Today I am thinking about interconnectedness of all things in the universe. The light from the sun breaks into a cosmos of stars when it reaches water. It is a reminder that the many stars visible at night are still there in the daytime.
I made this image at Priest Lake. The sun was sparkling on the water and these plants were growing along the the shore. I stopped my lens down to the smallest f-stop knowing that the specular highlights entering the chamber of the lens would bend around the aperture blades creating start burst. The daytime suddenly turned into night.
I think photography is a wonderful tool for gaining an understanding of the universe. It shows us things that our own eyes cannot perceive on their own. It allows us to access the part of our mind that can possess knowledge of the world that we cannot even perceive with our physical senses.
There is a difference between what we see and what we know thanks to the observations we can make with a lens. Cameras are really just like telescopes and microscopes. My camera lenses allows my eye to see at far distances and at extreme closeup that I could never resolve on my own. The telescope enabled Johannes Keppler to recognize that the earth rotated around the sun rather than the other way around, in spite of our sense of sight making it appear like the sun is rotating around us.
I think science and spirituality share this in common. Faith is about knowing something without seeing it. Knowing that a life force of spirit may no longer exist in corporeal form but that it is still a part of the universe. In the bible there is a verse from Romans 12:5 that says … we who are many, are one body. Like the sunlight split into infinite stars on the water, perhaps we are all just fragments of one spirit.
I think of these things today after having a really intimate conversation with my father yesterday about the last leg of his life’s journey. For a brief moment there was a window of clarity and he understood. I could hold his hand and look into his eyes and know that he recognized me and understood the interconnectedness of our spirits.
Today I met with the doctor and case manager and have made the necessary arrangements for hospice care in my parents home where he can hopefully enjoy the unknown remaining time in a place of comfort surrounded by familiar family photographs and loved ones who will visit him until the end.
The photographs of deceased family members are like constellations that remind us that they are still with us. They are the fragments of one light that make up our universe.
Peace,
Ira
