the moments that had borne them. I saw--felt--delicacy, intricacy, majesty. Each came alive for me, and I sat awash with Love. I saw my lived life become precious (again) before me. I "saw the Light," I suppose, and I saw it like never before.

I have a sort-of friend who has made it clear over time that she doesn't consider what I do here "art." There are many who would agree with her, I'm sure. I wonder about it--especially when I am called to exhibit or to speak about what I have created or exhibited. After all, photographic art comes from expensive SLRs that are works of art in their own right, from long hours spent in darkrooms that from time to time birth the unmistakable and irreproducible masterpiece.

Who's to say, really--I cannot. Even "beauty" is in the eye of the beholder. But I believe that seeing is an art--and a gift when shared with the one or the many. It is by seeing and then capturing what is seen that the photographer exalts. Exalted, the image offers seeing to others--invites it. What is visual art if not an invitation to see?

What I saw in this series of images is pure Light. Gifts of the Light, venerable stations of Light worthy of all my Love. And I stand reminded that there really are no ordinary moments.

Tuesday, February 08, 2011

The Stream of Joy

Last Saturday, Victor Venckus returned during his "Expanding Aware-
ness" hour on WZBC radio to Deepak Chopra's The Book of Secrets, which I wrote about here on January 30. Tune in to this "Part 2" archived recording if you would like to enjoy an articulate, loving reminder of how moment by moment, choice by choice we are the creators of our lives--that's good news, remember?--and to hear practical tips for freeing the chooser (us!) to create freely from a context of unlimited possibility.

"Free your mind," says Chopra, "and you will be greeted by a stream of joy...[that] is elemental and unshakable."

If that sounds appealing, have a listen. But as with Part 1 (which will come down on February 12), don't dally getting to it! This recording will disappear from the archive on February 19.*

Once you've entered the archive, scroll down to February 5, 10:00 a.m., then click on LISTEN. Note: the show begins at about minute 3, after a prelude of instrumental music. Note also that this show continues into a portion of the 11:00 hour as well.

Chopra offers wonderful tools to help listeners "align with the forces and principles of the Universe"--or, in other words, to let Love have Its way.

*beyond that time, look for the book or audiobook in your local library or favorite bookstore.

*******************UPDATE 3/14/11**********************
Tune in (as per the above) between now and March 25 (click on March 12, 10:00 show) for the third and final segment of this audiobook, covering:

Secret #12: There is No Time But Now
Secret #13: You Are Truly Free When You Are Not A Person
Secret #14: The Meaning of Life is Everything
Secret #15: Everything is Pure Essence

Tuesday, February 01, 2011

Bonnes Nouvelles!

I have some lovely news! For this month and next, as part of "The LOVE Exhibit" (of all things, wink), Letter from Paris will hang in a group exhibition for all the world to see. I hope some of you local friends of the Freeway will come celebrate and share the Love with us at the February 17 Reception, or visit the exhibition at another time that's convenient for you. And I hope the rest of you will share the Love in spirit, wherever you are.

The Press Release, with all the deets, follows.

For Immediate Release

January 30, 2011

Contact: Janice Williams - Roslindale Arts Alliance - 617-710-3811

3rd Annual LOVE Exhibit

Boston, MA......The Roslindale Arts Alliance announces the 3rd Annual LOVE Exhibit. The LOVE Exhibit will display during the months of February and March, 2011 at Bangkok Cafe, 25 Poplar Street, Roslindale. This exhibit was created to celebrate Bangkok Chef/Owner Raungdet Titisuttikul's ("Danny") birthday on Valentines Day February 14. Bangkok Cafe has been a strong supporter of local art for many years.

Boston area (Roslindale, Hyde Park, Jamaica Plain and West Roxbury) artists selected used various mediums to express the theme of love. Participating artists are: Kasey Davis Appleman: Mixed Media; Gert Condon: Photography: Kathryn Deputat: Photography; Amy Joyce: Silkscreen Print; Bill Mahan: Acrylic; Jeff Margulies: Stained Glass; Chris Roberts: Pastel; Alicia Shems: Fiber and Beads; Glenn Williams: Acrylic and Janice Williams: Digital Design.

There will be a reception with the artists on Thursday February 17 from 6-8 p.m. Free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be served courtesy of Bangkok Cafe. For more information visit http://www.roslindalearts.org