Light

My mother, an artist, taught me to see landscapes with the eye of an artist.
Don’t look and just see the mountain, she said.
See the light.
See the shadows.
See how the hues of green change according to light or shadow.

Perhaps she hoped I too would become an artist. I did not have that talent bestowed upon me, but I did begin to see the world around me with the eye of an artist. I became fascinated with the nuances that could be found in a landscape as it would change throughout the day according to the light.

Light brings with it an awakening,
an awareness that the scene before us is not dull, flat, and boring.
Light shows us that nothing ever stays the same.
Light shows us that change is to be welcomed.

Light dances with shadow right before our eyes.
As light dances, she shows us depth, and nuance.
Light shines and subtlety changes to become distinct.
Shaded gradation changes scale.
That which seemed to loom large before us fades to the background and becomes smaller.

Yes, light, changes the very images before our eyes to give an entirely new spectrum.

Light shines on a flower and the petals become translucent.
Light shines on a life and the person becomes transformed.

Light can’t be fully understood until one considers darkness.
Sometimes, we must see and experience darkness before we can fully appreciate light.
Darkness can hide the mountain in front of us to the point where we doubt the mountain’s very existence.

Shadows distort our view and our perceptions of what we are seeing or not seeing.
That which we thought we could see clearly becomes unfathomable.
The darkness can seem to be impenetrable.

Shadow,
opaqueness,
replace that which we thought we could see clearly in the light.

Opaqueness does not allow us to see through her.
She does not wish to be transparent.
She shuns the light.
preferring the darkness,
a darkness that comes from hiding from the light

yet,

there is a darkness of the soul that seeks not to hide from the light.
That darkness seeks to find light again.
Even in the darkest of nights, that soul longs again for light.
That soul does not fear the dawning that comes with light.

My mother’s words and her teachings about light and shadow and the hues to be found when one searches for the full spectrum of color before them taught me more about how to view life than her words taught me about how to conceptualize the scene before me so I could capture it through artistic expression.

I’ve learned
light and life are fleeting.

Light taught me that change comes quickly.
Her very nature teaches that we must capture the beauty of life and light in the moment.
Light does not need our permission to shift, nor can her shifts be predicted.
She reminds not wait to for the light to become better, brighter, fuller.
Now is the moment to enjoy what light has to offer.

One fall evening at sunset, pulled from my desk by the changing light outside my window,
alive to the moment, 
I went outside seeking beauty.

I wanted to see the interplay of light and shadow.

While the sky changed from blue to orange,
light’s ability to disperse color across a broader spectrum
changed not just the clouds in the sky,
she also transformed the simple grasses of the field by lending them a bit of her glow.

Light
magical,
mystical,
I can’t begin to capture you in
photos,
paintings,
words.
Perhaps you are there just to enlighten my mind and my soul.

Light.
You came to lead us out of the darkness.
Light.
Now we no longer have to walk in the darkness.
Light.
Help us to truly see as we walk in the light.