Visual Prayer

It struck me today that the photographs that I make and share are a kind of

Visual Prayer

My photographs are not about words. They are about feelings of gratitude, wonder, grace, and mystery.

I don’t know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.

— Mary Oliver

When I pause and look—really look—at the world around me, I cannot help but be struck with the beauty and grace of it all — birth, growth, injury, dissolution, death, and rebirth. Despite news of shootings and terrible things that we humans do to the earth and one another, life is still beautiful. This morning the trees behind our house were covered with frost. I couldn’t stop myself. I had to make a photograph of the beauty of it all. Tired as I am of winter, I’m still filled with awe at the wondrous beauty of the season.

And these roses that are wilting and falling apart still stop me in my tracks with their grace and beauty.

On this gray Sunday in the last half of January I am longing for sunshine and spring. But still, I find beauty in this season. Do you also find beauty in the middle of winter?

Be Ground

Be crumbled, so wildflowers will come up where you are.

You’ve been stony for too many years.

Try something different.

Surrender.

   — Rumi

May you walk in beauty.

Note: Photos from this week in my house and walks in the neighborhood.