01 JANUARY, 2024
A New Year
By our current calendar, this is the first - okay, third - day of the new year. I assume we start the year in January because of its proximity to the winter solstice. I don't think the why or when of it really matters. In any case, it gives us a starting point for the year.
Psychologically, it serves as a time to think about what we've done, and what we want to accomplish or change in the coming year. Many people see it as an opportunity for reflection, particulary in terms of self-evaluation. And, based upon that reflection, we often try to reset one or more aspects of our lives.
Resolution
But this post is not about that. I won't ruminate on the past year because, frankly, thinking about it just gives me a panic attack. Sufice it to say that the humans on this planet appear to have taken a sharp turn toward Crazytown. Consequently, I don't feel that any type of personal "reset" would make any sense right now. My goal for the year is to hold on to my sanity if possible. That's it. 'New Year's Resolution' - done. As Forrest Gump said, "That's all I've got to say about that."
The collage at right gives you a glimpse into my headspace over the past year. So, yeah - make of it what you will.
Unto Us a Child is Born, hand cut collage, 15 x 10 inches >>>>
A Different Kind of Reflection
The true purpose of this post is really to share some of my water reflection photos with you. It's a lot more fun than reflecting on the past year, don't you think? Here's what I wrote about it in a post from my old blog in 2009:
I find myself becoming increasingly more fascinated by water, photographing it over and over again. Constantly changing in endless permutations- visually, it never disappoints. It appears to play some age-old game with light, one that only they understand.
It can be a mirror, reflecting the colors and forms around it, while keeping its own secrets hidden beneath. It can stay absolutely still, or become a rushing, raging torrent against which nothing can stand. It can be life-giving relief and sustenance, but just as swiftly take life and wash it away as if were nothing.
Sometimes it can look other-worldly, or psychadelic...
It seems a mystery to me- something that's so common, and so necessary for life, but is really quite unique. We take water for granted, most of us wasting it without much thought.
Yet we can live only a week or so without it; we can go a month or more without food. Our bodies are 60- 70% water. While approximately 75% of the earth's surface is covered with water, 97% of that is salt water, and 2% is frozen in the polar ice caps, which means only about 1% is drinkable.
It's the only substance that occurs naturally in all of matter's three forms: solid, liquid, and gas. Somehow, the scientific facts don't begin to capture the truth of it, or what it means to us as human beings on this planet.
Water Symbolism
A quick list of symbolic meanings for water include (but are not limited to):
* Transformation
* Subconscious * Fertilization * Purification * Reflection * Intuition * Renewal * Blessing * Motion * Life
“Water is life’s matter and matrix, mother and medium. There is no life without water.”
– Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, M.D. Discoverer of Vitamin C
WATER by Wendell Berry
I was born in a drouth year. That summer my mother waited in the house, enclosed in the sun and the dry ceaseless wind, for the men to come back in the evenings, bringing water from a distant spring. veins of leaves ran dry, roots shrank. And all my life I have dreaded the return of that year, sure that it still is somewhere, like a dead enemys soul. Fear of dust in my mouth is always with me, and I am the faithful husband of the rain, I love the water of wells and springs and the taste of roofs in the water of cisterns. I am a dry man whose thirst is praise of clouds, and whose mind is something of a cup. My sweetness is to wake in the night after days of dry heat, hearing the rain.
“Water does not resist. Water flows. When you plunge your hand into it, all you feel is a caress. Water is not a solid wall, it will not stop you. But water always goes where it wants to go, and nothing in the end can stand against it. Water is patient. Dripping water wears away a stone. Remember that, my child. Remember you are half water. If you can't go through an obstacle, go around it. Water does.” ― Margaret Atwood, The Penelopiad
Resolution Number 2
As I work on this post, (despite the problems with my website which have caused it to take forever to finish) I realize that being near water always makes me feel calmer. I also realize that looking at these photos (and taking them, of course), makes me feel happier. And so, at this special marker in time, I'll put forth another possible resolution: Do more of what makes you feel happy.
"Nothing is softer or more flexible than water, yet nothing can resist it." ~ Lao Tzu
"Water is the driving force of all nature." ~ Leonardo da Vinci
“Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world's great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time. On some of the rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs. I am haunted by waters.” ― Norman Maclean, A River Runs Through It and Other Stories
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