Frozen moments and waterfalls
How long is a moment?
A minute, a second, a hundredth of a second?
Life is ultimately just moments stacked up, and once one moment has been experienced, another immediately takes its place. Like an infinite deck of cards being infinitely shuffled.
Long exposure photography is a curious beast it seems to me, an anomaly that shouldn’t really be possible. It does the impossible. It takes multiple of these moments and captures them in a single image. Frozen to allow them to be experienced and examined over and over again. A bit weird really…
That was my mission for today. Some LE shots and get my trail run workout in for the day … perfect.
The autumn rains have started in the North, (did they actually ever stop …) and the steady, slightly sodden, crunch of gravel under my feet started to time methodically with my breath as I made my way up to the waterfalls. Loving the feeling of my body working, loving the moving meditation that running can bring.
It’s all about rhythm.
Everything.
From the changing of the seasons, the beat of our hearts, the sunrise and sunset, the ebb and flow of the tides. It’s hot wired into our very being. It’s why music is so utterly powerful.
I digress …
Quads on fire I reached my chosen spot. Away from the path, a beautiful vantage point I had spotted a few weeks back that I had vowed to revisit. Tripod set up and coffee steaming in my mug, I stopped and just took it all in.
There’s a technique to capturing moments and memories that anchors them so that they can be enjoyed in the future. So you can fill a wonderful mental box full of joy and sensation that can be opened when times get tough. It’s not passive. You have to decide to do it.
Memorise 5 things that you can see around you
Listen for 4 things that you can hear around you
Touch 3 things that are in your precious moment
Search for 2 aromas that you can smell
Then taste …coffee, ice cream, your lover’s lips… a Jaffa cake … anything … something… that’s anchored in that moment.
And store in your special place.
And so I sat and I started to think.
Glimpses of that glorious, late in the year, mellow and yellow sunshine were sending dazzling shimmers of light off millions of reflected droplets. Off they went. Hurtling on their own deranged big dipper ride over rocks, vertiginous drops and streamy cascades down to the valley far below. Wow, what a journey they were having. What an allegory for life. Each moment not truly knowing whether that glassy smooth pool was about to become something a little more… challenging.
And it struck me how profound this really is. Each droplet in the beck at some point is headed to the river in the valley below, then 20 miles into a bigger river and eventually the sea; having been through a multitude of experience. Some exciting, some calm, some boring, some outright scary. The destination, however, is always the same.
Our life starts with birth and will eventually end in our demise. That’s a given.
The quality of our “moments”, our journey downstream, simply has to be more important than the destination.
We don’t have to hold our happiness for ransom. For when our to do list is empty, for when our health is perfect, for when our desires are gratified ..
We don’t have to spend our entire lives seeking to arrive.
The truth is, this constantly changing fleeting moment of experience is actually, genuinely, all we have …
Let’s enjoy it.
Hugs
GØ
