By chance, I came to a place in the woods where I was meant to begin a search – a search not for something I had misplaced, but a search for something within me that had yet to be revealed.
I was a Globe Theater groundling; but here, I stood before primitive Nature’s stage. Alone at the foot of that stage, I became a blessed audience of one, spiritually engaged with a troupe of autumn’s suspended, multicolored leaves – all graceful dancers in a ballet as old as God’s inspired gift of natural beauty.
I became a member of a silent cast, sharing wordless dialogue, understood only by my acknowledgement of the Author of the moment. I was guided toward unspoken words that lay still and subdued within me, a prayer of thanksgiving.
Captured first as an image on the view finder of a digital camera, forever by my mind’s eye, I was favored with an eternal impression that led me to a place that on this day I was surely meant to go. And now, a photo hangs upon my wall, an image for my mind to embrace again; but more than that, a portal to a place I needed to go, a place called “my soul.”
I gaze upon that framed image that offers a re-creation of the hues, the light, and the subtle shadows of that place and moment; and I recall how I felt suspended in time and space. While standing in the shadows, restricted by mind and body, I emotionally reached out to the illuminated boughs, their leaves, and the pale blue sky. It was a newly discovered part of me that longed to join the infinite beauty that I beheld.
Now, when I pause before that photo, thoughts and feelings return me to that special place and to that moment where I once stood and accepted without uncertainty, the unconditional gift of beauty, a tapestry of spectacular autumn framed beneath an unending, pale blue – and every detail, ageless, infinite, and eternal…