When I look at this photo, all I think about are the overlaying facets of the laws of nature and humanity.
Trees stripped bare from a cold winter, new bright green spring leaves, a meadow full of what looks like dead grass, but is fully alive and teeming with life.
Millions of different rocks, stones, sands, and individual materials have formed this immovable but ever-changing sentry over millions of years. Formed from the movement of Mother Earth, the ever-changing conditions, being underwater, and somehow sustaining plant and animal life in one of the most challenging climates.
The expansiveness of a bright blue sky stretches with endless possibilities, with the radiant sun bringing vitality and passion.
It’s so incredibly fascinating and blows my mind. Many layers in one image, yet on the surface, stillness and calmness. A knowing that while things are ever-changing, they are also ever the same. Finding comfort in the ebb and flow.
The absolute beauty I have found in standing and watching a flock of birds in their nest, going through rituals I will never truly understand. Projecting my human assumptions and perceptions onto these creatures, creating meaning that ultimately means nothing except to me. Creating a story about these beautiful beings, true or not.
Watching little desert moles scurry through the sand and grass, into destinations unknown, and walking down trails side by side with lizards for a time.
How deceiving nature can be from a zoomed-out lens – quietness, stillness. And she has those qualities.
When we look a little closer, we also understand she is so much more – from the active lives of these creatures to the consciousness of the plants and trees to the constant subtle shifts of the Earth.
From my perspective, this image represents the death and rebirth cycles we often experience as humans.
And resist so hard.
It represents the multi-faceted, complex natures of people that our egos and conscious minds struggle to accept and integrate.
We also have many parts and are so much more than them. The more capacity we cultivate to hold the polarity within ourselves leads to a greater depth of experience through life.
To embrace these cycles of death and rebirth, with the trust and safety within us to know that we always return home to ourselves.
An understanding that our center, our core self is the immovable rock from which we move through the world – our foundations, our beliefs, and our values. Letting our dreams and hopes for what is possible open into that expansive sky. Allowing for the shedding of leaves at the turn of a season to clear away what no longer serves us and to trust that new growth will sprout when the season changes again, inviting a new phase.
A reminder that while we may seem the same or unchanging on the surface, to not take the subtle shifts for granted. To allow space and grace for connections to settle, process, and become embodied. To let every moment, big or small, become a moment of learning. Of practice, but also living and presence.