"Next to ingratitude the most painful thing to bear is gratitude." - Henry Ward Beecher
Just a lowly weed, until you look close. Then it reveals it is a miracle of divine, thriving, spectacular architecture. I am still amazed by what photography reveals to me -- this seeing of what has always been there.Has anything like these photographs ever happened to you? Some thing, someone perhaps, comes into your life as a common weed, something you think you already know. A weed that you think has no place in your planned garden, but the winds blew in its wild seed without your invitation. On a whim you tolerate its persistence and the gentle straggler blooms in your backyard.
It is as beautiful as anything you've seen before, and once seen, everything else is also more beautiful because of it.
Suddenly and at last, you see. You are instantly possessed by a profundity of knowledge of what it is you vastly lacked before. This is the pain of gratitude. You cannot pay it back, you cannot undo the careless times you did not have it, you cannot even wish for more of it else it becomes ingratitude. You can only be open to its painful but tender, humbling lesson.
(Just call me Debi the currently philosophizing photo a day-er.)
9 comments:
I think it's also called growing older and wiser ;-)
It is a gift Debi. Glad you have it. I think everyone gets it if they are receptive - I was lucky to receive it young - It is the only thing that has kept me sane at certain times in my life, that I can get enormous pleasure from looking at everyday things.When I was younger such enthusiasms were considered childish, now it's okay to be slowed down enough to see. I am obsessive about how beautiful everything is - the down side for me is that it seems so wonderful I can't imagine being able to capture it to share with others. Your photos are doing that for us. Thanks.
I love it!! Weed... They all have a purpose don't they. That weed you took a photo of is beautiful and thank you for sharing the photo as well as your beautiful words!
ooopppsss.... forgot the "s" on the weed, dont get the wrong idea. ;)
I've never really understood why a weed is a weed. Why isn't a rose bush a weed? It's thorny and doesn't particularly have a nice shape. Why should it be more desirable than a dandelion? Which takes much less effort and instead of just rotting where it stands, dandelions actually have dynamic life spans. Dandelions Unite!
I have my own weed story that I'll tell you some time, Mom. I'm sure I've already told you, but I'll tell you again.
Weeds are really only maliciously stigmatized plants, villified and maligned because no one wants them there, through no fault of their own. Dandelions Unite, indeed! especially when tender and crunchy in a salad, or cooked a la libanaise (garlicky, tart hendbeh! yum)
Yes, this happens to me still. It is a joy when I find something that was there all along but I did not see it before. I remember my mother taking her eyepiece and viewing tiny, tiny flowers an describing them to me in detail. You should try it. It is amazing. This means to me that I can look forward to more discoveries as I age. Hooray!
Oh I almost forgot to say what a beautiful photo! I love the detail you are able to capture.
I TRULY Love this post and I love your crystalline reading and rendering of life's wonder. Truly humbling in this fast paced world. Thank you again and again.
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