A Beacon of Light

Hearing dire projections about and now also seeing real impacts of climate change, has sometimes filled me with sadness for my children and grandchildren and all the people of the earth. Living in Minnesota and loving the trees, forests and lakes so well, I wonder what will happen in the next hundred years to this beloved landscape.

While I care deeply about climate change and do what I can in my personal life to follow earth-friendly practices, I am not an activist working to “save the environment.” We all must do what we can to live lives of integrity and service on this earth, but not all of us are called to activism.

My form of activism is to do what I love, getting out in nature with my camera as often as I can to photograph the amazing beauty and ordinary miracles of this world. It is an act of love for the earth, a spiritual practice, and an endlessly fascinating creative journey which fills me with joy.

Nature 365

Jim Brandenburg, one of my favorite Minnesota photographers (author of Chased by the Light and Looking for Light) has also used his camera as a kind of nature diary, going out nearly every day in his beloved northwoods near Ely, Minnesota, and to the prairies near Luverne, Minnesota, where he was born.

“For many years I filmed the forests around my wilderness home in the great northwoods and the wide-open prairies of my childhood. I had no particular project in mind; I simply enjoyed documenting the moods of the day and the coming and goings of the wild creatures that were almost like family to me. It became like a diary and for many years it was rare not to ‘write’ something with my camera nearly every day.” — Jim Brandenburg, Nature 365 Website

In 2015 Brandenburg released a project called Nature 365. All through 2015 Jim Brandenburg has been releasing one short (about 1 minute) video each day of videos he filmed in his “diary.”

The films, made over the course of almost 10 years, document what Brandenburg saw and experienced.  I’ve been following Brandenburg’s project all year and each video is like a small gift, more poetry than prose, with the poems written with photos and music instead of words.

“I have tried to project the miracle as I saw it. A translation of the unknown gift we often don’t understand or even see. I hope the message was received and understood, better yet felt. For that I would be honored; the land and its creatures would be eternally thankful.” — Jim Brandenburg, Nature 365 Website

The creation of these videos and the gift of presenting them freely to any who wish to see them is the gift of a giving soul. If you have not yet seen them take a look at Nature 365. The love that these gifts were made with shines through, a beacon of light.

How does your light shine? What gifts do you bring to the world?

May you walk in beauty.