Reflecting as a floating leaf

One among many leaves that float on the surface of life, I ride the waves.

The calm—

meaningful conversations,

helping where help is needed,

Linda’s cooking; Graeter’s ice cream; Skyline chili,

Scott Hamilton’s tenor saxophone; Chuck Mangione jazz; Andrea Bocelli; Beebe Adair piano

backroads to photograph; photographing in the studio; producing books

orange tabby cats, jaguars; 

The West Wing; Northern Exposure; Morgan Freeman’s Through The Wormhole, Downton Abby

The Life of Pi; Avatar; Singin’ In The Rain; Contact; Close Encounters Of The Third Kind; Ghost

The turbulent—

war; man’s inhumanity to man; intolerance; cruelty to animals

not being able to help when help is needed,

loud music in malls and bookstores; discordant jazz, 

loud talkers in restaurants; busers clearing gravy-stained plates near the table,

littering; line jumping; horn honking; cursing and swearing; robo calls,

television ID’s in the corner of the screen; hype and destructive commercials

apocalyptic movies,

On the surface I come to know who I am and where I fit.

Beneath the surface, I relish the depths; expanse; it draws me.

Further down, stillness; peace of mind.

Deeper yet, ironically, in darkness comes greater illumination.

Descending through the abyssal plane, the adopted surface-self diminishes.

No place to look, no distractions, authentic self emerges.

At Tranquility Base, the place where not knowing is embraced, being takes precedence over doing.

There, aware of how much more there is—and how much more there is to all of us,

I rise to the surface with fresh insight: Though I am still a leaf, I am more. And One.

You can’ t do anything about the length of your life, but you can do something about its width and depth.

Henry Louis Mencken

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Email: smithdl@fuse.net

Portfolio: DavidLSmithPhotography.com

Photography Monographs (Click on the pages to turn them)