“The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.”
― Albert Einstein
If there is one major gift photography has given me, it would be seeing through the eyes of wonder. I remember the first days into my 365project back in 2010, when I used to go and explore nature equipped with my camera and suddenly I began noticing so much more than before. Always enchanted by the light and how it can transform an object, as the years passed I started to understand how our inner light illuminates the world around us.
“The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.”
― W.B. Yeats
It’s fascinating how the outer reality can permeate the inner and transform it, and vice versa. 2020 has been a wonderful year for me, for it allowed me to immerse myself even deeper in my being and mine the treasures that hide within. With no news (I haven’t watched TV in over 10 years) and Facebook to distract me, I have been going on long walks almost every day, enjoying time with friends and with my cats, taking photos for dear clients/myself, gardening with my neighbors, soaking up the sun, listening to music, cooking yummy food, reading good books, contemplating, seeing, feeling, being and deepening in presence and awareness.
“A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day of his life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Funny thing happens when instead of focusing on the problems of the world, you shift the attention to yourself and your immediate environment. Then you begin to notice and marvel, and the more you see the more there is to bewilder you. When is the last time you contemplated the magical universe of your own human body? How all the different systems work in harmony and you do not have to do absolutely anything consciously for your physical vessel to function smoothly? How amazing is that your hair and nails grow on their own, you breathe, oxygen is dispersed to all organs through your blood stream, all that is not needed is eliminated, you can move your fingers and toes, thousands of processes still go on as you sleep? Thick textbooks have been written on the magic of the human body and they still cannot encompass all the miracles it does.
“The invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the common.”
― Emerson
Now that we remembered the miraculousness of our own nature, let’s keep going in our exploration of the wondrous. Strangely enough, the ordinary things we take for granted prove to be extra-ordinary upon simple contemplation. The Sun, without which life on Earth would be impossible, freely provides us with light and energy and happens to be a fiery ball around which our planet orbits. The Air, saturated with the oxygen we need (a gift from the trees and the plants), is everywhere around us and connecting us all. The Water, abundant and free, is essential for life. The Earth/soil that feeds the plants which in turn feed us and the animals, is so bountiful and rich. Have you ever planted a seed and watched it grow? A tiny tomato seed placed in the Soil, with the help of Water, Sun and Air can grow into a beautiful plant producing at least 100 tomatoes! How wondrous is that? These are the things that amaze me.
“If you’re really listening, if you’re awake to the poignant beauty of the world, your heart breaks regularly. In fact, your heart is made to break; its purpose is to burst open again and again so that it can hold evermore wonders”
– Andrew Harvey
Not to mention how every sunrise and sunset delight with their own unique poignant beauty, how trees are so majstic and magical in every season, the various shapes, forms and colors of flower petals, the personalities and looks and love of animals, the way the light illuminates the veins of leaves, the fragile beauty of decay, how knuckles make it possible for me to bend my fingers and type, the colors of people’s eyes, how everyone has a different laugh, the millions expressions of love, how senses sharpen in the darkness, how tastebuds pick up on so many flavors, the warmth of the Sun on your skin, how a cat scratch on your hand can heal on its own, how eyes can see colors and how many hues and shades there are, eating grapes and feeling them burst in your mouth, your skin under running water, the soft feel of moss, mud squishing beneath your bare feet, cold wind in your face, warm breeze in your hair, acts of human kindness everywhere, people experiencing all kinds of emotions moving about on a round planet, a tiny pale blue dot in the Universe.
“I think us here to wonder, myself. To wonder. To ask. And that in wondering bout the big things and asking bout the big things, you learn about the little ones, almost by accident. But you never know nothing more about the big things than you start out with. The more I wonder, the more I love.”
― Alice Walker, The Color Purple
The news might make it seem that the world is a very harsh place to live in, but from my tiny vantage point of perception I see differently. The planet is a miraculous wonder to be explored, treasured and revered and I wake up each day with gratitude for the ability to enjoy this incredible dream through my senses. Maybe we simply forgot what is important and all the current chaos is a means for the old way of seeing to fall apart, so we could rebuild the world anew with fresh vision. Just like renovating an old house – the demolition stage lasts forever and it seems like it will never end, but that too passes, little by little the reimagined look starts to shape up and then – voila – move in ready! Except, we are living in the house as it is being redesigned for us, for us, through us. This time, instead of reacting against the old in mass movements, we are wise enough to start the change with the man in the mirror and correct our own ways of being/seeing in the world.
“The more clearly we can focus our attention on the wonders and realities of the universe about us, the less taste we shall have for destruction.”
― Rachel Carson
I am so grateful for all the inner changes that have taken place within me in 2020, allowing me to see the world with more love, compassion and wonder. I hope you also used this fascinating year to reflect on what matters to you, what ignites your passion, how do you spend your days, are you taking good care of your one and only precious self, are you going after your own dreams, are you present, aware and awake to each miraculous moment? Thoughts and emotions come and go like clouds, but the light of consciousness always shines deep within. May it illuminate more and more of us in 2021!
Happy New Year!!! {it can be every day}
Stay alive, stay curious, never stop questioning and seeing though the eyes of wonder!
Lots of love and smiles,
Slava 🙂
“The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. He to whom the emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand wrapped in awe, is as good as dead —his eyes are closed. The insight into the mystery of life, coupled though it be with fear, has also given rise to religion. To know what is impenetrable to us really exists, manifesting itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty, which our dull faculties can comprehend only in their most primitive forms—this knowledge, this feeling is at the center of true religiousness.”
― Albert Einstein, Living Philosophies
P.S. Maybe the world has always been wonderful and a simple shift of attention is all we need? Remember your mind power 😉
{The photos in this post are from a Key West trip, circa 2014}
“The earth is not a lair, neither is it a prison. The earth is a Paradise, the only one we’ll ever know. We will realize it the moment we open our eyes. We don’t have to make it a Paradise – it is one. We have only to make ourselves fit to inhabit it.”
-Henry Miller
Slava Bowman Photography 
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