Time carries us. The sense of being caught in it may be, could be, wouldn’t it be nice if it were actually being – part of the quickening that leads to the dimension of The New.
What if all us may depend on our view of a universe taking a breath, or sometimes listening, cocking an ear to hear me and then you and then the whole world. I imagine a universe with senses like lenses sharper than that of any NASA camera, seeing who I am, who we are, and I wonder how different we would look from all the various perspectives afforded by a universal seeing eye.
An element is a state or sphere natural to or suited to a person or thing. And an element is any of a number of 100 fundamental substances that consist of atoms of only one kind and that singly or in combination constitute all matter. I’ve never looked at this way before and have no head for science. And yet our language includes many behind the scenes starting points that many of us know nothing about. We pick up on these when saying things like, “I am in my element when ….” I often say, “I’m in my element out in my cabin writing.” It’s weird to think that what is natural for me may be taking a page from science.
When I wrote my first Musing on Surprise, I told Steve, (the gifted photographer who also posts these for me), that I’m going to do three more on the theme. I had no idea what they’d be about other than surprise, but I was caught by the way I put it: The Element of Surprise. In the dictionary, the element of surprise is expressed as the unexpected or surprising character of something.
That’s what I live for.
I then started wondering about Steve’s process. Will he be looking newly at things in the world due to this theme I announced? Will he, for a few weeks, see the startling more often? Then I thought, “no,” because he could give me pointers in seeing, he with his photographer’s eye. This is what photographers do naturally, the best of them, bless them. It’s what they live for. And some writers too. I know I have a way of seeing I wouldn’t have if I didn’t write. What a wonder! I hadn’t thought of it this way before I began.
Surprise!
I too have been blessed to be around artists, a painter once. She taught me to see , to see the shadows, the dips and strikes of rock and light fading and wrapping around an object. I wonder, do we show or teach people or even share the Way of Mary to those with out eyes or without any idea that there is a surprising character to life they have not experienced .
Hi Cindy, What a beautiful reply and a great question. As you speak of your painter friend, what comes to mind is the call of ACOL that is to be who we are. We accept our differences, and as one person shares with paint, and one with words, and as “two together” reveal in dialogue, each of us answering as “who we are,” we create something that’s unique to us in that moment. Something new is born. So yes! The beauty of “being who we are” is that we are not trying to reveal … the way of Mary or anything else. We’re sharing, each in our own way, what you call the “surprising character” of life, and opening a door to that wonder being experienced. Thank You for this opening!!