Life Lessons from Photography: “Waiting”
How many of us like to wait?
It’s not usually our favorite thing to do.
Waiting for a lover to call, a job to come through,
to be old enough to drive.
Waiting for the perfect light,the elements of an image to come together.
We’re missing life when waiting becomes a distraction.
What is here before us that is interesting, gives us pleasure,
and can be created?
In Zen terms, there is no waiting. Only now. And now. And now.
Each moment unique, worth paying attention to.
Now is the time to Trust, to recognize your life as a unique experience,
moment by moment.
Surrender to not knowing the outcome.
This may not come easily…
(It’s no coincidence that we call it a spiritual “practice.”)
Waiting for the perfect light on a wave, I feel the air on my skin,
hear the crash of the waves, smell the scent of the sea.
I become aware of how I’m standing, the way I’ve hunched my shoulders as I wait
(I relax them, the better to take in what is here now),
the solid presence of the camera in my hands.
My body becomes my guide.
The waiting becomes being. The being becomes pure sensation.
Life is exquisite.
In a final tease, as if to remind me of more miracles to come,
the clouds part just slightly and the tips of the waves glisten.
I click the shutter.
***
Image: “Waiting, Santorini, Greece”
copyright 2010 Heidi Straube
Heidi Straube – Inner Path Photography
The Inner Path of Photography 